new guy

[Viking Thunder]

Hey everyone.

I have been looking at the m715 for several years, and just biding my time for the right opportunity. I have one now I am looking at, and I think she is the right girl for me.

Over that time I have been buying up parts here and there as I find them. I have an NV5600 with only 5k miles on it out of a totaled truck. I am planning on getting a gm ht502 crate motor to pair it up with. Want to do an axle upgrade, get her cleaned up really good and some comfy seats and make a daily driver out of her.

In reality I only leave the farm a couple times a month, so "daily" might not be the right word.

I have been doing some research into T-cases, and am still trying to decide what is going to be the best choice to handle the amount of torque I will be putting through it.

I would also like to find one of the short version of the electricians service body to restore and put on it. those seem to be fairly hard to come by.

I intend to restore the outside to fully stock, looking nice, but want to modernize the inside with better gauges and comfort items. hope that doesn't offend anyone.

Thought I would throw this out there and say hello, as I have been lurking for quite some time. Any thoughts on my plans, issues you see me having, or anything like that, please speak up.I wont be offended, we are all here to learn from each other, right!

Thanks,
Al

[Ronner]

The stock NP200 will easily handle the torque, but if you want to actually use that .5:1 OD then you will probably need to swap in a NP205. There are things that you can do to crutch the 200 but you will be better off with the 205.
Other than that Welcome! Sounds like you have a good plan.

[ZeroHour]

i doubt anyone is going to be offended about that. "to each his own" so have at it. and if you dont wanna keep the stock parts around you'll probably be able to find plenty of people that will buy them right here.

[Troop ISP]

Welcome. The beauty about this site is you can find many different ideas about what works best. Many of the ideas are based upon personal likes and the amount of money you have or want to spend. It also depends a great deal on how you are going to use your truck. I definitely agree with going with the NP 205 transfer case. I also like the axles out of an M1008, or better yet, an M1028 (limited slip front in addition to the Detroit Locker rear).

It sounds like you have a good start. As I read the posts, I find many things I would like to do, but funding limits at this time. The way I see it, my truck will never be done. There will probably always be something else I want to upgrade.

Keep us up to date on your build and good luck.

[wrecker]

If it's in your budget, I'd go with an Atlas T-case with 4:1 or so low range. You could go with higher gearing in your upgraded axles that way and have a better daily driver without losing the low range grunt when you need it.

[Viking Thunder]

I looked at the atlas, I wasnt sure if they were heavy duty enough to really deal with big block torque and big tires. It seemed for the most part they were advertising for smaller jeeps.

If they are really Heavy Duty enough to get the job done, then I wouldn't mind having one. Their dual shift lever setup seems quite interesting, and possibly quite usefull.

[Ronner]

NP203/205 doubler. Killer strong and a multitude of gearing choices.

[Troop ISP]

You can also get the doubler set up to do front end digs if needed, just like the Atlas. The Atlas cases are plenty strong. You can also get a Lomax 3 to 1 low range for the 205 case. There are a lot of options depending on what you want to spend.