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The Bulldog Express = Camper


TheBulldogExpress

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I was 6 years old when my truck driving father bought this 1990 Mack CH from Gulf Oil in New Haven, CT. He had delivered gas with them for years and they were selling their fleet of 90's Mack daycabs. They ended up having the engine rebuilt (it had a million miles on it) before he bought it for 16,000. My mom and I thought he was crazy for spending the money he saved on it. He told us he wanted to haul the camp trailer we had with it. He was towing it with a 78 Chevy 454 Dually which always had problems and you all know how fun taking an old gas job from Connecticut to Florida would be. Since I was young at the time, I know of what he did but never really helped, just held the light haha. He took out the front rear axle and put in a higher gear ratio in the remaining axle since its only use would be for a camper and better mpg. He found a sleeper for the truck and a wrecker body that had to be widened and all cut up and re welded to "fill" in the back of the rig. It was probably a year later that he finally go the body all set. He then painted it him self and had a graphics place put on the "The Bulldog Express" which was my silly idea, and the picture on the back of the sleeper. Since then we have been adding all sorts of chrome, we even cut out behind the chrome "Mack" piece under the door so we could light it up, we added fuel tanks, strait pipes, train horns, chrome bumper and visor, ect. We put down "fake" wood flooring in the sleeper and got rid of the bunk beds for a couch and a tv/dvd setup. We haul a 38 foot camp trailer with ease now. The truck has gotten me interested into the big rig industry. I love to go to truck shows and get my hands dirty on them. I'm 17 right now and go to a trade school for automotive. I hope to take up diesel after high school and work on big rigs for a dealership someday and drive em too. It's not a perfect truck and its all "backyard" work lol. We try out best to keep it lookin decent and go camping.

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Nice job! That will get you there in style! Always wanted to do something like this.Thanks for sharing your photos with us! :thumb::mack1:

IF YOU BOUGHT IT, A TRUCK BROUGHT IT..AND WHEN YOU'RE DONE WITH IT, A TRUCK WILL HAUL IT AWAY!!! Big John Trimble,WRVA

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DAMN, how much fuel do you carry?

Must be great to fire it up at 6am to run to the store for milk.

Where in CT? born/raised in Danbury

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Success is only a stones throw away.................................................................for a Palestinian

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  • 5 months later...

Hey bulldog that is one nice truck. I noticed you have commercial regestration plates on it. If you use only for camping and don't use it for commercial purpose would it be cheaper and less insurance if you had combination plates on it? I live here in Ct. and have a friend that has a Mack and a low boy trailer to haul his antique bulldozers to shows. I had hooked him up with the truck and trailer. When it came time to register it I told him to put antique plates on the tractor and Camp trailer plates on the trailer. Since he would be hauling his own personal property and no commercial stuff he would qualify for the Camp trailer plates. DMV looked at him funny but he got the camp trailer plates for his lowboy trailer. He saved a ton of money on insurance and fees. If you use the truck only for your camper then combo plates would work. too bad you took out the beds, you could have registered the tractor as a "Camper" and saved a boat load of money on fees and insurance. I have seen tractors with sleepers regestered as "Campers" when hooked exclusevely to camp trailers.

Just a thought. In this economy saving money anywhere is a plus.

Jim

Rustednut

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