This truck pre-dates the perverse pilot from Family Guy. Oxford defines a quagmire as “a soft boggy area of land that gives way underfoot” or the alternative “an awkward, complex, or hazardous situation .”Either way, for a gigantic off-road truck, it works—photo credit to Hemmings.
Getting out to lock the hubs manually wasn’t ideal, but at least you knew they were locked. There was no cheesy cable to stretch or break, no flimsy vacuum canister to fail. The lever on the floor let you know that the transfer case was locked in, with a satisfying click of the locking button on the top. Also, everything had universal joints rather than the modern CV joints. I’ve never broken a universal joint in my life, not once. I’ve replaced them due to wear, but never due to failure. How many CV joints have I broken? I don’t think I’m at ten yet, but I’m a lot closer to ten than I am to zero. It feels like forever since I’ve seen a big, tough, jacked-up square body Chevy on the road, then I saw a picture of Quagmyr after its recent restoration, and my faith in humanity was somewhat restored. It’s big, it’s tough, it’s famous, and it’s just weird.
Anyone from thirty-to-forty years of age who was into this sort of thing when they were a kid probably fondly remembers Quagmyr on the cover of the December 1996 issue of Petersen’s 4Wheel & Off-Road. The truck was (and still is) absolutely obscure. From the front, it looks like any old tough square body. Dana 60 front axle, mud tires upwards of forty inches in diameter, a checker plate bumper and a winch. The paint job is mid-nineties wild with a sort-of torn scallop fade, and there’s a small hood scoop that shrouds a couple of gauges. Under the hood there’s a hot 572 big block backed by a TH400 transmission and NP205 transfer case. What I’ve listed could have honestly appeared in a high school parking lot twenty-five years ago, and no one would have thought anything about it. Out back, however, that’s where it all gets weird. There’s a narrowed Rockwell H-172 differential out of a 5-ton dump truck that’s jammed in between a pair of 48x25x20 Firestone flotation tires. A wild cantilever air ride setup holds it all together, and a custom bed hides it all with fibreglass bedsides and aluminum wheel tubs. Thanks to 4.56 front and 5.86 rear gears, the heavily mismatched tires are able to match up in speed. From the side, Quagmyr has the stance of a pulling tractor. As far as I know, it was built to compete in the Top Truck Challenge and did so in 1998. Decades later, it’s sold a couple of times and still sees both street and off-road duty. Mud, sand, pulling, rock climbing, or just going out for dinner, Quagmyr has done it all, and still does today. It’s even been re-painted with the same wild nineties style.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
