Help me build this truck correctly for specific purpose

[Rust Buster]

I'm normally on the 67-72 page, but now I need the help of this group. I'm in a mountain community in northern VA on private dirt/gravel roads. We are responsible for maintaining the roads, and up until two years ago it was painstakingly done with a tractor without a cab. There's about 5 miles of very steep roads to plow. Two years ago, we bought an 88 Chevy V30 1 ton dually dump truck with an old fisher plow. The truck has a freshly rebuilt TBI 350 with a 4spd manual tranny. I'm the designated mechanic mainly because I have a shop with lift to work on it. We bought the truck and plow for $3000. We also purchased a Fisher Poly Spreader for the dump.

So here's where I need help. The truck runs but needs work and I've been authorized $3500 to make it bullet proof for the upcoming plow season. The rebuilt engine is pretty strong. The truck is registered as a farm truck, will never see paved roads and does not need to pass any emissions. My goal is dependability, torque, and greatly improved cooling, as this was a problem last year. We actually had the stock manifolds glowing cherry red after plowing one stretch...

I've been stockpiling parts and I'm starting to tear into her next week leaving plenty of time before the snow flies. Last year I replaced the starter, steering pump, steering gear box, and hydroboost system.
So far I have bought:

TBI Rebuild Kit
Long tube headers
Flex-a-lite fan
Aluminum radiator
TBI wiring harness
Valve cover gaskets
Water Pump
O2 sensor
Fuel pump
Fuel filter
Iginition coil
Distributor
Front leaf springs (current ones are shot)

Still have to buy:
All new sensors
High Amp alternator
Univerasal Wiring harness (someone in the past had some fun with creative wiring, so I want to start over from scratch)

What am I missing and where should I invest the rest of the money (roughly $1000)? What can I strip off the engine emissions-wise without messing up the computer?

Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. This thing needs to be rock solid and I don't care if it looks like something out of the Road Warrior.
Sorry for the long post!