I want to know if anybody offers kits to do it. Like the proper size C channel and necessary frame doublers.

One of my friends used to work for Eastern Wrecker. They are a Jerr Dan dealer, and build the trucks onsite. Jerr Dan ships rollback beds complete with a kit to stretch the truck chassis, as well as a new driveshaft. But that's only with their rollback and wrecker bodies.

Getting a driveshaft fabbed is nothing...Fleetpride.

6/6/2006 2:12:33 PM

u aint building a rollback outta that dodge are ya?

6/6/2006 2:43:44 PM

Actually thought about a rollback...but I don't have the means to mount a PTO driven hydraulic pump anywhere (tranny is a standard Torque Flite 727). I could go electric or fashion a belt driven one with a magnetic clutch, I suppose.

Probably more like a drive-up flatbed or maybe just a flatbed.

Though I would REALLY like a rollback...

6/6/2006 3:51:34 PM

I've got a 2-ton truck that the frame was extended on, and the extension is just channel iron welded to the frame. I may be reinforced on the inside with wide flat bar, but I can't remember about that.

6/6/2006 5:55:31 PM

just buy a fuckin wrecker.

6/6/2006 7:21:47 PM

Thought about it. most of 'em are outta my range.

Such is life.

6/6/2006 7:25:42 PM

self loader

6/6/2006 8:44:20 PM

I really miss having a rollback at my disposal.

6/6/2006 8:47:51 PM

my boss will sell his one year old car hauler to you for $3000

http://www.bigtextrailers.com/spec/70dm.html

6/6/2006 9:05:55 PM

Nice damn trailer. Too bad I don't have the money to buy it right now.

come to think of it, I don't have the money to do half the shit I dream up. It don't stop me from dreaming.

But I gotta get that hideous toolbox offa the back of my truck, get the truck painted, and get something on the back of it that makes it useful.

Maybe by next year at this time. Don't hold your breath.

6/6/2006 9:11:42 PM

you should just get nasty with it and strech the cab, i saw a sweet ass lifted 6 door long bed '05 ram 2500 diesel at the beach last year, and yes, i jizzed in my pants a little

6/6/2006 10:17:59 PM

ohhhhh. I'd do it in a heartbeat. Big deal is this: doors for the back or no?

To the best of my knowledge, I don't remember Dodge offering a crew cab in '89, though I may be (and often am) wrong.

But I still wanna stretch the frame and put a flatbed (with drop toolboxes on the side) or a rollback body on it. Pipe dreams, yes.

6/6/2006 10:27:44 PM

screw the doors, amke it a sleeper cab via a folddown bench for the back like older conversion vans have.

6/6/2006 11:24:16 PM

Ideas, ideas...

Here is one cool fucking truck:

http://www.robgray.com/motorhomes/index.htm

6/7/2006 1:30:51 AM

damn that is cool

i have a friend who stretched a big bronco frame to fit under a 66 ford body (big ass red/orange one) if you've seen it you'd probably remember has a bored and slightly stroked (offset ground crank) 460.

6/7/2006 1:40:44 AM

The big deal about stretching the chassis is primarily this:

Keeping everything square is just a matter of being thorough and working on a good, flat surface with the chassis unloaded. Everything can be held square with sections of channel clamped to the web and the flange section of the frame rails. Take cross-measurements, etc.

But the cross section of the steel channel has to coincide with the splice piece. Most general grade construction steel is squared on the outer corners--no radius. The existing rails are radiused.

Reinforcement isn't hard to do, and if I was REALLY concerned about compressive stresses in the frame rails in the area of the splice, then it's relatively easy to fishplate the rails in addition to doubling up the inside of the rail. I think I'd want an additional cross-section as well.

It would just be nice as hell to find a kit ready to go. C-channel, reinforcements, fishplates, brake lines, drive shaft, etc.

6/7/2006 3:10:09 AM

the way to go would be to find a junked one and cut what you need out of that frame to add to yours, assuming it doesn't have any major steps that would make that impossible

6/7/2006 7:31:13 AM

If you figure this out, I'd hire you to splice me in another set of doors on my truck. Like this-

6/7/2006 9:00:27 AM

There's some company that's doing those. Baker Roofing here in the Triangle has a bunch of 6-doors for work trucks.

6/7/2006 9:36:18 AM

tell them damn mexicans to ride in the back and save a few grand, come on people

6/7/2006 1:39:59 PM

will boxed his frame in and then just used box steel to fill in the gap.

6/7/2006 2:11:01 PM

that, or make it articulating in the middle when you stretch it, zero turn raduis, think about it

6/7/2006 3:44:04 PM

not sure if you have the licience or desire to but I use my trailer (though now behind a C7500) as a "rollback" quite a bit. Add a winch and you've got eveything you need if you think you can manuver it where you need to go. hollar if you have questions

[Edited on June 7, 2006 at 9:11 PM. Reason : A]

6/7/2006 9:11:11 PM

Oh I can maneuver articulating without a problem (started pushing a trailer with a tractor when I was 10; had the bush hog on the back).

I don't have a Class A, and don't really have a need for it. I used to have a Class B before the federal CDL rules came into effect...when it came time to renew, I didn't have anything to take the driver's test on. And I had an expired DOT physical card. I never got grandfathered in; didn't need it anymore, and too much money and effort to renew.

The big deal is I haven't decided on what exactly I want to do...flatbed, rollback, crew cab, whatever. Hell, I don't even know if the truck is worth it. I'm seriously thinking about just buying a crew cab dually and a good trailer when I'm financially able...when the hell ever that might be.

6/7/2006 9:25:11 PM

well good luck, i bought mine after I had a tractor try to jump off the ramps. I move alot of equipment usually by myself after hours so the tilt deck trailer was a great thing, that and i hooked up a remote control so life is good now.

6/8/2006 8:37:30 PM

Is that a tree pluckin' rig or what?

6/12/2006 9:01:06 AM