2001 Dodge Dakota Superduty Chassis swap camping rig build

[SDDiver5]

I grew up in a machine shop and I am a welder and equipment mechanic.

Well that certainly explains a lot lol

 

[mattcrouch1502]

On Christmas eve we were able to get the cab mounts burnt in. My son has done some small welding with me and this was a good chance for him to get more experience on his truck. He welded the flat section of the body mounts and I welded the verticals but first we had to get the frame low enough to get access to the top side. We jacked up the cab and then put stock wheels on the front to make some room.



A few pics of him burning wire.


The only pic of his weld that I remembered to get... He left a big gap between the tack and his bead, the bead looks pretty good and we ground the tack down and feathered the bead some and tied them together.


After getting everything welded up we set the cab back down and centered up, then he got to "drive" it some as I pushed it back into its spot.

 

[mattcrouch1502]

Somewhat productive weekend. Got the front frame horns chopped off, this was kind of fun thanks to the frame rail profile. What is interesting is the frame rails aren't symmetrical due to the power steering box. This made keeping the cuts even tricky but its not super critical as long as the new horns are square and level.

We then capped the end of frame rails to prepare for the new horns.

The new frame horns are 6"X2" rectangle tubing, I had this laying around from a bumper build and it seemed perfect for this. Currently the tubes were left long while we figure out how the bumper will be mounted up. Also the rusty square tube was just in there for welding.

Last thing we did before wrapping up was salvage the core support mounts from the Superduty horns and get one mocked up. The core support bolt will need to be changed a little due to clearance but that should be straight forward.

 

[mattcrouch1502]

Scored a good deal on 6.5' bed, tailgate and tail lights from a guy parting out a regular cab. The bed is in pretty good condition all things considered and with the modification we need to make wont matter much. I set the bed on the frame to see how much I need to move the axle forward and what needs to happen to line up the body lines. With the axle in the stock location there is a 12" gap between the bed and the cab so it needs to move forward about 10". Rough number show we will need to make a sub-frame to move the bed up from the frame anywhere from 5" at the front mounts to 3" at the frame hump. Tire coverage looks pretty good with the stock F250 wheels but the wheel wells need to be opened up some. The plan is to move the bed forward 10" and shift the axle forward 8" using 99-06 F250 leaf spring and relocating the rear shackle hanger. This should leave the front fender lip just in front of the front edge of the tire, then I plan to section the wheel opening and shift the rear lip backwards about 5". This should leave the wheel opening wide enough for tire clearance, I will still need to add the front "fangs" to the bed to match up to the cab.

Played a little with powerpoint to get a idea of where the bed will be and what the wheel opening should look like. For a short time I thought about stretching the bed and keeping the axle in its current spot but after looking at it I think i like the 6.5' bed.