Thanks Coachgeo, I have been pondering the idea. I'm thinking about keeping the passenger area fairly rigid with just the stock rubber body bushings and suspending the back 1/2 on pivots. Between the subfloor shape and a roll cage in the passenger area I'm hoping flex won't be a problem. Thanks for the input!
Argosy 4X4 Duramax conversion
- Thread starter Psychodan
- Start date
Coachgeo
Explorer
That might work. Better than all rigid first thought you were thinking.
Brewdiak
kodiak conversionator
wow this is ************, love it! will be watching ... and i'm just over the mountains in Bellingham area so maybe I'll get to see your rig someday can't wait to see the progress. Before I got mine I was looking at the older foretravel grand villas or the airstream mh's ... like yours they have a style that's just not around anymore. good luck if I have any useful input I'll post again!
Pinnacle Campers
Chateau spotter
Wise decision to move to this section, you will get a lot more criticism. 
Anxiously watching....:ylsmoke:
Anxiously watching....:ylsmoke:
pappawheely
Autonomous4X4
Thats what happens when you are not just outside the box, but threw the box off a cliff! I salute you!
After getting the frame back up un the jack stands it has become obvious that there is very little torsional rigidity to this frame. Given the length of the body the sub floor would be massive in order to accommodate a 3 point system. The Silverado body and bed must have added a lot of rigidity when this thing was stock. The Argosy frame was a straight ladder with c channel, so it must not have been super rigid either. And the body was mounted directly to the frame with some 1/8" rubber strips for isolation. I'm now rethinking my plan.... First step is stiffening up the frame, all the flex is located in the old cab area. Stock front torsion spring cross member is getting replaced with something beefy, and I may box the center section. Stay tuned...
guidolyons
Addicted to Gear Oil
Well this is cool. :sombrero:
robert
Expedition Leader
Very cool project, but I'm in the same camp as Joaquin in thinking you probably would have been better served by starting with a medium duty frame instead of a light duty i.e. Ford F450/550 or the GM Kodiak series instead of a 350/3500 series. Definitely not trying to be critical, I certainly couldn't do what you've done, I just know that as ambulances have gotten heavier we were killing F350s and had to step up to the F450s and we're still probably below what your total weight will be fully loaded for fun.
Last edited: