Long wheel base limitations

[lllateralus]

I wheel this long wheel base badboy and she does great. With its long wheelbase, solid axles, high ground clearance and 35"s, it does great. She crawls over huge obstacles and terrain that my old Toyota's could only dream about. (90, and 91 Toyota 4X4 pickups.. great trucks in their own right)

 

[98dango]

For back country (expo) type travel the longer wheelbase wont hurt you at all in some tight trail situations its can think more but when your living out of your truck you tend to keep that in mind for trail choice.

 

[haven]

The Dodge Ram 2500 with 237 inch overall length, 139 inch wheelbase, crew cab and 6 ft 4 inch bed has a turning circle of 44 feet. That's unusually tight for a full size long wheelbase truck. The Fords and Chevys generally measure 50 feet or more turning curb-to-curb. Maybe it's due to the Dodge's coil spring, solid axle front suspension.

http://www.ramtrucks.com/hostc/vsmc/vehicleSpecModels.do?modelYearCode=CUT201213

For comparison, the Toyota Tacoma Access Cab with 208 inch overall length and 127 inch wheelbase has a turning circle of 40 feet.

 

[Buliwyf]

The coils spring Fords and Dodges have better turning radius than the old leaf spring trucks. Those wide set leafs hit the tires limiting steering.

 

[98dango]

It all depends on tire choice my 84 chevy turns on a dime but i have open difs. Also a smaller narrower tire helps my chevy tunrs sharp but i run 235-85-16 on stock wheels. When i put my 33-12.5-16 it turns much wider. Also when I lock up the rear adds to turning

 

[james727]

Tight turns and high centering and departure angle, That I've experienced.

 

[wonderfulremark]

In order to go through just about any drive through restaurants, I have to reverse and turn at least 3 - 5times..
If I had to do it again, I'd go with a short bed.

My 94 crew cab, long bed GMC has the worst turning radius ever....

 

[lllateralus]

reverse? In my truck, (black crew cab shown in previous post) I never back up in drive through's. The rear tire just steps up onto the curb. Not a huge deal.

 

[Jay H]

I have driven or been a passenger in a lot of long bed crew cab government trucks both chevy and ford. These things are all stripped down fleet vehicles with double bench seats. They were all mostly 4 wheel drive with all terrain or commercial traction tires. Getting onto the Arizona strip and out to toroweap is no problem, there is one big ledge dropping into the camp ground but most of the time nothing even scraped. I was just there last week. We had a park service chevy 2500hd. When another full size truck had to pass that was dicey. The white rim should also be ok but just be heads up for two way traffic. The turning radius is the really annoying thing.

 

[toymaster]

I have a 2000 F350 SRW Crew Cab Long bed 4x4 diesel bought it new and still love the truck. Matter of fact I'm going to pour some money into it instead of forking over $50K for a new one. All that said it is not a trail vehicle 'tis designed to haul loads over the road and handle any kind of road. This is the reason I bought a Jeep, to go into the mountains. If there was one vechicle out there which could do it all we would all have it.

If you need/want a long bed CC then get one by all means they are worth their weight in gold, well almost. Just keep in mind the limitations. I go back and forth all the time to which one to use overland. I've decided to buy gear that I can use on both of them so I can take the one that fits the mission. I fully understand I've got an advantage by having both types but till they make the perfect modular vechicle.... :truck: and :safari-rig: will have to do.

 

[TRACTION]

I run a moderately built full sized 3rd gen Dodge Ram and I love it. I wheeled a Jeep Cherokee for years and between the two I'd take my current truck any day just for the added capability and comfort. It does require better driving though especially in the PNW given the tightness of some trails. It helps that my truck is white and I'm not too concerned about scratches.

This last year my buddy and I did a 4200 mile road trip from WA down to Overland Expo and on the way went thru Death Valley, Sedona, etc with hundreds of miles of dirt. I can't even imagine doing that trip in my Jeep. Capability wise it could do it, comfort wise it would suck!



The best part was running the Broken Arrow trail in Sedona and watching all the people in the Pink Jeeps stare at us as we went buy.

 

[toymaster]

...This last year my buddy and I did a 4200 mile road trip from WA down to Overland Expo and on the way went thru Death Valley, Sedona, etc with hundreds of miles of dirt. I can't even imagine doing that trip in my Jeep. Capability wise it could do it, comfort wise it would suck!

Not to really argue the point but more to tell the other side of the story. I just took a trip to the AZ/Mexico border from my place in Wyoming in my 2dr JK towing my 'sierra trailers' trailer. Some where around 1,200 miles each way and a total of over 5,000 miles on the jeep during the trip. We did a little exploring and at trip to Vegas :sombrero: in there too.

I was very comfortable the whole way. Of course, the JK has been much improved over past Jeeps and I have heavily modified mine also. Not the least of which are mastercraft seats. Now I fully admit my LWB CC F350 is sweet on the highway smoothing out the bumps and over 650 ft lbs at my beckon call from the skinny pedal. However, once in the cockpit of either I am fully comfortable for the whole day. My only grip from the JK was the lack of power while pulling over some of the Rocky mountains with a headwind. And I can tell you this, it was a whole lot better riding around with my top off than it ever would have been in my F350 with the windows down :smiley_drive: .

While I was down there I got to wanting some kind of set-up where I could haul my jeep, motorcycle, and challenger along with enough tools to work on 'em also and of course a living quarters. My wife got pissed when I started talking about it. Oh well just another one of my dreams.

 

[TRACTION]

No argument here, the newer Jeeps are a lot more comfortable than my old Cherokee for sure and a lot more suitable for long road trips.

Overall I think that full sized rigs are generally excluded when people are looking for overland adventure type vehicles but really should be given a good look as they're a lot more capable than most would expect and they fullfill storage and sleeping requirements fairly easy. Short bed versions are the way to go if you're concerned with turning radius, break over and high centering.

 

[Metcalf]

You can always borrow a little technology from the hardcore 'rockcrawler' crowd and modify the transfer case ( or install an Atlas ) to allow front wheel drive only. A little rear brake only via the e-brake and you can slide the front end right around, unless your front end scatters all over the place.

In my Dodge, which is considered small for a full-size being a regular cab long-bed, I find the most limiting factor the departure angle and the lack of visibility over the hood.....and just the general overall size ( for what I want to do ).

 

[toymaster]

^^^^ Yep, an atlas 4 spd is in my future. While building the jeep in my head I thought of tractor brakes when I saw the front digs of the atlas. The e-brake cable seperates into two cables before it leaves the cab. If you could design/make a two piece or split handle then do away with the bracket that joins the three cable (one from handle and two from the brakes) it would work.

Years ago when I worked maintainance jobs I had access to a full machine shop and time to work on "government projects". I'd give my left **** to have that access again.