Single cab on crew cab frame?

[msiminoff]

Mark - thanks for the info.... How long are they saying to build your box?

You are quite welcome.

Who is the "they" in your question? A Total Composites box is a build-it-yourself proposition. Of course there are companies that can do the assembly for you. However, being a mechanical engineer and fabricator, I need to be hands-on in the process.

Andreas can introduce you to the shops in the US and Canada that have experience building their boxes and I think the pro's can do it pretty quickly, like 2 or 3 days.

In my case, the time to fabricate & ship my panels (flat-packed from China) was around 10 weeks from the day I officially placed the order the day they arrived in North America. We're currently building the aluminum subframe which is a ~1-week job to cut, bend, assemble, & weld. I am expecting that it will take 1 full week to test-fit, bond the panels together, and install it on the truck, call it me plus 4 strong guys and a 40-50 hour work-week... so 200+ man hours. You can do the math on the labor to do all of that.

None of the above includes the prep and engineering work... that's months of time.

 

[njtacoma]

I realize this has been covered, but Ford offers a 205" Wheelbase in the F550 regular cab, that translates to 10 feet cab to axle, plenty of room for a 14' box and available with 4wd gas or diesel. With a little work, it would be easy to stay under gvwr.

There is a guy on the inter webs that has a Ram with a custom pickup bed on a really long chassis...a little odd in my eyes, but I appreciate the work and vision that went into it. if you look up str88ch in your search engine of choice you'll see the pictures, I realize you aren't wanting an actual pickup bed, but it gives you some perspective.

 

[hidn45]

I realize this has been covered, but Ford offers a 205" Wheelbase in the F550 regular cab, that translates to 10 feet cab to axle, plenty of room for a 14' box and available with 4wd gas or diesel. With a little work, it would be easy to stay under gvwr.

There is a guy on the inter webs that has a Ram with a custom pickup bed on a really long chassis...a little odd in my eyes, but I appreciate the work and vision that went into it. if you look up str88ch in your search engine of choice you'll see the pictures, I realize you aren't wanting an actual pickup bed, but it gives you some perspective.

Hey, thanks Neil - 200"+ of WB would give me plenty of room to work with. Around $70K for a new one.... yeeouch! That str88ch truck is quite the rig - it'd be like driving a limo around.... And yes, it needs a big ol' house sitting in that bed!

Mark - not sure how I got in my head that you were buying out your box.... Looking forward to seeing how it all goes together for you. Are you using the panels for bulkheads, walls, cabinetry, etc as well?

Thanks again guys - learning a bunch here!

 

[Healeyjet]

We have a single cab Ram 5500 with a cab to rear axle length of 10’. Stretched the frame behind the wheels and we have an 18’ box and plenty of room.
Ward

 

[IdaSHO]

To add into the mix, don't overlook extending the frame beyond the rear axle if it would help.

I added 24" of to the rear of our superduty to make room for the cross-body box, while retaining a full 96" bed.
The camper COG as built is very far forward keeping the overall truck + camper COG well within check.

 

[hidn45]

Healeyjet - nice looking rig. Is that 18' at the floor, or including the overcab? Either way, that would be enough room for us, I think....

IdaSHO - I've been seeing your prototype around here & there, but haven't got to reading your build thread yet over on pirate 4x4. Now that you've said that, about stretching it back, I can see it, but hadn't really noticed it before. Sign of a well thought out build. May just go check it out now - should answer some questions...

 

[IdaSHO]

Yep, it hides it pretty well.

Driving it you really dont notice it, until you BACK into a parking spot.
You can go a long ways before bumping into a parking bumper or curb

But the balance front to rear is spot on, and the incredible turning radius was retained.

Fair warning about my build thread.... most of the image links are dead now for the original build.

Keep meaning to get back and repair the links, but life seems to get in the way....

The original build pics are now on flickr, and can be seen here....

idacamper2.0

Explore this photo album by Kenny Bonnefin on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

Superduty build pics (pretty sure those work in the thread) are here.

SuperDuty

Explore this photo album by Kenny Bonnefin on Flickr!

www.flickr.com

Hope it helps.

 

[Healeyjet]

Our camper box is 18’ on the floor, our build pics are still there......for now.
Ward

 

[hidn45]

Kenny - thanks. There's a lot of good info there, I'm gonna have to go back thru & take notes....

Ward - you guys know how to see the continent! Only sampled a small part of your travelogue, but loved every bit so far. Another FLW fan here - been to Fallingwater a number of times. There is now a group of relocated Wright homes in the area called Polymath Park. There's even one you can stay in overnight! If you're ever in the Buffalo, NY area, there are several FLW houses & structures around, as well as the Roycroft Campus in nearby East Aurora, NY.