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Non - Specific
Engine Conversion
My tow pig/DD build thread. F350/Cummins 6.7/twins/6R140
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[QUOTE="me2, post: 409522, member: 3825"] The elephant in the room. I haven't been talking about it, but it was driven home during our trip and it needs to be addressed, so here it is. The cab on my F350 is too small. It needs to be extended. Our F350 seats 5 people. There were 5 of us and our dog on this trip. We were mostly very comfortable while travelling except the person sitting in the middle in the back seat doesn't have a headrest, which makes it difficult to nap in that position. It would also be nice if the back seat(s) reclined a bit for more comfort. Our trailer sleeps 10 people. We don't intend to take 10 people on trips, but we do want to take more than 5 people and we are planning to have another child. Our truck needs more seats. There is no way around it. We took 2 vehicles on one camping trip in July. That works for small trips close to home, but it doesn't work on our long adventure trips. It isn't just to and from the destination that needs 2 vehicles, its all the side trips that happen while we are at the destination. And its way nicer to have 2 parents in one vehicle managing kids when travelling long distances than to have 1 parent in 2 vehicles each having to manage kids. And it isn't just the camping and adventure trips where we are having this problem. Its weekend trips around home and ski trips in the winter. We've discussed this several times. Seating capacity aside, our truck works great. But we'll probably need to take at least 2 more people along on our trip next summer and just about every family trip we make as long as keep the truck. My wife and I have discussed going to a travel trailer and pulling it with an Excursion. We've also discussed MDTs and HDTs. I even chatted with a few MDT owners. We've also discussed motorhomes. We don't want any of those solutions. So I've started looking at extending the cab on my F350. Its a crew cab long box. The wheelbase is 172 ish inches. Addng another crew cab section to the existing cab would add 35 ish inches to the cab. Adding a Super Cab section to the existing cab would add 16ish inches to the cab. Converting from a long box to a short box would free up 16 ish inches of space on the frame. No matter what, the frame on my truck (any Ford truck) needs to be cut and welded to accept a cab extension. This is because it rises behind the cab to support the under side of the box. Thus the lowered, under the cab, portion of the frame needs to be extended no matter what cab extension is added. I ran into a guy who extended his crew cab with a supercab section. He loves it except that he feels its too small to allow for comfort while travelling long distances. I think most people feel that way about the rear seat in Supercabs. I don't want to extend the wheel base of my truck any more than I have to. If I added a Supercab extension and swapped from a long box to a short box, I wouldn't have to change the wheel base at all. If I went with a full crew cab extension, I'd have to lengthen the wheelbase by 19 inches and lose the long box that I love so much. I feel that increasing the wheelbase by 19 inches is too much. The "best" solution I have come up with thus far is to add 8 inches to the doors and cab section of a Supercab extension. That would require an 8 inch increase in wheel base and swapping the long box for a short box. That would give the rear seat am extension length of 24 inches, which is approaching the rear seat extension in a Quad cab. Then there is the issue of matching the interior trim. My truck is a King Ranch. To my knowledge, you can not get the King Ranch trim in a Super Cab truck. So there are no King Ranch rear seats or trim panels for a Super Cab extension, especially not one lengthened 8 inches. All this leaves me with a headache. I am presently discussing my options with a nearby company that has done a few cab extensions. Why am I discussing all this now and what does it have to do with the swap ? I don't want to swap the 6.7 into my truck and then realize it wasn't the right truck for our needs. I've known about the impending cab space issue for a while, but always thought that we could "make due". Our recent trip drove home the fact that "making due" would be more painful that I realized and that our trips are probably going to be more frequent that I realized. The cab issue needs to be addressed. When I think about it, this project is starting to get ludicrous. The "To Do" list reads - engine/transmission swap - front and rear suspension upgrades - cab extension and box swap. That is a lot of work. Is it really necessary ? I keep thinking that surely there must be some other way to do this. But there is no way we want to give up or 5th wheel trailer. Its way too nice to travel and stay in when we are on our adventure trips. Its what makes going on these trips feasible and comfortable. There is something to be said for getting a good night's sleep every night while away from home and having all your gear along and organized. So we need a vehicle to pull the 5er and it needs to seat more than 5 people. The easiest way I can see to do that is to extend the cab on a Superduty truck. At this point its not too late for me to change my mind about doing the swap and/or the truck entirely and going a different route. It seems extreme (to me) to do all this work on a stock truck to get a vehicle that works for us and yet it also seems to be the easiest (and by far the cheapest) way to do it. I need to come to grips with a few things about the cab extension before moving ahead with the swap. It shouldn't take long as I have calls in to a couple people familiar with doing them. [/QUOTE]
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My tow pig/DD build thread. F350/Cummins 6.7/twins/6R140
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