Converting CrewCab Shortbed To Longbed???

[Ford_Doctor]

This topic could have been posted in other catagories as I know this will involve major changes to the frame, drivline, brake lines/cables etc.

My family and I love camping and four wheeling in our Jeep and I want to buy a camper. The problem is that none of the campers I like will fit on the shortbed. I was thinking about grafting a longbed bed/frame section onto the CrewCab. Now this is not something I plan on doing anytime soon but I wanted to throw this out ther so I can start thinking about the logistics. What do you folks think?

[67f100]

I think it's a great idea and I want your short box and I will trade you for a pretty decent long box and I am just down the road from you in good ol' Tacoma! Seriously, does anybody know of a decent SWB for sale or any in wrecking yards or??? It's interesting to know that the southeast parts of America are loaded with shortbox trucks and up here in the northwest you hardly see any. Went to Tennessee in 1997 and the ratio of longbox-shortbox trucks was reversed from the stuff you can find in western Washington. Anybody know why that is? Local use taxes or regulations or what? rick

[Ford_Doctor]

Trust me you, you don't want my bed. Right now the floor is plywood because all of the center panels are gone. This is another reason I want to switch to longbed and not spend money on something I don't want.

[FORDification]

Well, I think you've got two options:

1) Pick up an F250 longbox and graft the rear frame section on. This time of frame modification isn't legal in some places, but I seriously doubt anyone would ever know (or care). I was tooling around the local U-Pull-It a last fall and ran across this '68 F350 which had been stretched a bit...but I think at the very least I'd want to also box this section of frame in, to give it a little added support. I wouldn't want to trust my life on the quality of a couple welds:



As you mentioned though, you're going to run into all the issues of lengthening the main and emergency brake lines, driveshaft and wiring. I think if I had your truck and was going to do this graft, I'd even consider adding a dually rearend for added stability. (and of course, a crewcab dually would look awesome!)

2) Find a '73-'79 crewcab LWB derelict and swap your body onto it...of course, using the second option you'll also have to find the '67-'72 LWB box to use. But at least all the misc. details (brake lines, wiring, etc.) are already taken care of for you. You'd have to redrill your bed to mount on the frame, but that's not that big a deal.

[bryantracing460]

(and of course, a crewcab dually would look awesome!)

I thought about grafting on flareside fenders to a styleside bed and see what it would look like.

[willowbilly3]

I think you could just buy an old camper special and use everything you need. If your crewcab is like mine, it has a plate over the outside of the framrails and if you could seperate it and not cut then it would make a good template to line everything back and also be a reinforcement. Some of these crewcabs are longbeds but that may have just been the F-350s. I think the only ones I remember seeing were anyway.
There was a longbed 1968 M-350 for sale about a year ago that had the side trim too. $3000, I wanted it soooo bad but didn't have the money and it sold pretty fast. How cool would a one ton Merc crewcab be?

[Ford_Doctor]

I to had thought about the 73-79 route but they seem to be even rarer than our gen. We have lots of SuperCabs out here but not many CrewCabs. I completely agree with the frame boxing idea as this is the route I was planning in addition to a plate inside the frame rail for added strength. I am unsure about the dually idea but that could be done later after this conversion.

[72hiboy4x4]

hey look at my post under parts for sale. I think it was a '76 crew cab frame only ,2wd, with a lot of stuff rebuilt, going on ebay for 4100.00 to start. might be just what you are looking for.


edit: make that $100 to start. darn fat fingers!!