k8icu, It's already alot of sawzall and grinding to remove the mounts, and I am dreading the new ones. Here are some pice of me starting the frame chop/splice. See pics below.
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k8icu, It's already alot of sawzall and grinding to remove the mounts, and I am dreading the new ones. Here are some pice of me starting the frame chop/splice. See pics below.
Pics of the frame cut. Cut 28" out of the passanger side and then the driver side. After that was done I trimmed 2" off the bottom of the front frame to accept the back frame. Cleaned it up by welding the original reducing edge to the bottom.
More pics showing the front half frame and the splice I put in to reduce the 9" tall frame to 7 1/4" so it would accept the rear frame.
First pic is passenger side, but all the rest are drivers side. Sorry but didn't get a pic of the drivers side before chopping up.
I will be putting the back and front frames together soon. Just trying to keep it clean splicing and level!
I'll be watching this one. I have been thinking of doing something like this myself. What configuration was the Dodge originally? Regular cab or extended cab? Long box or short box?
I have a 2001 Dodge 2500 Sport with the Cummins/automatic/241dld. My frame is the extended cab short box.
Thanks for taking the time to post up what you're doing.
I got the frame with the body already removed but the WB was 154 1/2 measured. Looking online that shows a 2002 Quad can 8’ bed.
See reference website.
http://dodgeram.info/2001/dimensions.html
Just leveled out the frame, then bolted the rear and front halves back together. Drilled out the holes for the rear leaf spring brackets and added extra plate over the splice for strength. Slowly getting there. Next up...... reinstalling the rear leaf springs/axles then body mounts.
You said "bolted", I thought "ermagerd, that's not good!", but that looks like it worked out well! Cool build!
Let's see if I can get this to work. Upload pic, preview post, click on thumb to see fullsize, copy 'blahblah.jpg', use http://m715zone.com/vb/images/heavy_...nsertimage.gif to insert fullsize pic.
Hah! It worked! I didn't even realize you could attach here.
http://m715zone.com/vb/attachment.ph...1&d=1541416719
I will let you know if it falls apart but I think it will be ok!
And if not I will weld it up again!
I have to agree with Suby.
A Z cut and weld with fish plates would have been much stronger.
Just my .02.
With that being said I like where you are going with this, I would do a frame swap if I was going to do another build. Upgrading to a modern frame and suspension has a lot of benefits.
Paul