- Location
- Bountiful, land of rocks
Bart brought up a good point in another gas vs. diesel thread re: building a "hauler" (flatbed truck chassis that can haul the crawler and the family). This is something I've thought about a LOT esp. since Bucking Bronco snagged that F450 and extended the frame. That seems to work quite well for him and I think a similar rig would for me.
Ben follows that up with his GMC 6.0L gasser version and now I'm really intrigued with the concept. I know just enough about medium duty trucks to be dangerous (drove a medium duty wrecker for about a year in the 90s---80-90k miles) but like what they bring to the table for the most part. I'd like to find an older (cheapish $5k-10k) crew cab chassis that I could do a similar version of this with. I'm at least six months out on purchasing but I've always liked to have a plan and kick it around for a while in my head for something like this.
Rocky Mountain Wrecker will extend a chassis on a dually truck for an actual wrecker for roughly $3k (I called on a few rigs a couple months ago) + driveline mods (they don't do those so they can't really predict cost). My question is what would people buy to do this work? I'd love to get peoples opinions.
Requirements (for me)
1) MUST meet above price requirements
2) crew cab
3) insurance (I've called my insurance guy re: this---I'm OK with an F450 but he was hesitant with the F550)--happy to insure F450 as long as I was under mfg load ratings--otherwise, I'm on my own (not what you want from insurance in a bad situation)
4) at least a 10' flatbed/carrier bed (with recent JK purchase, I might want to extend that a few feet)
5) ability to tow a "reasonable" camp trailer from bumper hitch while hauling trail rig --- Say 6000 lbs and 25'ish
6) R134 AC and good seats
I'll start with my thoughts. "SuperDuty" style ('99-current) F450-550 would likely be my preference for a few reasons. They're more available than other trucks and some parts carry over from the F250-350 trucks. Solid platforms for the most part. They have their issues, but if you seek out a V10, manual truck, I would think you'd have something fairly reliable? Sources are old .gov trucks, thrashed commercial stuff that have had snow plows on them, etc.
I've considered GM 3500 trucks, but I'm at or above weight with at least 2k of truck bed, 5k of Jeep and 6k of trailer. I like 7.4L and am very intrigued by 8.1L motors. They like the fuel but ....
...need to work, but let's see what responses this gets.
Ben follows that up with his GMC 6.0L gasser version and now I'm really intrigued with the concept. I know just enough about medium duty trucks to be dangerous (drove a medium duty wrecker for about a year in the 90s---80-90k miles) but like what they bring to the table for the most part. I'd like to find an older (cheapish $5k-10k) crew cab chassis that I could do a similar version of this with. I'm at least six months out on purchasing but I've always liked to have a plan and kick it around for a while in my head for something like this.
Rocky Mountain Wrecker will extend a chassis on a dually truck for an actual wrecker for roughly $3k (I called on a few rigs a couple months ago) + driveline mods (they don't do those so they can't really predict cost). My question is what would people buy to do this work? I'd love to get peoples opinions.
Requirements (for me)
1) MUST meet above price requirements
2) crew cab
3) insurance (I've called my insurance guy re: this---I'm OK with an F450 but he was hesitant with the F550)--happy to insure F450 as long as I was under mfg load ratings--otherwise, I'm on my own (not what you want from insurance in a bad situation)
4) at least a 10' flatbed/carrier bed (with recent JK purchase, I might want to extend that a few feet)
5) ability to tow a "reasonable" camp trailer from bumper hitch while hauling trail rig --- Say 6000 lbs and 25'ish
6) R134 AC and good seats
I'll start with my thoughts. "SuperDuty" style ('99-current) F450-550 would likely be my preference for a few reasons. They're more available than other trucks and some parts carry over from the F250-350 trucks. Solid platforms for the most part. They have their issues, but if you seek out a V10, manual truck, I would think you'd have something fairly reliable? Sources are old .gov trucks, thrashed commercial stuff that have had snow plows on them, etc.
I've considered GM 3500 trucks, but I'm at or above weight with at least 2k of truck bed, 5k of Jeep and 6k of trailer. I like 7.4L and am very intrigued by 8.1L motors. They like the fuel but ....
...need to work, but let's see what responses this gets.
