Truck Conversion & Toterhome Community - View Single Post

04-11-2004, 01:20 AM

38 views and not one opinion! ya'll must think I'm crazy. Let me elaborate, the trailer is crisp and only 4 months old. It is a solid built steel structure, sheathed in smooth aluminum panels.

From what I have concluded thus far, there are three major areas needing addressed. The current "Bunk house" over the gooseneck, is 46" up from the bottom of the horizontal steel floor framing. Most MDT cabs I have checked have a height of 58"-62". So the floor of the "bunkhouse" and trailer exterior around it, would need to be shortened 12"-14". Obvously it would need to be dissassembled, refabbed, and reassembled. The wheel wells currently house two 8000lb. axles. The trailer is 102" wide, and the wheel wells intrude into the "garage" area near 7". Being the entire existing trailer would be above the new rear axle, the wells would simply need to be removed, and structure fabbed back. There is very little on the inside other than riveted aluminum sheathing to deal with. I would be having "basement" storage compartments and new wheel wells fabbed, along both sides. The next area of attention, would be re-fitting the existing or new plumbing and tanks back under the trailer. This does not particular look either tough or expensive, as most of what I see is standard issue parts. The area I'm a little confused on, is how to handle the seating. I really like the idea of having the "trailer" open to the cab, like a motor home. That has me thinking I may need an extra cab set-up, and mount a couple of captain chairs near the current front wall of the trailer.

One of the big reasons for considering this is, I have $58,000 into this set-up. If I was to sell and try to upgrade, I may get $40,000. I'm thinking a cab and chassis, and 10-15K for a fabricator, then I can take over.

I was an AOG mechanic for years, with Boeing. This structure seems very straightforward for the kind of "modding" I think it will need.

Any taker on a interesting discussion?

04-11-2004, 01:20 AM	#2
Guest Posts: n/a	38 views and not one opinion! ya'll must think I'm crazy. Let me elaborate, the trailer is crisp and only 4 months old. It is a solid built steel structure, sheathed in smooth aluminum panels. From what I have concluded thus far, there are three major areas needing addressed. The current "Bunk house" over the gooseneck, is 46" up from the bottom of the horizontal steel floor framing. Most MDT cabs I have checked have a height of 58"-62". So the floor of the "bunkhouse" and trailer exterior around it, would need to be shortened 12"-14". Obvously it would need to be dissassembled, refabbed, and reassembled. The wheel wells currently house two 8000lb. axles. The trailer is 102" wide, and the wheel wells intrude into the "garage" area near 7". Being the entire existing trailer would be above the new rear axle, the wells would simply need to be removed, and structure fabbed back. There is very little on the inside other than riveted aluminum sheathing to deal with. I would be having "basement" storage compartments and new wheel wells fabbed, along both sides. The next area of attention, would be re-fitting the existing or new plumbing and tanks back under the trailer. This does not particular look either tough or expensive, as most of what I see is standard issue parts. The area I'm a little confused on, is how to handle the seating. I really like the idea of having the "trailer" open to the cab, like a motor home. That has me thinking I may need an extra cab set-up, and mount a couple of captain chairs near the current front wall of the trailer. One of the big reasons for considering this is, I have $58,000 into this set-up. If I was to sell and try to upgrade, I may get $40,000. I'm thinking a cab and chassis, and 10-15K for a fabricator, then I can take over. I was an AOG mechanic for years, with Boeing. This structure seems very straightforward for the kind of "modding" I think it will need. Any taker on a interesting discussion?