[Warpath]

Hey dirtdevil, welcome to the site!

I'll try to answer a few of your questions based on past experiences.

First forget the MDT such as Topkick or Kodiak, I think when you get into used trucks the difference in price is not worth the trade in power and capacity. You may have seen my first conversion details which I did on a 95 FLD120 and after cleaning and dressing her up that truck looked great. Those trucks where and probably still are a dime a dozen on the used market, and probably a decent one can be had for $10,000.

As for power I would stay above 350 hp. My FLD had a M11 350 w/ 10 speed and at 34,000 combined I never had to drop out of 10th on the highway, even on a 4 or 5% grade. That combo got me around 12 mpg. Oh those where the days!

Your definitely going to have to stretch the frame to do a 14' toter. Quadra MFG will do it, or if you plan to do it, the best way I heard was to splice in your needed length mid way on the frame (butt weld) and than huck bolt a frame rail over the existing now extended frame rail. Basically having a double frame rail. That was from one of the top frame stretchers in the biz back in 2000. I did see a bent frame resulting from splicing in the stretch and than diamond welded a patch over the butt weld. Not good. Either way defiantly check with the experts on the current correct methods

On the build materials, I know that a few guys have mentioned a few resources on some old posts, but not having built my conversion I will be no help there.

Good luck and keep us posted!