My 92 w250 clubcab has a terrible ride and turning radius. My house sits on a small lot and it would be nice to be able to get the truck around the house to the garage easier. I have sunk a bunch of money into this truck and do not want to get rid of it. What about shortening the wheelbase to fit a 6.5 ft bed or a short custom flatbed with side toolboxes and linking the rear with air bags. Can I just take the 8ft bed off, fab the link mounts forward on the frame and cut off the excess frame or should I take a foot and a half out of the middle and splice the frame back together.Maybe swap the running gear to a ramcharger or w150 shortbed. I would appreciate any ideas ,pictures or links to similar projects.

 

Shortening the wheelbase won't help the ride. It will help the turning radius. Just lopping off the back of the truck won't make it turn any tighter, you would have to shorten the wheelbase to do that.

One of our members put a 6 1/2' bed on his truck, I think it was desert rat.

 

I would move the rear axle forward and use the shorter bed to help the turning radius. The air bag suspension would make the ride softer and I could adjust the ride height for the weight I was carrying.

 

This would be a lot of work but it is just a thought. If you really want a club-cab shortbed. You could find a doner truck that is either a regularcab-longbed, or a clubcab-shortbed (dodge did make them in 92 and 93, but they were halftons, and possibly only 2wd). As far as I know, the frame lengths and body mounts are identical from a regularcab-longbed to a clubcab-shortbed (just like they are identical from a club-cab-longbed to a crew-cab short-bed). Swap EVERYTHING from your truck to the shorter frame and find a 6.5 foot bed. Personally, that is what I would do, but I do not like metal work of any kind so...

I see me accidentally taking too much out of one side, and when I weld it back together the right wheel would be closer to the cab than the left, and I have to cut it and weld it again, and the left is closer to the right... When I would finally get both wheel the same distance, my truck would look like one of those Dodge Cummins airplane tugs you see at the Military Air Bases.

As I said, a lot of work, but to me it would be worth it, so just a thought.
Merry Christmas!

 

Lengthening trucks happens all the time. Shortening is even easier. weekend job...You will have to remove frame section from ahead of the rear wheels and then bob the frame some behind the rear wheels to fit the box.
Look in my Pics, there is a document showing the frame measurments for all factory wheel bases. Any questions feel free to PM me.
Bill

 

reg cab long bed and club cab short bed frame should be the same thing. since they make the reg cab long bed in diesel (plenty of them) i would probably go this route if i were you.... (as long as i am not proved wrong about the frame)

i would look for a reg cab long bed diesel, swap your extras and your cab onto it. put the reg cab on the other frame and make a flatbed for it and sell that off. maybe that's too much work, i don't know

 

Because of the hump over the rear axle, you can't move the mounts forward and be done. Frame shortning or swapping is the only option. I chopped 32" out of the frame on my never-have-time-for project truck, converting from club cab long bed to regular cab shortbed. Another problem you may run into is fuel tank length. I don't know if the clubcab will add enough length over my RC.

 

Get the quadra steering from a GM I think. Dont worry its not a GM only part. Delphi, I think, developed it. On their site one of the test trucks was a Ford. I want to do that on my 74 PW when I finally start the conversion.

 

Quadrasteer is a neat idea. I wonder if Dana makes a 70 or 80 steering axle with the pumpkin in the right place?

 

Four wheel steering is a neat idea. I bet I could use Dana 60 C's and knuckles on my Dana 70, have custom length inner shafts made, run drive slugs or lockout hubs in the rear, and use a double ended hydraulic ram with a log splitter valve for the steering of the axle. I would have to make sure I had a lockout of some type for normal driving. With rear steer I could park it anywhere.

 

W250 and smooth ride were never ment to be used together. These are TRUCKS not BMW's.

 

But they're the closest things the American Diesel community has to BMWs.

I don't have use for a truck; I just got the highest performance Diesel engine available to me, which is ironically a 30 year old tractor engine in a pick-up...

Since nobody has a car with a high-performance Diesel powerplant, the Cummins is by far the closest you can get to a Diesel muscle-car. Only, it's in a truck, meaning some of us get to try to turn the truck into a car...

I'd be in for quadra-steer, sounds pretty darn expensive though. I think I'd be able to get better steering radius by installing a fronts-only brake pedal and limited slip, but my tires wouldn't like that...

I would even consider lowering my truck to get a better center of gravity and installing 20 inch rims so I could have better cornering tires. But, then I'd have a lowered 1990 Dodge with 20 inch rims, and I just don't want to go there.

 

Is it possible to increase the turning radius by adjusting the steering stops on the axle so the knuckles turn farther? I haven't looked into myself on my front axle, but I was planning on to since on other axles, you can usually tweak them for a few more degrees.

 

Simply shortning the WB will make it ride rougher, As a rule the longer, the smoother, but shortning helps the turn radious. You consider shortning the frame and removing a leaf or even differant springs.

 

I never wanted my truck to be like a bmw. I am trying to make it as maneuverable and comfortable riding as the newer trucks that are out today. The truck is paid for, in good shape and has many more years of life left in it. I took my steering stops out and drove it around with no change in the turning radius. I like the linked suspension/air bag design. Kelderman offers kit for newer trucks. I have seen Trucks, jeeps, rockcrawlers with 4 linked suspensions. Heck my Freightliner Century has that design.