I was thinking the other day, I have seen alot of old muscle cars that were modified so that the entire hood/fenders hinged up like a tractor trailer hood, has anyone ever done that to a 2nd Gen Ram?? I suppose you would have to weld the hood to the fenders and fab up some kind of frame to hold it together but it would make working on the engine soooooo much easier.

Just a thought..........Dont have many so when one comes along its a big deal

 

I thought right from the git go Dodge missed the ball on that one. I think that would have been a fantastic way for them to go but for some reason they did not do it. I've seen that done on a number of different rigs and don't see why it couldn't be done on these. A one piece tilt front would have been waaaay cool. Some of the class 8 rigs are fiberglass, others aluminum and still others some type of composite. Would have saved some front end weight.

Now that's just plain funny. Made my day.

 

That's a great idea! I'll be sure to sit and ponder over that with a couple beers in front of the truck when I get home.



Kinda like this but with the Ram front end?
http://www.dieselpowermag.com/featur...ilt/index.html

 

That is simply awesome.

 

Years ago I believe that freightliner built a couple as retirement gifts to loooooong time supervisors with p/u sized cabs & tilt hoods the last time I saw them was at cummins NW on swan island in port. or. in the mid 80's.

 

Those were cabovers so no tilt hood on them unless there were others (conventional cab) I have not seen. In fact I talked with Ken Self (Mr. Freightliner) about them at a truck show. One he built himself and the other the people who worked for him built as a retirement gift. A '58 replica with no tilt cab. He was a rather tall gentleman and I asked how he fit in it. He said just fine. I think he said it was 2/3rds scale but looked much smaller to me.

 

Tilt front ends are nothing new. Really big in the hot rod scene a few years back. On these trucks (as well as most vehicles) you have to cut the fenders behind the front wheel at about a 45 degree angle right at the top of the front wheel well at about a 45 degree angle or so towards the windshield. Then you are correct with the theory of making the whole front clip one piece and fabricating some sort of hinge. Cool as heck when done right.

 

I only saw one cab-over the other was a conventional but only saw them once they might not have both been freightliners.

 

I have seen other brands on a pickup chassis @ the Brooks show. Those were conventional cabs with a tilt hood.

 

Awesome idea!!! I'd do it in a heartbeat except I got a big ole bumper up there now which kinda puts a crimp in the whole idea...

 

You have to have something to attach the hood hinges too....
I did this back in the early 70's with a mini, back then it was common to cut the front off and replace it with an after-market fiberglass one with one catch either side and 2 hinges at the front. In fact one company actually made a front that looked like a Rolls Royce for the mini. Now with composites it wouldn't surprise me if we see this in the near future to cut down on weight. How about a composite box and tailgate???

 

Well if I cut the brushguard off I'd be able to just attach hinges to the bumper, but I kinda like my brushguard, and that gets in the way of a big rig style hood. I could just hinge the whole bumper, but that would kill my 'drive thru a brick wall' ability . Maybe I could do swing down brushguard like the Humvees do it...that might work if I could make it NOT look like doodoo, and even then it'd probably be more work to open the hood then its worth.

It would be funny if all the diesel heads out there started doin this to their trucks...all the truckers already make fun of "little Billy Bigrig's" stacks, wait till we start doin the hoods too!

 

I just saw both of these rigs @ the truck museum in Brooks, OR. They are 2/3rds scale and Ken Self built the '58 replica in his 2 car garage in Lake Oswego. The other one is a replica bubble nose of a Hyster company rig that logged over 3 million miles. That one the employees built for Ken. At least I think that's what it said on the display. It's been a couple of weeks.

 

Just comes off with dzus fasteners, but this truck (dale smith's "ram rod") has a one piece glass front end. The main reason you see quick cars with forward opening front ends is because they're a one piece fiberglass unit and that's the easiest way to make it work. Doesn't necessarily make it easier to work on things.



:edit: Also would be hard to tilt this hood any direction due to the stack...

 

Your idea is cool and I actually thought of this when Dodge came out with the 2nd gen truck, something like "What a missed opprotunity!" At the Chicago Auto Show introduction of the 3rd gen truck, it had a tilt hood on the display model. But that was just a crowd pleaser.

I think one of the main reasons they didn't do this related along the lines of the 1st gen Viper. That composite hood was very costly to build, not to mention it was fragile and could get misaligned easily. While it's true that all 3 maker's rigs need better rear engine compartment access these days, adding a tilt hood would be a real challange in terms of cost, design integration, tooling for the production, and for the general consumer - acceptance of such an unfamiliar access method.

But do it to your truck if you like the idea! What a great auto-show trick.