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One ton trucks- Extended cab and flatbed ?

Milacron

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In a Ford F350 extended cab or crew cab in a 'cab/chassis' configuration, it is surprising that one cannot get a chassis length appropriate for a flat bed any longer than nine feet. You can in F450 and 550, but not the 350. With standard cab, you can go to 12 feet normally...but even more than 12 feet if a rollback bed, so it is surprising they don't offer a slightly longer chassis on the extended cab version...but they don't.

So, the question is, does GMC or Dodge offer this possiblity....a one ton extended cab (i.e. not a crew cab, but a cab with narrow rear seat) and chassis/wheelbase appropriate for at least 11 foot flatbed ?
 
My guess is that the difference in wheelbase is the reason behind only one frame length for the 350.

Below is the link annoucing Dodges re-entry into the chassis/cab market.

http://www.dodge.com/dodge_life/news/autoshow_news/chassis_cab.html

As a Dodge/Cummins driver I am excited. The new '07 emmission regulations are questionable though.


Upfit-friendliness is a prevailing theme of the all-new 2007 Dodge Ram Chassis Cab - the first Ram chassis with a one-piece C-channel frame (50-ksi steel), industry-standard 34-inch frame rail spacing and segment-exclusive flat, "clean" frame rails. Also unique in the segment, all chassis components are below the frame surface, assuring easy adaptability and versatility for virtually any upfit application. Offered in single-rear-wheel and dual-rear-wheel models, two cab-axle lengths (60 and 84 inches) are available.


Good luck!

Tom
 
It is highly unlikely. The longest distance from the back of the cab to the rear axle center line is going to be found on a regular cab model 1-ton cab & chassis. The models with extended cab or crew cab are the same chassis as the longest regular cab chassis (same wheelbase). The only obvious difference here is that you loose the difference of the longer cab from the back of the cab to the center line of the rear axle.

I have been through this many times building rollbacks out of 1-ton cab & chassis trucks. Your only option is to extend the chassis by adding a peice in along with the other things that need to be changed such as a longer driveshaft, extended brake lines, wiring, and emergency brake cables.
 
I'm not so sure it's surprising, D., mostly crew cabs (that I've seen, anyways) were for say, a construction crew type of thing, and if the truck had anything other than a standard PU type bed, it has a redding tool box bed on it, and I believe they're all made to fit a standard 8' bed type of frame or a tow ruck (roll back). The lack of a crew cab on a longer frame on the 1-ton chassis would be (I suspect) 2 things equally.....
1- lack of sales, b/c the pro tow companies know a 1-ton chassis isn't sufficiently built to be able to carry a flat bed and the weight of a car,
and
in today's litigious (sp?) world, the manufacturers don't want to be sued when a non-professional towing guy decides he wants to build a rollback on an undersize chassis and kills someone....

curiosity overwhelms....any reason you don't want to look at the 450 chassis? seems to me when I bough my crew cab last year the crew cab, long wheelbase cab-n-chassis (no bed)450 was right in line w/ 350 prices....
 
Surprise!Surprise! F-350 is available in three or four wheelbase lengths.
 
as a generic model designation, that's true, but when you specify crew cab, only 1 wheelbase choice available, per the 'build your own' page at ford.com
 
Ox, seeing as 90 percent of "cab/chassis" are duallies, your statement makes zero sense.
 
Duh, that was in response to the statement that all F-350's had the same wheelbase.
 
They do mention a dimension that I think is unique to Chrysler- the "cab-axle length", and they say they will be offering it in 60" and 84" lengths.
I assume this means the distance from the back of the cab to the centerline of the axle- and with a 7 foot dimension on this in the larger wheelbase, that would allow you to put a 8 to 10 foot bed on without TOO much overhang.

Of course, it could be some completely other dimension- the distance from a nearby parked yellow cab to the front axle, for example....
 
Ries,
The CA length is a standard dimension always given on medium and heavy trucks, and since Dodge mentions in the quote above that they use standard 34" frame width (also std on medium and heavy trucks), they've likely just added the CA length to sorta conform with other larger truck dimensions and data. In practice, the CA length is the most useful length in determining what length bed you can use, since wheelbase doesn't tell you much by itself due to various cab configurations. If the truck is a tandem then the CA length is measured from the back of the cab to the center of the tandem.

Offhand, I'd say with a CA length of 7' you could easily use a 12' flatbed.
 
I think OX is right, at least in the Chev/GMC 1-tons I've owned and worked on. The dually pickups are about 6" wider than a dual wheel cab and chassis. I didn't know this until I ordered a flatbed to replace a dually pickup box on a '90 I had.
 
Do some research before you make assumptions that everything is the same.

As Ox and Barry said, the Dually and the Cab & Chassis are two completely different trucks no matter whether it is Ford, GM, or Dodge.

A Dually is a pickup truck (by laymans terms, not a cab & chassis). The dually has a wider chassis and a wider foot print on the rear axle of about 6 inches or so. This is all so that the dual wheels will fit under the pickup bed.

The typical dual wheel Cab & Chassis has a frame width of about 37 inches. All flat beds, dump beds and other attachments are designed and built to fit a 37 inch wide chassis. This is the same for medium duty class trucks all (International, Frieghtliner, Ford F650/750, etc.). They utilize the 37 inch wide chassis also.

A single wheel cab & chassis is the same truck/frame width as the standard 3/4 ton pickup which is wider.
 
Sorry DThomas, don't believe there is such a critter. We owned a 2000 F350 7.3 ZF6 Supercab Cab & Chassis. Built our own 9' bed to go on it. Don't recall a longer CA length available. Seems that the extra 2' of bed you need got swallowed up in the supercab.

Duallies vs. C&C....... I believe that the duallies are wider on the rear axle. On a dually, the front tire and the inner rear tires fall in the same path. On a cab & chassis, the front tires track between the middle of the rear tires (rear tires are narrower, front tires are not wider). I don't believe the frame is actually different, I think that there's spacers in the rear axle.

Bed we built for 2000 F350 C&C slipped right on the 2005 F350 C&C that replaced it BTW.
 
as a side note (seems it got lost in the thread), I'll ask again....DThomas, why not an F450? the cab/chassis 450 seems to be approx. the same price as a F350 with a bed on it.... (I'm not even sure if you can buy an F350 cab/chassis w/o a bed- ford.com 'build it yourself' doesn't give the option, and the truck sales manager just gave me a bunch of vague 'I'll have to check on it and get back to you' crap answers when I was in the dealership)
 
77iron, to be honest, I can't remember why an F450 was undesirable. I just remember looking into the details on this about half a year ago and there was something I wanted that just wasn't available in F450/550...but guessing...may have been the rear end ratios. I don't remember the Ford ratio numbers, but what I want is the lower ratio (3.7 ?) but I seem to recall when you get to F450 you can only get 4.1 ? I could be wrong on this...correct me if so.

If your curious, the reason I want the lower ratio is that's what I have on current F350 pickup and it has plenty of towing power with that rear end, and yet will get 19 to 21 mpg highway empty. I figure with higher ratio rear the mpg would go down to irritating levels.

Also, can you get an extended cab on F450 ? I seem to recall standard or crew cab only...here again, I could be wrong.

Also was thinking the ride quality when unloaded would be better on F350.
 
I dunno about the gear ratio or extended cab options on F450 (altho I *seem* to recall seeing F450 tow trucks w/ it, but maybe were 350's, can't remember clearly enough to say). as far as ride quality, I'm so used to the extra stiffness in my 350 that the little bit stiffer ride in a 450 is marginal, lol....it is, however, barely possible in the current climate of plant closures and desperate-for-sales factories, you might be able to demand the gearing you want...and right now is the time, new model year about to hit the sales floor and still early enough in the production run to actually order what you want and not have to just pick one they already built...oh, yeah, FWIW, I was origionally looking to buy an extended cab, but ended up w/ a crew cab because that was what was available at the time, and now that I have it, I can't remember what it was like before I had all the extra space (worse yet, I doubt I could go back to a smaller cab and try and figure out what to do w/ all the extra stuff I filled the extra space up with, lol)
 








 
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