Diesel Crew Cab Ram

[RSchwarzli]

I'm interested in doing a W350 dually crew cab diesel Ram. Upon doing some research with a couple of threads on crew cab Rams, I started thinking. Everyone seems to lengthen and put the crew cab body onto a diesel frame. Would it not be easier to put a diesel into an existing crew cab? Is a crew cab frame not strong enough for a diesel? Does it have something to do with four wheel drive? Any help would be much appreciated.

Robert (diesel head junior)

 

[83 crew cab]

been running my 83 frame for over two years no problems yet #ad

 

[RSchwarzli]

So you just put the diesel into the existing crew cab?

 

[83 crew cab]

yea the page with the swap is down I will try and get it going later tonigt



you need to cut the rad extions off the core support and use 89-93 cummins motor mounts

 

[RSchwarzli]

So on the overall besides the rad core support and the motor mounts it was pretty straight forward? Have you done any towing with yours? If so, any frame twist or other issues different than a factory diesel?

 

[bgilbert]

83 Crew Cab, sweet truck, I was looking at both your trucks at Scheid's extravagansa in August, looked like u packed up and left before the final 4WD pickup event. Great looking trucks! Bill

 

[therabbittree]

i think the reason most people lengthen the diesel frame is the crewcabs never were available in a long bed 4x4 only short bed 4x4 so if you take a crewcab long bed its a 2wd so either you convert the 2wd to 4x4 or lengthen a 4x4 diesel frame etc . . i have been toying with this for a while or swapping a cummins into a ford crewcab on or the other... not sure what has more room older ford up to 97 crewcab or dodge?. . there was acrewcab dodge local for sale for $1000 but its gone now sat in front of the guys house for almost 3 yrs at least maybe more

later

deo

\x/ hillfolk!

 

[83 crew cab]

thanks Bill yea we need to get home melissa's mom had a hartatack but all is good know George

 

[RSchwarzli]

therrabittree



OOOOhhh! You couldn't get a 4x4 long box crew cab from factory. That would explain it. Hmmm. If all 350 duallys are long boxes, then you could not have ordered four wheel drive in a 350 dually crew cab. Correct?





83 crew cab



The truck looks good, but is it just my eyes or are you missing your side view mirror?

 

[83 crew cab]

Robert that is correct at least for 80 and up you could not get a long bed or dualy crewcab that was 4x4 not sure on the older ones



I never noticed that is apic before I had the mirriors on lol got the link to the eng page fixed http://pagebuilder.yahoo.com/members/tools/pagebuilder/server/read/user/.pages/crewcabcummins.html





#ad

 

[BCook1]

Dodges that supposedly never were...

Greetings,

There were a number of body/chassis configuations that were supposedly never produced in the 80s. I just sold my 1982 W350, Club Cab, Long Box, Single Rear Wheel 4x4. This was not supposed to be available either but it was. As for no 4x4 one ton long boxes, they were not common ( and the dually issue makes it even more complicated) but they did show up once in a while. Just for the record, my 350 had a dana 60 front, 205 transfer case, and factory delete on the catalytic converters. It was a beautiful truck but I needed a CTD. I used to joke about dodge producing a dually stepside until I saw a 1960s military one LOL.

 

["Mad Max"]

I'm going to merge my two trucks as well. I have a 74 Power Wagon, crew cab, long bed, 4x4, dually, and I'm going to take all the guts, interior, and most of the body (less cab of course) from my 93 D250 Cummins rig and install it all on my 74 frame.



My 74 was not a 4x4 originally - I converted to 4x4 - wasn't difficult, just lots of big heavy parts and really, really strong bolts.



I have heard that the gas motor frames are not as heavy as the diesel frames, and though I have never seen or heard of a Cummins conversion buckling the frame I am going to box my 74's frame from the back of the cab to the front. I am also going to fab and install a complete roll cage to keep the rig from twisting when I'm off road. I'm not going rock crawling but I plan to get out and get silly - mostly in snow and mud - I don't care how big the truck is... I plan to repaint as necessary



You can see the 74 and the diesel in my readers rigs.

- Sam

 

[RSchwarzli]

Thanks to all of you very much. I appreciate the input. Now I have some thinking to do. Do I want to lengthen the frame, install four wheel drive, look into a pre 80's, or forget about the project. Scratch that last thought. I think I will look into the pre 80's and see what I can find.





SamsRams:



I like the look of the crew cab, might just have to look in that direction.



BCook1:



That seems to be the way the old Chrysler Corp. was. Always making things that were not availible. Now if Daimler would get the hint and make a few REAL 2004 crew cabs.....



83 crew cab:



Just to let you know, I tried to go to the eng page but it said it was down. I will check back later as it might just have been my computer.

 

[Thierry]

I got hold of 3 crewcabs in the last year, all parked in my backyard, 2 85 D350's longbeds and a 82 D350 short bed, I had great intensions of building a diesel crewcab, but found a 69 Coronet r/t so I am making that my project.

I am selling 2 of the crewcabs if anyone is interested.

I will keep one to transplant all my extra diesel parts into when I have some extra time.



Thanks

Thierry

 

[BCook1]

More options

Greetings,

Just when you thought all your options were in…. A friend of mine is finishing up a 4x4 Cummins, Crew Cab/Extended Cab flatbed custom hauler. Conventional knowledge says: Dodge stopped building a crew cab in the mid 80s so I will have to find one of these trucks and put the cab on my cummins chassis. You may want to look at the option of adding the back doors to your existing cummins truck. Although this seems like more work at first, look at what you won’t have to do. You won’t have to transfer all of the wiring from under the dash and in the doors, you won’t have to troubleshoot the entire dash cluster and air conditioning and shifter holes/linkage, blah, blah, blah. Unknown to me before looking at my friend’s monstrosity, there really isn’t much to the door jam/body seams on these trucks. If you wanted to, once the seam is exposed, you could keep adding doors till you ran out of parts. It is the same seam on all the trucks – standard cab, club cab and crew cab.



Consider the following: Cut the Cummins 4x4 frame behind the transfer case mounting points and the Cummins body at the rear door jam seam. Add the rear half of the crew cab body to the cummins body. Carefully measure and cut the crew cab frame so that the rear portion is the proper length for your new cummins crew cab and weld together. Box the frame as needed – If I remember right, the crew cab frame was deeper than the cummins frame. This means only the driveshafts, fuel lines, brake lines and cables, taillight wiring, exhaust and body mounts must be modified as opposed to all of this and more if you try to put the cummins into the older body. At first this seems like a lot more work than transplanting the powertrain into an existing crew cab but if you go outside and stare at your truck for a while and contemplate all the things that need to be swapped it begins to look more and more feasible. There must be a reason the custom stretch outfits do it this way. Just my $. 02. It sure would be nice if they had just made one of these from the factory – of course they would be worth more than a new one so…… Actually, the crew cab cummins does exist – another friend of mine saw one in a rural fire department – it was a government hand-me-down. I saw one in Las Vegas in a Wallmart parking lot. Whether these were customs or factory I don’t know. But the government has a way of getting things we can’t.

 

[RSchwarzli]

Thierry



I understand your problem. I'm just out of high school wanting a Road Runner but yet as I'm in the snow belt, I need a daily driver( pronounced Crew cab diesel dually 4x4 Ram) but also have some education expenses. So the next question is how much are you looking at for the Crew Cabs? Secondly, you said they are 350's, but are they dually's are SRW's? What condition are they in overall? Do they need interiors? How is the underside? I am interested, but I have unfortunately have a limited budget.



BCook1



Very interesting thought. So do you think you route would be easier than the "lengthen the frame and put the cab on that" method? It is definitely a way I never thought of.

 

[BCook1]

Lots of options

Greetings,

I don't know if any way is actually easier than another but if you have to cut the frame, I would think one splice would be better than two. The real issue is what do you have at your disposal. If you have a complete cummins truck and a dually crew cab 2wd you have almost everything you need. The benefit of using the diesel era firewall is that you get all the correct wiring and options that came with the cummins truck - surely a lot less hassle than trying to put these options into an older cab. Again, it really matters what you have on hand now. Just remember to make sure the gear ratios match front to back. Also, the radiator support is different - shorter to fit the cummins. Dodge built the first gen body for almost 14 production years. As time went on, they improved a lot of things. And screwed up a few more. By the time they stopped, most of the glaring problems were solved. Another thing to consider is that parts for the diesel trucks will continue to be available aftermarket because of the loyal following. The earlier bodies have a lot of different interior and body parts that will probably not be reproduced as time goes on. Just a few more thoughts. Hope it helps.

 

[BCook1]

Maybe I should just shut up

Greetings again,

Your project brought back a lot of memories. I had a stunning 82 W350 Club Cab Long box, SRW – a truck dodge supposedly never made. I had tried a wide variety of engines in it over the seven years I owned it but finally had to accept the fact that I needed a cummins. My first obvious thought was to buy a wrecked cummins truck and put the engine in mine. Well, after several months of research, I concluded that it was not worth the effort. Even if I bought a complete truck, the money to make everything work would have been cost prohibitive. And the time…… Egads! Finally I just broke down, bought a 92 cummins and sold my 82. To make the swap I would have had to change the radiator support which means the grill will not fit nor will my new four core radiator or anything that bolts in around it. All of the accessories would be different – AC especially. The exhaust would be different, my 205 tcase had different splines than the diesel one, the trans tunnel/shift holes would be wrong, the front springs would be crushed, all the wiring would be wrong which means all the guages and ducting would be wrong, the hole for the heater box would be wrong (I think), the skid plate would be different, the driveshafts would be the wrong length, the yokes would not be right, the 82 steering column wiring would be different so that would have to go. This goes on and on and on. There is no question it could be done but why. Also, a wrecked cummins manual trans is almost impossible to find. If you do, it was either hit by mining truck or it has a skillion miles on it and everything would need to be rebuilt. Well pretty soon I would be looking at a ten thousand dollar conversion just to keep my 82. It just did not make sense. Instead, I bought a 92. I fixed the obvious problems like the shot front springs and such and am driving the truck rather than working on it. Truth is I will have 20k in the 92 before I am done – that is just the way it works if you really keep track of true costs. But it will be the truck I want. If I had to do it over, even though I like the first gen truck looks a lot more, I would buy a 98 12 valve like the one I saw with 68000 miles for 20k. It had everything I wanted but I thought I could do it cheaper. It never seems to work out that way. For now I will drive my money out of this 92 and see what the future brings in a few years.

The only reason I bring this up is that you are looking at many of the same issues if you do not use your existing cummins truck.

Hope I am not too discouraging - look carefully at the body mod idea.

Thanks

 

[RSchwarzli]

BCook1



No you are not too discouraging. I would rather have these thoughts presented to me now than finding it out when the conversion is being done. If I was to take a diesel 4x4 front end and a crew cab 4x2 back end and join it at the cab with the one splice would that not create problems? 4x4 front and 4x2 back?Would the way that Mark McGivern (TDR issue #39 Feb/March/Apr 2003 page 30) did his conversion not be the easiest? By taking the original diesel frame and pulling the cab and box off and then lengthening the frame and putting the crew cab body on the lengthened frame most of the problems that you mentioned would be elimanated, No?



Thought #2



All said and done how hard is it to park one of these creations in a school parking in the city? :{ Oo.

 

[VicR]

one for sale locally

What a coincidence - I read this thread and then this PM I see a note on the board at the local parts store advertising one for sale. Its an 83 crew 4x4. The number is 775-250-6651. Ad said the CTD and transmission were in and it needed to be finished. Asking $4500. Probably not bad just for the engine/ transmission/ and parts.



I don't know anything about this vehicle - just passing on the info.



-Vic