Extended Cab/Club cab questions

[bvanetten]

What's behind the front seats? Is it a long bench or does it have seperate seats that fold down from the side? Is there enough room for baby seats?

 

[Greenleaf]

Separate, folding from the sides. No baby seat. i know of a couple who use the baby seat in the front (bench) seat. Won't this work?





Scott

 

[bvanetten]

Buddy of mine needs room for 2 kids. He is selling his Ford and looking at older Dodges. I'd love to see him get into a cummins but if the platform sin't going to work...

 

[Lock93]

Owner's manual specifically says the jump seats are not to be used for child safety seats. I had the same issue, and got 3 piece split front bench. The two kids ride up front with me, and mom gets stuck on the jump seat in the back.



You can also find a bench seat from Can Am mobility that replaces the jump seats. About $600 US if I remember correctly (shipping included). Wasn't deep enough for a Britax Marathon convertible car seat, so we got a new front bench instead. Might work with non-convertible car seats however since they are much smaller.

 

[MFalkinham]

Some of us have improvised and installed back seats from Fords, Chevys, etc. Mine is from a Toyota MR2. I've never tried putting a child safety seat back there, but it would probably fit on the passenger side if the front seat was all the way forward, or maybe in the middle (but my rear seat belts wouldn't reach that far). Regardless, the back seat in my Club Cab isn't comfortable for adults under any circumstances.



- Mike



#ad

 

[don b]

Is the back seat big enough that I can have my lady sheep in the back

 

[don b]

she is inflatable I hope I don't pop her

 

[don b]

sorry, my daughter is telling secrets.

 

[1stgen4evr]

cab answer

Get a crew cab from 85 or earlier and drop a cummins in that. Check the numerous post on converting one of these and you will have the answer to seating problems. These trucks have real doors and real leg room for adults.



This conversion is one of the easiest to do since everything is Dodge to start with. Get a donor with the Cummins and find a good older crew and swap the stuff into the crew. I figure the cost something like this:



Donor truck, 1500

Decent crew 1500

Nice paint 1000

Interior cost for back seat area 1000

80 hours of work



Around 5k for a real four door truck with a Cummins. You will note from the conversion posts that some will spend more due to special items that the individual wants to include. And of course the sky is the limit with wenches, super paint jobs, power upgrades, suspension modifications, big tires and whatever. Some are going for four doors AND the extended section. This of course gets into some serious body work.



The most involved decision is the donor truck. You will be committed to some specific parameters as to power train based on what year donor you select. My choice was a 92 with Getrag. This is an intercooled truck so I will have to change the core support to the crew to accomodate the larger radiator and intercooler. All the parts needed are in the donor truck. If you get a donor that is 94 and up, you will be on your on as to the parts need to fit the cummins into the pre 86 crew. Automatic OD transmission and fwd bring on more expense with adapting them to service in the older truck.



My apologies for hyjacking this thread.

James

 

[Greenleaf]

Don,

As funny as that is... ... ROFLMAO... ... . maybe you'll need to use your user code/ID number, whatever they call it to "protect" your secrets.



If my wife ever got ahold of mine... ... ... ... ... ...



GL

 

[bvanetten]

1stgen4evr, Are you able to find Cummins powered donor trucks often? I'm not thinking your going to be able to find a good donor truck for much under 4k on a regular basis. $1500 is cheap! As you can see from my sig I went the conversion route also but I don't think my friend is as much of a masochist as I am! Conversions are never as cheap as you originally figure them to be.

 

[TKingsbury]

A few people have posted complete converted crew cabs they've found in the recent past. If he's patient and doesn't mind traveling for a truck, maybe he can find one that's done.

Travis. .

 

[1stgen4evr]

good donor truck

Bvanetten



This may be a bit of a play on words but you are not looking for a good truck but rather a good donor that has only the stuff you need to swap. Actually I have known of more than three trucks in the last month or so that have sold for under 1500. One for 750 that was smacked in the side. One 93 out in Texas that had a NV4500 and smacked in the side for 1500. A good many trucks that have been run in fleet situations are being upgraded to newer units and the 89 90 91 and a few 92s and 93s are showing up at very reasonable prices. Mind you, these trucks will have lots of miles or something dinged pretty hard but if it is a donor you are seeking, the sheet metal is not so important other than the front section. If you want a nice interior, that takes a bit more time or money in the search. So this requires that you do your homework. Just because it is cheap doesn't mean it is the right truck. What I bought is a rust bucket beater that came with PODs, Getrag and intercooler. The engine is good and I will put bearings in the transmission. The interior is not much. I traveled 1600 miles to get this truck and found out a week later that I could have bought one in Georgia for the same money. The trip cost 400 dollars. But I enjoyed the trip. C'est la vie.



Finding the right crew for conversion is a bit more of a challange. Quite often they are VERY shabby. I travel (business) and I keep my eye peeled for nice looking crews. I have seen them from Anchorage to Miami to Houston. I own two (not converted) as of now and am looking at a third. I have in mind to do either a six door or a four door with the club section as well. If I can get the third truck I am considering, I will first do just a crew and see how that suits me.



So yes, I think 1500 is plenty for the donor and 1500 is plenty to pay for a decent crew gasser. I just had the engine out of and back in an 89 and piece meal didn't have 80 hours in the r and r. I may be off on the interior cost but that will be relative to what you want in the end. As Travis mentioned, there was one in Mississippi for 7500 that was completed.



Since you already have a conversion, you should be invaluable to your friend in what not to do on his. You can also attest to the personal reward that comes from completing such a project. We did a four door Chevy back in 87 before Dodge had a Cummins. That was quite a challange and was not ever completely satisfactory since we didn't have a good ratio for the rear and didn't have an OD option for the transmission. None the less, we drove it about three hundred thousand miles till late 92 when we got the first Cummins Dodge and then another 93 about six months later. Still got them. Still miss the four doors but not for too much longer.



James

 

[EarlKann]

Well, I figure I'll post up my info just for comparison. I think that getting a crew conversion done for 5k would require finding some really good deals, doing a lot of work yourself (including body and/or interior), or settling for a less than nice truck.



I paid $6500 for my crew because I didn’t want to have to do a lot of body/interior work. Mine isn’t perfect but it was refurbished about 5-6 years ago by the previous owner including aftermarket leather seats, new carpet, paint, and a late model fuel injected magnum V8. I found my CTD donor in the TDR classifieds for $2000, which I thought, was a good deal. It’s got 280k but the trans was rebuilt about 30k ago. Extra upside is that it’s 4wd so I have an extra set of axles to sell to help recoup the cost. I’m also selling the drive train out of the crew to get some money back.



I figure that after I buy some of the incidentals and extras that I want (need a radiator/fan/fan clutch, want a torque converter/valve body/gauges/turbo housing) and sell of my extra parts I’ll have about 8k cash invested not including my time.



I looked at a couple of completed conversions before I bought mine. One out of Texas, asking price was $7000 which I would have paid, but someone else offered $8k and I ended up passing as I had travel expenses to include, the truck needed trans work, body work, and I didn’t like the red interior.



There are a couple of pics of my stuff here cardomain



Hope your friend finds something that will work out for him.



Donald

 

[1stgen4evr]

Prices

"I think that getting a crew conversion done for 5k would require finding some really good deals, doing a lot of work yourself (including body and/or interior), or settling for a less than nice truck. "



EarlKann is very correct in his statements. I have found good deals. I will be doing all the mechanical work myself and the truck will not be "show" quality. I don't think it will be less than nice in the end. And as earlier stated, totals have a way of creeping up if you aren't VERY careful. I have the luxury of finding the components and at my lesiure, doing the work. Any time constraint will bump the price up. I have other trucks to use. If you can not afford to have some money sit while you accumulate the donor and crew candidate, you will be forced to invest more up front.



By the way, Earl's truck is a perfect example of what you can wind up with. Beautiful and servicable. And if he has 10k in it, that is 30 less than a new truck. And the payment book is thick as the Sears Robuck catalogue on that much financing. In fact I am sure that the truck is less than the finance charge on a new truck.



Again I apologize for hyjacking this thread but as you may surmize I am very enthusiastic regarding the first gen crews.



James

 

[bvanetten]

Well, 1stgen4evr your a better scrounger than I! Hats off to you. Maybe the Pheonix Metro area is a bit higher priced than most. Even trucks that have been smacked hard from a collision go for 3K around here. I have to admit I've come close to selling the old burb a couple of times because I got ****** that it seemed to go on forever (the project that is) but in the end I just can't seem to part with it. Part of my problem was that a good portion of time converting it and finishing it out was done while I needed it for a daily driver. Bad idea. I'm building up a Suzuki Samuri w/vw turbo diesel now and taking my time... a much more enjoyable experience. Back to topic, a crew cab 4x4 Dodge Cummins would be one cool truck and you could have something usable for $10,000 easy (plus a bunch of blood sweat and tears). I'll have him continue to read this thread. Don't worry about hyjacking the thread. Your comments might not be directly related to the thread topic but are definitely related to why the topic was started.