Body lift brain trust - best practices?

[Trango]

Hi Folks,

I am a day or two away from needing to lift the body on my M35-ish project. I think I need to lift it approximately 3", to clear the Eaton Fuller transmission. I haven't mocked everything up yet, but pretty sure I do need to raise it up that amount.

What is the best practice to perform this? I am not worried about the rear mounts - I can figure those out. Ditto for the front mounts - fairly easy.

My concern is with the mounts directly under the body. Should I run 3" square tubing underneath the entire cab, or just under a small area underneath the center mounting bolts themselves? From the looks of it, I think I need to run tubing underneath the entire cab, but I don't want to go overkill if I just need a foot or two underneath the mounts proper.

Sorta torn here, and would love some advice from someone familiar with the sheetmetal under the cab.

 

[hndrsonj]

Personally, I'd run it the whole length of the cab. The cab sits on the frame in the front (on a rubber pad) but is held up about an inch in the rear by the whole rear mount in between the frame rails.

 

[UpstateNYer]

Personally, I'd run it the whole length of the cab. The cab sits on the frame in the front (on a rubber pad) but is held up about an inch in the rear by the whole rear mount in between the frame rails.

I agree, body lifts on light trucks are about three inches in diameter and barely suitable for a street driven truck. I have seen many on mild off road trucks cause all kinds of carnage (Body mounts ripped from frames, cabs twisted, hardware snapped...). Between the frame twist and everything else I would use a long piece of square tubing bolted down. then relocate the rear cab mount cross member or build a new top mount with more drop.

 

[Trango]

Thanks - I am also leaning towards running a square tube under the entire cab.

 

[jesusgatos]

There's GOT to be a better way. Why not just re-shape the transmission tunnel? Cut the cab as needed to make the transmission fit, and then make a new access cover? Are you dead-set on a body-lift?

 

[nhdiesel]

I don't see why you should have to lift the cab. Some of those larger transmissions hang a bit lower than the Spicer, but very few stick up any higher except possibly the shift tower. If it IS taller, modify the trans tunnel cover. It would be MUCH easier than a body lift on a Deuce.

O.K., walk around and take a good look at that body. You are thinking of the cab mounts. Now look at how the front fenders mount. Those need to be raised as well. Now look at the wiring, lines, and hoses that run from the cab to the engine. I haven't seen a Deuce yet that has much extra to allow for lifting the cab, so plan on modifying the wiring and running some new hoses. Now check out the pedals. They mount to the frame, and just stick through the hole. Now you have to raise those brackets and modify linkage as necessary. Take a look at the exhaust. If you raise the cab 3", the routing for the exhaust will be off, so you need to modify that.

Now what do you think of making a new trans tunnel cover?

by the way...let us know how that trans works! I'd love to use one behind a 5.9 Cummins in a Deuce.

Jim

 

[jesusgatos]

The steering column would be a problem too.

 

[Trango]

Sorry guys, I should have been a little clearer. Wiring and steering column are not an issue - the whole cab is currently sitting on pallets and the steering column is chopped and outboarded
anyway.

It's a good suggestion to see about modding the tunnel. What's giving me fits is the width of this tranny - it's an eaton-fuller RTXO/RTOO 14613 (not sure what the final shift pattern is going to be, hence the confusion on the designation). It's not just high, but WIDE. Probably wider than the tunnel itself. That said, I concur - it may be cleaner easier (as well as more aesthetic, honestly) to just sawzall a wider hole in the body. I'll check to see what's possible.

This probably will happen in a week or two - I just tracked down a hard-to-find piece for my build, and it pushes the cab reattachment off for a while.

Thanks for the ideas, guys.
Bob

 

[velheru]

How is this project going and what did you decide to do for fitment?