Ma Duce
Member
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- 18
- Location
- yorkville, IL
So I’ve been watching some auctions and haven’t won one yet. But as I look into the bobbed project, I came up with a few more questions.
When guys “bob” a truck, do they leave the first rear axle in place, to use the prop shaft/ drive shaft without having to modify it, or do they push the axel back a bit to get a little more length and try to easy up on a rough ride with a short wheelbase?
Since some guys think it’s a sin to “bob” a M35, I started looking at other trucks since I saw the conversion of a fifth wheel tractor. I noticed that they are all “close” in wheelbase center line to center line and overall length. All the data was taken from pics of the data plates off of the GL website.
WB = wheel base center line of front axle to center line of first rear axle.
OL = overall length
M35A3
WB – 130
OL – 264
M818
WB – 140
OL – 265
M931
WB – 140
OL – 265
M923
WB – 153
OL – 307
The 923 seems to be a lot longer, but this could have been a long bed truck I looked at. So it would seem that you could use a tractor to make a bobbed truck, you just don’t have the bed to deal with and you have to lose all the 5th wheel gear. So if you are going to use a trailer for a bed, no big deal. But if you want to shorten a bed for looks, then you have to go scrounge one.
If the A3s keep going for premium $$ then this might give me an option if not as many people are looking at the tractor units.
On another note, I saw a comment about pulling the axles before towing a 5 ton truck, what gives?
When guys “bob” a truck, do they leave the first rear axle in place, to use the prop shaft/ drive shaft without having to modify it, or do they push the axel back a bit to get a little more length and try to easy up on a rough ride with a short wheelbase?
Since some guys think it’s a sin to “bob” a M35, I started looking at other trucks since I saw the conversion of a fifth wheel tractor. I noticed that they are all “close” in wheelbase center line to center line and overall length. All the data was taken from pics of the data plates off of the GL website.
WB = wheel base center line of front axle to center line of first rear axle.
OL = overall length
M35A3
WB – 130
OL – 264
M818
WB – 140
OL – 265
M931
WB – 140
OL – 265
M923
WB – 153
OL – 307
The 923 seems to be a lot longer, but this could have been a long bed truck I looked at. So it would seem that you could use a tractor to make a bobbed truck, you just don’t have the bed to deal with and you have to lose all the 5th wheel gear. So if you are going to use a trailer for a bed, no big deal. But if you want to shorten a bed for looks, then you have to go scrounge one.
If the A3s keep going for premium $$ then this might give me an option if not as many people are looking at the tractor units.
On another note, I saw a comment about pulling the axles before towing a 5 ton truck, what gives?
