jesusgatos
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Purchased an M936A2 and another hightop M923A2 a few weeks ago. Have been thinking about swapping some parts around to make one supertruck, and wanted to get some feedback before I jump into this. The idea is to build a super-versatile heavy-duty cargo-length hightop tractor with a knuckleboom. The wrecker chassis is appealing because it's got that heavy-duty reinforced frame and winches, along with the upgraded hydraulics (transfer-case PTO + transmission PTO). The hightop cabs are awesome, with the rollcages and air-ride seats and everything, so that gets swapped over onto the wrecker chassis. Then the wrecker bed is removed and replaced with some kind of a knuckleboom, and a 5th wheel plate from one of our M931A2's.
If the knuckleboom takes-up less than 2ft of bed-space, would still have enough room to fit a 12ft cargo bed/box with the same amount of overhang as the stock cargo bed. Really like the idea of being able to swap between different beds and boxes using the 5th wheel plate as the main mounting point, and would use the truck as a tractor occasionally too. The mounting surface for the articulating 5th wheel tractor plate is 12 5/8" above the framerails, and the underside of a cargo bed is 12" above the framerails. Only problem is that the 5th wheel plate is a little wider than the framerails, so would have to cut-out a section of the subframe on a cargo bed and rebuild it to fit around the 5th wheel plate. No big deal though, and when it's all said and done, think I can keep the cargo bed within 1-2" of the stock height. Would do the same thing with my M109 box. If the 5th wheel plate thing works out like it should, will probably end up putting 5th wheel plates on the rest of our 5-tons, and my deuce, so we can swap beds and boxes around between all of them.
If the knuckleboom takes-up less than 2ft of bed-space, would still have enough room to fit a 12ft cargo bed/box with the same amount of overhang as the stock cargo bed. Really like the idea of being able to swap between different beds and boxes using the 5th wheel plate as the main mounting point, and would use the truck as a tractor occasionally too. The mounting surface for the articulating 5th wheel tractor plate is 12 5/8" above the framerails, and the underside of a cargo bed is 12" above the framerails. Only problem is that the 5th wheel plate is a little wider than the framerails, so would have to cut-out a section of the subframe on a cargo bed and rebuild it to fit around the 5th wheel plate. No big deal though, and when it's all said and done, think I can keep the cargo bed within 1-2" of the stock height. Would do the same thing with my M109 box. If the 5th wheel plate thing works out like it should, will probably end up putting 5th wheel plates on the rest of our 5-tons, and my deuce, so we can swap beds and boxes around between all of them.
And then the 900 series rear winch is hydraulic versus mechanical so you have more components to switch out.