penguin7009
02-26-2007, 10:18 PM
Hi all and thank you for this great place to discuss the Duramax:D . I hope I am putting this in the right place, I tried to put it in DIY articles but I don't have enough permissions for that so here goes:o:
Some of you may remember that a few months ago I posted some questions here concerning the differences between the Duramax and the Dodge Cummins which I was driving at the time. After the responses I recieved I felt strong enough for the Duramax to purchase a pre-January 07 model. Since no body manufacturer had an enclosed body like we wanted, we decided to make ourselves;) . Supreme and several other body folks wanted between $10k and $12k to make the body to our specs and we felt we could do it for a fraction of the cost. First we wanted a body which was covered, had a side access door and a rear fold down ramp. We didn't want the body to hang outside the cab due to wind resistance and we want the cab-over to be aerodynamic to cut wind resistance.
We purchased a new in the box Cargo Mate Cargo Trailer with the side door and the rear fold down ramp which was paneled and had lighting. Total cost, $3200 drive out.
We then took the trailer to the shop and modified the front by cutting the strutts out with a plasma cutter after removing the aluminum skin. After cutting the strutts re-welding the strutts in the new position so that the "v" nose would hang over the cab of the truck.
We purchase several aluminum repair panels from the local trailer company and some self drilling screws from the local wholesale screw company, total cost: $55.00.
We removed the cheap General Body and used the "C" channel and deck plate to fabricate the struts on the trailer to match the existing "C" channel already on the truck. We also noticed that when General put the flat bed on the truck they pinched the fuel sending wire and cut the brake line bracket and left it hanging down between the fuel rails:cool: :badidea: :badidea: :badidea:
We made sure the tractor would lift the trailer and then welded the "C" channel to the trailer in the proper position and then cut off the tongue and the axle assy.
We put the lift straps around some landscape tembers and lifted the box onto the chasis and then used some farm jacks to remove the straps, and the box is now sitting on the chasis:p:
To cover the wheel well openings of the trailer we installed two Northern four foot tool boxes and re-attached the struts by spanning four of the strutts with angle iron bolted both to the tool box and two at least one strut on each side of the tool boxes.
We then used the extral repair panels to fabricate the lower valence panels and rear cornices to finish out the body work. A local place called "metal Depot" sheared and broke the sheet metal for a nominal cost.
The following are the pics:
Well, I guess the site thinks the pics are spam so I think I got the four uploaded, sorry. Ok pics finally went through:) Total cost of body build $4,800.00 including misc and chrome wheels.
paul
Some of you may remember that a few months ago I posted some questions here concerning the differences between the Duramax and the Dodge Cummins which I was driving at the time. After the responses I recieved I felt strong enough for the Duramax to purchase a pre-January 07 model. Since no body manufacturer had an enclosed body like we wanted, we decided to make ourselves;) . Supreme and several other body folks wanted between $10k and $12k to make the body to our specs and we felt we could do it for a fraction of the cost. First we wanted a body which was covered, had a side access door and a rear fold down ramp. We didn't want the body to hang outside the cab due to wind resistance and we want the cab-over to be aerodynamic to cut wind resistance.
We purchased a new in the box Cargo Mate Cargo Trailer with the side door and the rear fold down ramp which was paneled and had lighting. Total cost, $3200 drive out.
We then took the trailer to the shop and modified the front by cutting the strutts out with a plasma cutter after removing the aluminum skin. After cutting the strutts re-welding the strutts in the new position so that the "v" nose would hang over the cab of the truck.
We purchase several aluminum repair panels from the local trailer company and some self drilling screws from the local wholesale screw company, total cost: $55.00.
We removed the cheap General Body and used the "C" channel and deck plate to fabricate the struts on the trailer to match the existing "C" channel already on the truck. We also noticed that when General put the flat bed on the truck they pinched the fuel sending wire and cut the brake line bracket and left it hanging down between the fuel rails:cool: :badidea: :badidea: :badidea:
We made sure the tractor would lift the trailer and then welded the "C" channel to the trailer in the proper position and then cut off the tongue and the axle assy.
We put the lift straps around some landscape tembers and lifted the box onto the chasis and then used some farm jacks to remove the straps, and the box is now sitting on the chasis:p:
To cover the wheel well openings of the trailer we installed two Northern four foot tool boxes and re-attached the struts by spanning four of the strutts with angle iron bolted both to the tool box and two at least one strut on each side of the tool boxes.
We then used the extral repair panels to fabricate the lower valence panels and rear cornices to finish out the body work. A local place called "metal Depot" sheared and broke the sheet metal for a nominal cost.
The following are the pics:
Well, I guess the site thinks the pics are spam so I think I got the four uploaded, sorry. Ok pics finally went through:) Total cost of body build $4,800.00 including misc and chrome wheels.
paul