Posted by Desoto61 [138.162.0.42] on Monday, March 24, 2014 at 11:58:17 :
In Reply to: Chassis swap posted by Mike Hernke (MO) [166.205.68.17] on Monday, March 24, 2014 at 11:12:38 :
The big reason to take the whole chassis is part simplicity and part application in my opinion.
Most of these people want something that rides and handles like their modern truck but looks like the antique, really the only way to get that is a chassis swap.
Don't get me wrong, you could do like Alex J and design and build your own suspension and adapt parts to make it all work, but he's got the experience and educational background, along with the resources to make that work, and it still won't be ideal because he's going to have to make compromises in places a factory won't.
Guess my point is that the company that designed the donor vehicle did a LOT of engineering work (and I can't over-emphasize how much engineering goes into the design of just about any part of a modern vehicle) to design and build all those parts to play nicely together.
We often warn people that Dodge designed these trucks for the speeds they could do, you can't increase the speeds without improving the brakes, gearing, etc. So if you really want a vehicle that will do 70 mph like a modern truck, then the BEST way is to use the driveline of a modern truck since everything was designed to do exactly what you want.
It's by no means the easy way out though, getting the body to fit and all the pieces/parts to line up and fit together is at least as challenging as all the upgrades I've done for my re-power, and even at that, by my figuring 72 will be as fast as I can mechanically go without changing the governer in the engine or custom gearing in the axle or transmission, and it remains to be seen if I even want to with the stock steering design and noise levels.
As others have said though, the downside is something of the character will be lost without a ton of custom work/attention to detail.
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