Modified flatbed for C&C
Has anyone here modded out a 13 ft flatbed to allow a TC to sit all the way up against the cab? One would need to relocate the fuel fill line and reduce the width of the last 5 ft of the 13 ft bed...
Forum Discussion
KD4UPL wrote:
I doubt these are very common with a frame long enough for a 13' flatbed. That length frame, if you find it, only comes with a regular cab truck. What is mistly available is a 60" or 84" CA frame alowing for a 9' or 11' flatbed respectively.
An 11'bed automatically solves yoyr rear jack problem as they will be past the end of the bed. Now you just need to deal with the drain pipe. When I was considering doing this there were a few campers that were flat on the bittom all the back but I firget whuch ones.
If you did use a regular cab truck and 13' bed yoy might actually overload the front axle by getting the camper COG too far forward.
These are very good points. I am thinking of the 84" CA frame with the aft-axle frame extensions. 12' would actually work fine. You are correct that the majority of the trucks I see are 60" CA and would be limited to 9 ft. I have seen several fleet vehicles with the longer flat beds and it seems like there is very little demand for these from the public (which is good from the gettin-it-cheap perspective).
My calculation says ~12% distributed to the front axle for my COG at 24" in front of the real axle on a 204" WB, so front axle should be fine. TBH I have only driven trucks with the COG on or just in front of the rear axle, so I don't know how the shift forward would effect the handling. All I know is weight behind the rear axle is no bueno. Perhaps not as big a deal for the 4500+ truck...hate to be wrong though.
The more I think on this, the more a bolt-on rear platform extension on a 9' bed seems advantageous. That frame would only be sized to handle it's own weight + cargo and dropped down an inch or so below the bottom of the camper, because to my knowledge, the overhang part of the camper is not meant to carry load. I wonder where the COG would end up if I added such an extension and then just placed the camper with the dump nozzle just aft of the end of the bed. It is my understanding that the CA on 60" C&C is 4" longer than a standard long bed pickup. Right now, my COG is like 1-2" in front of the rear axle, which would mean that without modifying the 9' bed to add a slot for the dump, my COG would end up behind the rear axle...then tack on my aft platform mass...mehhh. Maybe I am too focused on COG location and being slightly behind the rear axle on these big trucks would be fine.
