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The Tranny, E-450 Crawler hauler

GGRR 4555

GGRR 4555

Well-known member
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What do you get when you cross a van with a truck? A Trans!

With that in mind I am building a flat bed and beaver tail on the back of a former Uhaul E-450 cutaway chassis. This truck has 137k miles, V10, 5R110 and a Super 70 rear axle. Should work good!
 

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I spent some time designing my bed of choice, with heavy constraints on budget and weight. My goal is to build a bed that can haul jeeps and cars so deck height and strength are also important. I notice a lot of industrial flat beds are built insanely heavy but the most this will ever need to carry is approx. 6600lbs of jeep so I am trying to build the flat bed just heavy enough to do the job. Took some inspiration from car trailers which are usually held together with angle iron, shitty welds , and hopes and dreams. going for a 15' flat deck with 3-4' of beaver tail. Building the deck 92" wide which is 10" narrower than the max allowable width and a couple inches narrower than the outside of the rear tires. The narrower deck grants me a bit less weight, a bit more maneuverability and is still more than wide enough to carry any full width rock crawler.

The bed has begun, major pain in the ass to start without a helper. With lots of profanity I was able to make the outer frame. 2x3 .120 wall will be the exterior and 2 cross beams. More to come.
 

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Made good progress this weekend. went for 4' beaver tail at 15 degree slope. the front of the bed now has a winch plate. Apparently the cheapest winch plate money can buy is a unit for a Mahindra Roxor from Rough Country LOL. The middle of the bed will be wood planks but I have lots of welding to do before paint. Need to make my support structure for the beaver tail as well as a new hitch arrangement, tail lights, ramps and other stuff I'm forgetting.
 

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Projectjunkie said:
Bitchin! :smokin:

Put a sleeper on that thing, I'd use a chunk of a scrap van, but 2big bronco found some fiberglass ones that are super clean

Also tagged Shane for cool tractor hauler ideas:laughing:



Also, air ride that dumps the thing on the ground instead of a movable tail or ramps would be fuggin cool :usa:
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A sleeper would be rad! but it's more likely I just slap an air mattress on the deck and get rained on lol.
 
what is the total deck width?

Does this belong in the ford thread or tow rig thread? Either way, I am all about crawler haulers :beer:
 
06h3 said:
what is the total deck width?

Does this belong in the ford thread or tow rig thread? Either way, I am all about crawler haulers :beer:
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92" wide deck. 15' deck with 4' beaver tail. so basically 18.5' of length (adjusting for rear slope).
 
tie down points are in, Beaver tail is about done, rear hitch constructed.
 

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Tried out the rust oleum Turbo cans for paint. I used 6 cans but had to supplement. This is probably a 9 can job. lights mounted and wired. I went with flush lights on the side as my side yard around the house is a very tight squeeze. Almost ready for the 12' wood deck.
 

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Rockwood said:
Or tow a tent trailer or something small. I have a 31' motorhome built on that frame that regular yanks my Jeep around on a flatbed without issue. This would just be the opposite. :flipoff2:
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I dig it! Any idea what your RV weighs? I'm curious how this will compare to the average c class RV.
 
Rockwood said:
Or tow a tent trailer or something small. I have a 31' motorhome built on that frame that regular yanks my Jeep around on a flatbed without issue. This would just be the opposite. :flipoff2:
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Pics of how you did that? That’s pretty cool!
 
GGRR 4555 said:
I dig it! Any idea what your RV weighs? I'm curious how this will compare to the average c class RV.
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She's a heavy bitch. I've never weighed it myself, but doing the math on everything (13k-ish loaded motorhome, 1500-2500lb trailer, 4000lb Jeep on the lighter trailer or 2 dune 1500lb buggies on the heavier trailer), I doubt I'm much under 20k gross combined.

4.56s and 29" tires with the 5R110 makes the V10 super torquey. Granted, you're on the limiter in 3rd at 60mph, but it moves out just fine. Almost every trip with it I'm towing over I8 east of San Diego (6% grade to a 4800' summit) in temps as high as 115*, never runs hot (confirmed with OBD interface gauges) and maintains 50-55mph.

Just don't be afraid of RPM. It's a SOHC gasoline engine, it's gonna rev. :flipoff2:
 
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Rockwood said:
She's a heavy bitch. I've never weighed it myself, but doing the math on everything (13k-ish loaded motorhome, 1500-2500lb trailer, 4000lb Jeep on the lighter trailer or 2 dune 1500lb buggies on the heavier trailer), I doubt I'm much under 20k gross combined.

4.56s and 29" tires with the 5R110 makes the V10 super torquey. Granted, you're on the limiter in 3rd at 60mph, but it moves out just fine. Almost every trip with it I'm towing over I8 east of San Diego (6% grade to a 4800' summit) in temps as high as 115*, never runs hot (confirmed with OBD interface gauges) and maintains 50-55mph.

Just don't be afraid of RPM. It's a SOHC gasoline engine, it's gonna rev. :flipoff2:
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Love it! Thanks
 
Wood deck coming together. Need to narrow the middle board and then they all will get stuck in with welded flat bar. Used linseed oil mixed with gun stock 243 stain. Looking pretty fresh!
 

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Jeep test fit and then got to work on a headache rack. Winch mounted, headache rack with spare tire mount built. Goal with this was if a jeep comes unstrapped it cant come into the cab and kill me.
 

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Scaled the truck with an empty bed and low fuel. So that means with a full tank and a passenger I should have a solid 6900lbs of payload! This might just work.
 

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I didn't do the Math. OP did :flipoff2:

My guess is the D70 is rated for 10k so going over a little 14,500 lbs won't kill anyone.
 
Rockwood said:
I think your maf is off. :flipoff2:

14,500 - 7480 - 6900 = 120lbs. I assume it's the 55 gallon tank, so just how light is this passenger? :flipoff2:
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Well if we are going to get all nerdy with it...

14,500 -7480 = 7020. Truck has a 40 gallon tank and had 5 gallons give or take in it. So 7020 - 210 (35 gallons of gas) = 6810 lbs. Now seeing that I don't have any friends and I don't have your fat ass riding with me, it looks like I'm 90lbs off.

Now if I do have a passenger it is most likely to be your mom, who is a enormous, so that will cut into my payload a few hundred pounds. I will however, be able to remove the 40" spare tire as your mom comes with her own spare tire and she is always available to blow. :flipoff2::usa:

Kidding aside, my heaviest jeep in full Rubicon trail prep is 6250lbs, so I have some room to spare.
 
06h3 said:
I didn't do the Math. OP did :flipoff2:

My guess is the D70 is rated for 10k so going over a little 14,500 lbs won't kill anyone.
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Dammit, I fail.

GGRR 4555 said:
Well if we are going to get all nerdy with it...

14,500 -7480 = 7020. Truck has a 40 gallon tank and had 5 gallons give or take in it. So 7020 - 210 (35 gallons of gas) = 6810 lbs. Now seeing that I don't have any friends and I don't have your fat ass riding with me, it looks like I'm 90lbs off.

Now if I do have a passenger it is most likely to be your mom, who is a enormous, so that will cut into my payload a few hundred pounds. I will however, be able to remove the 40" spare tire as your mom comes with her own spare tire and she is always available to blow. :flipoff2::usa:

Kidding aside, my heaviest jeep in full Rubicon trail prep is 6250lbs, so I have some room to spare.
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I think I overload my motorhome on the regular. Never weighed it, seems to drive fine and the numbers seem okay, so... fuckit. :flipoff2:

But, since you actually bothered to weigh it, I figured you actually cared about such things. :flipoff2:
 
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