The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Cab differences

Hello all. Been lurking for a bit and enjoy the sight.

My dad has 2 big bolts that his dad bought brand new. One is a 51 the other is a 52, one is a 1.5 ton the other is a 2 ton, one of them is a 5 window, he just doesn't remember which is which hehe. When I get back to his place this summer, or he finds the titles, I find all that out.

The question I have is how much bigger is the hood and fenders compared to a 1/2 ton truck? See these trucks are sitting out in a field and they are going to rust away unless I can do something with them. But I do not own a farm or have a need for a truck of this size. So I'm kicking around the idea of putting the cabs on a S-10 frame and was wondering how the fenders and hood would look with smaller tires and lower to the ground. So if some one can give me the dimension differences I can sketch up some drawings the see what it would look like.

Hello New guy,

Why don't you just use the cabs, and get a 1/2 ton front end. Then you can give the big bolt front ends to me..;)

The big truck fronts appear much larger, mostly in the wheel opening. I have both a small and a big truck, so I can see them side by side.

In my opinion a big truck front with small tires (less than about 33-34") will look funny.

Best thing to do is use the big trucks as they are, or consider swapping a good cab to a smaller truck, 1/2 ton up to 1 ton, as these have smaller front fenders and related parts.

Grigg

The trucks have a sentimental value to both me and my dad, and I would prefer to keep the cabs complete. Getting new 1/2 ton front clips is a last resort thing. Grigg can I ask a big favor of you? If you can take a picture of both trucks from the side the same distance away I can use photo shop to overlay the big bolt cab over the small one to see what it looks like. Or I can find side views and scale the cabs the the same size and get the same effect. I was hoping 20" rims would look ok.

Take a look in my picture album below.

Right now I have my 2 ton all apart, so new pictures of it will be difficult. I'll see if I can go pull some measurements off the fenders.

the simple way of explaining it is that the 1.5 and 2 ton trucks have 20" wheels, and tires around 33-38" overall diameter. The front axle and track width is also slightly wider than the small trucks.
To fit these bigger wheel and tire combinations the fenders sit out slightly wider, the wheel opening is larger, and they actually sit up higher. Then the hood is not as tall, actually smaller, so the top of the hood is in the same place, but it meets the higher fenders.

Grigg

Instead of swapping it to an s10 frame, consider swapping to a full size 4wd frame. The larger fenders would give more clearance, and look cool with big 35 or 37 inch swampers. You can build a short flatbed in the rear.

A modern 4X4 1/2 ton and up still has much wider axles then a stock AD big bolt. To me that makes them a bad choice for a frame and axle donor for an AD truck.

Grigg

Thanks for all the replies so far. Still thinking on what to do with them.

hey go ahead the cab n hood are the same size as the pick-up, they just have larger fenders over the larger wheels, so the cabs are the same,just larger fenders

The hoods are not the same size.

I'll second that,
Grigg

Hello leadtail:
Re 1949 to 1953 Chev and GMC

I am very interested in this topic. I want to get more under hood room and am curious about the sizes of the larger trucks.
I have measured the hoods on a 1/2 ton Chev and 1/2 ton GMC .
I measured under the hood (with the hood up) from the middle of the hood at the cab end, to the very front of the hood right in the middle. The tape measure was just to the side of the middle join in the hood.

The Chev was 50 1/2 inches and the GMC was 47 inches.(plus or minus 1/8")

I am considering putting a larger front end on my 1951 Suburban for a "different" look and more length under the hood for a non stock engine.
Can anyone help me with these dimensions from a larger truck?
Ter

I have a 52 1 ton, and a 48 2 ton, best I can tell the available space for the engine is exactly the same.
Top of hood down to engine mounts is the same, and radiator to firewall is the same.

The advantage of big truck stuff is fitting tires up to about 38".
These big truck fenders would look out of place on a truck with small tires (less than about 32 to 34")

Grigg