The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts military Chevy 1944 4X4 shorten wheel base to fit a 9 foot bed

Anybody ever shorten the wheelbase of a Military chevy 4X4 to fit a nine foot bed on It? Who makes a nine foot bed anyway?

If i'm going with a nine foot bed and a single wheel rear axle is the standard chevy 4X4 axle the same width as the front or do i gotta go with a DUCK rear?

I've done many. You'll want to make it a 60" CA unless it's a dump and then it is 72" CA. I assume your talking about just running the inside dual on the rear? I'm sure that is all the DUCKs did as it was a standard 6x6 GMC chassis.

You do not say what type of body you want but every body company I know of (and thats nearly all of them) makes every size of platform, van, dump, tank, etc. Offer your location and I may know someone or be able to recommend a supplier.

If you are unsure how to modify the frame send me a private e-mail and I'll walk you through it.

any more info?

Hey MoneyPit,

Could you write up a tech article on shortening frames?

The 9' beds for early trucks are hard to come by but the 3/4 ton long bed style are around.

If anyone does know of a vendor for the 9' beds please share.

Greg

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your post. Just out of interest, I was wondering why you're cutting the frame? Is this a standard Chevrolet 1.5 ton (single rear axle, dual wheels) or is it a GMC (dual rear axles, dual rear wheels.)?

If you feel like posting or sending photos of your project, I'd be interested in seeing them. Also, if you're interested, here's a link to photos of the '42 Chevy Army truck that I'm converting from a cargo truck to a dump truck.

http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/showgallery.php?cat=1688

John

what style of 9' bed are you speaking of, anything like the cargo bed spoken of in this reply? I had to shorten my 6x6 and rear wheels were still too far back that I also had to drill and move all the assemblis forward. I did it to military GM specs so I could use OEM sopec'd drive shafts and lines. I cut about where the center of the rear axles were and moved the fron of rear acle forward just a tad to make up w/ new drive shaft and PTO of old bed lift. This is not hard to do at all. These are streight latter frames and you can cut and bolt up axles and shocks and springfs wherever you need to. You can even move the cros mebbers if need be. I moced 2 and cut of read piece and remounted my spindle hook back in place and can hardly tell.

What re you planning on doing w/ thje cargo bed and bows? I might be interested if I decide to complete my converted military 6x6 to 4x4 cargo short bed.