short bed conversion

[railhor5.9]

anyone cut there frame rails down to put a shortbed on there truck? i really wana do this but i need to no the wheelbase of the single cab with a short bed is. i cant find it anywere. any help would be a great.

[RumbleFish]

115" is the reg cab short bed wheelbase. im sure there is quite a few guys that have done the frame cut, its not too difficult.

[railhor5.9]

i measured 130 on mine. so i cut out 15 inches? someone check my measurments. No one was here to help me measure. should i take the carrier bearing out and use a 1 piece driveshaft? can i just cut my brake lines and use compression unions to tie them together. bout to get to chopping

[RumbleFish]

no. never NEVER NEVER use compression fitting on brake lines. havent you noticed on the back of the package it says NOT FOR AUTOMOTIVE BRAKE USE????????

its one thing if you are stranded on the side of the road and use it to get home, but completely another UNreccommended situtation to use one permanently. DONT do it. its not that hard to either run a new line, or cut and reflare it, especially with the bed off.

reg cab long bed iirc is 131". have a friend help you measure, this is not something you want to do "close enough", you need to be spot on.

[railhor5.9]

haha wouldnt be the first time to lose brakes. i will get then reflared. thanks rumblefish.

[railhor5.9]

should i take the carrier bearing out? or just make the rear part of the drive shaft 8 inches long? project is stopped till i figure this out. thanks

[dpuckett]

I'd say do a one-piece driveshaft- the reg cab 4x4s have a one-piece. If yours is a 2wd, it will be about the same length with the SWB and no t-case.

I know a guy who has a swb reg cab, but he lives 80mi away. Guess we could measure a club cab short bed, and a club cab long bed. Then we'd know how much to subtract for going from long to short beds.

Wait, I have a swb reg cab, but it is also 80mi away....... I'll call my buddy and see if he can think to go out and measure it.

Daniel

[railhor5.9]

thanks man, i googled it i need to cut 16 inches out. got the new bed and fuel tank, mines 2wd, will a 1 piece fixed u-joint drive shaft work? do i need to add a slip yoke in it? sry for all the questions just wana do it right.

[PToombs]

You definitely need a slip joint someplace. If you don't have one, you'll be doing tranny work next week.
When the rear axle moves up and down, the shaft length changes. No slip joint, and you'll push against the guts of the trans.

[mikcon]

If I can figure it out here is my reg cab shorty.

[/img]

[CAJUN 93]

the frame will need to be cut behind the axle also as the rear portion of the bed is shorter too. member tomtom did his and it turned out great.

daryl

[Swaggs]

I kinda wanted to do a short bed on my club cab.. but in my opinion the club cab is just too big to have a short bed.. So, i was considering cutting the end off the front of the box and cutting 1 foot out to make it about a 7 foot bed.. right in the middle between short box and long. then I pretty much gave up the idea, and am just going to work on the engine

[RumbleFish]

club shortys look cool, especially in a 4x4. ill post a pic of my gasser club/shorty, i know they arent too common.