Project Jeep hauler

[87xjco]

I had a very old Motorhome that ran good, but was pretty worn out on the inside,

so.......

Here's a rough concept of what I want to do

Here's where the madness started, mwah, hah, hah, hah

Here's what it looked like after the first weekend. What have I done??

Alot of work still left, to remove the wood floor of the Motorhome

Hey I found part of a dodge van under all that wood and crap

Built a new frame to go around the roof opening

And I mated it up with the frame I built to close off the back of the cab

I used 1/4" wall tubing for the frame and tied it thru the floor and onto the frame

rails

 

[87xjco]

Then I started building a plywood back panel to set in front of that frame

And I covered the plywood with some textured fiberglass paneling

Then I went to work on the rails for the deck, got the angles for the back where I

want them

The front of the deck frame will drop down and it all will get alot more support added. But I'm out of steel for now so progress on the deck is at a standstill until I can get the cab all sealed up and be able to drive this thing to the steel yard.

 

[Goatman]

Nice idea. I had a friend who did a dovetail deck on the back of his 1 1/2 ton truck and hauled the Jeep on it, and towed an RV trailer. Only bummer was that he had to unhook the trailer before he could unload the rig, but it was a nice setup.


Now where are you going to sleep?

 

[alex22]

Looks like a nice way to haul a jeep. Now you just need to be careful on hills and bad parking lots. I saw a car hauler similar to that hung up at a gas station once.

A guy I work with modified an airport shuttle bus with a 7.3 diesel to work as his car hauller, but since its a dwarf/midget hybrid used for hill climbs it fits inside.

 

[87xjco]

I wish I could have kept that bed section above the cab, but I couldn't find a way to support it very well, and it would have been real ugly no matter what.

Guess I'll still be in a tent!

 

[xcm]

very cool project! looking forward to seeing how this comes out!

 

[Kiefer316]

I was talking to charlie and he told me about this. I thought he was lying. Cant wait to see how it looks when its done.

 

[CanMan]

Cool project. Ive thougth of something like that, but with a box truck/van. Same concept.

 

[YELLAHEEP]

I saw something similar not too long ago - did the same idea with the back, but where you have it dove-tailed, he used one large piano hinge and installed a pair of short but powerful hydraulic rams. He'd load the vehicle on the bed and then the rams would push the dove-tail up so that the deck was flat. Pretty cool how it turned out.


I've always thought that a used diesel 24' U-haul style box truck would make a great hauler. Put tie-downs in the floor for the rig, snag another one of those heavy duty aluminum ramps so that you'd have a pair to run the jeep up with.

Put some RV windows in it, make the "attic" over the cab one big storage cabinet, build some fold up bed platforms along the sides, and build a light-weight folding 3-panel insert for the back so that when the roll up door is up, put the 3-panel insert in place - the center would have a traditional door with a window. :thumbup:

 

[YELLAHEEP]

Found a neat thread on Pirate on some U-haul RV's........ http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=691445

 

[87xjco]

I've had that idea about using a uhaul too. There's a uhaul place on North Washington that sells Uhauls. But it seems hard to find a Uhaul that isn't pretty worn out by the time they are selling them, and they still want pretty big money for them. At least they do at that location. I used to see them sell big box vans from the USPS at Colorado Auto Auction pretty cheap sometimes, and that might be another option.

You could certainely build a rig that is much more multi-purpose if you started with something like that.

 

[YELLAHEEP]

$750 from Craigslist baby! Yeah, it's a fuggin' Ford, but it's got an IDI 7.3 Diesel.:thumbup:

Tranny won't go into the final drive gear but a rebuilt C6 would still make this pretty darn affordable as a tow rig/camper.

........ But I'd have to clear it out of the pile of XJ parts it currently holds........

 

[jeepfreak1020]

What a sweet build. Looks like its coming along nicely, cant wate to see more and then the final product.

That u-haul build is way cool, ive never seen anything like that. Theres a guy over on Colorado4x4 that took a old school bus, cut the bakc of it off anf made it into a RV, and made the rear of the bs into a flat bed and put his JY on it and towed it. It looks way cool

 

[87xjco]

Starting to build the front part of the deck now

 

[JeepFreak21]

What size box tubing is that?
Billy

 

[YELLAHEEP]

Hey Terry, are you taking the weight of the jeep when loaded onto the Dodge into consideration? That tail end still just seems way too low as it is now....... I gotta think it's gonna drop a few inches at least with the jeep on it.......

Just thinkin' out loud here....... Maybe it's just the perspective in the pics....... :dunno:

 

[87xjco]

What size box tubing is that?
Billy

2" x 2" x 1/4" wall. I think once I triangulate some braces from the frame to the outer rail, it will be very strong.

Hey Terry, are you taking the weight of the jeep when loaded onto the Dodge into consideration? That tail end still just seems way too low as it is now....... I gotta think it's gonna drop a few inches at least with the jeep on it.......

Just thinkin' out loud here....... Maybe it's just the perspective in the pics....... :dunno:

It is very low, it's all still just welded on one side and I may need to move that rear cross rail foward and up. I've looked at that quite a bit and figured that would be the last area of the deck I finish off.

 

[87xjco]

I wanted to try and avoid welding upside down as much as possible, so I was able to put this much of the front frame sub-assembly together, only welding the top side of the tubes and not welding any of the joints in the circled areas. Those tire pockets are where the front tires of the XJ will drop down into. They are 30" long so the tires will drop down into them about 6 inches.

Then I pulled off that sub-assembly and flipped it over to weld the bottom sides of all the joints

I screwed up here and welded this tube without removing the bolt first, I ended up having to cut the head off with a sawsall so that I could get the sub-assembly off

Then I painted the floor and the bottom side of that frame before I re-install it and weld the rest of the joints

Here's the expanded metal I got for the deck

It's pretty thick stuff

 

[Kiefer316]

This is moving along rather quickly. I really cant wait to see it completed.
How long do you think it will be till its finished?

Are you going to be making compartments for spare parts and tools. maybe an onboard cooler? just some of my thoughts.

 

[87xjco]

I'm hoping a couple more weekends and have it working but probably not completely finished for awhile, if ever :dunno:

There are going to be underbed compartments, and I've thought about all kinds of equipment that could be added. Winch, welder, compressor, etc....