nolan Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 Hey WME, Do I sense a Chinook in your future? You got me wondering, whats the plan if things work out? if like me it can only be not-normal. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 Maybe, that rig is just way to cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Hey Nolan: Just what is involved in mounting a Chinook body on a normal chassis? I know where both halfs of the equation are. A mid 80 4x4 with a blown engine and a Chinook that has not moved in 3 years, it even has 4 flat tires. Man this kind of thinking sure can cause problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolan Posted August 4, 2006 Author Share Posted August 4, 2006 Hey Nolan: Just what is involved in mounting a Chinook body on a normal chassis? I know where both halfs of the equation are. A mid 80 4x4 with a blown engine and a Chinook that has not moved in 3 years, it even has 4 flat tires. Man this kind of thinking sure can cause problems Hey-ya WME, Man, you had me all excited for a minute until I realized you musta meant one of those broken blown engines see where my mind is. Anyrate, the Chinook body is mounted to the frame rails via 6 bolts through the floor utilizing the original pickup bed mounting points, another bolt at the very front center of the floor that has a metal bracket to secure it to the tunnel section of the cab, and some I have seen had 2 more bolts through the rear step up section of the floor through the bumper extensions, but not always. The original mounting pads used by Chinook between the camper floor and the frame rails was nothing more than blocks of plywood, very poor as over time they would breakdown, crush, or plain rot away letting the camper body move around and eventually pulling the rivets that held it to the rear of the cab out. A much better idea I came up with was to build a steel H frame welded to the frame rails, the camper body sits on that and allows a more secure mounting, plus gives a lot of support to the floor to keep it from sagging, plus if your mounting it to a newer chassis the original bolt holes in the floor can be used by just drilling the H frame where you want it to be, the newer 79/83 chassis is a few inches wider than the old 75/78 frame so new holes are needed in the floor to mate to the frame rails. The 76-78 Chinook body lends itself to swapping to a later truck a lot better because it mounted against the rear of the cab, the 75 Chinook actually wrapped around the cab and sit forward further, so the cab shape was pretty much molded into the 75 shell. Oh yeah, the Chinook was mounted on a standard long bed chassis, but stretching a short bed frame is no biggie if ya had to go that route, plus this is only my personal taste, but the stock Chinook sitting on the stock longbed frame had the rear tires sitting forward of center in the rear wheelwells, and to me it looked out of wack so the frame stretch can remedy that if it was any concern to the person doing a swap. OK, enough of my ramblings, good luck, and I know what you mean this kinda thinking can cause problems, I got 2 of them thinking problems, a brown one and a blew one Later, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted August 4, 2006 Share Posted August 4, 2006 Thats blown as in Kauput, not as in Blew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolan Posted August 5, 2006 Author Share Posted August 5, 2006 Thats blown as in Kauput, not as in Blew. Well kapoop on the kauput, I got one of those engines in a project rig, has a big vent hole in the side of the block, easy to check the oil that way though. Maybe someday it will be another Chinook project, but have a few others on the to-do list first. So far the unnaturally aspirated Blew has been running like a champ, very happy with the results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted August 6, 2006 Share Posted August 6, 2006 Rats, I just got the word from "Higher HQ" gotta have a bath and toilet. So guess we keep the Escaper. Maybe I do need some thing to play with as a hobby Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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