Dave and Kenny, 86 Ford/07 Kenworth

[rubydoooooo]

Oh gotcha. Didn’t get the question.
It’s a 72 ford country squire wagon

[CHEESE_WAGON]

So, I am considering an idea along the same lines.... I don't remember and can't find whether you dragged the K-Whopper mechanicals to the Ford chassis, or lengthened the K-Whopper frame for a body swap... Which was it, how hard was it, and if you had it to do over, would you have done it the same way, or the other way around?

[rubydoooooo]

Lengthened the kenworths chassis and swapped the body on over to it. Way wayy easier then it would have been to swap the mechanical parts. The frame rails are the same width apart. But how the motor is held in there is completely different. Would have been such a headache trying to fab up mounting it in.
And this way all the parts that worked together were still together. Would have had to switch axles anyway as well. The suspension is heavier duty. Brakes are better. Frame itself is all around beefier. All the parts are 21 years newer. Parts are easier to find. Drove it up to Washington state the other month. And the air compressor quit working while was there. Just went to the local truck shop, they had the part in stock and swapped it out that day. Could have taken weeks to get the parts for the old one. Probably would have had to rebuild it.

Things I would have done different.
Mainly plan out how everything would fit underneath more when the body was off. Could have saved a lot of time crouched underneath drillin holes XD

[rubydoooooo]

The part I was most worried about was lengthening the frame. It actually went super well. My brother helped me a lot. Did it in a weekend. Had to have some serious tools tho.
Sourced used rail sections from a truck salvage yard. They were around $800
Most expensive part was getting a driveshaft section made. Costed around $1300
Which is near the price I paid for the truck.
Best route would just have been to wait and find the bus you want. With the driveline already in it.

[rubydoooooo]

And if I had a do over would have done it the same. But with a 15 liter big tractor. Definitely would fit. And would be so much fun. Hecka power.
Could have done it with tandem axles in the rear. Only thing different would have had to cut new wheel wells. Not that much work in the scheme of things. Imagine how badass that would look.

[CHEESE_WAGON]

The idea I had in mind was to swap a body on to a later factory chassis and simply lengthen / shorten the body to fit the wheelbase. Less to modify that way, methinks, but obviously would have to start with a truck that had a longer frame to start with.

[rubydoooooo]

That could work super well. Could find a long chassis from like a box truck. And then if you’re lucky an appropriately sized midsize bus. Might not be too too much you’d have to change.

[cadillackid]

problem is a box-truck chassis wont have the class-8 engines.. essentially dognose school busses are Box truck chassis with a cowl instead of a full cab.. in the international world the 4000 series box truck chassis (4300,4700,4600) are very similar to the '3800' and IC bus chassis.. same engines / transmissions / axles, etc.. there were options on the truck version for things like tandem axles and 4 corner air ride that didnt make themselves available to the bus chassis.. and I believe there were a couple more manual transmission options from what ive seen.. but if its simply an engine or transmission that was available in a box truck vs a dognose school bus then you can swap that into the bus chassis.. same as if you simply want to change the weight rating or add front air ride, those items are pretty much axles / springs / bags.. more or less "Bolt ons"..



engines and transmisions can be turned up and built up.. a DT530 will fit into a dognose school bus chassis and can easily be built to get you 450 HP and 800 ft lbs of torque.. allison transmissions can be built to take 1000 HP plus.. (the allison in my red bus is built for 500HP / 1000 ft lbs).. that simple "7.3" will be pushing north of 300 HP when im done with it. (in a 6 window short bus i wont need any more.. )..



-Christopher