Allpar Forums banner

DieselPower magazine test of Dodge LongHauler concept truck

3826 Views 2 Replies 1 Participant Last post by  TWX
http://www.dieselpowermag.com/features/dodge/1206dp_ram_5500_long_hauler_concept_truck/

I do not remember seeing this posted.....enjoy.
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
Hey Bob, if they were to actually put a Megacab Laramie 5500 into production and create a dealer-installable kit to turn it into one of these (which is the only way I could see this happening), how much do you think this total package would cost? $100,000? Less? More?

When we were at the dealer a couple months ago we saw a 3500 megacab Laramie with the western/saddle interior, and it was a $60,000 truck, at least. Might have been more like $70K.

I assume that the problem with building a truck package like this is that eventually it becomes more practical for the buyer to buy a Kenworth or Peterbilt or some other big truck, rather than a very custom pickup like this. I would imagine this would be more practical for those few buyers who would also use it like a somewhat normal truck frequently...
That makes sense. I almost bought an old seventies 1 ton ex-hotshot truck- it had a utility bed on it and was 4wd, both features I didn't need, plus it was pricey. Probably should have gone with that though, over the '82 I did buy, as it's going to need an awful lot of work to make it into a reliable tow rig. It was curious as a fire brush truck though, well maintained though obviously had been through a lot.
I did see a previous-generation 4500 once that had been somewhat turned into a cowboy cadillac, now that I think about it. It was at Earnhardt's in Gilbert, AZ. It was grey metallic, Quad Cab, with a dually bed that was slightly too short, and there was a 4" or so filler piece between the bed and the cab to fill the gap. It had some fancy 10 bolt wheels on it.

I didn't really like how the filler looked. With it being as small as it was, it looked kludgy. I don't really like the filler section on this truck's bed, but at least it's large enough to be functional as the fuel tank and urea tank.

I know my opinion isn't really worth a lot since I'm unlikely to ever own a medium-duty truck, but I wish that the wheelbase lengths and cab lengths had made it possible to just put a bed on at least some of the various trucks, even if that required adding some angle brackets square to the frame to meet the bed mounting points. My educated guess for why they didn't do this, though, is that regular sheet metal beds can't handle the weight that the frame can, and that the beds could deform if used for the truck's capacity...
See less See more
1 - 3 of 3 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top