all wheel drive in an old truck might be cool. not 4 wheel drive,all wheel drive like some of the suv's or sports cars.picture an f100 slammed and smoking all 4!

 

Chris, are you talking about the VW Rabbit FWD pickup and the Dodge Rampage pickup? I wish I had one for around-town use at $3/gallon! I had a friend with a Rampage that put a 2.2 turbo Chrysler motor in it (drop-in swap) giving him 150 HP in a 2400# truck -- had steering "issues" under power but it could really scoot.

There are "FWD" (brand?) and AutoCar big trucks that are FWD, especially cement mixers, if you think about it it makes some sense. The rear axles have enough to do carrying the load, let the front wheels do the pulling and steering.

 

There's a lot to be said for FWD, but it's not used much in trucks that are actually used as trucks because as you load the truck you are putting a higher % of the weight on the undriven wheels and removing the same % from the driven wheels. Anyone else here ever overloaded a pickup to the point where the front end started to get "light"?

 

Last year Marmon-Herrington reintroduced a front wheel drive vehicle (their first was the Deliver-All back in the late 40's). This new setup uses their double cardan joint (constant velocity type) driving front axle with a divorced drop-box (transfer case with no rear output yoke) to power the front axle only. The conventional cab truck's engine and transmission remain as in a standard rear wheel drive. Then, because there's no driveshaft going to the rear, the truck's frame rails can be cut off just behind the cab and dropped down (stepped) some 12" to 24". A unique rear axle assembly utilizing air bagged independent trailing arms (made by Dallas Smith, Inc.) allows the cargo bed floor to be even lower, because of the absence of even a straight beam between the wheels, let alone a differential "bowl". We have two of these vehicles: one is a 24 passenger bus and the other is a 16' cargo box van. They have a floor height of 12" above the ground. Makes for very easy entry/exit for bus passengers and eliminates the need for a hydraulic tailgate for the van (short ramp is all you need). M-H will convert almost any of the leading medium or heavy duty truck chassis' with GVW's that go from 18,000# to about 45,000#. Dallas Smith has recently introduced their own lighter duty version on an F-450/550 chassis, with a 19,000# GVW limit (uses two single-tired "tandem" non-driving rear axles and a front driving axle).
Interesting stuff. Has a relatively limited application, but for the right job, these FWD chassis' work very well. At full GVW they are somewhat traction deficient compared to conventional 2WD, but at anything less than half load they are far superior. They provide an additional advantage when the going gets slow in snow, in that the driver can usually cut the steering wheel sharply one way or another and provide additional tire "bite". Finally, Manning Equipment, Inc. (the firm that actually does the conversion work on the 450/550 Fords) offers a factory looking 8' long styleside pickup box, which has fender flares to cover the wider rear axle tread width. Thus you could buy a brand new F-450 "pickup" with FWD, and the box loading floor is only about a foot off the ground.

 

Thats cool. Sounds like it is usefull for something

 

Doesn't anyone remember the GMC motorhomes that were FWD? They used the TH425 transaxle that was used in the Eldos and Toros.
Somewhere out there on the internet I've seen several car haulers made from Eldos or Toros for much the same reason as Marmon was talking about in his post. With all the torque from either the 500 Caddy or the 455 Olds and not having to have a driveline to a rear axle they are able to make a low deck to facilitate loading adn unloading cars.

Funny looking, but interesting

Bobby

 

At the Sema show a few years ago there was a company offering a front wheel drive conversion for dodge dakota pick up's. The rear drive shaft and axle of a 4wd were removed to allow the floor of the bed to drop almost to the ground for loading cargo. The rear wheels were mounted on trailing arms, I think, and the truck drove from the remaining front drive shaft and axle, through a modified transfer case. Looked like the answer to a question that was never asked. Also, I've seen several COE's converted with eldorado/toronado frame clips. They were all air bagged front and rear, and were used for car hauling.

 

Rhopper, I've seen one of those Dodges (actually a Fargo? full-size Canadian Dodge) on eBay. They are apparently the hot ticket for livestock, because you can run a cow or hog right onto the floor of the bed, then raise it. It was pointed out in the ad that it would be great for motorcycles, too.

Bobby, I do remember those GMC motorhomes, they still look great! I also saw a '58 or '59 F-150 made into a car hauler at the NM Car Council swap meet a couple years back, that used the Caddy Eldo drivetrain. From the cab back it was just two C-channels with a fabricated ramp/bed.

 

Bobby,
Thanks for the reminder about the GMC motorhomes. I'd forgotten about those neat GMC's with the FWD 455 Olds Toronado setup in front and tandem dead axles in back. Very clever setup, and a way for GM to create a larger market to spread out the very high development costs associated with the Toro/Eldo FWD transaxles. By the way, if you do a Google search for Dallas Smith Corp. and go to their homepage; after some navigation through it ("trucks") you'll find some photos of their FWD Ford F-450 pickups as well as some of the larger vehicles that Marmon-Herrington makes.

 

Marmon,
Thanks,
I checked out Dallas-Smith Corp......cool!

Check out this article;
http://www.442.com/articles/hauler.html

Bobby

 

I know this is an old thread, but I found these pics of a front-wheel drive F-1. I just don't understand it.





hotrod48

 

That thing must look kinda silly with the hood closed! Look at those additions to cover up the strut mounts.

Three words come to mind........
...why? why? why?

Bobby

 

The modified Dodge pickups that Alubq F1 and Rhopper mentioned were converted by a company in Chatham Ontario for a year or so. The company worked pretty hard to get the factories interested in the mod as a RPO option but were unsuccessful. It has since gone belly up.