Posted by W300Joe on Friday, December 31, 2004 at 9:07PM :
I'm looking to find a project truck here in New England. When completed this will end up being a short wheelbase (114") W-100 with 6-1/2' stepside box.
I already have and plan to use 8-bolt dana 60 rear and big knuckle Dana 44F up front (ideally 4.10/4.11), running 8-19.5 rubber. Power will most likely be a 318LA, though I might run a 225 slant six, through a torqeflite to a 201 transfer. Upfront it'll have an Braden LU-2 and 7' or 7-1/2' plow.
This is an effort to build a lighter and more manuverable runner/daily driver that'll deliver a little better gas mileage. I still plan to eventually finish rebuilding/restoring my'64/65 W-300 9' pickup, and move my ladder bucket from it's W-200 chassis to my W-300 yard truck. Both the W-300s will be up on 900x16s, again with LU-2s and 8-9' plows up front, 318 poly and 540 in the pickup, more likely that good slant six and a 435 in the bucket truck.
Sold my W-500 project chassis, ended up scrapping and giving away 4 D&W-200 crewcabs, ended up accumulating 4 W-300s and 3 D-300s for parts, and never thought I'd want to build a smaller W series Sweptline. With gas prices higher, and finding that a shorter and lighter pickup would do 90% of what I need - I guess this will become the priority project.
I've spent too many thousands of dollars on what I now have, along with paying nearly as much to Dennis Sherman to haul P.W.s and John Deeres and machine tools - just want to find something close to home (southern Maine)! I just need a solid 114" wb frame and 6-1/2' stepside box, though guess I'd consider shortening a longer 1/2 or 3/4 ton also, and common sense tells me a clean swb W or even a D-100 stepside would be a smart alternative.
Anybody up north here reading this, please keep me in mind. John D.in PA (if you're reading this), I probably should've kept the D-200 stepside crewcab I sent down to you with your W-500 chassis! Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks, W300Joe
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