Body Lifting An AD Truck

[Yukon 400]

Just curious if anyone has done a body lift on an AD truck, after taking a good look of the location of the drivetrain components this idea popped up as a solution to alleviate or improve the clearances. The tranny going in is fairly tall and with the output yoke being pretty much behind the cab I would prefer not to have a huge hump in the floor going from front to back. Another plus side is the more common 40" front tires would fit up front without any problem.

It seems that many of the S-10 swaps in-cooperate a similar feature in building a sub frame to connect it to the S-10 frame. I'm just looking at about 2-3" of lift and wondering on everyone's opinion on how the front cab mounts would hold up being raised on a spacer. The core support is pretty flimsy with only two bolts holding all the front sheet metal, but that can be easily changed out, and the rear shackle mounts could just be relocated further up on the frame.

[mr48chev]

Guys set the cabs and beds on stands when using the S-10 chassis to be able to use running boards. If the cab were set down on the frame (and a number have) you don't have space under the cab for the running boards. In other words it isn't for drivetrain clearance under the stock floor but to be able to use their running boards and the trans clearance is just a bonus.

With the removable trans cover it is all too easy to fabricate a hump to clear the transmission and or a hump to clear the drive shaft if needed to want to destroy the looks of the truck by raising the cab to clear the new transmission.

By the way, I've run a turbo 400, M21 Muncie Four speed an now a mid 70's Saginaw three speed behind 198 and 250 sixes and 283 and 350 V8's in my 48 without modifying the floorboards. If you set the engine in so that it's crankshaft is in the same height in the chassis as the original engine's crankshaft there isn't that much of an issue to get around. V8 engines do look a bit lost "way down there" to some people but it does work without any serious mods.

[Yukon 400]

Here's a picture of the truck, the end product would be using a similar concept that was used for the Dodge BFT a few years back, it'll be a heavy duty pickup with a CTD, Allison 6 speed, 10' bed and some standard commercial tires.

Right now my drivetrain measures 89" long from crank pulley to tranny yoke, and about 15" tall under the cab. Honestly I did not think this was much of an issue as a similar setup fit fine under a suburban.






Dodge BFT Concept

[98layinframe]

If your using the factory style frame mounted steering that's where you will have some trouble, but if using a newer column and have it mounted to the cab with a flexible extendable intermediate steering shaft... raising the body shouldnt be any problem.


Body mount style spacers from core support and front cab mounts, or simply remake the frame mounts to hold everything higher. and then probable have to weld a plate to the top of the frame inorder to slide the rear shackle mounts up or convert it over to a pedestal and bushing mount like with s10 swap.

[Midgets50]

nice looking truck. i have one similar. i came up with the idea of running super singles on the back though. and i also plan on lifting my body a little bit

[Yukon 400]

Thanks, I just wanted to make sure there were no ill effects to the body mounts from raising them.

Midgets50l I also have plans to run super singles, but wheels without using adapters are hard to come by, the plan is to get some 22.5x12.25 hoops and use some flat plate centers inorder to mount 385's , have not been able to find 14 inch wide ones for some 445's
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[mr48chev]

I must have napped through the fact that you were working on a 1-1/2 ton. Remember that you will also have to raise the running boards a like amount or they will hang down below the fender edges unless you add some to the bottoms of the fenders. I'd still much rather have the hump in the floor. even if you raised it up about four inches you could still work around running the stock seat if you wanted to.

[Yukon 400]

Hopefully this helps out, forgot to fix my signature after removing the old truck.

There is no way practical way around having no hump, it would be nice to have as little as possible. The new transmission is a 5" taller than the existing one under the seat area, that's not including the sensors on top, so that's a minimum of 7" hump under the seat to the gas tank area to clear. After looking at the clearances, required it was not pretty.