long bed to short??

[jarfly]

Looking to convert a 92 lbw truck to short bed. Does anyone know where the extra length is in the backhalfs?

 

[1990RangerinSK]

I would suspect that half of it is in front of the wheel well, and the other half is behind the wheel well.

If I'm not mistaken, a short box is about 6 feet, right? And the long box is 7 feet? And an extended cab gets the short box, right?

Wheelbases are as follows:
Short box: 107.9 (inches)
Long box: 113.9 (inches)
SuperCab: 125.0 (inches)

It would actually make sense to put half of length between the wheels and the other half behind, because you want your weight centered over your axle (at least in my mind).

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Most of the extra length is in front of the rear tires. The gas door gets much closer to the cab on the short box. I can do some measuring tomorrow cause I happen to have both long bed and short bed rangers in my garage.

 

[97RangerXLT]

1990RangerinSK is correct. you will have a 6 inch or so gap between the cab and bed if you install a shortbed on a longbed frame. Not sure if the bolts will line up or if the bed will sit level either. I guess you could fab up a storage box of sorts to fit between the bed and cab, and make a large rear bumper for the back end or trim the frame.

AJ

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

You might find the info in the following link. The link is for a 2000 ranger, the earliest this particular Ford site has. The site goes from 2000 to 2018. If you right click and open in a new tab you can compare all three body types side by side.

https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/topics/2000/ranger.html

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I think the wheel wells are pretty much centered with either bed.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I may have mis-understood the OP. I assumed he was talking shortening the frame.

 

[don4331]

On a '92, the OP will need to shorten the frame in 2 places: 6" before the rear wheels and 6" after (as part of this, you may need to relocate the spare tire crossmember). You have to shorten the rear half too as the bottom of the tailgate is lower than the top of the frame; so you wouldn't be able to open the tailgate if you don't.* And you of course need a short bed driveshaft, shorten piping to the emissions canister and gas.

*Notching the back 6" of frame (rather than removing section) would leave it very weak - not good for towing, or in case of accident.

On '98+ Rangers, you only need shorten the frame in front of the rear wheels as the frame separates just behind the cab; and then you can use a supercab/short bed rear frame section.

My '98 Ranger is the opposite; I added 6" of frame just behind the cab; and a long bed frame section to make a long bed supercab. I had to add an extra bit of piping to the gas tank filler**; extend the rear brake line (I have a Superlift as well so added 12" - 6" for the frame extension, 4" for the lift + some slack.) and there is a 6" extension to the charcoal canister, a 6¼" longer driveshaft (square/hypotenuse thing, didn't have to add 10") and a 12" wiring extension to the rear lights.*

*While I was modifying the wiring, I changed the trailer plug from 4 wire to 5 flat, and used the blue as back up lights (Allows activation of the solenoid on my trailer's surge brakes, so I can reverse without trailer brakes activating). A 4 flat plugs into the 5 if I am towing a different trailer without the extra pin.

**If someone can tell me how to "repair" a plastic gas tank, I have 2 tanks which I could graft together into one longer one. The 3 extra gallons which a 6" longer tank would net me isn't much, but it is 20% more...

If you were '93+, I have a slightly experienced long box for sale on driveway.

 

[racsan]

have any pictures of the long bed supercab? i always wanted to build one but it seemed like quite a bit of work to only gain 1 ft of bed length. my plan would have been to take 2 trucks, cut frames right behind cab mount and splice longbed frame to supercab front clip. then of course all the lengthing like driveshaft,brake line, electrical, fuel tank mount.