yet another project

[eaglescout94]

Picked up this 97 isuzu for cheap recently. It runs and drives but needs some work. Mainly a new battery box, batteries, a bed, tires would help and some rust repair on the cab. Currently plan is a flatbed and use it for whatever, much shorter than my 1 tons with a utility trailer and can hold more on it. Its got a diesel with 6 speed manual trans.

 

[Blmpkn]

4x4 swap or gtfo

 

[eaglescout94]

That might be the long term plan for it. Find a set of f450/550 axles with a fat boy 60 and have some fun

 

[eaglescout94]

picked up a tilt flatbed today via a trade. Im gonna cut about 6 foot off of it and redeck it but then it can go on the isuzu. I plan to find some under body toolboxes as well, maybe mount the batteries inside one so I can use a longer box. Currently battery box is as much rust as solid metal anyways and replacements seem to be 200-300 online

 

[eaglescout94]

Got the bed sitting on the truck. Unfortunately the tilt mechanism isn’t gonna work so I’ll have to cut it out and just run it as flatbed for now. I’ll figure out how to modify it so I can make it tilt in the future. Still thinking cut it down to 12’ or so, won’t have a ton of overhang

 

[eaglescout94]

Running into an issue hopefully some can give input in, even if it’s just their opinion. As the bed is currently built I cannot have the headache rack as close to the cab as I want because the tilt mechanism hit the transmission. Is there a ratio of bed length and hoist location? A friend recommended cutting the headache rack off and adding to the front frame of the bed and reattaching the headache rack. It would allow me to move the tilt back in a clear spot and not have a large gap between cab and bed.