1977 winnebago brave1/21/2024 Then unbolt all the trim molding around the Winnebago outside corners and roof, and then remove the roof completely. Next, gut the Winnebago and remove all the inner walls and cabinets to where its just a shell. And put on a brand new floor, the same length and width of your Winnebago. What if you were to take everything out of your truck chassis down to the frame, leaving the steering components of course. Or, I had a brainstorm based on that train of thought. one of the major jobs will be to replace the roof so maybe I should start there and when I do it, do it in a way that would give it some extra strenght should I lift the coach of f the floorĪnother option, already hinted at, would be to do a mock up or replica on your newer chassis. The whole RV is in such poor condition I should probably start with all the jobs that need to be done whether I change the chassis or not. If i just fix the current dodge setup she will always be compromised on fuel, ride, brakes, reliability, and just general ease of use. So although the cost of all the work might seem madness now, if I end up with the the Winnebago on the truck chassis then there is no reason why I don't get 20 years of use out of her. The major desire for me is to have a cool classic RV that is usable for holidays while my 1 year grows up, and then hopefully after that when I retire one day. From what you are saying taking the body off may be possible but taking the floor off at the same time may not be possible without setting fire to everything. The pictures are great and give me a better understanding of what is going on where you can't see. On another thought, I doubt a 35yr old body could be safely lifted away from the frame without doing signifigant temporary bracing thruout the interior to prevent it from flexing and/or collapsing without the frame to support it. Or, figure out a way to cut the angle iron away from the frame underneath without setting fire to the coach. You would either have to unbolt the walls from the angle iron (necessitating the removal of all the lower part of the panelling) and lift the body without the floor. I say all that because I see no way the welded on angle iron would allow the flooring to be lifted along with the walls, as it goes under the angle iron. Then the 2"X2" wall base was bolted thru the carpet,padding,angle iron, and flooring. The flooring was like a sandwich, first aluminum skin ran the full length & width, then 2"X2" floor joists ran crosswise every 16" with 2" styrofoam between, then on top of that was 3/4" plywood that went UNDER the angle iron along the sides (4'X8' sheets installed crossways, slid in from the rear of the frame before the coach was built.). My '76 had steel angle iron running along both sides at the floor. But, as there say, "where there's a will, there's a way." However, there was quite a bit of work needed to get the rest together. The body swap, as I recall, didn't require any modification to the wheel wells as it was a perfect match (sorry, I don't remember what the chassis came from). Of course, you'd have to mate up the chassis wiring to the dash and lighting too and I'm sure there's other considerations as well, like water tank mounting and routing the plumbing. and the wheel wells, steering column, and other necessary alignments meet up and have the proper clearances, or can be modified to fit, sure, you can put the body on anything you'd want to. If the chassis you want to use are designed for heavy duty use and are capable of carrying the weight. They built it from laying down the entire floor, then adding the walls & roof, etc. Very similar to putting a house on a foundation. But, consider that the bodies were originally simply built on top of the chassis. However, the job was never fully completed as their life took a change and they needed to cash out of it. We had one member who swapped an old Winnie body onto a commercial, diesel deliver truck chassis.
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