No, I'm not a crazy 16 year old kid, I'm a crazy 49 year old shop teacher.
I have a Chevy 5500 with a Cat 3116 and an Allison automatic that is truly gutless. I want to swap in a big rig diesel something on the order of a Detroit Diesel 60 series pre EGR or a Cummins N-14.
Yes I know I'm crazy.
I teach welding and have taught auto shop (and everything else Industrial Tech) and am the local master of "overkill". I got this truck with the intent of building a removable 28' cabover camper but the silly thing is without testicles.
I've decided to forgo the camper and just go with building an unstoppable RV out of it. I have mentored bunches of students through countless engine swaps and it's time for me to go big.
I can fab nearly anything and know this will require an extensive amount of carving, wiring and plumbing.
The frame rails are (from memory) 33" apart. I do not know what the standard big rig frames are set at.
My questions are almost limitless but let's start with these two:
What is the spacing of a big rig's frame rails?
I'm a big fan of manual transmissions - what would be a good start for me to look into for one of the above engines?
Thanks in advance folks!