R160 track width?

So I have an R160 cab & chassis I bought for a parts truck for my L110... I haven't been able to bring the truck home yet and the guy I purchased it from is storing it till I do. In the meantime I have been brainstorming and have come up with a possible use for the chassis as I don't need it for the L110. I just need to know how long the front axle is, from the outside edge of one tire to the outside edge of the other tire. If anyone has one of these trucks could you please measure this for me.

Thanks,
Matt

About 72" for disc wheels. I have an axle laying on the ground with no wheels on it so I guessimated the offset of the wheels. I hauled my S-160 parts truck home on a 20' two axle car hauler trailer. Seems like it had a couple inches to spare each side between the fenders but that would depend on the trailer. My truck is not real handy at the moment tonight to get the exact measurement you're looking for but 72" is pretty close.

Where are you at? If you have decent 160 fenders to get rid of I could use them.


Edit: better measurement; not good, but better

About 72" for disc wheels. I have an axle laying on the ground with no wheels on it so I guessimated the offset of the wheels. I hauled my S-160 parts truck home on a 20' two axle car hauler trailer. Seems like it had a couple inches to spare each side between the fenders but that would depend on the trailer. My truck is not real handy at the moment tonight to get the exact measurement you're looking for but 72" is pretty close.

Where are you at? If you have decent 160 fenders to get rid of I could use them.


Edit: better measurement; not good, but better

Thanks, that measurement gives me a pretty good idea, I have a Ford cabover which is on a 5 ton chassis which has air brakes and the works. Considering I have no use for the R160 chassis I figured I would investigate setting my Ford cab on it to make the truck a more useful size.

The fenders look good in the pics, the truck is about 3 hrs away and I bought it from just pics but they are very good pics so I'm pretty sure it is near rust free, couple small dents is the only real damage I can see. I live in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta Canada. I may need the fenders because my L110 has some rot on the back edge of it's fenders so I may want to cut sections out of those R160 if the profile of those area's is the same. If I don't use them though I will be sure to post them up on here and let you know about it.

Hey, my sister and brother-in-law live a little west of Sylvan Lake. I'd like to visit them this summer so if you don't use them it wouldn't be too hard for me to get them. Keep in mind the L,R-150-180 fenders are different than the pickup fenders. Bigger wheel openings and they have the rib over the wheel.

Is the cabover the C-series? The R-160 axle will probably be pretty narrow for the cab if it is.

Yeah it is a '63 C-series, it is at my shop and I'm going there tomorrow to measure it, I do think it will be close if it isn't too narrow but it would be nice if it would work. I haven't touched the frame yet and only bought that particular truck because the cab was in such good shape.

In know the fenders are different like you say in and above the wheel opening but is the back edge where it meets the cowl not the same? Because that is the area where my truck is rusted, looks like I would have to cut a couple inches in from that edge to hit clean metal so I'm thinking as long as that is the same on the R160 fenders I can literily slice the whole back half off and butt weld it to the front half of the L110 fender. Sorry I know that is probably hard to hear when you need those fenders!

Measured my cabover, it is 84" across there so that is a full foot...

However I do wonder if there is different wheel I could put on that axle with an offset that would set the tire out more?

If I could move each tire out 4 1/2" it would actually work...

I measured mine across the tires and came up with 73".

I don't think it's a good idea to move wheels/tires out if you're going to haul much weight with it. It puts a lot more stress on the wheel bearings, spindles and king pins. I haven't seen any wheels that have that sort of backspacing. Doesn't mean they aren't out there; I just haven't seen 'em. It would probably be a custom job if you can find anyone willing to make that sort of modification. There are shops that cut out your old centers from tube-type wheels and weld them into newer tubeless wheels. They might be your best bet but since it's using the wheel in a way it wasn't designed to they might not do it.

They're your fenders, you do what you want with them. But if you're chopping up fenders, I've got some 160 fenders that are good in that area you're cutting out. I'd be willing to swap if you can wait until summer.

I measured mine across the tires and came up with 73".

I don't think it's a good idea to move wheels/tires out if you're going to haul much weight with it. It puts a lot more stress on the wheel bearings, spindles and king pins. I haven't seen any wheels that have that sort of backspacing. Doesn't mean they aren't out there; I just haven't seen 'em. It would probably be a custom job if you can find anyone willing to make that sort of modification. There are shops that cut out your old centers from tube-type wheels and weld them into newer tubeless wheels. They might be your best bet but since it's using the wheel in a way it wasn't designed to they might not do it.

They're your fenders, you do what you want with them. But if you're chopping up fenders, I've got some 160 fenders that are good in that area you're cutting out. I'd be willing to swap if you can wait until summer.

Yeah I have looked into it a bit and actually those axles are cast steel and can be cut, welded and modified. Thus my plan now is cut the axle in the middle and add a section from another axle I have, then do what they call filling by plating in the center so it is flush with the rest. This way the joints will be plated over on two sides. Please note I plan on prepping and tacking and then having a certified welder weld it up, I take no chances when it comes to safety. Before I did not realize that could be done safely but apparently it is common practice.

Pretty sure I do want to do that frame swap and no I doubt the truck would see a lot of heavy use. I had plans to use the truck for a business venture at one point with a large cube box on it but that didn't play out so now I just want a 12 ft wooden flat deck on it and use it to haul the odd thing. I have lots of memories of those cabovers from when I was very young so that is mostly why I want it and love the idea of throwing an old IHC frame under it.

As for the fenders, yes all I need is that back edge with the flange that bolts up to the truck. Also it will probably be mid summer before I get working on my L 110 so if you have junky fenders and that area is still solid we could certainly make a deal. Well on the subject of parts do you know where I might find 2 hub caps for my L 110? If you could round up a couple in restorable condition I would trade you the clean fenders for them and the rough fenders...

I thought of something. Before you do your cab swap it would be a good idea to figure out what you have for a drivetrain in the R-160. I wouldn't want to see you go through all that work only to discover it won't go highway speed if that's your plan. Mine has a four-speed and a 6:33 rear end which makes for 45 mph. If you have a 5:83 rear, you'll get closer to 50 mph and 5.14 will get you to 55 at about 25-2600 rpm. So far I've only found the 6.33 ratio around here which has a lot of hills. If yours is coming from a flatter area it might have higher gears.

I thought of something. Before you do your cab swap it would be a good idea to figure out what you have for a drivetrain in the R-160. I wouldn't want to see you go through all that work only to discover it won't go highway speed if that's your plan. Mine has a four-speed and a 6:33 rear end which makes for 45 mph. If you have a 5:83 rear, you'll get closer to 50 mph and 5.14 will get you to 55 at about 25-2600 rpm. So far I've only found the 6.33 ratio around here which has a lot of hills. If yours is coming from a flatter area it might have higher gears.

Yes the gearing has crossed my mind and I will need to figure out which gear set it has when I get it home. I do plan to run a 351W and 4R70W tranny which is a 4 speed auto. I'm hoping that with having the overdrive auto it will keep the revs down around 3000RPM's @ 60mph which would still be comfortable for the 351W. I haven't done any math to prove all this yet but at this point I'm just going to do what it takes to make it work proper. I do want it pretty low geared so it doesn't kill the auto tranny and so I can load it up or tow as trailer if needed...

I already started working on stripping down the frame on my Cabover as I'm going to cut all the frame out between the front and rear springs and weld it back together so the complete truck will be under 12ft long, this is just to push it around the shop without taking up so much space and then I can finish the body and paint and later mount it to the IHC frame which I will already have the Ford powertrain in by that point. When I got to working on the frame I started noticing more and more very poorly done modifications to the original frame by the previous owner... The amount of work it would take me to make the original frame safe again greatly outweighs the necessary modifications to fit the IHC frame to the Ford cab.

Feels good to be wrenching on this truck again, it has been a forgotten project in the corner of my shop for about 3 years now and I had even considered selling it but now I'm hooked again! Just hope the weather holds, it has been positive temperatures here for over a week now so I have been able to get lots done in my shop.