1 ton chassis for panel van

[Grunt]

Hi all, thought I would tap into the knowledge base here and see if someone can help.

Wondering if there would be much envolved in fitting a 1 ton chassis under a van shell?

I know the 1 ton chassis is about 6 inches longer but could it be modiified easily by a chop and weld job?

The reason being is that my van needs a chassis and running gear change over and 1 tonners in good condition with the right drive line combo are easier to find than a regular ute with the right combination

I appreciate ant input

thanks

[Vombil]

A good question.
Im in a similar position with a WB wellbody. Good driveline and suspension. Easiest thing is to just rip the body off i think.

Its hard going here in WA though. Body swap falls into modified car cat and needs a engineers report etc.

I just found out (from the authority) that a WB body on a HQ chassis would be deemed an HQ and be treated as such in regard to saftey and emissions etc. Something to think about

[HK1837]

It'd be more work to modify the tonner chassis than to find a good ute or van chassis. It can be done though, but you'll need the back half of a ute or van chassis. Cut the tonner section off the front half of the sedan/wagon/coupe subframe at the front (the front bit is the same on all body styles) and join the ute/van rear half on. Ute/van rear half would need to be dressed in the reverse of the tonner chassis's prep. Best bet is to try to look at a sedan/wagon/coupe chassis side by side with a commercial chassis and you'll see what I mean.

[playwme]

Too much effort. A regular ute/van chassis in good nick is neither rare nor expensive. Buy the tonner for the driveline, buy a ute chassis and put all the right bits together. Once the body is off swapping a motor/box/diff is child's play.

[Grunt]

Thanks for the help, makes sense to dress another Chassis with the tonner parts, after all it will be stripped back for painting anyway.

I assume the wheel base on the tonner is the same as a van and a ute or will I need a longer / different tailshaft?

thanks

[adam perth]

wheel base 75 mm longer in tonner over ute / van.
tailshaft ex. tonner will be too long.
if your pinching the tonner diff, you will need to use the larger unis too.

[Grunt]

Thanks again for the info, you guys are awesome.

Soooo im in Vic and the chassis swap sounds like its narrowed down to a ute....or a van which I dont really want to destroy a van but if its gotta be it will have to be.

The van shell that is being rebuilt is a HJ and If im going to do a swap a RTS chassis would be better. When I register the vehicle I assume it will take on the identity of the chassis. So If I use a WB chassis it will have to have polution gear applicable to the WB model, am I correct in thinking this? or will the van still be a HJ?

Is there somewhere I can find what pollution equipment that is needed for each model? Im sure there would be a variation between HZ, HX and WB polution gear?

thanks

[RodneyHZ253]

There are a lot of treads on this subject one that is about 30 pages long so in brief you are right
In most states it appears that it would take the indentity of the chassis and therefore should comply to its pollution requirements

Most people in your situation would use a hq chassis so you can put a 350 chev in without engineering or pollution and for handling add some stabilizer bars etc

[HK1837]

Best off using a late HX (6/76 on) or HZ chassis if you want RTS geometry. WB chassis is a bit different, but will work OK. You could 'fix' a WB chassis by using the noses off the HJ's rail, with a staggered joint using the fact the rails are really 2 x c-section halves. If one of those sections happened to have the HJ's chassis number on it, that can't be helped, just make sure you are up-front with anyone you may sell it to what was done. I've seen this done before to a WB chassis using a set of HQ sedan rails to fix it.

[Grunt]

its getting a bit clearer which way to go. When doing a chassis swap would the car need to be engineered of just notify Vicroads?

thanks