Nothing special, just a bobber with air ride.

[welldigger]

Well gents, a few of you are aware that me and a buddy have been constructing a bobber over the last 10 months or so. We finally got it together and painted. I will add to this thread as the finishing touches are put in place.

Now for a few details on the truck itself. It started life as a relatively clean m35a3. We used an m105 for the bed as commonly done. Originally we had planned on using the 105 suspension for the rear but another friend mentioned how cool it would be to use air bags. So what the heck. We found the rear half of a freight liner and pulled the suspension parts from that. Unlike others who tried everything to make their truck sit level we wanted a slightly nose down look. Especially since the a3 has the hood that slopes up a bit. We did install shorter bags than what the freightliner was equipped with. The tires are 14.00-20 xzl's using the factory a3 wheels. The winch is a warn 12k 24v.

On the interior we insulated and carpeted the cab and installed air ride seats out of a kenworth truck. In the near future the cab will have an integrated cb and stereo system along with an in-dash gps/backup camera. I'm sure we will find some other things to shove in as we go.

 

[TMNT]

That is a great looking truck. How much articulation does it have with the air bags?

 

[welldigger]

Haven't had a chance to test that yet. It has independent springs and air bags so I would imagine as much or more than leaf springs. We have it set up with 2 auto ride height valves. We may in the future modify it to have in cab bag adjustment. Though admittedly where we live there isn't much offroading we can do that doesn't involve mud that can swallow a dozer. We have no intentions of mud riding this truck.

 

[ducer]

How do you sit in those seats with them mounted to the back wall like that? Other than that it looks like you guys did one he11 of a job looks good. How does it ride, like on a cloud? I have a 1 ton chevy dualie flatbed that rode like a log wagon I addad Firestone helper airbags to it and added only 25psi of air and it rides as nice as any car now. Maybe for adjustability you could use the firestone dual gauge and air switch panel. Once again nice job!

Denny

 

[welldigger]

It rides as good as my chevrolet half ton. When we were first testing the suspension we didn't even have seats installed. We just chunked some 5 gallon buckets in there and hit the wonderfully smooth (sarcasm) Louisiana back roads and hammered it. Wasn't a bad ride at all literally sitting on buckets. The seats are a bit large for the small deuce cabin. Once you squeeze in the seats are actually quite comfy.

 

[bigboy44]

Awesome looking truck, I really like it. Very well done! What kind of seats are those or what were they out of? Where is Benton, I am in Covington! Enjoy that ride!

 

[59apache]

looks good! very nice attention to details (black / sand mix, shields for the taillights, aso) i just hate to turn my screen , i guess your truck wasn't nose-down on the last pics

 

[shannondeese]

Great looking ride. Hope to one day have bags under the rear of mine

 

[jeremymx26]

Looks like an excellent job.

 

[welldigger]

Awesome looking truck, I really like it. Very well done! What kind of seats are those or what were they out of? Where is Benton, I am in Covington! Enjoy that ride!

Thank you sir. The seats are air ride seats pulled from some kenworth truck. Other than that I don't know what make or model they are. Benton is 15 min north of Bossier City. Which is directly across the river from Shreveport. Mark, who owns this truck, lives about 40 min away from me.

I don't know why the interior pictures uploaded sideways. that annoyed me but I'm not sure how to rotate them.

 

[welldigger]

looks good! very nice attention to details (black / sand mix, shields for the taillights, aso) i just hate to turn my screen , i guess your truck wasn't nose-down on the last pics

Ya I don't know why the last 2 rotated. The bags were not fully inflated when I took the pictures. Thank you for the compliments. We both appreciate them.

No one has commented on the lightbar....of course it sorta blends into the ceiling of the shop.

 

[59apache]

i hope it's ok for you

 

[steve6x6x6]

Your tailgate will not hang straight down.

 

[welldigger]

i hope it's ok for you

Thank you.

 

[welldigger]

We knew someone would comment about the tail gate. We are working on a spare tire carrier for the bed and remounting the tail gate to double swing.

There is a list of improvements we are still working on but we decided to get it driveable first. Its frustrating to stare at a truck on blocks.

I also apologize for not having any build pictures. Me and mark both broke our phones which had all of the pictures on them. Of course we also didn't think to back them up.

 

[Jeepsinker]

Looks good man. You guys do good work.

 

[steve6x6x6]

The tires look like 14.00 x 20? I wish i had spent the time on installing air ride on mine. Your hitch height looks a little high?

 

[w3azel]

Ya I don't know why the last 2 rotated. The bags were not fully inflated when I took the pictures. Thank you for the compliments. We both appreciate them.

No one has commented on the lightbar....of course it sorta blends into the ceiling of the shop.

WOW, hey did you guys know there's a light bar. That's nice and looks perfect. This is an awesome build and Im not going to lie I really wish you had more pics. I would love to put a semi air ride on my M36. What parts did you use from the kenworth or is it just the bags and everything else custom.

 

[welldigger]

Yes the hitch is a bit high. Realistically Mark doesn't plan on towing an m105. Eventually a 2" receiver hitch will be installed. We will adjust the height accordingly.

The only parts that came from a kenworth were the seats. The suspension is freightliner. We used the springs, mounts, shocks, shock mounts, and panhard bar from the freightliner. The oem bags were too tall. So we got shorter ones.

I do not know what year or model of freightliner truck was the donor.

 

[Jeepsinker]

How much modification did y'all have to do to the seat bases to get them to bolt down? Did you just have to drill another hole or two?