Strip it!

Our premise in building this mutant vehicle is this to take the base vehicle,  remove as much as possible to get its weight down, upgrade the suspension to expand its load capacity as high as possible without “lifting” the vehicle, and then create the mutation.

In one day we removed the seats, windshield, cab, air conditioning, dashboard, and steering column.

Start Your Engine!

On July 5, 2018 a team of five of us got together and decided to build a mutant vehicle. Initial requirement was that the base vehicle be towable on the existing tandem trailer that Jackhammr owns.

Vehicles considered were a Toyota pickup, Tacoma, 4Runner, Chevrolet S-10, Ford Ranger, and Jeep Cherokee.

After some debate about what makes a good small truck base to carry 10 – 12 people at 5 MPH, the following requirements were added:

  • 2 x 4, a four wheel drive vehicle is more parts and more maintenance and does not provide enough extra low end torque to make the extra maintenance worthwhile
  • Midsize pickup truck, a midsize truck provides a towable yet load-bearing base to work with. An equivalent SUV could be acceptable, however a pickup truck body will be easier to separate and mutate.
  • Xtra cab, any extra cab, double cab or long bed options will provide a longer wheelbase to work with. The Ford Ranger extra cab wheelbase goes up to 125.6”.
  • Maximum 200,000 miles, the expected life of most of the small to midsize truck engines is about 300,000 miles. A vehicle having less than 200,000 miles would be ideal.
  • Automatic transmission, given that most of the usage will be at 5 – 20 MPH with frequent stops at a high load capacity, an automatic transmission will be easier to drive and will not be a risk of burning up a clutch due to usage and load.

We also determined the initial upgrades we would need to make:

  • Air Bag Suspension, add air bag suspension to increase cargo capacity of the base vehicle.
  • Convert Air Conditioning Compressor to Air Compressor, to fill suspension air bags, etc.
  • Smaller Wheels, decrease the wheel size to increase low end torque and slightly lower the vehicle.
  • Electric Radiator Fan, as the vehicle will be used almost always at lower speeds.
  • High Output Alternator, for 12v audio system and other 12v DC powered items..