Converting M105 to dropside?

[Seth_O]

Has anyone ever converted their M105 bobbed deuce to a dropside? I keep eyeballing mine, and have started running through how I would do it in my head. I can't be the first to think of this, and am hopeful someone else has looked at it and either done it successfully or figured out why it's not practical.

I spent ~30mins searching and couldn't find anything - feel free to point me to an existing post on it if there is one.

 

[KsM715]

What would you do with the fender/fenderwells?

 

[gimpyrobb]

The fenders is what stopped me from doing an M101, but thinking back, it wouldn't be THAT much of a challenge.

 

[Seth_O]

I was thinking I would cut the sides right where they attach to the bottom, and put in a 1/8" plate that would lay horizontal, flat against the bottom of the trailer and the side would weld onto it, then the hinges would attach that flat plat to the bottom. Not sure how clear that is, I've marked up a pic to see if that helps. The red shows where the flat plate would go, the side would weld onto the top of it, the bottom of it would attach to trailer with hinges.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Thats pretty much how I pictured it, only I think rectangular tube(along the bottom) would be better structurally.

 

[wreckerman893]

It sounds like a lot of fab work for little return......the advantage of a drop side is that you can load/unload from the side with a forklift.....the M105 bed is short enough where you should be able to reach far enough in to load/unload from the back.

That being said.....it's your dog and you can whip it if you want to.

 

[yamabro]

Sounds like ALOT of work. Wouldn't it just be easier to take a drop side bed and cut it short, and bolt it on instead

 

[Seth_O]

Yeah, it would be easier to shorten a dropside bed vs convert an M105. Honestly though I would feel bad cutting short a dropside, those seem to be in short supply and lots of folks will use them in their original configuration. The other reason for me to not do that is that I already have the M105 - it's much cheaper/easier for me to fab drop-sides for my existing bed than to try and locate a drop-side on the west coast, drop the chunk of change to buy it, then do the work to bob it and get it onto my frame.

The only real downside I see is that even once I do the fab work, there is still a wheel-well right in the middle of the bed, effectively cutting my benefit in half. Might not be worth it.

 

[yamabro]

It's stinks you're all the way on the west coast. A neighbor of mine has a really nice drop side bed he only wants 100 for. To me thats cheap enough to chop, reweld and bolt on. But don't get me wrong I think a custom fab drop side M105 would be pretty sweet. If you decide to do it please post picks

 

[Seth_O]

It's stinks you're all the way on the west coast. A neighbor of mine has a really nice drop side bed he only wants 100 for.

I'd jump on that in a second, I could get more than $100 for my M105 bed as scrap at the local yard, and a bobbed drop side would be awesome.

 

[yamabro]

If their was any way I'd be happy to help you get the bed, but it's the freight bill that would hurt!!!
With diesel at $4 a gal and those miles... well you do the math.
But sure would be AWESOME

 

[yamabro]

Would be pretty handy too

 

[45FMJoe]

It's stinks you're all the way on the west coast. A neighbor of mine has a really nice drop side bed he only wants 100 for. To me thats cheap enough to chop, reweld and bolt on. But don't get me wrong I think a custom fab drop side M105 would be pretty sweet. If you decide to do it please post picks

Dang, the bed on my deuce is really the worst part of it, and I would love a drop side!