Thoughts on Adding a Flat Top Sleeper Cab to an M900 Series Truck

[Steelreaper80]

I spend many nights sleeping in the truck while in the field. Let's be honest, when it comes to certain things.....I am cheap. Like hotel rooms for example. I am already dirty, smell like diesel fuel and I am just going to get dirty again the next day. Plus, I have to drive to the hotel, carry in the power tools, I hate getting up in the morning, drag the power tools back to the truck, drive back to the field.....ugh. NO. Plus, someone might mess with the truck or tractor during the night. Just not a fan. I use the bench seat as my bed, it really isn't as bad as one might think. I have a poncho liner and a pillow, I can stretch all the way out and I am a side sleeper anyway. I would just like more room in the cab.

I have been tossing around the idea and I have seen it done on here that guys have had the bed chopped down to 10 feet and added a flat top 3.5 foot sleeper onto the back of the cab. Does anyone have any input on this idea? Costs, pro's/con's....etc. I am not a fabricator and would basically buy the sleeper and have someone do the work. I would like to know the ballpark numbers and the difficulty level. Can the bed remain a drop-side even though it has been chopped? I am going up to 16.00R20's anyways so I will just put the spare into the bed. No big deal. The time and fuel savings alone from sleeping in the truck add up over time so eventually, not getting hotel rooms (which I don't anyways) pays for the project. Plus, it is a business write off.

Loosing 4 foot of bed length is not a deal breaker either. I can still get my grapples, pallet forks, tools etc up there. I have a lot of dead space in the bed. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[98G]

I have shortened dropside beds while retaining the dropside capability.

(I have also spent many nights asleep sprawled across the seats in a 939)...

 

[Mullaney]

I spend many nights sleeping in the truck while in the field. Let's be honest, when it comes to certain things.....I am cheap. Like hotel rooms for example. I am already dirty, smell like diesel fuel and I am just going to get dirty again the next day. Plus, I have to drive to the hotel, carry in the power tools, I hate getting up in the morning, drag the power tools back to the truck, drive back to the field.....ugh. NO. Plus, someone might mess with the truck or tractor during the night. Just not a fan. I use the bench seat as my bed, it really isn't as bad as one might think. I have a poncho liner and a pillow, I can stretch all the way out and I am a side sleeper anyway. I would just like more room in the cab.

I have been tossing around the idea and I have seen it done on here that guys have had the bed chopped down to 10 feet and added a flat top 3.5 foot sleeper onto the back of the cab. Does anyone have any input on this idea? Costs, pro's/con's....etc. I am not a fabricator and would basically buy the sleeper and have someone do the work. I would like to know the ballpark numbers and the difficulty level. Can the bed remain a drop-side even though it has been chopped? I am going up to 16.00R20's anyways so I will just put the spare into the bed. No big deal. The time and fuel savings alone from sleeping in the truck add up over time so eventually, not getting hotel rooms (which I don't anyways) pays for the project. Plus, it is a business write off.

Loosing 4 foot of bed length is not a deal breaker either. I can still get my grapples, pallet forks, tools etc up there. I have a lot of dead space in the bed. Let me know what you guys think.

.
What about seeing one somebody has already done? I found a YouTube video of a M-932 with a sleeper on the back. Pretty tough looking!

 

[simp5782]

Get you a 36in sleeper. Enclosed the one side. Mount it at the back of the bed longways.

 

[Mullaney]

Get you a 36in sleeper. Enclosed the one side. Mount it at the back of the bed longways.

.
That would be a heck of a plan...
No need to hack up the truck doing it that way!

I just found this M925a2 (1990) with a 8.3 Cummins and a pair of 110 gallon Tanks. Sold recently for $43k.

 

[chucky]

.
What about seeing one somebody has already done? I found a YouTube video of a M-932 with a sleeper on the back. Pretty tough looking!

View attachment 853534

This one looks like a 48 in and Peterbilt for sure and depending on where you find a sleeper for sale there may be some old ones out there they will just have a crawl thru hole almost as bad as the pickup crawl thru lol by the early 70s everyone was getting on track to just make what was called walk -ins and set =in if they were the 36 in and petes 63 in walk-in as of what i remember they were the first conventionals with big sleeper and then Kenworths but they were all frame mounted and it was like marbles in a can unless you had a long frame truck to help so when folks are looking there will be those and then they got attached to the cab itself with the cab hinged at front and little airbags/shocks were put on the rear of the sleeper changed the face of comfort in commercial trucking and those sleepers will be a little stouter on the set in side because of being bolted to the cab on its corners behind the stacks . The small 36 in sleepers used cost more now than the walk-ins cause they are so rare an a insurgence of guy building old school retro flat top truck that look killer with 10 in stove pipe stacks and drop visors and bulldozer bumpers .

 

[chucky]

.
That would be a heck of a plan...
No need to hack up the truck doing it that way!

I just found this M925a2 (1990) with a 8.3 Cummins and a pair of 110 gallon Tanks. Sold recently for $43k.

View attachment 853535 View attachment 853536 View attachment 853537 View attachment 853538
View attachment 853539 View attachment 853540 View attachment 853541

This one is a 42in Kenworth sleeper

 

[simp5782]

.
That would be a heck of a plan...
No need to hack up the truck doing it that way!

I just found this M925a2 (1990) with a 8.3 Cummins and a pair of 110 gallon Tanks. Sold recently for $43k.

View attachment 853535 View attachment 853536 View attachment 853537 View attachment 853538
View attachment 853539 View attachment 853540 View attachment 853541

That was done by a member here

 

[cbrTodd]

Cargo Bed Shortening

I've seen a few pictures showing where folks have shortened cargo beds, but I thought I would share how I did it. There are many ways to achieve this - this is just how I made a 14 foot cargo bed from an M923A2 fit on my deuce. As you can see, the bed overhang was quite large, and it just...

steelsoldiers.com

I shortened a M923A2 drop side bed earlier this year and retained the drop side function, so it's definitely possible. If you are taking out the spare tire rack and laying the spare in the bed, you would probably only need to take about 2.5 feet out of the bed, not 4. To get a reasonable sized pass through into the sleeper you are probably going to want to relocate the batteries to the front passenger side toolbox and get a spring or air ride passenger seat to replace the standard battery box bench seat, like was done in the modified 925A2 that Mullaney posted. The 931A2 he posted above it used a much too small air filter directly under the hood to simplify the intake plumbing, and put the exhaust right next to the door handle. Don't be that guy...

I have no idea what it would cost to have a shop do it, but I see nothing technical that would prevent you from doing it.

 

[Mullaney]

This one is a 42in Kenworth sleeper

.
Apparently the guy who built the sleeper M925 has a sense of humor.
I just noticed the sticker on the motor...
Certified Dirty Idle

 

[Steelreaper80]

Now that is a nice set up!

 

[porkysplace]

Dave P's M818

 

[Robo McDuff]

Forgot about Dave's set-up. That one is one heck of a set-up, perfectly done.

That truck was runner-up for the July 2014 MV of the month, but nailed it the next month August 2014.

Those were the good old days we had 20 contestants without problem, and Patracy had to use two posts to stagger them below each other.

 

[msgjd]

Get you a 36in sleeper. Enclosed the one side. Mount it at the back of the bed longways.

exactly ! Saves a lot of work and you don't have to chop your bed.. But watch your height , 13-6 is highway max for vehicles but sometimes phone , cable, and tree branches are too low regardless of regulations, especially near houses.. We had sold a 34" Bentz coffin sleeper a couple years ago for $1000 to a very happy (about the price) fella with a M54A2C he uses to haul 10ft pipe sections and 6" hose between quarry pits and sometimes has to stay overnight to monitor pumps and jennies. . We suggested he carry a ladder for easy cargo bed access and mount the sleeper lengthways so that its cab cutout was facing to the middle of the cargo bed and fabricate a door for that opening .. I have seen coffin sleepers run between $1000 and $3000 .. But of course, do it to your own desire and budget. His truck was not a show truck by any means and he just wanted something functional on a beat-up old truck that was in the mud and dust all the time