Wanted. Inter or Dodge twincab

Gday Tony D.
Didn't read your post till this morning.
I had a mate who lives in Jimboomba go and look at it for me a few weeks ago.

Have just got home yesterday after riding the countryside looking at stuff.
I went and looked at both these trucks. Probably should have bought the International but he had been stuffing around with it since he bought it and it had a heap of electrical issues. None of the dash works anymore, the LED tail lights he has fitted only worked sometimes and there were wires disconnected everywhere under the dash and engine bay. I had doubts as to weather it would have got me home without catching on fire and burning to the ground with my triumph on the back. Not a good look.

I rode on to Beaudesert and checked out the Dodge as well but I passed on it as I was of the opinion that the body was too far gone and it had modifications done that would have required and engineers report being done back in Victoria.

Funny what you see and find when travelling around. I found another Inter C line about an hour from home on my way back. Gunna go back in the next week and see if I can find an owner for it and see what they are doing with it.

Anyway, I am back to seeing if that AS dualcab body is still available in S.E.Melbourne area. Might be easier finding a AR/AS 160 or 180 with a rough cab and refitting that up instead.

Cheers. Cobba.

Hey, Cobba! -

Have you bought a twin cab yet? .. If not, did ya see this unit for sale on Gumtree? .. just East of Narre Warren ..
Looks like a fairly tidy unit with minimal rust, and the price sure is right .. under $2K ..

melbourne.gumtree.com.au/c-Cars-Vehicles...-W0QQAdIdZ199767767#

Gday onetrack. Yes mate, I have seen that truck. Even went down and looked at it. It is on Ebay for it's third time now and sitting around $500+ mark.
Looks pretty good in that photo. I reckon this fella spends a lot of time getting his camera angles right so we can't see the bad things.

It's a reasonably sound ol unit. Has a few of the usual issues, rust in the roof around the windscreen, back doors and so on. Someone has taken the bench seat out of it and fabricated a crude rhs frame over the seat mount base and stuck a single bucket and a double bus seat in it's place. That would have to be replaced with an original seat or made better and have an engineering report done before RWC inspection.

Engine started and ran ok but needed a fair few oil leaks fixing and the exhaust manifolds repairing. Probably end up being a complete gasket set and an engine out to do it properly.

I ended up walking away from buying it on the day. He wasn't negotiable with his price and the gas system on it has never been legally complied either. There are no shut off solenoids on the tanks, I couldn't find any date stamps on the tanks and the service lines don't meet current standards.

I used to do LPG installations a few years back and estimated the cost of getting it certified at being anywhere between $1200 and $2000, depending on the condition of the tanks. My opinion was that they would most likely need replacing rather than retesting as they could have been as much as 20 years old and have more than likely sat empty for quite a long time.

It still needed 2 or more tyres, had no spare, the tray needed a lot of work and I haden't even driven it or looked at the brakes.

All up I reckon it would have been about $3500 to 4000 in repairs plus the purchase price of $2000, all before I even got it to the inspection station or Vicroads. On the road for $7000 if I did well.

The little voice in the back of my head kept saying "go buy a more modern dual cab". I think he's right!!!

Been looking at this on Ebay too. Might go look at it next week as well.
cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte...geName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Cheers. Cobba.

hi cobba been following your post. I have a mate in the same boat as you looking for a twin cab . He was most interested in the dodge at Beaudesert (Allenview).He is flying up to have a look this weekend and maybe drive it back home .You said that the body was too far gone and it had modifications done that would have required and engineers report being done back in Victoria.I like to give him a heads up before he goes all the way out there .What was wrong with the body? and what where the modifications? and does it run okay ? So any comments would be appreciated thanks DOC

If you look closely you will notice that this is not a twincab but guess what, I've bought it.

cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte...parms=tab%3DWatching

haven't picked it up as yet but went down a week ago and checked it out and have negotiated an agreed price and he is getting the gas tank re stamped before I collect it. I just need to take it to my mechanic and get a RWC done and register it. Should be all sorted out as soon as I get back from Brissy in mid June.

So watch out you guys in the newly formed border group. Lol. I have a valid reason to join up now rather than just for the social aspect of it all.

One other thing. The ol girl is running a 4 speed. Are there 5 speed gearboxes that fit into these. If so are they an overdrive in top gear or only 1:1???

I imagine it's a straight forward swap over to put the 5 speed in but any information about what has to be done would be greatly appreciated. Is the clutch and pressure plate different and so on. Do I need to change the tailshaft length or yoke???

Does anyone have one sitting in the corner of their shed they would sell, or maybe know where I can get one from.

All advice muchly appreciated.

Cheers. Cobba.

Cobba

Nice looking Inter and it sure aint a twin cab.

Just a word of caution with the overhang on the tray, in Victoria the regulation for overhang is 2/3 of wheel base or maximium 3.6 meters.

Example:
If the inter has a 3.8 meter wheelbase then you can only have a 2.5 meter overhang (from Centre of axle to rear).

Trevor

Trevor is right, it's overlength in the Overhang, though rear overhang is actually 60% of the Wheelbase, but it also cannot exceed 3700mm. Wheelbase is measured from the centre of the front axle to the centre of the rear axle, and rear overhang is the measurement from the centre of the rear axle to the rear of the truck. One look at that pic, and it's definatly over 60% of the wheelbase. At least it's easy to fix, just cut off the excess, though, are you still going to get a car on it then? Though if it's sold registered and your not changing it to a different state you might be all right, though insurance company's can get out of paying if the vehicle doesn't comform to the state regulations. That 60% of the wheelbase is Australia wide though.

Cobba - Nice straight-looking little truck, I trust you picked it up at the right $$$'s. The boys are right, watch that overhang behind the rear axle .. not only because of legalities, but also because of handling issues at speed. If you have anything with a long overhang (truck or trailer), and load them up, they will "tail-wag" at speed and frighten the livin' bejeesus out of you.

In essence, with an exceptionally long tray, the load isn't increasing on the front wheels in proportion to the rear wheels, when you load up, and you can get into a lot of handling trouble at speed, even just doing a minor swerve to miss a pothole or an animal.
It looks to me like someone has just welded a beaver tail straight onto the regular C1300 tray, on that truck.

The other factor you need to watch, is turning left at intersections from the LH lane, on a 2 lane road. I used to have a big tri-axle trailer with a similar beaver tail, and it was easy to clobber the car next to you with the tail, when turning sharp left from the inside lane.

I've never seen anyone put a 5 speed behind a 281, 6 cyl. I'm not sure the 281 has enough "grunt" to pull an overdrive 5th.
The 281 is already pretty good on fuel, and they sit on 95-100kmh O.K., even with the 4 speed.
I've no doubt there's a 5 speed that will fit, it's just a matter of checking out ratios, dimensions, and gearstick position.
Probably one of the Turner 5 speeds would be the best bet.

Thanks for the heads up fella's.
I was aware of the 60% rule, but not the3.7m bit, although that won't worry me anyway.

Bit deceptive in the photos. The tray is only 14'. Looks a lot longer in the flesh even so I stepped it out to double check. 12' flat, 2' banana.
Funnily enough I didn't check the overhang but it didn't appear to look wrong when I was standing back and looking at it.

Hmmm. Maybe your right. It could be overlength still.
No problems. I was debating weather I was going to bob the rear or not. Might help make the decision for me although would be pretty handy as a car carrier.

My mechanic mate is pretty anal about what's right and wrong so he won't pass it if it is over anyway. He might give me and inch if I'm lucky but I know another fella around here that got done by RTA for being an inch over and had to change it.

Will find out soon enough.

Any info on what to do on the 5 speed conversion?????

Cheers. Cobba.

Thanks onetrack.
Yes she is a very clean unit. Has had a well done paint job sometime in the past 5 years (I'm guessing) and the only signs of rust in the whole thing I could find was a small blister coming up in the left cowl (I think that's what you would call it. The area behind the back of the bonnet, in front of the door, above the guard. Where all the crap builds up inside the fresh air intake chamber.)

Yes. Have experienced the death wobbles a time or two in my life. Once towing an AR 130 on a car trailer behind an XL Falcon panel van. I didn't have the truck all the way forward and found out there was a problem as soon as I hit 80Ks. Moved it 4" and drove no worries.

The other time I was moving house with a fully loaded enclosed trailer towed behind a 66 Pontiac Parisienne. We were doing 110 on the Hume Hwy when the trailer started to sway a little. I backed off, it got worse, I accelerated, it got worser. Within 15 seconds I had gone from driving along comfortably to taking up 3 lanes of a 2 lane road.
Lucky we were in such a big car or I doubt we would have driven out of it.

Thanks for the 5 speed info. I only want to go that way cos most of my trips are on country roads and Highways and either done empty or with a small payload, rarely over 3/4 tonne. The 5 speed should drop the revs a tad and hopefully improve economy.

Cheers. Cobba.