The stock bed is very solid and does not allow any movement... so the habitat would be protected very well. The problem is, the bed weighs around 2500 lbs! That is why folks are dumping them for the lighter weight subframes, like the Globe Trekker Zero Torsion subframe. When you are off road or in deep sand or mud... every pound of weight counts. Great question... thank you!
How possible would it be to modify the subframe to act as a usable flatbed and have a removable habitat when not in use. I was looking at having a cutaway ford econoline with your subframe as a adventure ute tray flatbed and have the habitat added when needed.
Absolutely... the technology is nothing new. We have used this to build a DIY subframe to fast start overland expedition projects. Our set up can be assembled in as little as two hours. It is also powder coated as a whole unit, giving it maximum corrosion resistance. Currently, no one does it like we do.
What’s the advantage/disadvantage of three point vs four point mounting? I keep hearing one chosen over the other but never why? Is it just a matter of what fits best?
The difference is whether or not you want to put in a crawl-through from the cab. To prevent the cab and habitat from twisting in different directions and ripping the crawl-through apart, you would put your side mounts up front. The side mounts locate the habitat to that section of frame to which they are mounted to. The pivoting crossmembers take the load of the habitat where the twist of the truck frame and side brackets are opposing. For more dialog, use the "contact" link on our website at www.rvglobetrekker.com
Three point systems are pretty easy to engineer...fixed at one end, free to move at the other Four point systems where the frame is fixed somewhere in the middle are much harder to engineer as you need to know the point at where the chassis is "neutral" when it twists, otherwise you haven't built a torsion free subframe at all. The one problem I have with almost all torsion free sub-frames (including this one) is the way the load of the habitat is spread over the chassis All truck chassis' are designed to have the load evenly distributed along the length of chassis and unless you make allowance for that in the design of a torsion free sub-frame, you are point loading the chassis and the possibility of it being damaged is very real. The best systems have made allowance for this and while they don't spread the load fully along the chassis, they certainly do not point load.
What would happen if you mounted one of your shelters straight on the LMTV bed? does the stock bed shift enough to tear apart the shelter?
The stock bed is very solid and does not allow any movement... so the habitat would be protected very well. The problem is, the bed weighs around 2500 lbs! That is why folks are dumping them for the lighter weight subframes, like the Globe Trekker Zero Torsion subframe. When you are off road or in deep sand or mud... every pound of weight counts. Great question... thank you!
How possible would it be to modify the subframe to act as a usable flatbed and have a removable habitat when not in use. I was looking at having a cutaway ford econoline with your subframe as a adventure ute tray flatbed and have the habitat added when needed.
So, you need to check out this video... ruclips.net/video/osGR6_IHvCw/видео.html
It is our latest ISO subframe system. It is now available!
There are many European bodybuilders use this mechanism more than 20 years ago
Absolutely... the technology is nothing new. We have used this to build a DIY subframe to fast start overland expedition projects. Our set up can be assembled in as little as two hours. It is also powder coated as a whole unit, giving it maximum corrosion resistance. Currently, no one does it like we do.
What’s the advantage/disadvantage of three point vs four point mounting? I keep hearing one chosen over the other but never why? Is it just a matter of what fits best?
The difference is whether or not you want to put in a crawl-through from the cab. To prevent the cab and habitat from twisting in different directions and ripping the crawl-through apart, you would put your side mounts up front. The side mounts locate the habitat to that section of frame to which they are mounted to. The pivoting crossmembers take the load of the habitat where the twist of the truck frame and side brackets are opposing. For more dialog, use the "contact" link on our website at www.rvglobetrekker.com
Three point systems are pretty easy to engineer...fixed at one end, free to move at the other
Four point systems where the frame is fixed somewhere in the middle are much harder to engineer as you need to know the point at where the chassis is "neutral" when it twists, otherwise you haven't built a torsion free subframe at all.
The one problem I have with almost all torsion free sub-frames (including this one) is the way the load of the habitat is spread over the chassis
All truck chassis' are designed to have the load evenly distributed along the length of chassis and unless you make allowance for that in the design of a torsion free sub-frame, you are point loading the chassis and the possibility of it being damaged is very real.
The best systems have made allowance for this and while they don't spread the load fully along the chassis, they certainly do not point load.