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I would find a swepty and put it on a newer chassis if I was planning to use it for towing. The 60's trucks had bad suspensions, drum brakes, wimpy steering, etc. I say all of this from experience.



I tend to agree with this, expect the suspension part. The 3/4 ton swepty had heavy duty suspension, the drum brakes were large diameter. They were capable of doing the job you have in mind. I had a 66 3/4 ton "camper Special" Dodge pickup, it had a poly 318 and a granny low gear 4 speed. Between my father and I, we had huge loads on that truck. more then almost anything I put on any of the 73=93 3/4 ton trucks.

My dad did construction, then did jack hammer work when he owned the 66. The last 3 or 4 years he owned it, he had an air compressor that was big enough to run 2 90lbs jack hammers, at the same time, mounted in the box. He sold me the 66 truck when he bought an almost new 76 Dodge 1 ton, single wheel, camper special, pickup which he moved the air compressor to. According to him, the 76 truck didn't hold a candle to the 66. The 75 was later replaced with an 85 1 ton, which dad said wasn't near the truck the 76 was. He maintains the 66 was the best work truck he ever had.

If I was planning on pulling a trailer, I'd go for a 70s D (or W) 150 or 200 truck with the disc brakes. The old drums were OK for stopping a loaded truck, but adding a trailer increased the demand on the drums to the point of being borderline.
An A-100(truck or van) is a very light duty operation I would be afraid to pull a little 2,000 lbs trailer with. A 70s heavy 1/2, 3/4, or 1 ton B van was capable of being a good towing vehicle, but be sure its not the real light duty 1/2 ton version. Gene



I agree that the the swepty trucks were capable and have out them through the paces loaded to the hilt. For towing disk brakes and independent from suspensions are so much better as you pointed out.

In my case by the time I upgrade to an open knuckle front diff, move the gas tank under the bed (for leg room and capacity increase), add power steering, etc. I would be better off moving my body work over to a new chassis. Also the frames on the Lifestyle trucks are stiffer (ignoring the issue around the steering box).

With all of that said I have hammered, beat, jumped, wheeled, overloaded and generally abused my '70 W100 for six years and it will not give up. I bought it as a parts truck too! It is one tough s oh b. In fact if my '70 would give up I'd be getting much more momentum to get my '65 W100 (the truck that started my sweptline adventures) done.

FYI steff they make pretty decent floor pans and rocker panels for the 61-71 trucks but things like door locks, fan motors, and seat covers are nonexistent to my knowledge. If I was going down the path you are looking into I'd find a clean /6 2wd 61-71 in the bed style of your choice and start measuring to see if a 12V cummins chassis would work without moving things around too much.

Also FYI lots of little stuff changed on the 61-71 trucks over the years so make sure to look into those idiosyncrasies as well.