Just picked up a '78 motor home based on a MB4 chassis. Looked underneath, and what passes for a frame is kind of an inverted top hat channel. Would this be strong enough for something different, such as a flat deck or cube van. Reason being, there was a leaky roof and two broken roof vents, and stored outside for a couple of years. The ceiling is done, the roof is not right, and the floor is soft in spots. Any ideas? 16' body with over cab bunk (~5 1/2').

Can you find the VIN somewhere? http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/Pages_HTML/DodgeVINdecoder.html has a good way to decode it. I would suspect it would be in the 10,001 lbs to 14,000 lbs range for GVW which wouldn't be too terrible for other uses.

I have a 72-75 motor home FSM and a 79 B van FSM, but this is in the middle. Serial # starts with a F44, the GVW seems to be as you say. Just wondering about frame strength. 440 on propane, 8 x 17.5 tires, Dana 70, low KMs.

Motor homes are strange critters. The floors are nearly always plywood on top of the unibody chassis built behind the van front subframe. Soft floors usually means the plywood is junk. The condition of the unibody frame boxes under the floor will make a difference as to what you can put on top of it.

The "inverted top hat channel" originally had a top steel flat surface. The odds are about 50/50 that that top steel surface is intact or not, and how much junk has fallen inside the box frame. Those boxes tend to rust out from the inside out. If the top steel surface has holes (or sections missing) you need to remove the top flat surface and dig the debris out of the frame box and assess its condition, rebuild the box as required, and add a new top steel surface to the frame box.

If the inverted top hat box is in good (or repairable condition), adding a new floor to the motor home chassis will make it as good as it ever was, and you can use it for any purpose up to the original weight capacity. Using a strictly flat bed will allow the chassis to have some flex, adding sides and a roof to the new floor will stiffen up the chassis a lot. Gene

Thanks for the info Gene, I kind of suspected the same. Floor is not that bad. I am a carpenter and woodworker so the inside is not much of a problem, but trying to save 38 year old appliances and such is not worth it, so I was looking for options. At least the price was right, and the 440 runs good.