ron, that dakota frame swap looks sweet. i have had my eye on them on craigslist for a while. they can be had very cheap. thanks for that one. i will study that build closer. supercuda, i'm just kinda messin'. didn't mean anything smartazz by that. if i do go monaco frontend, i will have done all the measurements to make sure it can be done before i go yankin' a perfectly good monaco apart. money is the key as to which way i go, but i am stoked by all the feedback from the folks that do this stuff everyday. it does help. thanks guys, mike in k.c.