I am new to the 4x4 building.  I have a project that I want to start but I am having some problems finding some facts about the trucks I am looking for.  What I am trying to find out is wheel base, fame lengths, and etc.  I am looking a 3/4 ton, extend cab, and long wheel base truck.  I guess it goes without saying also 4x4.  Can anyone out there help in websites or their own knowledge?  

If you are serious about building one, you want a shorter frame for more stiffness and less change of high centering and less weight too. This means std cab with long bed or made a extended cab with a short box at most but this extra cab will add weight and length to it and neither is a "friend" offroad.  

I understand what you are saying and thank you for answering my question.  The truck will be used mostly for work and hunting.  I have never been trail riding or even rock crawling but they both look fun.  The more I watch and read the more I want to try it.  I just don't want to jump out there and build a truck that is only for the trails or rocks, but it is very tempting thou.  

When you get bogged down in mud, weight is REALLY against you which you can get hunting. There is not one vehicle that does all and anyone that tells you so is pulling your leg. Building it for a daily driver these days does not make much sense either with today's fuel prices as lifts and tires subtract MPG. If you drive a lot and run the numbers you will find it is cheaper to buy a 4 cyl car to run around in and then build a 4x4 for offroad, hunting and weekends. Gas saved will pay for car and also gives you something to drive while working on truck and you can mod it more and not worry about short tire life with expensive offroad tires. Been doing that here for years. I have 3 4x4's and none are daily drivers and the newest is a 2000 bought new. They last a lot longer when not drive daily. If you drive 20K miles a year and average 12 MPG at todays prices that is over 5,000 bucks of fuel a year!!! With a 30 MPG car that is only 2000 or 3000 less a year. Drive more of if you 4x4 gets less MPG and savings are even greater.  

what type of work??? is it hauling sheets of 4x8 plywood or hauling a trailer.  how many people will be traveling with you what are you truley looking for in a truck. if you don't take many people with you and do more cargo hauling (in bed) you could get away with a longbed with std. cab or if you take alot of people with but haul very little (in bed) you could choose an extended cab with shortbed. or even if you haul more LIGHT trailers and don't really utilize your bed, as well as only having the ocassional passenger you could get away with a shortbed with std. cab as a bonus it won't get stuck as easy.  

ya high centering is rilly uncouth,all your 4bros wait while you try to get your truck in balanced enough to rock it back or fo'ard to get off the hill everyone was trying to climb.so then ya get down an beeline for the mud hole...and guess what..now your stuck with the biggest truck communing with mother earth.ya can say deeply,passionatly comuning cos its sinking faster than all get out,which is precisley what your "friends" did when they saw ya sink! 'cept for your little jeeper dude who is valiantly trying to pull you out in a vehicle that weighs half as less as yours.dang friends.all this maybe happend..maybe.happy wheelin!  

Actually if the little Jeep cannot pull out the big iron, it is not the fault of the jeep owner but rather yours for taking a land yacht into bog and expecting everyone else to drive land yachts or bulldozers to be able to pull you out.  

Land yacht,Land yacht,it was the titanic all over again,it was the buddy w the wich truck that did the trick,likkle jeeplet was a tryer though! now ime the unsticker,my pet theory is that to a point,you need a heavyer vehicle than the stuck,i know its not always so,but seems to be the norm  

Generally if you are REALLY stuck in mud (cannot even begin to move on own power), you need a heavier vehicle to safely extract it. When you bury a bulldozer, you generally need a bigger one to get it out. I remember about 10 years ago, someone buried a Case 1150 dozer in a field trying to cut a water way. It is about a 19 ton machine that can develop over 50,000 lbs of draw bar push/pull and I have used them a few times and they are very serious machines that will just about always loose traction before it track stalls in first gear even on good ground. (I did track stall one once trying to lift and push out a really big tree and tree won until I dozed out a few roots) They brought another 1150 out and could not get it out while it was still muddy. They hauled second 1150 away and brought it back a week later when it dried up some and managed to get it out after working at it and jacking it up a bit to get some logs under track and pulling for all it was worth. (you should have seen the tow cable) The neatest stuck I ever saw was several years ago my neighbor got a fully loaded all wheel drive cement mixer stuck in his yard (one of those big massive one that have engine behind it on a extended frame with a tag axle under engine and we live in country) Driver said he was at about 70,000 lbs. Another loaded mixture came out and from the road he could not budget it on a straight pull even with all the tires on it spinning in very slow motion on pavement (not even 1 MPH) The torque it took to do that was awesome and it did not even flex or shudder.  He changed pull direction so that he was dragging rear end around on stuck mixer while it tires were spinning too. After about 5 minutes of this they both got enough bite to get it out. It actually warped rear frame a few inches on stuck mixer begin drug sideways and that frame was massive. The most effortless extraction of a bad stuck I ever saw was a loaded tractor trailer that got into soft ground and was badly mired. It was on a air base and they got a Yuke (a 30 ton 120 hp tug that tows 300 plus ton planes) and hitched it up to it and with Yuke on pavement it drug tractor trailer out without even beginning to break a sweat while tractor trailer was in neutral too. Very impressive. Enough stuck stories...  

most people when they start going down they dont have enough sense to stop and get help they just keep hammering on it till they are down to the axles i own a land yacht and wouldnt give it up for anything i do how ever have an 87 jeep cherokee chief i like to drive due to the cheap price of gas  

When I get "stuck" and loose motion, I stop and access the problem and not dig myself in further. It is far easier to "unstick" a vehicle that is not buried verse one that is.