I am beginning to build on my beast and I'm really needing some advise. I am using the rolling chassis of a 1985 Dodge Power Ram 50 4x4 and the body of a 1985 Dodge Caravan. I'm not very sure how to go about switching bodies as I have never had that pleasure. The Ram has a good strong engine and the van doesnt hense the reason why I am combining the two to make one great ride. Any advise will be appreciated.  

Good luck on this one. Never heard of it being done and caravan has no frame either as it is unibody. Could it even be done? Sure with enough time and money anything is possible but this would not be cost effective at all and would be a MAJOR job.  

this is a repeat.............whatever yer smokin, I want some.  

sounds like lots of welding, drilling holes, installing u-bolts and hoping that it will all match up. you'd be better off getting a full size 4x4 van and building it.  

i definately agree with the near impossibility of that... and i did a full body swap with nearly the same frame but a jeep cherokee body.  i would go for a build on a full size dodge van... or just go with a ram wagon...  

Actually, mudb8-., I have only posted here this one time. And yes I know this is near impossible, but I really want to put this together.. I already have just about everything I need, just need the advise to put it together so that it works. I understand about the unibody of the van, but I was hoping that by using the frame of the truck and somehow securing the van body to it that it would work for the good and not the bad.  

Why not just make some mounts on the subframe on the uni-body that could bolt down to the frame for the pick-up? Building slammed trucks usually means you have to think out of the box, and not expect everything to just bolt on without any thought. If you could tie the frame and body together in four spots where the cab would be, then two spots on the front near the uni-body radiator support, and in the rear in two spots, that would be plenty to hold the body on. Then all you should have to do is make/oaky rig brake lines, steering shaft, fuel lines, wiring (if it will be on-road), tranny/clutch linkage . I wouldn't claim anything impossible if you have a welder and torch or sawzall. I'm a welder/fabricator for a living so if you put some pics of what you have to work with I will try and help out. I seen a unibody fox body mustang on a 4x4 ranger chassis so your project can be done.  

Yeah. I was thinking of using pieces of angle-iron for the mounts with rubber bushings to cut back on noise and make for an easier ride. Basically a home-made body-lift kit. I also have the steering shaft and such from an older full-size power ram. I will be getting the special brake/fuel lines that I need from a shop here.

Another idea was to cut out the bottom of the uni body van so that there were full-length grooves for the truck rails to fit into so that I could bolt the body to the frame in that fashion. Just not too sure how that plan would let the thing twist in order to make it through the terrain where I am going to be taking it. And yes it is also going to be as road legal as I can make it.  

Still think it it a bad idea. Unibodies are designed not to flex and putting it on a flexible frame is going to cause problems. You would need to make frame it bolts to rigid too so the forces are not transfered to mounting hardware for body.  

awesome idea overdrive!!! i cant wait to see it when its done.  

If your worried about the frame being too rigid, run long bolts for your body mounts, with a sturdy spring on each bolt. That is how a lot of tankers are mounted on the frame of a semi. It allows the truck frame to move without cracking the tank. You could possibly buy bolts with springs from a tractor-trailer repair shop. The shop I work at sells them frequently.  

i'm not too completely familiar with the suspension and mounting points on your van but i'd be willing to bet that with some redneck engineering you could set it up so that there are flexable connections between the factory suspension anchors on the van body and connections on the frame... that way when the frame flex's out these points will act as a sort of secondary suspension and allow for some extreme frame articulation... almost like the air ride system on a semi.   where the body floats on the frame and can move slightly... it would probably make for an extremely smooth ride and if it was engineered properly it would probably come out stronger then just solid body mounts...  

I plan to go with an air-ride body mount system later on when I can afford to put that much in at once, but I was thinking of at least a 3" performance polyurethane body mount kit for an early model full-size such as a ramcharger. That should give the van at least 8-12 points of connection and still let the frame twist enough. I was also thinking of adding shorter stabalizing shocks at the factory suspension mounts between the van body and the truck frame. I would possibly need to add extra mounting points onto the frame but that isn't going to be very hard. I've been getting parts together for this project for 3 years and the only thing that has really held me back is just how to go about getting the body mounted right.

I truly appreciate all the help everyone has given and look forward to showing you all a very wild 4x4 in the next few months. Building is kinda slow right now since the temp decided to drop out on me. I will have pix of the thing as soon as possible as well. I'm starting from the very beginning and even making a vid of my work.  

are you gonna teach one of the kids how to shift from the back seat? seems to me that a D-50 4x4 with an automatic is a rare find.  On my end here in auto transportation, improper tie down can cause windows to bust out and doors no longer shut correctly after the uni-body has been tweeked.
It's a interesting idea and like all things doable, will it hold up long? Is it realy worth the time? how about getting a awd astro a body lift or suspension or even a solid axle up front, those actually exist, and the 4.3 will toast a d-50.  

I think I may have a usefull Idea for the mounting, despite my negative opinion on the subject........

using the factory front suspension mounting, and the rear mono leaf spring hangers along with a rear track bar to keep the body in place, the unibody doesn't need any further suport, so using 8 mounting points I think would cause it to flex and cause dammage, the D-50 frame needs to flex under the unibody..