This was exciting! I was actually building my dream rig. But there was a lot of engineering that needed to be done. Admittedly, I was winging it. I had some experience with my old 48 KW/FWD, but this was a whole new animal. I was 28 years old.
The length laws at that time said that a single vehicle could only be 40 feet long. The BBC (bumper to back of cab) was 120 inches, or 10 feet. So, that meant that the coach could only be 30 feet long. We measured everything out and decided where to cut the frame to graft the new section in.
There was also the issue of the truck not having front brakes, which was common back then, but, as a single drive, two axle rig, it had to have them. Not only that, but the front suspension had a stack of springs, probably 15 of them per side, and would ride like an old truck. So that had to be changed. And the transmission was a bit worn out, so it needed a rebuild. This was starting to add up. Oh, and I had to find a good rear axle, on air-ride.
I told Anne what we needed and she only asked, “How much will we need?”
Dennis was awesome. He knew what he was doing. He found a new front axle with brakes, on taper leaf springs. He rebuilt the tranny. He hired a welder to do the frame stretch. I found a tandem axle on a New-Way air-ride suspension, sold the front drive axle, and he rebuilt the rear and installed it. All said and done, the chassis mods came to $27,000. Anne never flinched. She just deposited the money in the account and it was done.