American LeFrance Car Hauler

[Towmaster Dave]

A friend at work bought a box of 3 partial American Lefrance firetruck kits mixed together in a box at a yard sale for $2.00. He didn't do anything with it and gave it to me. It contained parts from two ladder trucks and one pumper truck. The first time I saw one of these on the shelf i wanted to build one into a car hauler, but they are a little expensive so it never happened till now.

I used pieces from all three cabs to lengthen and raise the cab to make a sleeper area out of it. I still have to build the interior, going to make a bed, refrigerator and some cabinets. The engine will get moved from under the cab to under the front of the bed. The framefrom the ladder truck will work with a few modifications. The bed right now is thin cardboard so i can decide how to start cutting plastic.

Thanks for looking,

Dave

Edited November 22, 2010 by Towmaster Dave

[codie27]

Very cool and interesting build! Make sure to keep progress postings.

[george 53]

One of our guys did the same thing with his, only without the sleeper cab. Great idea! Looks to be coming along VERY nicely!!! Looks like you could use it as a good base for a motor home too! Keep it up, it's lookeen gooood!!!!

[Jim B]

Well, that's different! I like it.

Over the weekind I actually saw an American-LaFrance Eagle that had been made into a dump. It was somewhere in Massachustts, or maybe Rhode Island.

[Scott S]

Well, that's different! I like it.

Over the weekind I actually saw an American-LaFrance Eagle that had been made into a dump. It was somewhere in Massachustts, or maybe Rhode Island.

Now THAT i have to keep my eye out for!! i run the 84/495/90/95 corridor weekly, it has to be around there somewhere...lol

Scott

[Modelmartin]

That's pretty fun!

Years ago, the city of Minneapolis had an ALF tractor from a ladder rig and were using it to haul a water trailer for street cleaning. It was painted pale blue with city markings on the door!

[charlie8575]

Interesting concept, I rather like it. A good re-use of an old fire truck.

Charlie Larkin

[cargostar]

Very cool conversion

Just a thought, you might want to lengthen the dove-tail area, or lower the side height of the bed to reduce the deck height. Most vehicles that are worthy of being hauled on it would get hung up at the "break-over"

point between the deck, and dove tail.

[Towmaster Dave]

I did end up changing the dove tail area of the bed. I reduced the angle of the breaking point and also angled the lower portion of the tail area of the bed so if the truck were driving up hill it wouldn't drag and get stuck. Here is a picture with the bed sides done.

Thanks for looking,

Dave

[Jim B]

Scott S.

That ALF Eagle dump was off the beaten path on Central Massachusetts. Somewhere on Route 16 near Webster (I think)

[midwest 1953]

Dave,

Can you post a couple pictures without the bed?

Considering a similar idea for a tractor to pull a 38' 5th wheel galaxy trailer.

Jim A.

[Foxer]

That cab looks grand! This is gonna be an unusual hauler .. looking good!

[Towmaster Dave]

A couple pics without the bed for you Jim. The frame is the stock frame from the kit except the notches cut out for the motor. which is getting moved back closer to the rear axle so the cab will have a lower floor and won't have to be tilted up for engine access. I also have one side of the bed done except the door on the cargo box.

Dave

[midwest 1953]

Dave,

That is interesting.. is that the pumper chassis, or the ladder chief ?

I was considering using the chassis from the aerial, ( assumeing it is longer ) but for what I want, it might be easier to cut the frame off behind the cab, and scratchbuild the rear section.

From the look of that, the engine is going to be pretty close-coupled (maybe just a u-joint). My plans call for a turbocharged Detroit with automatic, I may mount the radiator,engine, trans, and rear axle in a single power pod, and airspring that..

Moving the engine out solves the main problem that I saw, lack of interior room. Original thought here was a luxury high speed autobahn cruiser set up for four persons...

Anyway...yours looks good, and it's nice that you have done most of the engineering for me ... Thanks..

Jim A.

( most likely you won't see mine anytime soon.. too many projects on the bench now, and I'm slow...)

[Towmaster Dave]

Jim, I am using the Ladder Cheif frame for this build, I also have some parts from the pumper and the frame is about 4 3/4 inches shorter and is closer to a standard box frame. This truck will have a driveline about an inch long and full access from the top of the bed. I have to make a trip to my parts guy to see if he has any semi kits I can get some wheels and maybe a turbo charged engine.

Dave

[The Modeling Hermit]

You saved me a ton of work, Dave. I'd been thinking that this would be a cool combination, and was planning to build one myself. Now that I see how cool yours looks, I don't have to build one. LOL Keep us posted. I want to see this one finished.

[crazyjim]

That's quite a novel idea and I like it. I look forward to seeing more progress pics.

[chrismooney]

Here is an old Mack Fire truck turned onto a Hauler... The cab was a Mack Factory 4 door and origionaly had a pump and pannel between the fron and rear doors.. not to hijack but some food for thought on Old frie truck kits built to moder dat car haulers. This was in Harrisburg 2010 at a fire muster.

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[Towmaster Dave]

Thanks for the pics of the Mack, Somebody did a nice conversion on it.

I got a few more things done over the weekend, I cut the engine access and another area for storing chains and straps towards the end of the bed top. I also found a small mistake in the cab, it was 2mm shorter in length and highth on one side, so i had to do some cutting and refilling, glad this is plastic!!! Here are a couple new pics, Thanks for all the great comments, and thanks for looking,

Dave

[Towmaster Dave]

Got some more work done this weekend on the car hauler.

I got some white promer on the cab for checking the bodywork, so far so good, a little more work and its done, ;D . Spent most of my time working on the bed. I got the angle trim all around the the top edge of the bed, the engine cover done with latch. ficed my misscut on the wheelwell, got the taillights cut into the back panel and finally started on the ramp storage slot.

Here are a couple pics for ya guys and also THANKS for all the great comments!!!!!

Dave

[midwest 1953]

Hey.. that's looking good.. those big round pods gonna be taillights, or jet exhaust?

[Towmaster Dave]

Hey.. that's looking good.. those big round pods gonna be taillights, or jet exhaust?

Those are gonna be the taillights, didn't want to go with the standard square taillights, but they do look like little jet exhaust, lol, paint it all back and it could haul the batmobile.

[midwest 1953]

Dave, Did you ever finish this??