Streeeetched Frames

Other than looking cool and having all the school kids see your rig and want to be truckers when they grow up, does anybody know what the point of having a stretched out frame is? I see some of these guys rigs, and I'm just left scratching my head wondering how they even take certain turns or back into tight spots. I'll be rolling down 295, and see one of these guys and it looks like their trailer is hooked up 15 foot behind the sleeper lol.

 

They do offer some advantages. If you were a flatbed and hauled overside hanging over the front for example. No oversize there. Its a workaround.

Sometimes that tractor may be intended to be retired with a custom apartment put on the back for RV work later years.

Looks have nothing to do with stretch. Function before form. I myself have no use for them. My last truck was a stretched pay star on a bulk tanker and that frame did me no favors for what it was then on our bad roads. It would act as a hammer beating the cab to pieces (And did) like the fulcrum concept of big kid on one end of a teeter totter in a playground.

 

Myself I think they look stupid stretched as much as the one in the picture.

 

Because they can. It's like a long legged girl.

 

Agreed. A long from only achieves a smooth ride. Yet otherwise you need 4x the room to manuever.
They are a waste of money unless your rich and only want a way to pay for the fuel to get from the truck show.

 

Part of my bias could be from being up in Canada. We have wheelbase limits so we never see stretched conventionals. Cabovers stretched to a conventional's wheelbase look pretty sharp though.

To me, they just aren't proportionate looking. Like an 8' box on a regular cab pickup.

 

Really, I know a guy with a 320 inch and uses it every day, and it's never been to a truck show as far as I know.

 

But I drive one of those. Actually it would be a regular cab and a space between the cab and the pick up body.

Tho here is my POS dodge.

 

The thing that would bother me most with the truck you pictured, is how low it is. If you want to set low buy a pick up....?

I was down at MATS this year in Kentucky, the owner of this truck was saying he ordered this truck, and watched it being built. And he didn’t understand why folks buy a truck, then kick the props out from under it.

But we all know folks do things because they can, since they own it.

 

But as X1 mentioned, a lot of trucks are stretched for functionality.... overhang on the front of flatbeds.