The Peterbilt Heavy Duty Body Builder Manual was designed to provide body builders with a comprehensive information set to guide the body planning and installation process. Use this information when installing bodies or other associated equipment.
In this manual you will find appropriate dimensional information, guidelines for mounting bodies, modifying frames, electrical wiring configurations, as well as other information useful in the body installation process.
The Peterbilt Heavy Duty Body Builder Manual can be very useful when specifying a vehicle, particularly when the body builder is involved in the vehicle selection and component ordering process. Information in this manual will help reduce overall costs through optimized integration of the body installation with vehicle selection.
As products continually evolve, Peterbilt reserves the right to change specifications or products at any time without prior notice. It is the responsibility of the user to ensure that he is working with the latest released information. If you require additional information or reference materials, please contact your local Peterbilt dealer.
If the body is mounted to the frame with brackets, we recommend a frame sill spacer made from a strip of rubber or plastic (delrin or nylon). These materials will not undergo large dimensional changes during periods of high or low humidity. The strip will be less likely to fall out during extreme relative motion between body and chassis. See FIGURE 4-3.
When mounting a body to the chassis with brackets, we recommend designs that offer limited relative movement, bolted securely but not too rigid. Brackets should allow for slight movement between the body and the chassis. For instance, FIGURE 4-4 shows a high compression spring between the bolt and the bracket and FIGURE 4-5 shows a rubber spacer between the brackets. These designs will allow relative movement between the body and the chassis during extreme frame racking situations. Mountings that are too rigid could cause damage to the body. This is particularly true with tanker installations.
Peterbilt offers customer specified wheelbases and frame overhangs. So, in most cases frame modifications should not be necessary. However, some body installations may require slight modifications, while other installations will require extensive modifications. Sometimes an existing dealer stock chassis may need to have the wheelbase changed to better fit a customer’s application. The modifications may be as simple as modifying the frame cutoff, or as complex as modifying the wheelbase.