Bit Stuffing

I have three numbers that I'm limiting to 10 bits each and then hoping to packing into a 32-bit standard int.  This would be easy if the numbers were just positive, but they also could be negative.  I end up fighting with the 2s complement.  I know someone is going to suggest just saving myself some headache and forcing the last bit to represent a truncated positive/negative flag, but I really need all ten of those bits for the number (anyone have a 33-bit data type they can spare?).

Now I've already looked online and there isn't much to digest about the matter.  Of the two lonely solutions I've found, one doesn't seem to work and the other is a hassle to implement.  Knowing what I do about 2s complement I'm inclined to believe the latter is the case - it's a hassle no matter what - but I'm also stubborn enough to be believe that there is a more elegant solution.

>>7
I was asking /prog/ in hopes that I could squeeze as much value into (and out of) those ten bits as possible; if there was a way, surely there was a madman who had figured it out.  511 to -512 does seem to be the best I can do.

>>2
I was moving in that direction at one point.