Walk on hood for an F-350?

Paul B.

Adventurer
I been thinking about this mod for a while. Searched this forum and tried to google, not much pertinent info. Saw it on a Benz G-Wagon once upon a time down in Saline Valley. Has anyone seen this done on a Ford truck?

Thinking how to do it without adding too much weight.
 

Clutch

<---Pass
Why? Is there a purpose?

To grab gear from a roof rack.

085+Roofrack+treadplate.jpg
 

Buliwyf

Viking with a Hammer
You can walk up the hood right now. Ford tough, LOLz. I had to use my truck as an emergency ladder in an emergency situation. Was able to walk up the hood, and then walk up the windshield without damaging anything. You would only have to strengthen the sheet metal to prevent dings.

Unless it's an olde pre '97, it's going to be a world record ugly mod.

You'll have to walk up the windshield to reach anything. The hood is pretty far from a roof rack. Your best bet is to just open the door, and stand on the floor, door sill or seat. Or just climb up the back of the truck and walk across the rack.

The rack I had, had removable, and movable beams. I removed the center ones so I could duck under the rear bar and walk in the bed between the rack bars. (loading motorcycles)

Just get a fiberglass ladder. Weighs less than the hood reinforcements, has multiple uses. We used ladders to crane bikes off the ground for easy repairs.
 

rayra

Expedition Leader
Easy enough to engineer one. I would think it would need to be a tubular frame and expanded metal mesh platform, which is attached to and moves with the hood but is designed to rest / transfer the load to pads attached to the frame / firewall / radiator core support. So you would be walking on the frame in essence.

But if your roof rack is sturdy enough, I'd suggest something more like an extending library ladder, that is stored in or on the rack and dismounted and hung on the rack rail. Not as sechsy as walking on the hood, though
 
Used a landy defender for expeditions in Africa. Checker plate on hood and fenders strengthens the relatively weak aluminum body, we regularly accessed the roof rack this way.. step on bumper, fender, hood onto roof rack. When doing serious expeditions in remote areas weight is always the enemy. Landrover guys also often bolt a narrow ladder onto the back left rear to access the roof rack. IMHO There is no room inside those vehicles to add a ladder.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 

StevenH

New member
If you have an extended cab id say you could do something like this tacoma except make it more laddery
 

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Paul B.

Adventurer
I have to second this, what is the purpose? Do you really expect to carry so much stuff in/on your F350 that you'll need a roof rack, or carrying capacity over the cab?

After much thought, we have already mounted the 2-35" spares up on the roof.
 

Paul B.

Adventurer
The truck is a '93 F-350 4x4 4dr. Mounted a utility bed, bolted an FWC to the frame through the utility bed. The overhang is about halfway over the four-door cab. I threw some pictures up here of my roof rack but can't find them. Have a lot of trouble uploading pictures to this site, want to do a build thread but can't seem to get a picture to upload in a consistent manner. It seems that used to work but lately I can't seem to figure it out anymore. I'm kind of in a neophyte with this iPad thing. And seems there's no way to get pictures to load onto the site from my galaxy S6.

I had thought about the side ladder option. There are also lots of options with removable ladders and such....might be going that direction. But the utility bins are getting filled up with batteries, propane tanks, etc., and tools. There might not be more room in the bins to store a ladder device. I thought the walk on roof would be a nice modification done if not too heavy or UGLY. It's actually going to be a really cool looking rig. Call me what you will, I do care about the aesthetics of the thing.

Thanks to all for your time and suggestions, everything seems feasible. I'm just trying to land on the best option.

To be continued...
 
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