My 17 year old son and I are headed out to Alaska next summer. After a trip to the West coast of Vancouver Island this year, while hauling my old bigfoot camper and towing a heavy jet boat, I decided my setup was not really adequate for long distances on soft roads.
I started off thinking I wanted a heavier truck. I drove a couple of Unimogs, and I fell in love with a 1300L. However much I love it, it's never going to do more than 60 on the freeway and it's tough to get more than 165 hp out of it, so while it is certainly a heavy enough truck for anything I would ever want to do with it, it's awesome off-road capabilities don't make up for it's shortfalls at this point in my life. When I was a kid we hauled 3 horses all over the NW and camped out of a '47 chevy 2 1/2 ton moving van conversion. I have DONE Blewett Pass at 25mph, and I don't think I'm ready to go back to that. Maybe in a few years when I will hopefully have more time for adventures and not have to be in such a hurry to get there all the time.
Then I started looking at F550's and Kodiak 5500's. We use both of these in our construction business, so I am familiar. A 2002 or earlier F550 with super singles would do the job just fine. Likewise with a late model Kodiak or Top Kick. I like the Duramax and the 7.3 Powerstroke both a whole lot. I was looking at setting the truck up for a 11 or 12 foot hard side camper, probably a Host similar to the one my dad has. Money was the stopper here, while I can afford to go this way it would eat up all of my disposable income for the next couple of years and severely limit what I could actually DO with the new rig.
So then I came around to the idea of doing more with the truck I have. Instead of keeping my load the same and doubling the payload capacity of the vehicle, what about keeping the truck the same while cutting the LOAD in half?
I had an old StarCraft popup for quite a while, I eventually gave it to my brother about 8 years ago when my dad gave me his old Bigfoot and bought a brand new Host. It never fit any of my F350's right, the interior layout sucked, and the roof assembly didn't work right from the day I bought it brand new. However, it was low profile, weighed about 1400 lbs wet, provided enough sleeping space for my young family until my kid got too tall for the miniscule dinette, was warm in the winter with a great furnace, and gave me a spot to get a hot shower after hunting all day. We used the Hell out of that thing, on and off road. Nostalgia for the old popup set in, and I decided to give that way of soft road and off road travel another try.
The current truck setup: 2001 F350 Crew cab long bed. 7.3L Powerstroke with an automatic.
Engine mods: some sort of tuner that was on the truck when I bought it. Banks cat-back exhaust. K&M filter.
Trans mods: High performance gear cluster, valve body, and torque converter. Added right after I bought the truck, when the transmission failed. I figured since I had to replace all of these, go as heavy as I can so they won't break again. Ever.
Body and suspension mods: 3 1/2" leveling kit in front. Airlift with onboard air in back (just added this before the Vancouver Island trip and I just love it). Front receiver hitch set up for my old Warn HD9000. Unfortunately the winch and carrier seem to have disappeared out of my warehouse, so I probably have to buy a new winch unless the old one turns up somewhere.
Tires: 35" Toyo MT's.
Last night I sent off the deposit check to Phoenix campers in Denver for a custom 9'3" popup. I'll post more details later but mainly it's customized for two really tall guys to be able to get around in it. 6'7" headroom, extra long dinette for the kid, extra long cabover section for me, oversized shower/head compartment. Camper should be ready for pickup in January. A good excuse for a road trip and to go see some cousins in Denver and Salt Lake City. I might even get my dad to come along for the ride to see the cousins.
I'm going to be adding an inverter, some charging ports for electronics, some auxiliary lighting and possibly some sort of motorcycle carrier to haul the dirt bike. Also a 60 gallon Titan fuel tank for more range. Any advice or warnings about how to add this stuff, brands to stay away from, etc. would be appreciated.
I'll post pictures if I can just figure out how. Internets are not my strongest point.
I started off thinking I wanted a heavier truck. I drove a couple of Unimogs, and I fell in love with a 1300L. However much I love it, it's never going to do more than 60 on the freeway and it's tough to get more than 165 hp out of it, so while it is certainly a heavy enough truck for anything I would ever want to do with it, it's awesome off-road capabilities don't make up for it's shortfalls at this point in my life. When I was a kid we hauled 3 horses all over the NW and camped out of a '47 chevy 2 1/2 ton moving van conversion. I have DONE Blewett Pass at 25mph, and I don't think I'm ready to go back to that. Maybe in a few years when I will hopefully have more time for adventures and not have to be in such a hurry to get there all the time.
Then I started looking at F550's and Kodiak 5500's. We use both of these in our construction business, so I am familiar. A 2002 or earlier F550 with super singles would do the job just fine. Likewise with a late model Kodiak or Top Kick. I like the Duramax and the 7.3 Powerstroke both a whole lot. I was looking at setting the truck up for a 11 or 12 foot hard side camper, probably a Host similar to the one my dad has. Money was the stopper here, while I can afford to go this way it would eat up all of my disposable income for the next couple of years and severely limit what I could actually DO with the new rig.
So then I came around to the idea of doing more with the truck I have. Instead of keeping my load the same and doubling the payload capacity of the vehicle, what about keeping the truck the same while cutting the LOAD in half?
I had an old StarCraft popup for quite a while, I eventually gave it to my brother about 8 years ago when my dad gave me his old Bigfoot and bought a brand new Host. It never fit any of my F350's right, the interior layout sucked, and the roof assembly didn't work right from the day I bought it brand new. However, it was low profile, weighed about 1400 lbs wet, provided enough sleeping space for my young family until my kid got too tall for the miniscule dinette, was warm in the winter with a great furnace, and gave me a spot to get a hot shower after hunting all day. We used the Hell out of that thing, on and off road. Nostalgia for the old popup set in, and I decided to give that way of soft road and off road travel another try.
The current truck setup: 2001 F350 Crew cab long bed. 7.3L Powerstroke with an automatic.
Engine mods: some sort of tuner that was on the truck when I bought it. Banks cat-back exhaust. K&M filter.
Trans mods: High performance gear cluster, valve body, and torque converter. Added right after I bought the truck, when the transmission failed. I figured since I had to replace all of these, go as heavy as I can so they won't break again. Ever.
Body and suspension mods: 3 1/2" leveling kit in front. Airlift with onboard air in back (just added this before the Vancouver Island trip and I just love it). Front receiver hitch set up for my old Warn HD9000. Unfortunately the winch and carrier seem to have disappeared out of my warehouse, so I probably have to buy a new winch unless the old one turns up somewhere.
Tires: 35" Toyo MT's.
Last night I sent off the deposit check to Phoenix campers in Denver for a custom 9'3" popup. I'll post more details later but mainly it's customized for two really tall guys to be able to get around in it. 6'7" headroom, extra long dinette for the kid, extra long cabover section for me, oversized shower/head compartment. Camper should be ready for pickup in January. A good excuse for a road trip and to go see some cousins in Denver and Salt Lake City. I might even get my dad to come along for the ride to see the cousins.
I'm going to be adding an inverter, some charging ports for electronics, some auxiliary lighting and possibly some sort of motorcycle carrier to haul the dirt bike. Also a 60 gallon Titan fuel tank for more range. Any advice or warnings about how to add this stuff, brands to stay away from, etc. would be appreciated.
I'll post pictures if I can just figure out how. Internets are not my strongest point.