10th Generation F-150 Overland build (The Craptor)

[OBS460]

Back at my build thoughts and was hoping to pick your brain some more... I believe you were the guy that mentioned putting the house batteries under the truck bed on an F150. If that is right, how did you accomplish this and how is it working out for you? I seem to have a ton of available space on the drivers side after the rear axle for a battery box, but other than that... Exhaust and gas tank seem to take up most of the available space under the bed of the truck...

Oh, and I did end up with that little Sportsman generator. Honestly these things are WAY nicer than anyone makes them out to be, and they get talked up a lot... This would be perfect size for running a 5K BTU window unit, and a laptop to keep being able to work. Yes I sadly have to work while I travel...

I truly am amazed by the Sportsman Generator too, given it's very low cost! It's not a Honda, but for 1/8th the price it suits my needs just fine.

For under body battery storage I ended up using a Ford E series cab/chassis battery box. You can find them on eBay pretty cheap as coachbuilders remove them when building out chassis. The Group 31 battery will fit if you bend the box a little, but it is very snug. I preferred this as a battery's lifespan is drastically shortened if it rattles around a lot.

 

[dbhost]

I truly am amazed by the Sportsman Generator too, given it's very low cost! It's not a Honda, but for 1/8th the price it suits my needs just fine.

For under body battery storage I ended up using a Ford E series cab/chassis battery box. You can find them on eBay pretty cheap as coachbuilders remove them when building out chassis. The Group 31 battery will fit if you bend the box a little, but it is very snug. I preferred this as a battery's lifespan is drastically shortened if it rattles around a lot.

Lighting and oreintation of your install location are not super easy to make out. Looks like you mounted outboard of the frame rail on the drivers side under the extended portion of the cab. (exhaust visibile on the other side is why I guess that).

Probably a pretty decent location honestly!

Need to find one of those battery boxes! That will solve a LOT of my battery charging concerns getting it out of the camper itself.

*UPDATE* Just looked at Ebay, they seem to have a wild range of prices, but there are more than a few with a buy it now of around $20.00, gonna snag one!

Probably go with an AGM, Lithium are WAY too spendy for my budget. And at least AGM typically can handle off road use for a decent period...

 

[OBS460]

Lighting and oreintation of your install location are not super easy to make out. Looks like you mounted outboard of the frame rail on the drivers side under the extended portion of the cab. (exhaust visibile on the other side is why I guess that).

Probably a pretty decent location honestly!

Need to find one of those battery boxes! That will solve a LOT of my battery charging concerns getting it out of the camper itself.

*UPDATE* Just looked at Ebay, they seem to have a wild range of prices, but there are more than a few with a buy it now of around $20.00, gonna snag one!

Probably go with an AGM, Lithium are WAY too spendy for my budget. And at least AGM typically can handle off road use for a decent period...

Its mounted outboard on the passenger frame rail roughly where the B pillar is. I have it tucked between the frame and running boards, so far no damage had occurred through multiple trips.

I too believe a good AGM will suffice just fine. I like the benefits of a lithium battery, but if things go awry they tend to be flame throwers. I'd hate to puncture one out on the trail.

 

[dbhost]

Its mounted outboard on the passenger frame rail roughly where the B pillar is. I have it tucked between the frame and running boards, so far no damage had occurred through multiple trips.

I too believe a good AGM will suffice just fine. I like the benefits of a lithium battery, but if things go awry they tend to be flame throwers. I'd hate to puncture one out on the trail.

Good point about the lithium safety issues.

On the 11th gen, we have fully boxed frames. Not sure how I would manage to attach. Not certain I want to poke holes in the frame...

 

[OBS460]

Good point about the lithium safety issues.

On the 11th gen, we have fully boxed frames. Not sure how I would manage to attach. Not certain I want to poke holes in the frame...

I used existing holes, maybe you could you use riv nuts or clips if there are holes that don't go through.

 

[dbhost]

I used existing holes, maybe you could you use riv nuts or clips if there are holes that don't go through.

Need to check for holes... I suspect there aren't any, but worth looking...

 

[CanTony]

Hey OP, Merry Christmas! Hope that your Ford has been treating you well this year how late in the season did you camp before turning her back into a plow truck?
I was wondering how that E-Fan worked over the last year as I would like to do the same modification in my F150 - also, what year of Windstar did you harvest the fan from (All I'm seeing is V6's and dont know what radiator is on there), and did you have to evacuate the AC to install that new pressure switch or was there an extra Schrader valve that you could tap into?

 

[OBS460]

Hey OP, Merry Christmas! Hope that your Ford has been treating you well this year how late in the season did you camp before turning her back into a plow truck?
I was wondering how that E-Fan worked over the last year as I would like to do the same modification in my F150 - also, what year of Windstar did you harvest the fan from (All I'm seeing is V6's and dont know what radiator is on there), and did you have to evacuate the AC to install that new pressure switch or was there an extra Schrader valve that you could tap into?

Well, I actually retired her from plow duty as I want to maintain it's rust free condition. So, the camping drawers will stay in full time now!


I ended up removing the e fans last week. I had the controller end up failing, and I didn't like the idea of that while doing slow speed trail riding. The mechanical fan does reduce efficiency some, but its a proven design.

 

[dbhost]

I am back on my camper build. The heavy line mech has been contacted, pending a quote for a Jasper engine swap. Ordered the 12V fridge, an Iceco LGT60 (LG Compressor 60 liter, or 64 quart).

The Leer 122 and the whatever brand name contractor caps that were available to me don't fit my truck, so I need to find another cap. Not committed to a contractor cap though. It is just me now so I am going to go with a twin tri fold mattress on a short riser so that I can fold it up and have a day chair. I will use one of those divider boards with the tailgate open to provide a "door" and a mount fo the air conditioner.

I do have the van battery box on order finally, and will get that mounted before the truck gets pulled out to the shop for the engine swap and new hoses...

 

[dbhost]

@OBS460 on your house battery box. How do you install / remove the battery and keep it from bouncing around and contacting the bottom of the bed / cab whatever it is directly under? I have my box, no clue how to actually access the battery with the box installed. It looks like maybe install the battery into the box, and THEN install the box to the truck? Doable but a little bit of a pain.

 

[badm0t0rfinger]

After the tire incident, I decided I would like to have another dirt bike when we go camping (it was a good selling point for me to convince the boss, you know how it goes).

So, I picked up a very low mileage 1986 XT350 and have began to build it up as a light duty ADV bike.

View attachment 676623


Here is it's thread!

XT350 lightweight adv

My latest adventure capable vehicle I added to my stable was this 1986 Yamaha XT350. After selling my plated WR400f, I was finding that I missed having a lighter bike to explore on. One night while browsing the good ol' FB marketplace, I came across the XT. With 2600 original miles, and a...

expeditionportal.com

Old post I know, very cool bike. I'm looking at getting a similar styled bike. What hitch mount carrier is that? how do you like it?

 

[OBS460]

@OBS460 on your house battery box. How do you install / remove the battery and keep it from bouncing around and contacting the bottom of the bed / cab whatever it is directly under? I have my box, no clue how to actually access the battery with the box installed. It looks like maybe install the battery into the box, and THEN install the box to the truck? Doable but a little bit of a pain.

Yes it's a bit of a pain, but you install the box with the battery in it. I put caps on my connections to avoid any arcing.

 

[OBS460]

Old post I know, very cool bike. I'm looking at getting a similar styled bike. What hitch mount carrier is that? how do you like it?

It's one of the cheaper ebay "600lb capacity" racks. So far its been fine with a lighter bike, but I wouldn't put anything heavier than 300lbs on it.

 

[dbhost]

I'm using the DJI Air 2S and it does have active track that will follow a subject. The lack of side obstacle detection ended up causing it to fly into the dune at about 20mph. So far it seems to have survived.

LOL, my drone is a Blade Chroma with gimbal. It is old, has a follow mode, but has no object / collision detection of any sort. Kind of old nowadays. I am thinking about upgrading eventually to something with collision avoidance and foldable. Haven't kept up with what is out there though...

 

[dbhost]

So you've had your build done for a while now. What is working and what would you do differently now?