JP2
Member
I've been meaning to start a build thread forever but life was getting in the way. I bought the truck in around April 2017 new in Orlando Florida from Greenway Ford. It is a 5.0 v8 with the 6R80 trans and 9.75 rear with electric locking diff. I had been looking to get into offroad adventure travel for a while. I previously had 3 JKUs but they were just too small for myself, my wife, two kids, and two dogs to spend any time offroad. Plus my experience with the JKs is they are a 30k+ canvas to start spending money on. Nothing on them is heavy enough for bigger tires and offroad work. I fought death wobble on my 15 jku until I traded it in. At the time it needed a steering box and the aftermarket ones hadn't hit the market yet. Anyway, this thread is about the 150. Here is a pic soon after I bought it.
The first modification I made was to add Thule racks to it both on the cab and bed as we were doing a lot of Kayaking on the spring fed rivers in FL. I had followed Raul's thread on his 150 for a while and an open bed and rack SEEMED like a good idea. Thankfully I had a friend that got 40% off on Thule stuff so it wasn't a huge spend at the time. I think I got it all for around $600 which I considered a steal. Here is a shot with a kayak hanging out on top. We were actually cat fishing on this trip and I hooked into a big gator. After fighting it for about 45 minutes I just cut the line and went home.
Shortly after this we went on a trip to Kentucky where we are originally from. We were going up to do some offroad exploration of trails I hadn't run in over 20 years. White's Branch Arch in Powell County KY for those that know the area. The trails are closed to vehicles but are still open for hiking. It was 65 degrees the first day and then snowed 10" overnight. I was browsing craigslist (yes, I'm an addict) because it was too tough to hike in that amount of snow on steep hills. I came across an ARE camper shell for $500 about an hour away from where we were staying. We drove down to Somerset and picked it up. Thanks to the folks at Line-X of Somerset for a great camper at a great price. Having this weather hit in the middle of a trip was the end of the open bed. The west coast/desert folks can get away with an open bed but us Floridians (at the time) get daily rain. Open bed really wasn't a good option. Interestingly enough, the shell was manufactured on our wedding anniversary, July 27. So needless to say, it ain't going anywhere. Here is a shot of the shell right after it was mounted. Note that it didn't snow nearly as much an hour south in Somerset.
Shortly after this, we sold our home in Florida and moved to Bulverde, TX (North of San Antonio). As with all moves, it took a while to recover and not much happened with the truck for several months. Looking at the awful rake in the pics above, its obvious that something needed to happen with the suspension, tires, and wheels. I had always liked the subaru blue and gold theme and I found the Method Roost wheels in bronze and 18x9 with offset that would keep them tucked under the truck. I wanted the narrow track because the truck is huge enough to start with, especially on tight east coast trails. I ordered the wheels and a set of 295/70R18 general grabber X3 tires. I have to admit, I was watching a lot of Expedition Overland at the time and General's sponsorship strongly influenced my decision. Here are the tires and wheels mounted up.
Next I needed to find the right suspension to make the tires fit. After reading way too much and balancing the budget, I chose the Icon 2.5 non reservoir front coilovers. Strangely enough, I didnt take any pics of these or the install. But here's a pic of the tires/and wheels on the truck without the massive f150 factory rake.
My mom had some medical issues in the fall and we ended up driving back to KY for a few days. I never miss the opportunity to hit the woods so we did some of the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway and visited Hollerwood Park. Here's a pic by the DBBB sign.
If you look close at the DBBB pic, you can see the start of my exo rack over the camper shell. I've been wanting to do a RTT for a while. I didn't want to get rid of the shell. Any replacement would cost me over $2k for just adding in a rack system. I tried to order a generic KargoMaster rack but apparently it was discontinued so my order got cancelled. I talked to the folks at KargoMaster and they sold me the mounting bases from one of their contractor racks. I figured I could fabricate from there. I picked up a tube joint cutter and went to work. I had to cut the camper shell skirt for the brackets to stick out but that ended up being pretty simple. I didn't like the rear bracket just bolting to the top of the bed frame so I welded an extension on the bracket and tied it into the rear bed post. I threaded the hole that is used for the factory cargo basket and bolted the bracket there. If anyone wants pics of that rear bracket, let me know.
I spent about a month with just the above done without having any time to work on the rack. Finally over the Christmas holiday I had some time to finish up the rack (mainly because the tent my wife got us for Christmas was delivered). Here are a few pics of the final rack build.
The first is just the primered rack in the driveway.
The second is the rack with the closed tent getting mounted. And if you look close you can see the maxtrax I got for Christmas, too. And you can see my junky 1987 thunderbird wannabe drag car on the side.
And the final tent and rack together awaiting install.
Well the forum is telling me that I've uploaded all the pics I can. So I'll put the final pics in the next post. Stay tuned.
JP
The first modification I made was to add Thule racks to it both on the cab and bed as we were doing a lot of Kayaking on the spring fed rivers in FL. I had followed Raul's thread on his 150 for a while and an open bed and rack SEEMED like a good idea. Thankfully I had a friend that got 40% off on Thule stuff so it wasn't a huge spend at the time. I think I got it all for around $600 which I considered a steal. Here is a shot with a kayak hanging out on top. We were actually cat fishing on this trip and I hooked into a big gator. After fighting it for about 45 minutes I just cut the line and went home.
Shortly after this we went on a trip to Kentucky where we are originally from. We were going up to do some offroad exploration of trails I hadn't run in over 20 years. White's Branch Arch in Powell County KY for those that know the area. The trails are closed to vehicles but are still open for hiking. It was 65 degrees the first day and then snowed 10" overnight. I was browsing craigslist (yes, I'm an addict) because it was too tough to hike in that amount of snow on steep hills. I came across an ARE camper shell for $500 about an hour away from where we were staying. We drove down to Somerset and picked it up. Thanks to the folks at Line-X of Somerset for a great camper at a great price. Having this weather hit in the middle of a trip was the end of the open bed. The west coast/desert folks can get away with an open bed but us Floridians (at the time) get daily rain. Open bed really wasn't a good option. Interestingly enough, the shell was manufactured on our wedding anniversary, July 27. So needless to say, it ain't going anywhere. Here is a shot of the shell right after it was mounted. Note that it didn't snow nearly as much an hour south in Somerset.
Shortly after this, we sold our home in Florida and moved to Bulverde, TX (North of San Antonio). As with all moves, it took a while to recover and not much happened with the truck for several months. Looking at the awful rake in the pics above, its obvious that something needed to happen with the suspension, tires, and wheels. I had always liked the subaru blue and gold theme and I found the Method Roost wheels in bronze and 18x9 with offset that would keep them tucked under the truck. I wanted the narrow track because the truck is huge enough to start with, especially on tight east coast trails. I ordered the wheels and a set of 295/70R18 general grabber X3 tires. I have to admit, I was watching a lot of Expedition Overland at the time and General's sponsorship strongly influenced my decision. Here are the tires and wheels mounted up.
Next I needed to find the right suspension to make the tires fit. After reading way too much and balancing the budget, I chose the Icon 2.5 non reservoir front coilovers. Strangely enough, I didnt take any pics of these or the install. But here's a pic of the tires/and wheels on the truck without the massive f150 factory rake.
My mom had some medical issues in the fall and we ended up driving back to KY for a few days. I never miss the opportunity to hit the woods so we did some of the Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway and visited Hollerwood Park. Here's a pic by the DBBB sign.
If you look close at the DBBB pic, you can see the start of my exo rack over the camper shell. I've been wanting to do a RTT for a while. I didn't want to get rid of the shell. Any replacement would cost me over $2k for just adding in a rack system. I tried to order a generic KargoMaster rack but apparently it was discontinued so my order got cancelled. I talked to the folks at KargoMaster and they sold me the mounting bases from one of their contractor racks. I figured I could fabricate from there. I picked up a tube joint cutter and went to work. I had to cut the camper shell skirt for the brackets to stick out but that ended up being pretty simple. I didn't like the rear bracket just bolting to the top of the bed frame so I welded an extension on the bracket and tied it into the rear bed post. I threaded the hole that is used for the factory cargo basket and bolted the bracket there. If anyone wants pics of that rear bracket, let me know.
I spent about a month with just the above done without having any time to work on the rack. Finally over the Christmas holiday I had some time to finish up the rack (mainly because the tent my wife got us for Christmas was delivered). Here are a few pics of the final rack build.
The first is just the primered rack in the driveway.
The second is the rack with the closed tent getting mounted. And if you look close you can see the maxtrax I got for Christmas, too. And you can see my junky 1987 thunderbird wannabe drag car on the side.
And the final tent and rack together awaiting install.
Well the forum is telling me that I've uploaded all the pics I can. So I'll put the final pics in the next post. Stay tuned.
JP
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