93 F-350 4x4 Flatbed.......Where To Go From Here?

[grotto]

Greeting all. Thought I'd jump into the fray here and post a few pics of my F-350, basic specs are in my signature. I bought the truck about 5 years ago and its only been used around the property, probably haven't even put 1,000 miles on it, shamefully, haven't even changed the oil.

Been thinking of expanding it's horizons but not yet sure just what I want to do with it. Leaning towards strapping an old 8' Alaskan camper to the bed with a couple full length boxes underneath. I live close to the Olympic Peninsula and would use the truck exploring the mountains here, don't know that I'd want to take it too far from home yet. All in all I think it would make a great platform.

The P.O. was a metal fabricator, who built the bed which is welded to the frame. He had a removable rack for it that was used to haul iron, consequently the rear springs are worn out. The gearing is way too tall so that too will need to be addressed. It also has a cracked exhaust manifold, fortunately the leak isn't too loud. Those are the majors, of course there are lots of little things. Has a new clutch, battery and ECU, always been reliable.

Would appreciate any thoughts, suggestions.

 

[SDDiver5]

That thing is sick!

 

[legendaryandrew]

Get some basic maintenance done, grab some gear and go explore. See where your limitations are, and adapt your setup.

 

[Korben]

Nice truck, for starters that's actually a rather unusual and desirable truck, a 5.8 and ZF5 combo is rare but even more so in an F350, good score.
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With you saying the "gearing is way too tall" there's a decent chance that you have 3.55s, Ford only offered 3.55 or 4.10 stock. So 3.55 is probably stock, there's an axle code on the door jamb sticker that will tell you. Good majority of 4WD F350s are 4.10s, making 3.55 D60s desirable. I bet if you look you'll be able to find someone willing to park their truck next to yours and swap everything 3.55 for everything 4.10.
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I don't think this site would mind me posting this. If you haven't already, join FTE(Ford Truck Enthusiasts). It's a good forum with a good group of Ford truck people. http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/index.php
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To bad the flatbed is welded on, that's unusual, are you sure? Options camper wise are near limitless, I'd start by cutting that rear bumper bar off though, that sucker's going to get you hung up.
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Where's the fuel filler? Do you have dual tanks?

 

[grotto]

Nice truck, for starters that's actually a rather unusual and desirable truck, a 5.8 and ZF5 combo is rare but even more so in an F350, good score.
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With you saying the "gearing is way too tall" there's a decent chance that you have 3.55s, Ford only offered 3.55 or 4.10 stock. So 3.55 is probably stock, there's an axle code on the door jamb sticker that will tell you. Good majority of 4WD F350s are 4.10s, making 3.55 D60s desirable. I bet if you look you'll be able to find someone willing to park their truck next to yours and swap everything 3.55 for everything 4.10.
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I don't think this site would mind me posting this. If you haven't already, join FTE(Ford Truck Enthusiasts). It's a good forum with a good group of Ford truck people. http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/index.php
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To bad the flatbed is welded on, that's unusual, are you sure? Options camper wise are near limitless, I'd start by cutting that rear bumper bar off though, that sucker's going to get you hung up.
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Where's the fuel filler? Do you have dual tanks?

Yep, 5.8, ZF5 with 3.55's according to the door jamb sticker. Originally 235/85/R16 tires, now 315/75/R16.

I was signed up at FTE, I'll have to check to see if my account is still active.

Took another look at the flatbed, it's welded to the frame at the rear and bolted at the front. Looks like it would be pretty easy to get at the welds if they needed to be cut. The bumper, if you can call it that, will eventually go. For now it's a handy step for climbing up on the bed. Dual tanks, I'll take some pics of the set up, it's quite comical but works.

 

[pappawheely]

I was curious when you said how the bed was mounted. The factory frames are so flexy. That flatbed gives you a lot of options.

 

[Korben]

I was curious when you said how the bed was mounted. The factory frames are so flexy....

Curious about that myself, if the flatbed is solid and solidly mounted it's very likely reducing the frame flex, I'd love to see some pics with this truck twisted up. However that might also cause a stress point at the front of the bed making a crack there more likely.

 

[underdrive]

Curious about that myself, if the flatbed is solid and solidly mounted it's very likely reducing the frame flex, I'd love to see some pics with this truck twisted up. However that might also cause a stress point at the front of the bed making a crack there more likely.

A nice solid-built steel flat bed can take nearly all the flex out of the frame. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially for hauling a camper. However, you are correct on the stress points - if a frame is to be deprived of flex it needs to be done to the whole frame, not just parts of it - basically either let the whole thing flex, or make sure none of it can, if the front half wants to do its thing while the rear half stays solid things are not looking good for the area in the middle (under the cab).

Tho on the other hand that is a regular cab truck so the length of frame rails that will try to flex (between the engine crossmember and the nose of the flat bed) is fairly short, those are some nice and tall frame rails too... So may not be as big of an issue as it seems initially. I'd say make sure the swaybars can get disconnected when leaving the paved roads - if they are loose the axles will move more, thus putting the frame under less stress.

All that aside, nice looking truck. Already got the Warn lockouts too! Not too crazy about them wheels, but that's easy enough to take care of if the owner so desires. 3.55s are pretty decent for factory tires with respect to traveling long distances, and the gas-engine ZF has a 5.72 first gear which is nice and low to allow some crawling (especially with the t-case in low range). Those big tires are messing things up tho, 4.10s would be more suitable for them. Tho personally I'd go down to 285s if possible - less stress on the brakes and axle shafts (and u-joints in the front), and better load rating. Then the 3.55s may be more manageable.

The plan that involves the Alaskan camper sounds pretty solid to me.

 

[Korben]

Those big tires are messing things up tho, 4.10s would be more suitable for them. Tho personally I'd go down to 285s if possible - less stress on the brakes and axle shafts (and u-joints in the front), and better load rating. Then the 3.55s may be more manageable.

F350 brakes and axle shafts easily handle large tires, no reason to worry there. I and many others roll 37s on bone stock heavily worked F350s.
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All else being equal larger tires have a higher load rating. Load rating is largely max PSI x contact area. A larger tire will have a larger contact area so with the same max PSI it will have a higher load rating. My 37x12.5s have a 3970lb rating at 65PSI, not many pickup tires of any size will beat that.
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[underdrive]

Without trying to pick fights or anything:

Larger tires diminish brake performance, based of laws of physics regarding leverage. Just cause your (and obviously many others') brakes still perform well enough doesn't mean I was wrong

The rear axle shafts are indeed not easy to break at all, the front ones also hold up well but the U-joints can be a suspect - mostly cause who knows what cheap junk the previous owner may have put in there if they ever did them. OEM joints in good shape, yeah, little worries there.

You may wanna double-check on the tires. 285s are generally rated higher than 315s. Dunno why, it's weird but it is what it is. Also, your tire size is different so whatever applies to it doesn't necessarily apply to 285s and 315s.

 

[Korben]

Without trying to pick fights or anything:

Larger tires diminish brake performance, based of laws of physics regarding leverage. Just cause your (and obviously many others') brakes still perform well enough doesn't mean I was wrong

The rear axle shafts are indeed not easy to break at all, the front ones also hold up well but the U-joints can be a suspect - mostly cause who knows what cheap junk the previous owner may have put in there if they ever did them. OEM joints in good shape, yeah, little worries there.

You may wanna double-check on the tires. 285s are generally rated higher than 315s. Dunno why, it's weird but it is what it is. Also, your tire size is different so whatever applies to it doesn't necessarily apply to 285s and 315s.

As long as you have enough brake to lock it up then you're all good, no better leverage or bigger brakes will do any good once the tires are skidding. I'll admit that when I'm loaded up I used to have a hard time locking up, not that I'd do it often. A hydroboost upgrade solved that and is IMO a MUCH better way to solve that problem.
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I'd have to look up all kinds of tires and compare on the 315s vs. 285s thing, not gunna. But best guess/assumption though is that many 285s are rated for 80PSI and 315s for 65PSI.
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[Seabass]

Grotto- I have a 97 crew cab F-350. I also have the 5.8 and ZF-5 tranny. It's a GREAT platform. My truck is very durable. I drive it every single day- did I mention it has 300,000 miles on it?! But, I have 4.10 gears. I'm always surprised by how strong it is considering the smallish motor. I had a F-250 once that had 3.55 gears. While I liked that truck -it was gutless and way to fast for crawling and lugging. And heavy loads weren't fun. You've got a sharp truck- a great platform. I promise it's worth the effort to drop 4.10's in it. Also, the 5.8 will like the 285's better on the highway (the 315's will pull it down). Back roads and off road 315's are fine- that's experience talking. I've owned and drove these trucks for years. I like what you got. I'm really jealous of your flat bed.

 

[IdaSHO]

Leaning towards strapping an old 8' Alaskan camper to the bed with a couple full length boxes underneath.

Do it

Or go a few steps further and do a complete retrofit to match the alaskan to the flatbed.

I did that years ago with our old nasty Bell camper.

Took lots of notes as we traveled, then built my custom camper.

Flatbeds provide a TON of options.

Although I doubt your flatbed does have the strength to limit the flex of the chassis too much.

Get the thing twisted up and take some measurements. You might be surprised at just how much it flexes as it sits.

The frame rails on that bed are not very tall. Less tall than even mine. And mine was/is VERY flexy.

So much so that mine rides on a 3-point pivot mounting system now, to allow the chassis to flex as the bed remains flat.

before 3-point. LOTS of flex

After a rebuild, and after 3-point pivot. Bed remains flat when truck is twisted up

 

[pappawheely]

I had some 245/75-R16, E rated tires on my truck that far exceeded the weight rating on my current 37-12.5-17 Falken Wildpeaks. They had a higher rating (the Wildpeaks are 3525 ea) but the ride quality and my confidence in them was never there. The sure-footedness of the bigger Wildpeaks makes a huge difference on the road and in the dirt, the truck feels very solid. I do a lot of off-road travel and the traction and floatation from the bigger tires is very noticeable. The truck is very stable and predictable and believe it or not, has no problem in sand and silt, even in two wheel drive without airing down. I would rather travel with less than have to run a smaller, E rated tire.

 

[IdaSHO]

Generally a wider tire will have a higher load rating.
I did that with our last change of tires. ent from a pizza cutter 235 Load E to a 265 load E
Load rating for the Toyos Im running now is more than 3400lbs @ 80PSI each IIRC.

As such, you can run at a lower PSI in all situations.

For us rolling heavy (10k) most of the time, running 60-65PSI instead of 70-75PSI is a nice change.

Road noise, rattles, and vibrations are all reduced. As such, so is driver fatigue.

If we are off the pavement for a duration, PSI is dropped to 45 or so.
Onboard air is a nice change as well :ylsmoke: