97 Ford F 350 Camper/Adventure Build

[DesertDrifter]

Thanks for the heads up changingground. I was hoping the hollow core would help prevent against deflection and only mildly pushed the mfg span spec in my design thus far. My longest current span is 17 in with most under 16in.

I started laying up the main frame but then got called out of town for a mega work trip and am running out of time so my initial frame and detailed drawings are off to my talented friend Greg at Desolate Motorsports to do the bulk of the fabrication and keep me honest on my design (they're also way better welders then I am :sombrero...wishing I had the time/space to do this one on my own but there will be plenty of finish work to keep me busy.

 

[Conagher]

Hello DD,

In your first post you mentioned a removable camper(s). You computer rendering show two rear bumper pivot mounts for tires/etc. How do you plan to load and remove the camper with the rear mounts? I have a flat bed with a flat bed camper and in order to load or unload the camper the jacks and the requirement to drive the truck out from under the camper prevent any rear mounts unless they can be removed. Nice build.

R/
Conagher

 

[DesertDrifter]

Conagher great question, this was a concern for me. I'm using traditional wheel bearing bumper swing gate pivots mounted upside down to make them removable. I'll post some pics to clarify in the next few days.

Here's the start of the flatbed...excited to see it finally take shape.

We laid the frame first, wheel wells will come after the main structure is complete. There is a little sneak peak of my frame bracket design in the upper left.

The frame coming together...the new wheels will be a good bit wider in the rear...

Here's how we're going to do the wheel wells, I don't need a ton of up travel so keeping it fairly low...

More updates to come in a day or two...

 

[pappawheely]

Thanks for the heads up changingground. I was hoping the hollow core would help prevent against deflection and only mildly pushed the mfg span spec in my design thus far. My longest current span is 17 in with most under 16in.

I started laying up the main frame but then got called out of town for a mega work trip and am running out of time so my initial frame and detailed drawings are off to my talented friend Greg at Desolate Motorsports to do the bulk of the fabrication and keep me honest on my design (they're also way better welders then I am :sombrero...wishing I had the time/space to do this one on my own but there will be plenty of finish work to keep me busy.

Greg has done lots of work for me over the years, good choice of fabricators. The bed looks awesome.

 

[DesertDrifter]

pappawheely ya Greg is a legend and puts up with my oddball projects. In addition to being a great fabricator he has good design taste, functional layout sensibility and material knowledge. I'm lucky to have him work on my truck. He has contributed a ton to my initial design and came up with a bunch of great ideas to make the bed stronger and simpler to fabricate.

Few more photos of the bed coming together...

 

[changingground]

Wow, that looks very stout! Here's hoping you have all of the uptravel that you need.

 

[DesertDrifter]

More progress...

Here's the rear gate pivot setup Greg came up with. The bearing races are integrated into the bumper. Removing the castle nut allows for the removal of the gate.

Really digging all the bronco products that Desolate has been building, makes me want start a new build... https://desolatemotorsports.com/shop/

Planning on running there trophy bumper valance (https://desolatemotorsports.com/shop/bumpers/desolate-motorsports-bumper-valance-kit/) and may try and incorporate one of the roof racks (https://desolatemotorsports.com/shop/fabrication/desolate-motorsports-modular-roof-rack-coming-soon/)...

 

[DesertDrifter]

A bit more progress on the rear gates. I wanted to use toggle latches so we incorporated those as well as spring loaded pins to lock the gates. Here's a little video on the operation.

[video]https://youtu.be/YC9zJahMvi0[/video]

Because the truck will have different configurations I wanted to make the drivers side gate as flexible as possible so I decided to run L track on it to allow me to throw on whatever I need for a particular trip...Hi-Lift, Storage Box, Jerry or Moto Cans, Shovel, Propane, etc...

Here's a few sample pieces laid on to illustrate...

We capped off the frame with a pretty stout piece of box tube with hitch and two clevises (yet to be welded on). Its inset from the flat bed about 10 inches to allow me to swap on my custom stock long bed, but more to come on that later.

To remove the flatbed I came up with the idea of using 1.25 receiver tubing at each corner and four camper jacks...more to come on that in another post.

 

[Conagher]

I thought that was going to be your solution. Nicely executed!

 

[Pinnacle Campers]

Really like the removable rear gate pivots, and the whole idea of the tires attached to the truck rather than the box, and the box not having to carry the weight of the tires when mounted on the box, good thinking.

I used a similar application for the e track to attach things and I think I would have preferred to go with just a regular t-slot. Think about those specific accessories you posted a pic of previously and how to attach all the things you want, t-slot is a little more flexible in attaching things. Hope that makes sense, helps.

 

[pappawheely]

 

[FishAll50]

I'm really enjoying this build. Great great start and nice fab and design skills.

 

[BajaSurfRig]

Any updates on this?

 

[Spaceman spiff]

Wonder if there's any updates on this??