Alaskan on a 97 F250 4x4 Diesel

[Motafinga]

Next was to do the "guide plates" these are 3/8 plate and keep the SF centered over the truck frame yet allow it to slide and articulate up and down.
The springs keep everything clamped down during normal driving and can be adjusted to control flex etc, these are "die springs" available in tons of sizes and rates from McMaster Carr

Yes I use recycled steel whenever possible, thats shytes expensive!! ? ??

 

[Motafinga]

More mounting tabs I put on in front and rear using big angle to bolt through the floor.

 

[Nosferatu49534]

Looks great.


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[Motafinga]

Got the truck home now from the shop I've been using for fabbing and welding the big stuff so I can get some of the smaller details dialed before it gets some final fitment and re-installation. Next was to fit up the pieces that go between the guide plates and the subframe rails that ride on top of the truck frame. I was originally going to use Oak board for the rails but decided to go another route and use a marine grade HDPE plastic as the "wear strip" as it should hopefully never wear out, shrink, swell, rot ,crack etc.. I definitely do not want metal on metal contact between any of the articulating bits of the chassis and SF.
The trucks frame has a slight downward slope where the SF rails rest so I needed to make the wear strip have a taper to let the SF sit flat. I didn't take pics but found a tool that has an adjustable fence for cutting tapers on my table saw. Cutting plastic this way makes one hell of a mess and wish I'd rigged up some kind vacuum to suck it up as I cut it! The end result was worth it though

 

[Motafinga]

Next was some 1/4 pieces of HDPE for the guide plates, the subframe now sits nice n snug between the guide plates but not too snug to inhibit movement up and down.
I needed a way to keep the wear strips fastened and came up with a solution of using long "quick release" hose clamps that wrap around the frame rail.The idea here is to make everything serviceable while it's all assembled. I routed some shallow reliefs for the hose clamps to sit in and milled some slots into the guide plates so the clamps can slide between the plate and frame.
I have some long rivets coming to fasten the plastic to the guide plates in the area that doesn't contact the sliding parts, You cannot use any kind of adhesive or glue with this type of plastic so all fastening needs to be mechanical type.

 

[Motafinga]

Looks great.


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Thanks!

Now that the updates are in real time here's another progress update, Today I decided to add some downward extensions to spread the load down the whole frame rail instead of a smallish area. I used some 3/8 X 2 bar and 1.5 I beam type C channel. I think this will significantly add strength without point loading that area.
Oh and I cleaned off the surface rust from it sitting outside this whole time and gave it a coat of primer which felt great to do!

 

[BajaSurfRig]

@Motafinga excited to see how your mounting system works out.

I would love to pick up a utility bed and modify it to fit my FWC.

How much did your subframe end up raising the height of the utility bed and camper?

 

[Motafinga]

@Motafinga excited to see how your mounting system works out.

I would love to pick up a utility bed and modify it to fit my FWC.

How much did your subframe end up raising the height of the utility bed and camper?

I definitely recommend you do some kind of torsion free subframe if you pick one up. I think you will need to do a lot of modifying to make it fit a FWC as the campers I've seen from them have a side section that extends over the wheel wells so you'd need to trim that out and re-box it in, similar to what I did in the rear of the bed. Nice thing is the sub frame shouldn't raise the height at all since it goes in the cavity of the bed..

 

[BajaSurfRig]

@Motafinga thanks for the info, these OBS frames flex alot.

Keep posting updates I plan on trying to to mimic what you are coming up with, it looks solid!!

 

[Motafinga]

@Motafinga thanks for the info, these OBS frames flex alot.

Keep posting updates I plan on trying to to mimic what you are coming up with, it looks solid!!

Cool please feel free to ask any questions you might have about the conversion.
Tackled a clearance issue with the E brake cable interfering with the springs. Turned out to be an easy fix as the bracket has plenty of room to drill a couple relocating holes outboard of the originals and there was a little slack to be had in the cables to compensate.

 

[Motafinga]

Did a little testing the other day to make sure everything's working as planned and to make sure there is no binding or other surprises and see how much spring compression is happening etc, etc
Living in a city means I had to get creative about finding obstacles to simulate off road scenarios, and deal with some confused looks from people lol.
The pics show how much the SF is articulating under mild single wheel off camber scenarios, Once I have wheel ramps and the forklift next week I can simulate more extreme scenarios. So far it's working smoothly.

 

[Motafinga]

A few action shots from our trip to Anza Borrego last November before she came apart, love that area can't wait to see it again.
Gotta keep in perspective why I spend countless hours, measuring, cutting, grinding and welding pieces of steel together..

 

[Herbie]

Did a little testing the other day to make sure everything's working as planned and to make sure there is no binding or other surprises and see how much spring compression is happening etc, etc
Living in a city means I had to get creative about finding obstacles to simulate off road scenarios, and deal with some confused looks from people lol.
The pics show how much the SF is articulating under mild single wheel off camber scenarios, Once I have wheel ramps and the forklift next week I can simulate more extreme scenarios. So far it's working smoothly.

Looks great.

Also, "Urban Flex Test" is the name of my Right Said Fred cover band...

 

[Motafinga]

Over the last 3 days we've been in overdrive mode since our business has shut down due to the Covid 19, we have no desire to sit around in our apartment for 3 weeks under shelter in place so we are prepping to bug out to the Mojave and shelter in place there with a bit of open space.
After doing some final fitment to the attachment points of the SF to the bed and a bunch of little stuff, we were ready to flip the bed over using the forklift. We didn't get pics of that cause it demands a lot of focus to not screw up! Once the bed was in place it was a simple matter of hooking up some HD ratchet straps to lift it up and pull the truck back under, it takes some trial and error to line up 8 bolt holes but it wasn't too bad.
So far it's been a success and we can't wait get outta dodge and start using the rig again, next pics will be a bit more...Scenic!

 

[BajaSurfRig]

@Motafinga Your SF looks really solid. Curious to see how it performs on this shakedown trip.

Where did you source those blue and red springs from? Also how did you determine what springs to use and why different ones?

I am always on the prowl for a utility bed similar to yours... hopefully one pops up soon!!

Also out of curiosity have you done any maintenance on the 7.3 recently and how many miles are you at now? Mine has been nickle and diming me recently....