Alaskan on a 97 F250 4x4 Diesel
- Thread starter Motafinga
- Start date
colierar
Observer
Just went through all 14 pages. What a nice set up, seriously love the detail on the new bed. I might of missed it, because I didn't read every page(at work..skimming) but do you have a spare tire? I have a 77 Chevy 3/4 ton with a Jayco pop top and the truck used to have the spare mounted in the bed. I have the biggest guilt trip of not carrying a spare. I do have a nice compressor and a plug kit and AAA, but I just cant bring myself to buy all of the old mounting brackets to mount it under the bed because they hung down so low. I've also thought about making a hitch mount. Just wondering what fellow older truck guys are doing/using.
Thanks
Thanks
Motafinga
Adventurer
Thanks for the compliments! I do have a spare and it's in the stock mounting location under the bed. It just barely fits at 33', any bigger I'd have to re-locate it. I never seem to drag it even at stock ride height and if I did who cares it's a tire lol
Motafinga
Adventurer
Yeah keep it simple plus the weight is down low where you want it
Regcabguy
Oil eater.
My first impression of an Alaskan was at a semi remote Baja surfing spot. A guy pulled up in an F-250 with one mounted. The owner invited me in out of the wind and shared some beer. I thanked him and resolved to get one someday. Well almost,the Northstar has been good but a custom Alaskan w/6'6" headroom is on my bucket list.
Motafinga
Adventurer
Thought I'd pop in to say I've been getting plenty of use out of the rig. She's been pretty damn solid and we're really enjoying it. Lots of little mods here and there including a new rear folding moto hauler/porch thats 3 times lighter. I've been to Moab, Mojave rd, countless trips to the western and eastern sierra. I'm going to redo the ute bed mounts as they are long in the tooth and could use a redesign.
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givemethewillys
Jonathan Chouinard
Very nice, it looks perfect for your uses.
Mighty Dodge Ram
Explorer
Just finished re-reading the entire thread; great writeup and engineering. A 2002 Chevy 2500HD 4X4 may be in my future and I've always liked the idea of the utility bed with a pop up. I may shamelessly steal much of your build...please accept that as a compliment! :sombrero:
Nosferatu49534
Observer
Awesome its working out. 
ive been wondering about the build.
ive been wondering about the build.
Motafinga
Adventurer
Just recently re-worked the ute bed mounts and re-designed / re-enforced the way it all mounts to the frame. The beta version revealed some inherent flaws for the trucks intended uses. Because of how much the frame flexes and the bed doesn't, it was creating some ...conflict shall we say. I wanted to go through it all and create a way to spread the load with out too many attachment points between the bed and frame, the idea being to allow the bed to "float" as needed but still have plenty of support. On my last trip to Moab I had one of the forward mounts behind the drivers side of the cab collapse an inchas a 1 inch steel block punched through the c channel it was welded too! I had to do some fast McGyvering and luckily had a big 3/4x2x18 piece of steel intended as part of a sand anchor for winching handy and was able to create a "splint" to support the c channel holding up the bed. The problem was the previous owner had focused waay to much load in a small area. Being in a rush to finish the project didn't allow for the time to really go through the mounting system the way I originally should've.
Unlike the stock bed the Ute bed does not lay across the lengths of frame rail so to spread the load across more of the frame rail and still allow movement of the frame and bed interface I used pressure treated 4x4 beams of wood, in the forward part of the bed I have 2 -2 foot beams behind the steel frame mounts going along the frame rails I then lag bolted another 4x4 beam going across the width of the ute bed which lays across the frame rail beams. For an added support in rear part of the bed I used a beam lag bolted perpendicular to the frame rails on brackets that were used originally to support a fifth wheel hitch.
Anyway live n learn, the new set-up seems to be light years more solid and shows much less flex, noise, and general movement between the bed and cab and looks to be working as intended.
I did a bunch of off roading across NV, CO & NM to test it and fingers crossed she's good to go now!
It may not be as sexy as some of the 3 point pivoting, super engineered systems I've seen but sometimes keeping it simple and lightweight is just the ticket at least for me.
Unlike the stock bed the Ute bed does not lay across the lengths of frame rail so to spread the load across more of the frame rail and still allow movement of the frame and bed interface I used pressure treated 4x4 beams of wood, in the forward part of the bed I have 2 -2 foot beams behind the steel frame mounts going along the frame rails I then lag bolted another 4x4 beam going across the width of the ute bed which lays across the frame rail beams. For an added support in rear part of the bed I used a beam lag bolted perpendicular to the frame rails on brackets that were used originally to support a fifth wheel hitch.
Anyway live n learn, the new set-up seems to be light years more solid and shows much less flex, noise, and general movement between the bed and cab and looks to be working as intended.
I did a bunch of off roading across NV, CO & NM to test it and fingers crossed she's good to go now!
It may not be as sexy as some of the 3 point pivoting, super engineered systems I've seen but sometimes keeping it simple and lightweight is just the ticket at least for me.
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