Alaskan on a 97 F250 4x4 Diesel

[Motafinga]

The subframe is working great so far and we've done a bit of off-pavement too. First stop was Spangler Hills outside Ridgecrest, CA for a couple days. We met up with a buddy who had been out there for a few days after also escaping the bay area and the Covid shelter in place mandate.We had a great couple days chilling out and also riding some trails on the MTB's. Once we were ready to move on we got a few supplies in Ridgecrest and headed out to Tronas Pinnacles for a couple days, which was also great and we had a nice time exploring the ancient Calcium formations and more MTBing. Next was Death Valley, we said goodbye to our buddy who had to head into Pahrump, NV for some new tires and we headed towards Eureka Dunes. En-route I developed a problem with the brakes and lost a lot of brake pressure, we took it easy the rest of the way to the dunes and made it safely and found a nice boondock near the dunes. We didn't have cell svc but I do have a Garmin In-reach so I was able to have my buddy in Pahrump find a shop in Bishop that could look at our truck. Here we sit now in a Motel around the corner awaiting to hear what's up. At least these old trucks are generally easy to find parts for, so fingers crossed!
I'll up-load pics later my pics are being weird right now

edit- Just got news it was a Master Cylinder which I suspected and is gonna be done today for 200 bucks..Stoked!!

 

[Motafinga]

@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....

The springs I got from McMaster Carr, they are called "die springs" and seem to be what other people use for this kind of application. The colors are indicative of rate, the red is a stiffer spring and the blue is lighter. I used the red ones nearest the rigid mount and the blue after because the amount the SF wants to flex away from the truck chassis is greater towards the front so I wanted to make it progressively lighter. The stiffer spring is closer to the rigid mount to help keep things clamped tight when your just going over bumps and stuff, you don't want too loose our it might bounce. I went with a 4.5 inch on the blue and have a 6x1/2 grade 8 bolt going through the springs. The red is a chopped down 6 inch spring and is about 3.5 now, I can tune pre-load of the spring by tightening the bolt/nut.
This is just a baseline starting point for me and I may end up trying different springs and settings but so far it seems to be working as designed.
Truck has mostly been solid for me but it is an old truck that's going to need stuff from time to time...see previous post! So far I've done the ICP (fuel pressure sensor) Glow plug relay, power brake vaccum pump (bearing had seized and exploded!) and a bunch of little things mostly maintenence items. My truck has 210k now and runs excellent, I had an oil analysis done recently and they said it's in great shape.
Always carry a "Cam position sensor" in your glove box. If your truck wont start and the tach isn't moving when you crank it, it's out!

 

[Motafinga]

Pics!!
Spangler Hills

 

[Motafinga]

Pinnacles

 

[Motafinga]

Eureka Dunes

 

[Motafinga]

Hope everyone is staying healthy and safe right now, we've been staying as isolated as possible and sticking to backcountry camping (as usual) so unless we're getting supplies we haven't really seen people much. We've been poking around S. Utah mostly, taking in the always incredible scenery and seeing places that have been on our list for awhile.
Except for the brake issue the trucks been very solid, however the shop in Bishop failed miserably at resolving our issue and the lazy mechanic just spun out the rear drum adjuster to compensate for a soft pedal after the newly installed master failed to give a firm pedal..so they sent me down the road only to have the pedal go away again a day later just a few miles from the north rim of the Grand Canyon! Closer inspection on my part revealed that the hardware holding the brake shoes in had failed and was causing the weak pedal and also floating around and jamming up one pad wearing it almost paper thin ... Amazingly I had cell service on the rim and was able to find the parts at a Napa in nearby Kanab UT. After fixing it my-self in the Napa parking lot the next day we were good to go. I got the owner of the shoddy shop in Bishop to give me (Napa) half my $$ back over the phone, he shoulda given me a full refund...oh well I'm just glad it's finally fixed.
Today the Subframe really got put to the test rolling through Smokey Mountain Rd in Grand StairCase Escalante on our way to Lake Powell where we now sit over looking the lake. It seems all the hard work has paid off and the truck is performing beautifully over the more techie stuff...
Pics are being slow to upload but heres a couple of the brake saga

 

[Nosferatu49534]

Glad you got the breaks fixed. It sucks that there are so many shady mechanics out there.

Definitely been some beautiful scenery you’ve been posting up though.


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[Motafinga]

More S. Utah highlight pics!
in no particular order

 

[Chorky]

Awesome looking work! I must say I pretty much came to the same conclusion you have with the subframe. Looking forward to seeing how it handles over some time.

 

[YnotDIY]

Hey @Motafinga really awesome build! Curious what your payload capacity is with that f250. Thinking on getting an F350 but after seeing your build I'm thinking I could possibly go down a size. Again fantastic build, really dig those burned drawers, cool touch.

Cheers

 

[Motafinga]

Hey @Motafinga really awesome build! Curious what your payload capacity is with that f250. Thinking on getting an F350 but after seeing your build I'm thinking I could possibly go down a size. Again fantastic build, really dig those burned drawers, cool touch.

Cheers

Thanks! My truck has a payload of 2600 lbs , I’m not sure of an OBS F350 although the biggest difference in the 2 is that the 350 has a solid front axle, mine has a D50. That said my truck handles the weight fine and drives great. If you get a 250 with a D50 I would highly recommend replacing the Rubber pivot bushings with polyurethane ones, once I did that( as well as new ball joints and tie rods) just about everything people complain about with these axles was rectified and it holds alignment very well.

 

[YnotDIY]

@Motafinga Thanks so much for the helpful info. I really do appreciate it! This will be my first build and I've decided to go the direction of the Subframe you built that's spring loaded. Looks like a great design! The truck I'm looking at is a 93 f350 with a Dana70 rear and a Dana60 front axle my current plan is to delete the bed and fully build out a camper on the back. I'm very stoked to get started and your build has been an inspiration. Thanks for taking the time to share it!

 

[Motafinga]

@Motafinga Thanks so much for the helpful info. I really do appreciate it! This will be my first build and I've decided to go the direction of the Subframe you built that's spring loaded. Looks like a great design! The truck I'm looking at is a 93 f350 with a Dana70 rear and a Dana60 front axle my current plan is to delete the bed and fully build out a camper on the back. I'm very stoked to get started and your build has been an inspiration. Thanks for taking the time to share it!

Good luck with your build, there is some good info in this book and a chapter on different types of torsion free subframes. Build your Own Overland Camper manual (Haynes Manuals) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1785210769/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_45tlGUtf1Ao4N[/QUOTE]

 

[Nailhead]

Moto, you’re doing the same things I’m planning to do with a similar buildout— I love it!

I was in the process of setting this:

On this:

when The Plague hit. One more month, and we would have had it drivable after almost two years of work.

I’ve gotten some good ideas from this thread— thank you!


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[givemethewillys]

Moto, you’re doing the same things I’m planning to do with a similar buildout— I love it!

I was in the process of setting this:

On this:

when The Plague hit. One more month, and we would have had it drivable after almost two years of work.

I’ve gotten some good ideas from this thread— thank you!


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I want to read the thread on this one!