DRE's New FWC Project

[35xj]

Arya, I'm pretty happy with my grandby

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Dude, I feel like I am always one step behind you. First the utility body camper, now this. I guess I'm 2 steps behind you now since I didn't go the enclosed trailer route haha. I've been doing a ton of research on FWCs and ATCs various flatbed options. I've got a '15 F250 CCLB that I want to do very similar things to, although I think I would go with the Granby or equivalent from ATC.

Haha, that's funny. Great minds I guess? For what it's worth, I was envious of how much further you took your utility body than I ever did mine. I'm sure the same will happen with the truck in time.

Today's work was on the truck bed. The new bed will be here on Thursday, so it was time for the old one to come off. Luckily, the original bed was taken off shortly after I bought the truck, and this bed was just put on as a temporary to get it through inspection and allow me to drive it around. As such, the bolts all came out very easily, and with the help of the lift, it it was off in about 1.5hrs.

The naked truck. Tomorrow will be spend taking off the bumper and getting the wiring ready for the new flatbed.




On the trailer on the way to it's new home thanks to Craigslist. (yes, I transitioned it to the car for the 30 mile trip to the new owners house, the but mower was easier for move it around the garage)




More updates on Thursday after the flatbed and front bumper arrive.

Don

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[HMT]

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The round wheel well and side with the incorporated boxes is awesome looking. Very smooth aesthetic for a flatbed. Looking forward to seeing it installed. :drool:

 

[elmo_4_vt]

So I'm trying to find the easiest way to mount a rear winch plate on the back of this. I'm not sure that the hitch is even the correct height at this point, but I'll want the winch mounting plate to be as close to it as possible. I'm not going to be mounting a huge winch in the back, maybe even just a 5k unit to help with small things. My main question is, what is the best way to mount the plate? The one thing I need to be sure of is that I don't compromise the strength of the hitch. I was hoping I could just put a few beads between the plate and the tube steel of the hitch, but I don't think that is going to work because it will cover up the mounting holes. Would it be adequate to use a U-bolt type arangement to clamp it to the hitch?



Any thoughts are appreciated.

Don

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[elmo_4_vt]

Also, the existing mounts for the back up sensors won't be able to be used on the new bed. The angles on the sensor holders point down, so I won't be able to use them on the flat vertical surface of the new bed. Does anyone know of generic sensors or sensor mounts that will work with the stock setup? Below are a couple pictures of the factory setup.





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[elmo_4_vt]

Couple more pictures of the trailer. Almost finished.

Front with the spare tire holder:




The roof rack:




Last of the rear lights being cut in:




Don

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[elmo_4_vt]

Flatbed and new ARB bumper followed the Suby home today from Main Line Overland. I swear that place is better than a candy store, so many fun toys.








Should have my work cut our for me this weekend trying to start the fitment process. The frame has a 2" bump at the rear axle. I'm trying to figure out if I want to cut the flatbed frame to clear the hump, or add a spacer to lift the bed up over the hump, or some combination. Obviously, I want it to sit as low as possible to keep the CoG down and to keep the height above the cab minimized. Since I didn't have much time tonight, I'll have to spend some more time this weekend looking at all the measurements.






More to come...

Don

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[2012Taco]

Hey man, check your email - I sent something over earlier this week about the hitch and sensors.

By the way, nice choice on the ARB, bring back anything else from MLO other than the bed and bumper?

 

[Arya Ebrahimi]

Arya, I'm pretty happy with my grandby

Good to know. The flatbed options are very tempting for the increased floor space and efficient use of space(no wasted space in the bedsides). Let me know when you wanna let yours go for what you have in it

Haha, that's funny. Great minds I guess? For what it's worth, I was envious of how much further you took your utility body than I ever did mine. I'm sure the same will happen with the truck in time.....


Don

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Don, I honestly wish I had taken the trailer further. I still have it and may "finish" it if only for the purpose of increasing its value in order to sell it. It's very functional, just doesn't look like anything.

Excited to follow along for the rest of the build.

 

[Vegastoy]

This is gonna be sweet when it's all done! 03 is the 1/2 year for 7.3 and 6.0. Since you were preferring the 7.3 I'm assuming that's what you got if not disregard most of the following. I used to own a 2001 it was a great truck! First mod I would do is a set of gauges, most importantly an egt gauge. Check out the edge insight cts it's what I have in my dodge and it's been really good and easy to install. As far as intake goes the napa filter adapted to the stock intake tube was the best filtering and best flowing setup. Plus you can get a replacement filter just about anywhere. 4" turbo back exhaust and some tunes from beans deisel or other reputable company would really wake it up. I would do those mods before you regear I think you will find it unnecessary. Especially considering the light weight setup your putting together. The only issue you might have are the egts getting high if your lugging the motor pulling a grade. Just take it out of o/d to get the Rpms up and the egts will drop. I would also install a nice external transmission filter and look into a shift kit upgrade for the transmission. Good luck with it and enjoy!

 

[elmo_4_vt]

... Since you were preferring the 7.3 I'm assuming that's what you got if not disregard most of the following. I used to own a 2001 it was a great truck! First mod I would do is a set of gauges, most importantly an egt gauge.

Thanks Vegas, Yes, it's a 7.3. And based on the comments you, and most others have given, I'm going to wait to regear until I see how everything else go. For now, I'm just going to get the 4" exhaust, and intake (either like you described or an AFE) and a tuner with a mild tune. I wasn't going to get the full guage stack for the A-Pillar, but will at least get the single gauge for the EGT. Once I see how it pulls hills towing the truck and trailer, I'll see how I soon I want to tackle the re-gear. I would love to be able to pull most hills without lugging or down shifting and I'm OK with loosing top end, but we'll see.

As for today's progress, it was a little slow due to the amount if figure'n going on. Good news is that it's all mapped out with the exception of the gas fill neck. The gas fill neck has to be moved back about 24" from it's stock location. That means I'm going to have to get kind of fancy. We're thinking that a 1" piece of exhaust pipe bent with two 90's should do the trick, but it's going to be a bit of a pain to fit in there. Other than that, we've decided to clearance the flat-bed frame to account for the 1.5" hump in the truck frame at the axle. I'll probably bolt some additional 1/4" allum. angle back in for additional strength, but I'm not sure it's even necessary. Doing it this way, the top of the front storage box will be about 1" above the truck roof. Then the camper will sit about 1" above that, making the gap pretty minimal. The top of the truck is about 48.5" above the frame. I also think that will make the flat-bed a lot more secure on the frame.






One of the issues this does bring up is that the frame has all the press rivets on the top surface for the cross members, and setting the bed on there would have been an issue with it resting on the rivets, or having to clearance the flat-bed frame in about 10 places. Additionally, because of the width of the frame rails, and the flat-bed frame, I wasn't happy with how it was going to sit. This part will be easier to see in pictures, but basically, the weight of the entire flatbed/load would be resting on the flange of the flat-bed C-channel. The outside dimension of C-channel is only about 1/8" less than truck frame, and due to the radius of the truck frame, the web of the flat-bed C-channel would have been floating in air. Wasn't happy with that, so we came up with the idea to weld some 1/4" flat steel on the frame to give us the clearance for the rivets, and make the mating surface nice and flat.






I'll finish making all the modifications to the frame tonight, and start on making up the wiring harness from the old bed wiring tomorrow. Here are a couple pictures of the frame, just because I had a hard time finding ANY pictures of the undersides of these. I have to admit, the quality of the build seems very good. All hardware is through bolted. All the welds look good quality. Time will tell how it holds up, but really happy after spending a day looking it over.






I've decided to add an additional stop/turn light on each side and will be using a 17" LED bar. Should give a good bid of extra visibility.




Once I can get the metal bent for the gas tank fill, I should be in business.

 

[IdaSHO]

Thats a great looking bed.

How are you mounting it to the chassis?

Are you accounting for chassis flex at all?

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Thats a great looking bed.

How are you mounting it to the chassis?

Are you accounting for chassis flex at all?

Thanks! I can't wait for it to come together. I'm ready to start using it.

The bed mounts to the chassis with U-bolts. I wasn't aware of that, but they say that's how they've been doing it for a lot of years with no issues. They only sent me 4 u-bolts, and I have plenty of room to due at least 6, so will be going back for those at least.

For chassis flex, I would love to do a system like I've seen others due with the rear flexible mount, but that would require me to make my own bed, which I don't have the time/skill to do. Also, I'm afraid that making it from alum. would be tough due to strength issues and probably wouldn't save that much weight, which is important to me on this build. I thought about doing a spring system, but that too would require a good bit of additional alum fab, that I don't have the tools for (tig or spool gun for my MIG). If it was all steel, I could do it, but it would be more time consuming than I can afford right now. Overall, I don't think I'll do much more technical terrain than forest service roads. With the bed adding some additional strength, and the camper being constructed to be able to flex with a stock bed (that would flex more than this will), I didn't feel the it was worth it. Maybe next build? haha.

 

[elmo_4_vt]

Also, a couple pictures of the trailer. It's pretty much finished with the exception of a few punch list items. He is going to lift it a couple inches for me, and the gaskets for the rear lights mounted in the vertical members stick out (not sure what he can do about that, but maybe just add a thin alum bar there to cover). I can't wait to pick it up and start building that up too. I'll have to get some opinions on the kitchen design for it.








Don

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[IdaSHO]

Thanks! I can't wait for it to come together. I'm ready to start using it.

The bed mounts to the chassis with U-bolts. I wasn't aware of that, but they say that's how they've been doing it for a lot of years with no issues. They only sent me 4 u-bolts, and I have plenty of room to due at least 6, so will be going back for those at least.

Be sure to insulate/isolate the aluminum bed from the steel chassis, somehow.

If you dont galvanic corrosion will most likely be an issue.