2001 F350 Pop Up Build

[Umtaneum]

My 17 year old son and I are headed out to Alaska next summer. After a trip to the West coast of Vancouver Island this year, while hauling my old bigfoot camper and towing a heavy jet boat, I decided my setup was not really adequate for long distances on soft roads.

I started off thinking I wanted a heavier truck. I drove a couple of Unimogs, and I fell in love with a 1300L. However much I love it, it's never going to do more than 60 on the freeway and it's tough to get more than 165 hp out of it, so while it is certainly a heavy enough truck for anything I would ever want to do with it, it's awesome off-road capabilities don't make up for it's shortfalls at this point in my life. When I was a kid we hauled 3 horses all over the NW and camped out of a '47 chevy 2 1/2 ton moving van conversion. I have DONE Blewett Pass at 25mph, and I don't think I'm ready to go back to that. Maybe in a few years when I will hopefully have more time for adventures and not have to be in such a hurry to get there all the time.

Then I started looking at F550's and Kodiak 5500's. We use both of these in our construction business, so I am familiar. A 2002 or earlier F550 with super singles would do the job just fine. Likewise with a late model Kodiak or Top Kick. I like the Duramax and the 7.3 Powerstroke both a whole lot. I was looking at setting the truck up for a 11 or 12 foot hard side camper, probably a Host similar to the one my dad has. Money was the stopper here, while I can afford to go this way it would eat up all of my disposable income for the next couple of years and severely limit what I could actually DO with the new rig.

So then I came around to the idea of doing more with the truck I have. Instead of keeping my load the same and doubling the payload capacity of the vehicle, what about keeping the truck the same while cutting the LOAD in half?

I had an old StarCraft popup for quite a while, I eventually gave it to my brother about 8 years ago when my dad gave me his old Bigfoot and bought a brand new Host. It never fit any of my F350's right, the interior layout sucked, and the roof assembly didn't work right from the day I bought it brand new. However, it was low profile, weighed about 1400 lbs wet, provided enough sleeping space for my young family until my kid got too tall for the miniscule dinette, was warm in the winter with a great furnace, and gave me a spot to get a hot shower after hunting all day. We used the Hell out of that thing, on and off road. Nostalgia for the old popup set in, and I decided to give that way of soft road and off road travel another try.

The current truck setup: 2001 F350 Crew cab long bed. 7.3L Powerstroke with an automatic.
Engine mods: some sort of tuner that was on the truck when I bought it. Banks cat-back exhaust. K&M filter.
Trans mods: High performance gear cluster, valve body, and torque converter. Added right after I bought the truck, when the transmission failed. I figured since I had to replace all of these, go as heavy as I can so they won't break again. Ever.
Body and suspension mods: 3 1/2" leveling kit in front. Airlift with onboard air in back (just added this before the Vancouver Island trip and I just love it). Front receiver hitch set up for my old Warn HD9000. Unfortunately the winch and carrier seem to have disappeared out of my warehouse, so I probably have to buy a new winch unless the old one turns up somewhere.
Tires: 35" Toyo MT's.

Last night I sent off the deposit check to Phoenix campers in Denver for a custom 9'3" popup. I'll post more details later but mainly it's customized for two really tall guys to be able to get around in it. 6'7" headroom, extra long dinette for the kid, extra long cabover section for me, oversized shower/head compartment. Camper should be ready for pickup in January. A good excuse for a road trip and to go see some cousins in Denver and Salt Lake City. I might even get my dad to come along for the ride to see the cousins.

I'm going to be adding an inverter, some charging ports for electronics, some auxiliary lighting and possibly some sort of motorcycle carrier to haul the dirt bike. Also a 60 gallon Titan fuel tank for more range. Any advice or warnings about how to add this stuff, brands to stay away from, etc. would be appreciated.

I'll post pictures if I can just figure out how. Internets are not my strongest point.

 

[Umtaneum]

Why can't I put spaces between paragraphs? My post above looks like it was written in one run-on sentence. I swear it didn't look that way when I hit "submit". Sorry.

 

[redthies]

Looks fine to me. As for posting pics, get a "photobucket" account (google it), and then upload your pics to photobucket. Then click on the URL (description code under the pic), then copy and paste that into your posts. It's actually quite simple. I even figured it out after a couple of tries!

Your plan sounds good too. Most times lighter IS better. Looking forward to seeing your new Phoenix!

 

[Czechsix]

This should be good, very interested in seeing what you come up with.

Funny thing here - wife and I are planning on doing an Alaskan run within the next few years, and then spending some extended time on the road, camping out and exploring. And then this thread pops up.

We'll be using the truck I have - a '99 F350, CCLB 4x4 auto. First thing I'm going to do is go get a Woods transmission installed, then go through all U-joints and ball joints, then do the front spindle mod. Then see if injectors still working ok, do the harness, o-rings for the turbo pedestal, and probably a custom UMP intake and snorkel. A mild lift is in the plans, which one I don't know yet, and possibly it might be flatbedded. Air springs, wheels/tires undecided as of yet. Planning on a side entrance popup camper, but still need to preserve as much tow capacity as possible, to drag around the damned Suburban off road truck (and that sucker easily goes 10K by itself).

I did the Unimog thing too, when I was single. Can't do it now, even with a U1300l and superfast axles. Maybe if we move up to Alaska it'd work, but not now. I keep telling myself there's a reason I got rid of the 'mogs, and went with this over built Suburban...have to stay focused.

IAC, gonna watch your thread!

 

[bob91yj]

I work at a GMC dealership. I have not been impressed with the Titan fuel tanks that I have seen. At least on GM products they start to sag at both ends over time. I have a Transfer Flow 45 gallon replacement tank in my shortbed DMax (whoever decided that a 26 gallon tank in a truck was adequate, was an idiot). It's "aluminized steel" construction, what ever that is, it has held up well. The only thing I don't like is there is no sump in it. With the long flat bottom on the tank, I'm not certain how much of the 45 gallons is usable. The most I've ever had to put in it was 40 gallons.

I chased the 1000 for Pflueger one year, and chose the Transfer Flow tank for my truck as it was the choice of Pflueger Racing for their Baja 500/1000 chase trucks. I know what chase trucks go through, especially when the driver has no financial interest in the vehicle.

 

[Umtaneum]

I have an old home built dog trailer in storage in the barn. We used to haul our setters all over the country in it, often times with a rowboat on the rack on top. I also had a Thule cargo box on the rack for a couple of years, until it beat itself to death on a chukar trip to Idaho one year. Small tires, leaf springs, and too many two track roads did it in. Trying to fit everything I am going to want to take along into the popup was giving me a headache, then last night I got the bright idea to rebuild that thing, with bigger tires and eliminating one of the dog boxes to make a slide-out kitchen module like a lot of the cool ones I see on here.
Bob91yj, I am going to do more research into auxiliary tanks for the Ford. It looks like it has mounting straps near both ends, does the GM one only strap near the middle? If I figure out an alternate location for the spare, I could put one of those 35 gallon round tanks there.
Czechsix, how many miles on the '99? I ask because of the injectors. This is my fourth 7.3, the first one was mechanical injection but the last 3 have been the "powerstroke". On every one the injectors have went out somewhere between 200k and 240k. I generally run them between 320 and 400 thousand, then find another one with low miles. Turbochargers usually go somewhere around 300k.

 

[Czechsix]

UM - right now, 189k on it, which is why I was figuring on those things that'll be needed. Might be doing them a bit early, but I'd rather not have the hassle of having problems in the middle of nowhere. If I can get another 200K out of her, I'll be happy.

Then I'll drop a Cummins in

Thanks for the info on approximate fail mileage for various things, good to know.

 

[Umtaneum]

Mine has 178k on it right now, by the time we leave for Alaska it will probably be over 200k. I'll most likely do the injectors before we go.

I live at the end of a couple of miles of rough gravel and dirt road. I seem to go through a set of shocks pretty much every year. Some sort of gas charged shocks, and all new urethane bushings are in my immediate future.

 

[Czechsix]

Even though I dropped some coin a while back on the "really nice Monroe's"...got two blown right now, and I'm not going back to them. I'll have to dig through some of the forums to see what the suggestions are, but I'm thinking just regular OTC shocks, and just plan on replacing them. I'm never going racing (at least in this truck), don't need extreme shock performance, and have no interest in shiny things.

I'm still waffling on flatbed or not, lol.

 

[Umtaneum]

Dropped a week's pay today on a shiny new Warn Zeon 10k winch, and a CSI receiver basket. Picked it up at Billy Bob's Offroad in Milton, Wa., and they beat the best deal I saw online. Not only that, they helped me mount it up right there in the store and didn't charge me for it. I'll try to get a picture up this weekend. Tomorrow a bunch of us are doing a volunteer project with the USFS, and we need a truck with a winch to stretch new elk fence. One guy who always brings a truck with a winch can't make it, the other guy's truck is broken and he is driving his wife's SUV. I had planned on waiting until later in the year to buy the new Zeon, but events overtook me.

 

[Czechsix]

Nice catch on the winch, 10k is pretty light though, isn't it?

I've more or less decided I've got to get rid of the F350, GVWR rating just doesn't cut it for what I want it to do now. Looking at F550's and similar...heck, even looking at Fuso's. I'll fix up the F350, and then she goes on the market.

 

[Umtaneum]

I was just about to pull the trigger on a F550 when the sticker shock drove me back to trying to stay within my current GVWR, so I feel your pain. There is a pretty solid Fuso for sale in Auburn, Wa. About $16k. You'd be looking at a total cab-back build, however. A major project.

 

[Czechsix]

Yep, it's a choker, for sure.

But what's your GVWR? Mine's under 10k, which sounds good....but translates to a 1600# or so payload cap. By the time I get a decent bed, camper, supplies, dogs, and pesky humans on board, I'm well over GVWR for my '99. The other aspect is that we'll be almost full timing, heading out for 2-3 months at a time, possibly longer. Much of the time boondocking it (hopefully).

Got a link for that Fuso? Or is it on CL?

 

[Umtaneum]

It's on commercial truck trader and the truck paper. The Truck Store in Auburn is the dealer. I drove it, I couldn't find anything wrong with it other than some mild body damage and the typical Fuso gutlessness.

My truck weighs almost exactly 8000# with me in it and a full tank of fuel. With my old Bigfoot, dog, shotguns, fishing gear, blah blah blah I was right at or a little above the 9900# GVWR. I am pulling about 750# out of that with the popup. I'll probably make it up with additional tankage. With the airbags and tires, I should be fine. Certainly better off than I have been for the last several years. The previous truck, a couple of F350's back now actually, with the old StarCraft popup, didn't even seem to feel it on there. That was with no lift, no airbags, and less tires than I am running now. It seemed like just enough weight to make the thing ride decently. The 2001 rides better than the 1997 did, anyhow, so that might not be so much the case now.

 

[LovinPSDs]

Just jumping in here because I wanna see this camper! I was in on Tera Ops slide out pop up and I'm interested to see what ya'll come up with. Any designs thus far??