Ford F550 build questions

boogie944

New member
I am looking to make a Expedition camper inspired by Earthroamer without the cost of an Earthroamer and with added ability to store mountainbikes indoors (upright without wheels).

I am thinking of a new or recent F550 4x4 chassis cab with gas engine, Supercab (the one in picture is standard cab), 192" wheelbase (Cab to axle 84") and a box with a 177" floor (Rear overhang 93") and total length 19' (beds above cab).

I am planning to place the box on a dumptruck style subframe that can pivot at the end and chassis free to twist underneath. I think I can get the subframe as low as 4".

Few questions I have in design phase that someone may have an answer to:
- How low can the floor be relative to the chassis. Just so the wheels (assuming roughly 40" tires) will not touch the floor. I want to leave the total floor panel intact in that area and not raise the whole chassis too much
- I am thinking of making a passage from box to cabin of around 2' wide x 2.5' high with a rubber connection piece. Does anyone have any experience/photos they can share?
- Is there anyone who has detailed chassis drawings of various models. I have a 3D CAD model, but the model is not accurate enough to do design work. I tried asking Ford but that resulted in ending up at non cooperative body builder companies who want to build the camper instead of giving out information

Thanks in advance

1.jpg
 

Victorian

Approved Vendor : Total Composites
You will need wheel wells . Our camper kits can be ordered with them. We also got the doors and pass through rubber seal.
Cheers
 

Attachments

  • 22E5E6A4-4F3F-44B6-96FD-F084A083AC9A.jpeg
    22E5E6A4-4F3F-44B6-96FD-F084A083AC9A.jpeg
    193.5 KB · Views: 87

VerMonsterRV

Gotta Be Nuts
Check out the Everlanders on Youtube, they started with an older F550 and built a custom subframe/composite habitat. From the looks of the video that did a nice job. I have also contacted them via email about our truck build and they have responded right away, nice people.
 
D

Deleted member 9101

Guest
If you shoot for a new one, wait for 2020 so you can het the 7.3 and 10 speed.
 

cph05a

Member
We have a 2007 F-450 with 335/80R20 MPT81s (40.5inches tall) and a 4" lift and we ended up having wheel wells but they were super easy to hide. On one side we hid them behind cabinets and the other side was behind a dinette seat. Maybe you can hide them similarly?

wheel_wells.jpg
Here's an early construction picture showing how much the wheel wells had to come through in our rig.

This became:
hiddenwellssink.jpg
The wheel well is under the cabinet just to the right of the furnace but you can't even tell it's there.

We ended up doing a 4" lift because at 3" our front tires were rubbing badly with the steering fully turned out and at 4" it cleared. In theory you could do a larger lift and limit your articulation with bump stop but you'd still need a pretty big lift if you did that. I think maybe the newer F-550s have a little more room in the wheel wells though so maybe?
 

HAF

Active member
I am currently building a 12 foot (floor) cab over on a 19 F550 gas. You will need wheel wells to allow for full articulation in rear. I have 35 inch tires which results in a ten foot high camper. Low is good. Building a lower 6 inch tall sub frame to house water tanks. The width of sub frame is same as truck frame rails.
Again low with low center of gravity.
 

Attachments

  • C8D6439D-1646-468C-8CC0-52EB1A22BF00.jpeg
    C8D6439D-1646-468C-8CC0-52EB1A22BF00.jpeg
    2.5 MB · Views: 98
  • B596CCD0-9B1B-40A6-8389-875AD2E45C4A.jpeg
    B596CCD0-9B1B-40A6-8389-875AD2E45C4A.jpeg
    1.9 MB · Views: 105
  • DCF6301E-09D9-435F-94FA-783DE077DCE9.jpeg
    DCF6301E-09D9-435F-94FA-783DE077DCE9.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 93
  • 42ED36D0-C1D2-43A4-A635-79819AEFEAA1.jpeg
    42ED36D0-C1D2-43A4-A635-79819AEFEAA1.jpeg
    1.9 MB · Views: 94
  • A035F369-0967-4A42-9376-B94ABBD22F63.jpeg
    A035F369-0967-4A42-9376-B94ABBD22F63.jpeg
    1.4 MB · Views: 90

gtiowa

New member
I'm very interested in how this will progress. I'm in the planning stages of something very similar. Good luck on your project.
 

RAM5500 CAMPERTHING

OG Portal Member #183
We have a 2007 F-450 with 335/80R20 MPT81s (40.5inches tall) and a 4" lift and we ended up having wheel wells but they were super easy to hide. On one side we hid them behind cabinets and the other side was behind a dinette seat. Maybe you can hide them similarly?

View attachment 559456
Here's an early construction picture showing how much the wheel wells had to come through in our rig.

This became:
View attachment 559457
The wheel well is under the cabinet just to the right of the furnace but you can't even tell it's there.

We ended up doing a 4" lift because at 3" our front tires were rubbing badly with the steering fully turned out and at 4" it cleared. In theory you could do a larger lift and limit your articulation with bump stop but you'd still need a pretty big lift if you did that. I think maybe the newer F-550s have a little more room in the wheel wells though so maybe?

Most excellent! Do you have a build thread going?
 

boogie944

New member
We have a 2007 F-450 with 335/80R20 MPT81s (40.5inches tall) and a 4" lift and we ended up having wheel wells but they were super easy to hide. On one side we hid them behind cabinets and the other side was behind a dinette seat. Maybe you can hide them similarly?

View attachment 559456
Here's an early construction picture showing how much the wheel wells had to come through in our rig.

This became:
View attachment 559457
The wheel well is under the cabinet just to the right of the furnace but you can't even tell it's there.

We ended up doing a 4" lift because at 3" our front tires were rubbing badly with the steering fully turned out and at 4" it cleared. In theory you could do a larger lift and limit your articulation with bump stop but you'd still need a pretty big lift if you did that. I think maybe the newer F-550s have a little more room in the wheel wells though so maybe?
That's great info. Thanks. 4" lift sounds like a lot.
 

boogie944

New member
I found what I needed on https://fordbbas.com/vehicleModel/SuperDuty (see attachment for relevant pages). Suprising that the Ford dealers seem unaware that all this information is readily available for anyone.

By my calculation for 2 lift scenarios:
1578265956154.png

Wheel well depth meaning the distance the wheels will go 'into' the floor.
 

Attachments

  • Pages from Ford Spec book superduty 2020.pdf
    422.2 KB · Views: 23

Forum statistics

Threads
185,539
Messages
2,875,669
Members
224,922
Latest member
Randy Towles
Top