still my favorite truck on FTE hands down!

 

Yours is looking pretty good yourself. Have you gotten your topper painted yet? I need to get mine done bad. I need another tailgate (strap broke).. I swer I tear em up faster than I can fix them.. I put a heater core in my TJ this weekend (nightmare).

I need to get some pics of the truck up with the new 40" Michelin Military tires on it. They are pizza cutters for sure (I don't care for skinny tires) but they dig like hell and should last 40,000 miles plus. I tend to get about 10k out of my usual SWAMPERS. I cant afford to keep em on it.

Thanks Again..

Eddie

 

ya, she has gone up a little since the last pic you seen. what the heck are you setting on your tailgate man? lol ya, im sure, those jeeps dont give much room. you put one of the hot boxes from summitracing? super simple design. its a 6 row trans cooler that you plumb water though, with a fan behind it. i was thinking about building one for the bed of my truck so when im on the road and sleep back there, it will be nice and toasty. i hear ya on the tires, i got the 46" military goodyears, they are 15" wide and should last about the same. and just 10k? i got 10k on my tsl's and they stil have about half the life in them. our trucks weight about the same, im tipping the scales at about 8800 depending on how much fuel i have in the bed.

 

the pic is before i moved the rear axle back about 2 1/2" and built a set of ladder bars outta 1.5" .250 wall DOM tube. im getting ready to cut the bed and get ready for some bushwacker cut out flares for the rear. already got em on the front.

 

all i can say is, WOW. i am very impressed and have showed everyone i work with your truck today. looks great and congrats on being the rotw

 

WOw, what did you add? Mine weighes in at 8800lbs. but my gas light was on. I knew I didnt add to much weight but I thought probably 4-500 pounds.

 

I appreciate it, I knew I would love this thing but I am a little shocked how many other people do too. I got so many people telling me "it would look stupid", or "it will be worthless" prior to building it. Many more just didn’t think I could do it (I had never attempted anything like this prior to standing next to 2 trucks with a sawzall and a pack of blades.)<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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I have a lot left to do to the old truck but its getting there. Hopefully a new tailgate with the "SUPERDUTY" emblem and painting my topper come next. Then I want to put an excursion roof skin on it with a sunroof in it, possibly adding 2 (not sure how much money that will cost). My roof skin doesn’t look good, thank goodness no one can see it.<o></o>
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Check out my gallery for some more build pics.<o></o>

 

Hey Oreo. How did you do your onboard air? Did you just buy a 12v compressor? I just got me a train horn (allegedly) to add. At least it’s a nice big and pretty dang loud airhorn. I was thinking of adding a scuba tank with a regulator.. How did you do yours?

I would also like to know about your hydra steering... I am working on my 2nd pump now. It acts like it needs bled but I have tried and tried and drove and drove it.. It’s still very intermittent and it’s going to get me in trouble some day when it gets hard to turn at a bad time

 

I'm a bit late to the party (cut me some slack, I just signed up) but wooow! The craftsmanship and patience something like that takes, simply floors me. I'm telling everyone I know to come take a look.

 

well, tires alone are 1200 lbs, 800lbs of fuel in the bed plus the 300 lbs of fuel in the bed. the idi is a heavy engine too. plus a few hundred for the shell, just all around a heavy truck to start with. id bet im 9000 lbs full. once i get it back from having the gears done i will take her to the scale and see what shes tipping it at.

 

i bought 2 air compressors (200 psi, 4cfm 100% duty) from airbagit.com. they are end to end on the inside of my frame rails, running into a 3 gallon tank. plumbs out from there to the airbags in the rear and a hose to the front that feeds the air chuck and the twin train horns. ive got 2 152db 3 trumpet horns facing either direction behind the bumper. ive got a few air chucks around the truck. makes it easier when running the air tools or filling tires. also run a air/water separator on the lines too. later im going to run a welding o2 tanks, or just add some extra 3 gallon tanks under the rear tank where the spare goes (you cant exactly fit a 46" tire under there anyways lol)

the hydro steering is fantastic! dead stop, food on the brakes and i can still turn with 1 finger. my box was bad so i had it rebuilt, they drilled and tapped it for the hydraulic lines. ive got a 2" cylinder that runs from the axle bracket where the steering stablizer shock went, boxed it in to make it stronger. other end has 2 u bolts that clamp it to the lower rod ends with sleeves welded on either side so if the u bolts get loose or fail it wont skip. i had the pump rebuilt to get more pressure and volume because i also added hydroboost brake booster. i had a f450 tank put on it as well because its got the extra fitting for the hydroboost drain back (you already are set up with that though.

 

thank you sir!

 

Good info my friend. I appreciate it. I have the air horn but I am more like you I want on board air more than the horn. If you cant see me or you coming down the road I am not sure a horn is gonna help..

 

great job on what appears to be a factory truck Ford should've made...

 

I rarely have anyone in the extended cab, but there are always tools, coats, coolers, and stuff like that. Stuff I want under loack and key or out of the elements. I get the whole "you should have went with 3 sets of full doors" thing a lot, and I might have if the burn truck was one, but it was an x-cab. I wanted storage, not room for nine. I always use the starage, I have had over 6 people in it twice. But the "9 passesnger" and the "I can hold more people than a subrban" saying have a nice ring to them.