Just finished a search on here and elsewhere and haven't been able to come up with a fitted rubber bed mat for my 73 f250 longbed camper special.

I see them available for 74+ from "LMC trucks" but only a UNIVERSAL mat for the 73. What's so different about the beds??

Anyone been able to locate a vendor who would have the above mentioned mat for my 73?


Appreciate any and all input!

 

Nothing is different other(possibly) than wheel well size. I do not know if the larger one's were 73 or 2wd specific. You might have to "fit" the mat around the wells if your's are larger. Give them a call and ask them what the diffs are.

 

I believe the inside of the bed is pretty much the same from 73 all the way to 96, as far as floor and wheel wells

 

There are definitely two different sizes of wheel wells. The above post is not correct.

IIRC the wells from my 73 camper special are around 3-5 inches longer front to back than the bed from my 79. I know, because i ordered new inners to weld in and they were too short. Not even close to being the same as original.

 

I bought a cut-to-fit mat from my local farm store. Since the truck is going to have a camper shell on it I took that route.

 

I thought the F350 camper special with the longer wheelbase was the only one that was different?

 

The F350 Super Camper Special (early) and later F350 Camper Special(long or
i guess extra long wheel base) had the 3rd type of wheel well 73-79. As you know those are way different.

Number Dummy might know when and why Ford used the larger and smaller wells. The subject does not come up too often.

I'll try to remember to take pics tomorrow.

Henry42...sorry to have deviated from your question.

 

I remembered pics. Wells are the same width (10"ish) but the length is 24" and 32" on the inside where it meets the floor.

From my 73.









Later bed.

 

The difference in the length is due to the fact that for the 77MY the trucks utilized the square fuel doors. Which meant that the filler neck housing that mated to the bedsides were larger and required more space then before. So to get that space Ford made the inner wheel houses smaller to compensate. Grinnergetter if you look at the left inner bedside of your 79 truck you'll see where there is a slight bump out in front of and behind the inner wheel well. That either isn't there on your 73 bed or is much smaller given the lack of the filler neck housing for the exposed fuel cap. So 73-76 had the longer inner wheel houses, and 77-96 had the same shorter inner wheel houses. So the LMC listing is incorrect on the MY of the beds. FWIW the fitted rubber mat for the 77-96 trucks will work, but may need a little trimming around the wheel house.