Does anyone know about this variant of the F-650 Crew Cab that Ford had produced in the early 2000's for consumers looking for a vehicle to tow their very heavy Fifth-Wheel trailers called the Super Crewzer?
http://www.pickuptrucks.com/html/news/supercrewzer.html
Did Ford actually produce this variation at the factory, or did they partner with a 3rd party company to modify a stock F-650 Crew Cab and brand it as "Ford's own"?
Does Ford still manufacture this variation of the F-650 Crew Cab?

 

Not sure who made them but I've seen a few of them for sale over the years. Would make a great hauler. I have a guy just up the street with a truck like this just not the crewzer version.

 

Yes, as a matter of fact I do.


The latter. But unlike other RV haulers based on the F-650, Ford very much had a hand in the design, testing, implementation, validation, servicing, and marketing of the F-650 SuperCrewZer. However, the modifications were performed in a facility immediately adjacent to the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville by Fontaine Modification Company.

Fontaine welded the bed tub, attached the hitches (three), installed the fairings, air ride seats, and trimmed out the vehicle to completion. Ford built the cab and chassis on the same production line as all the other F-650 cab chassis's were built, which, ironically was NOT at the Ford KTP plant next door that shared a fence line with a Ford plant storage lot. Rather, the F-650 cab and chassis was built in Mexico, and then trucked to Fontaine's lot next to KTP, where the Super CrewZer was completed.

Fontaine built the F-550 Classic Traveler at the same facility where the F-550 cab chassis was in fact built at the KTP plant. Since Fontaine built many times more F-550 Classic Travelers than F-650 Super CrewZers, the location of the facility next to KTP still made sense at the time.

Ford did not exert any strict control over the design of the Classic Traveler like Ford did over the Super CrewZer. I'll give you just a couple of examples of this...

The tub of the Super CrewZer has basically two components... the sturdy structural part on the inside made of steel, and the swooping beautiful fairing part on the outside made of fiberglass / fiber reinforced plastic. In the original design renderings, Fontaine incorporated the swooping taillights of the Ford Mustang of that era, that really matched the smooth "sexy" curves of the rear fairings, that up until that time was unprecedented for a medium duty truck.

However, a higher up at Ford said "You can't have car taillights on a truck". So the bed mold had to be modified to incorporate the boring off the shelf rectangular trailer taillights that you see today as the tail lights used in production Super CrewZers. On the other hand, Ford did not stop Fontaine from using the "sexy" F-150 stepside tail lights on the back of the Classic Traveler (which was developed immediately after the Super CrewZer).

In another example of Ford's exertion of control, the original 5th wheel hitch spec'd for the SuperCrewZer was the Reese 30K lbs. lo profile unit. Ford tested the hitch, and as a result of that testing forced Reese to derate the same hitch down to 22K lbs. I thought Ford's validation and testing was kind of cool, rather than just accepting the supplier's ratings.

Having been to the facility where the F-650 SuperCrewZer was made, and having driven several of them, I can say it was a beast of an RV tow vehicle, all while being so much more attractive than the competing Freightliner Sport Chassis of that era. However, the SuperCrewZer did not sell well, and was unsustainable from that standpoint alone. There are also several other factors that doomed the truck to a relatively short production run.


No. It was discontinued entirely, well over a decade ago.

 

The Super Crewzer inspired me to build my truck. My father and I put it together from a 20 ft flatbed. We shortened the wheelbase and converted the rear suspension to air ride. Its powered by a C7 Cat with a Allison. Its a blast to drive and towing is never a concern.

 

Not since 2004, as I understand it. However, there IS a guy in Georgia who claims he can build one for you. His site is f650pickups.com and the SuperCrewzer is mentioned at Crewzer Super Crewzer | F650 Supertrucks

I was lucky enough to find one of these for sale before I knew what it was. It was just so beautiful. I did a bunch of research and a week later, I bought it. A month later and I had a fifth-wheel to pull behind it. Love this truck!

 

Gentlemen, consider the archetypal, perfected Supercruzer: the Hollowpoint F-650 built by Adam Genai's Mobsteel crew for NFL All-Pro Albert Haynesworth.
http://www.trucktrend.com/cool-truck...008-ford-f650/




The Mobsteel guys nailed just about every aesthetic on this one IMO.
JML