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RE: Why does Australia get all the good campers?
Flatbeds can be built into just about anything you want them be.
With side boxes and lumber rack, it becomes a contractor truck.
http://www.royaltruckbody.com/truckbodies/contractor/12-CON.jpg
http://www.royaltruckbody.com/truckbodies/combo-service/40VDOC144combo.jpg
With stake sides it becomes landscape or local delivery truck.
http://www.royaltruckbody.com/truckbodies/stakebed/FBS1449642.jpg
With a camper loaded it becomes an RV.
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g305/18seeds/06July3familyandtruck027.jpg
http://www.expeditionportal.com/images/albums/userpics/10003/normal_IMG_0064small.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/OzCamper/FrontView.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y63/OzCamper/f590bf2e.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k303/rooskadoos/truck1.jpg
http://www.clearysummit.com/ult/Flatbed.jpg
http://www.freedomoffroad.com.au/gallery/data/upimages/landcruiser_rv_web_pic.jpg
http://www.freedomoffroad.com.au/gallery/data/upimages/IGLOO.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k10/JSXX/camperonflatbed2.jpg
http://i16.tinypic.com/6l41qfk.jpg
http://i30.tinypic.com/15zsgia.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/i1cmrl.jpg
With tool boxes and and a crane it becomes a utility service truck or a sign truck.
With a vaccuum and a septic tank it becomes an evactor truck.
With a drilling auger it becomes a well drilling truck.
With a tilt/slide bed it becomes a car carrier.
Decorated with flowers it becomes a float in the Rose Bowl Parade.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 10:22pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Future without NEW Pick-Up Trucks?
Maybe we'll have to start keeping our trucks for 10 years or more. Imagine that.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 10:00pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Hit and run
Feel lucky that is all that happened. All 3 of our vehicles got side swiped at the same time by same driver on same night not too long ago. $6000 damage to one of the vans. $1500 in deductables to pay. Have no idea how much the bill will be fix the F350. 11 other cars on our street got it too that night, 14 collisions in all. Driver was never caught, nobody saw a thing.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 09:27pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Do most Dodge 3500 Duallys come with Limited Slip ?
There must be an axle code somewhere in the Dodge truck information that you can use to find out which trucks have limited slip and which don't.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 09:16pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: $700.00 the hard way
...If you have to drill a vertical hole to install a hitch the best way to do it is to place the drill on a hydraulic floor jack so the drill can be pushed up into the vehicle by the jack. No metal chips falling on you, the drill won't try to break your wrist as it punchs through, and no sore arms from working over your head.I like that idea. Thanks!
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 08:57pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: $700.00 the hard way
The laying on your back drilling the frame over your head with the metal slivers falling on your face is the hard part. Everything else is easy. :)
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 06:08pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Hitch conversions, good or bad?
By the way, that 8" offset, if it moves the gooseneck ball back behind the axle (as opposed to extending the pin box length), just negated some of the good handling characteristics of towing a fifth wheel or gooseneck trailer over a bumper-pull style trailer. The bumper pull style trailers exhibit sway, not because of anything to do with the trailer (unless it is loaded wrong) but because of the length of the lever arm the trailer has to act on to affect the truck.
That lever arm is the distance from the truck axle to the ball. You just gave your trailer a lever arm to exert force upon your truck. Gooseneck/fifth wheel trailer should always hook up ahead of, or at the very least, directly over, the truck axle, never behind it, except in the case of slider hitch, which should only be slid back when manuevering at slow speed, not for driving down the highway.
You also moved even more of the trailer's hitch weight to the rear truck axle. Now the rear truck axle is carrying more than full pin weight of the trailer. Before, with the trailer coupler/kingpin centered ahead of the axle, the front truck axle was sharing a small portion of the trailer's hitch weight. Now the front axle is unloaded by a small amount, due to the lever arm distance behind the truck's rear axle.
Due to the above, IF your truck's single rear tires were anywhere near max load capacity with the trailer before the hitch placement change, they will be even nearer, or possibly over capacity now. If your trailer is light, then maybe you don't have to worry about that.
I would not use a ball offset to the rear on a gooseneck. Better to extend the front of the trailer for more clearance, or use a sliding hitch.
So you failed that class in school. The offset is in the adapter. The weight is still placed on the GN ball, which is in the same place in the bed. Actually one would have slightly less weight on the ball, as the lever lenght from the trailers axles is slightly longer.
They are still not a good idea for a travel trailer. The area where the pin box mounts into the frame is only 8 to 10 inches vertically. The front of a gooseneck trailer is 2 or 3 feet tall in the front frame to handle the forces and they angle into that area to give it the required strenght.
ChrisI didn't fail any classes in school (engineering student).
The 'offset' I was referring to is one that moves the gooseneck ball back behind it's normal postion in relation to the truck axle. B&W makes these for the Turnoverball gooseneck hitch. They move the ball back about 4 inches. On my truck, my Turnoverball hitch puts the gooseneck ball about 6" ahead of the axle. I can use a 4" offset and still have the ball 2" ahead of the axle. Not all installations are as far forward as mine (I installed mine per the instructions).
Maybe you are talking about a different kind of offset?
At any rate, wherever the pivot point is, that is what needs to be over or ahead of the truck axle for handling and weight balance purposes.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 04:41pm |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Bigfoot closes
Who said anything about hot dogs?
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 04:35pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Rear End Ratio on Int. 4200 of 6.50? Why? Is this good?
Almost any big tractor (short of a long nose Pete) will turn better then my current Chevy TV. Sad, but true - I can turn my daycab Volvo (in my sig line) around in our staff parking lot in one shot without stopping, but my Chevy requires a three point turn.
For some reason the late 90's 1-Ton Chevys had the turning radius of the Queen Mary.Chevys weren't the only ones with a bad turning radius. My F350 4x4 crewcab longbed takes a couple football fields to make a u-turn. Well, that's an exaggeration, but it sure feels like it!
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 04:15pm |
Towing
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RE: Rear End Ratio on Int. 4200 of 6.50? Why? Is this good?
You guys need to get a 260"
My 1-Ton is in that length range.A 1-ton crewcab longbox pickup wheelbase is around 170", about 8 feet shy of the 260" conventional tractor wheelbase mentioned above.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 04:12pm |
Towing
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RE: extended cab or crew cab
I envision the automakers eventually discontinuing extended cab trucks, probly starting with the 3/4-tons and one-tons and eventually the 1/2-tons, offering only 2 cabs-- regular cab 2-door, and crew cab 4-door.
For several decades in the past, ('87-down), GM never made an extended cab truck, all they made were regular-cabs and crew-cabs. Ford had the SuperCab and Dodge had the ClubCab extended cabs but they were 2-door not 4-door. They both had crew cab 4-doors too.
Nowadays with the extended cabs almost as big as crew cabs and having 4 doors, I don't see the point in making 3 cabs. Two should be enough.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 04:00pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Still Confused about single vs Dually
The F350 DRW is available without Tow Boss. Tow Boss is essentially a 4.30 axle ratio in an F350 DRW diesel pickup with the towing package and integrated brake controller. You can get the F350 DRW diesel with the 4.10 axle ratio and I think the GCWR is 23,000 or somewhere thereabouts.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/22/08 03:48pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: 1 ton without dually?
The rear main leaf spring packs that were originally on my year F350 SRW are the same packs Ford put on the F250's of the same year. The difference was the F350's got the upper overload spring and frame bumpers and a taller rear spring block. Same axle, brakes, wheels, tires. The DRW F350's got a different axle, wheels, tires, main spring packs and overloads.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 09:57pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: It wa sgood while it lasted...!
I just noticed that due to current financial crisis that I will require a 1.5 billion dollar bailout so that I can continue a proper operation of camping, dining, and telling other folks about it. :pI say, let them eat Spam ... :pThe Spam company has been working overtime lately trying to fill a huge increase in orders since the economic turndown. Maybe now's the time to buy stock in Spam ?
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 09:47pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Why does Australia get all the good campers?
Flatbeds are real trucks! Pickups are just citified versions of the real thing. Flatbeds are far more useful and versatile than pickup beds.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 09:44pm |
Truck Campers
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RE: Whould you buy a new vehicle....
I don't know about buying from a bankrupt company.
I would probably buy something from a company that fired a CEO with failed strategies that has the nerve to collect tens of millions in compensation while asking me to make a contribution.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.Good call.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 08:29pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Bilsteins and cupping
Does your truck's front end continue bouncing up and down as if it had no shocks on it after it hits a bump? If it does, the shocks are bad. If not, the shocks are fine.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 08:25pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: 4.10 Gear Ratio F250
It's not recommended to tow in overdrive (other than on the flats) with the E4OD automatics in our year Ford trucks. The manual trannys are fine in OD towing. I don't worry about this though cause my automatic is the C6, which has no overdrive gear. :)
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 04:59pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: 4.10 Gear Ratio F250
Sorry, double post.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 02:08pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: 4.10 Gear Ratio F250
I changed from 3.55 to 4.56 on my '92 F350 and couldn't be happier. I would gladly spend the money to do it again if I hadn't already. BIG difference in power, the truck was a real dog with the old gears. I went beyond 4.10 cause I have bigger than stock tires on the truck. For stock tires, 4.10 is good.
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SoCalDesertRider
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11/21/08 02:03pm |
Tow Vehicles
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