Personal

People are often surprised by my choice of building my new rig around an F-350 SuperDuty.

Why did I choose a SuperDuty?

I wanted a big truck without the lift kit. I looked at a little Toyota, but no. I wanted to ride up high, have good view of the road and good ground clearance. The truck I bought has the XL Off-Road package which includes the larger off-road 33″ Goodyear Wranglers tires, axle vent tubes for traveling through up to 22″ of water and and the low profile front valance from the Tremor – without cost of Tremor. I’m not arguing the Tremors aren’t nice, but they’re also expensive as many are luxury barges.

I also wanted to get either the Minizilla or Godzilla engine, which is mechanically much simpler and more reliable gas-engine design that anything you can find on a half-ton today. It’s an old school big-block engine, it does not have turbo charging, auto shut-off or displacement on demand. Those features, common on smaller pickups cause a host of issues including motor oil consumption and catestrophic reliability issues such as collapsed lifters or warped cylinders. I did not like the oil consumption of my Silverado – it wasn’t bad and then it bad – and then stop being bad after more sludge built up as the truck got older.

To maximize highway milage, I got 3.73 gears and the Minizilla engine, which is substantially similiar to the Godzilla but with the shorter stroke. Not to mention it was cheaper. Some people call it the destroked Godzilla, because except for the shorter block it’s almost identical – just an old school big block engine. The main disadvantage of big block engines is pumping losses – at high vacuum like coasting to a stop – you get a lot of engine braking whether you want it or not. City gas milage – well sucks in a big block – that’s why they don’t make them in passenger cars any more.

Going to a SuperDuty gives you many other advantages – for one most like mine are equipped with the dual alternators and dual batteries – which means they can easily provide power for charging batteries for camp and all other loads. It’s safe to park the truck for an extended period, use the dome lights, and know you’ll have a reliable start even in the coldest harshest conditions in the wilderness. At times I was overloading the alternator on my Silverado – when I ran my camp batteries down – and then was driving with the headlights on I could smell the alternator getting hot on the old truck. Also, the SuperDuty comes with the Upfitter Switches for controlling whatever loads I wire to them. The 4 built in switches can source 40 amp loads, 2 built in switches can source 80 amp loads. Currently the plan is just to move over the existing batteries and equipment from my Silverado, but I want to add battery capacity and go towards lithium ion with additional solar in future years.

Why an F-350 in particular?

While Ford makes the SuperDuty with both a 3/4 ton axles (F-250) and 1 ton axles (F-350), the 1 ton versions are far more common. The F-350 gives you heavier drive shafts, extra set of stiffer rear leaf springs for more towing capacity. But I for the most part didn’t care about that, but it will be nice some day if I have to tow heavy or decide to get a heavy slide in camper, though maybe not with the 6.8 gasser and 3.73 gears. Honestly, if they had a F-250 in configuration I wanted at a good price, I would have gotten that but there is no practical difference except maybe a slightly rougher ride or a slightly higher registration fee.

But mostly I wanted a straight-axle front end of the SuperDuty, as they are much more durable for off-roading, and driving on rough dirt roads. Independent Front Suspension rides much nicer over potholes, but it’s much easier to bend and knock an IFS front end out of alignment. There is a lot more components to potentially break in an IFS set up. Do people break tie rods and do U-joins fail yes? But no CVT shafts and ball joints on steering linkage don’t get the kind of abuse that they do on IFS.

The other advantage is the weight distribution is better with the truck cap. SuperDuties are much heavier then half tons. While truck camper shells aren’t that heavy, when you mount two 60 lb solar panels on an MX extended height cap and then a kayak above that, things can be a little top heavy especially in the wind, or if you have to make an emergency move on the highway. At times with the lifted Silverado things were a bit top heavy and there would be excessive sway. I don’t think this will be an issue with the SuperDuty.

Why a short bed?

A short bed looks short on an extend cab SuperDuty. People say, wow, that’s a small bed on your truck. How can you camp in something that small? The hell of it is it’s longer bed then my 6′ 6″ bed Silverado, but proportionally with the longer hood of SuperDuty, it looks smaller.

The SuperDuty short-bed is 2″ inches longer then the bed on my half-ton Silverado 78″ (6′ 6″). I would have liked a long-bed, but a 82″ (6′ 8″) short bed is plenty long for camping, and long beds are harder to park in small roadside campsites, have a longer turning radius. The 148″ wheel base SuperDuty is the “smallest” wheel base SuperDuty they make. Longer trucks also have greater issues on rough terrain and climbing over rocks and ditches due to the longer wheel base.

Why the base work truck trim?

I wanted a truck for camping primarily. I want to be a responsible steward of my money, and going up the HD truck platform is quite a bit more expensive then a half ton or compact truck. While I could have spent more on a truck, I realize they only last a decade or a decade and half before being replaced, and chrome while maybe looking pretty doesn’t have a lot of benefit. The carpet delete means much easier cleaning, as does the hard plastic inside. And the truck with all the great off-road features (hill descent, fording tubes, rear locker) does everything I need while putting itself in a compact package for off-roading.

Chrome while pretty doesn’t impact the truck functionality. Even the most basic Android Auto on small screen does everything I need, playing my tunes and showing my location on maps. It has cruise control, air conditioning, power windows, remote start- a lot of technology for a basic work truck. And the upfitter switches, dual battery and idle speed control which is good for charging batteries or warming the truck up when it is cold up at park.