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2000 Ford F-550 Build

So I have both frames here.

Not much difference.

As the spring buckets and radius arm mounts and be done.

If you really feel badly, plate it.
 
Grendel said:
So I have both frames here.

Not much difference.

As the spring buckets and radius arm mounts and be done.

If you really feel badly, plate it.
Click to expand...

I was gonna say the same, I'd reinforce the current frame way before I'd splice another frame in.


06h3 why didn't you tow the H3 with the bus? Seems kinda redundant to have both, but I guess I don't know your plans for the bus.
 
Good point. I’d probably look into the reinforcement first....way less shitty to do lol

Couple reasons, bus needs a trans cooler BAD. In the summer I could get it to hit 220 moving itself. Throw 8k plus behind it I’m sure I’d cook that trans. (bus weighs 9900 lbs as is)

My car trailer is still in so cal at a buddy’s place.

It doesn’t have a rear hitch and doesn’t have a bolt on option. I will have to buy one of those DIY versions off etrailer.com

Still need to figure out trailer brakes, suspension and a sway bar. As is, the suspension is a little wobbly. I think the trailer would be a disaster.

I’d be around 18-19k gross with the bus, hummer and trailer. I’d want to tow locally to make sure the V10 is up to the task for 1700 miles.

She purchased it partially complete last summer. KOH prep this year I was redesigning my 3 link on the hummer, on the bus I was installing a dometic AC unit, diesel heater, grey water tank and a lot of little odds and ends. Between all that KOH prep I didn’t have time to get all the above done on the bus for towing.

Then it was time to decide if we would rent a trailer again or drive it. Trailer for a week down there last year was about 1k. We would spend 600 extra in fuel so it was cheaper....my wife was happy to have her own bus and she wanted to test out all the new stuff.

I hate redundancy and this wasn’t our plan to have the bus. Her complaint was a trailer and my F550 would be too big when camping in small little towns in Idaho and camping at lakes. The bus was 100% her deal. She pays for it and I am the free labor. For week long trips it’s a bit small but doable. It fits in a parking spot and is good around small Idaho Lake towns for long weekends. Long term I think she plans to rent the bus out to hippies on outdoorsy for additional income.
 
06h3 said:
Good point. I’d probably look into the reinforcement first....way less shitty to do lol

Couple reasons, bus needs a trans cooler BAD. In the summer I could get it to hit 220 moving itself. Throw 8k plus behind it I’m sure I’d cook that trans. (bus weighs 9900 lbs as is)

My car trailer is still in so cal at a buddy’s place.

It doesn’t have a rear hitch and doesn’t have a bolt on option. I will have to buy one of those DIY versions off etrailer.com

Still need to figure out trailer brakes, suspension and a sway bar. As is, the suspension is a little wobbly. I think the trailer would be a disaster.

I’d be around 18-19k gross with the bus, hummer and trailer. I’d want to tow locally to make sure the V10 is up to the task for 1700 miles.

She purchased it partially complete last summer. KOH prep this year I was redesigning my 3 link on the hummer, on the bus I was installing a dometic AC unit, diesel heater, grey water tank and a lot of little odds and ends. Between all that KOH prep I didn’t have time to get all the above done on the bus for towing.

Then it was time to decide if we would rent a trailer again or drive it. Trailer for a week down there last year was about 1k. We would spend 600 extra in fuel so it was cheaper....my wife was happy to have her own bus and she wanted to test out all the new stuff.

I hate redundancy and this wasn’t our plan to have the bus. Her complaint was a trailer and my F550 would be too big when camping in small little towns in Idaho and camping at lakes. The bus was 100% her deal. She pays for it and I am the free labor. For week long trips it’s a bit small but doable. It fits in a parking spot and is good around small Idaho Lake towns for long weekends. Long term I think she plans to rent the bus out to hippies on outdoorsy for additional income.
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Be very skeptical of the cooler bypass line on the 4R100, the only time I ever had stupid temps was when I had a stuck open bypass relief valve. I played with welding it up but pussed out.

Can you do the 6.0 cooler on the bus?
 
It doesn’t bolt in but I believe it can be done with some grinding and cutting
 
Yah, if I weren't starting with a frame on my project and the 2014 F550 frame didn't fall in my lap, I'd be adding stuff to my 2004 frame instead of swapping.

Brackets from here: Genuine Ford, Lincoln, & Mercury Parts | Lakeland Ford Online Parts


You should already have the pan hard bar bracket. Radius arms and spring buckets are 355.00 shipped. They bolt into some of the factory holes.

BTW, it seems that 2wd and 4wd parts are the same on the F550 stuff. They use a dummy front axle.
 
I think has has all the front suspension parts.

If for some reason you don't, or something is damaged. I just saw an add for a place in Spokane that had a huge pile of take off parts from doing lifts. Most of it looked pretty new.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I think has has all the front suspension parts.

If for some reason you don't, or something is damaged. I just saw an add for a place in Spokane that had a huge pile of take off parts from doing lifts. Most of it looked pretty new.
Click to expand...
Well, shit, hook a brutha from anutha mutha up. The coil buckets on my frame are rotted to shit.
 
Grendel said:
Well, shit, hook a brutha from anutha mutha up. The coil buckets on my frame are rotted to shit.
Click to expand...

I'll see if I can find it, but I think it was mostly just parts you'd unbolt for a lift. I guess some big brodozers might pull the coil buckets for 46" coilovers?

06h3 said:
Forgot to quote/copy you on the van post YotaAtieToo do you have any towing experience with a V10?
Click to expand...

Negative, I don't think I've even driven a V10 before. There is another thread in the tow rig section about V10s and other has tow rigs.

Sounds like the bus body on the F550 frame is the end all be all :flipoff2:

Or just leave the bus alone and let her rent it out. Personally, I don't see a big advantage to something like that unless it has a shower and a shitter, but I guess that's possible to add.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
I'll see if I can find it, but I think it was mostly just parts you'd unbolt for a lift. I guess some big brodozers might pull the coil buckets for 46" coilovers?
Click to expand...
There's a lot of Carli shit that replaces all the stock stuff.

So, yep.
 
It's shorter than your truck, but our 2002 F350 with a V10 in it pulled 14k (~10k Case 480F LL on a ~4k trailer) just fine, no mountain passes, but some nice hills till I got on the interstate.
It definitely wanted to keep the RPMs up and you could feel it was back there, but I had no complaints.

Aaron Z
 
Grendel said:
There's a lot of Carli shit that replaces all the stock stuff.

So, yep.
Click to expand...

Sorry to keep hijacking, but I can't find the ad. It was either Spokane, WA. CL or marketplace. They had a Pic of about a dozen coils and radius arms, so I don't think they are running out any time soon.

Is the the 17+ stuff the same?
 
As others have said, the factory frame reinforcement added to the '05-'07 frames is pretty minimal and easy to replicate yourself. It is essentially two pieces of C-channel that box the frame for about a foot behind the engine crossmember and provide some slight triangulation to the engine crossmember. Busted Knuckle has a pretty good video detailing the '05+ suspension swap on a '99-'04 including adding the factory frame reinforcement in their "Project Towverlander" build on Youtube.

Here's a good picture with the reinforcements in red that they added to the '05-'07 frames
sdframe2s.jpg
 
Your overthinking this. I solved all your problems in like 5 mins :flipoff2: (other than either your divorce or murder depending on how crazy your wife is)
 

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YotaAtieToo said:
IIRC those are the bolt on dually adapters. You might be able to use the 00 adapters on the 05-16 axle since they both have 8x170 as the UB pattern.
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They're 10 lug unit bearings, not 8.
 
YotaAtieToo said:
You're right, my bad. I thought the "same" UB trend continued into 05+, but it doesn't.
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Yeah, I just got fucked by this, LOL. I was going to do 8 lug adapters to my fat boy, coil spring front axle

Was going to make a 2005+ chassis 8 lug and use a 2004 and earlier S135 rear because they're bigger... and I read it here.

You can use an 8 lug front UB but not sure about the big assed, very nice brakes of the 2005+ F450/F550 front axle.
 
Well I think you can put 05+ F350 ub then use 04 F550 rotors and 8x170-8x225 adapter on that.
 
Grendel said:
Yeah, I just got fucked by this, LOL. I was going to do 8 lug adapters to my fat boy, coil spring front axle

Was going to make a 2005+ chassis 8 lug and use a 2004 and earlier S135 rear because they're bigger... and I read it here.

You can use an 8 lug front UB but not sure about the big assed, very nice brakes of the 2005+ F450/F550 front axle.
Click to expand...

What about s110 hubs on the 135?
 
Grendel said:
Same size rotors and offset?

you may have just given me a hard on.
Click to expand...
I believe so, only difference is the 10x170 vs 8x170 at least for 04 to 05 conversion. Not sure if the later ones got a different setup
 
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