2019 F350 6.2L 4WD build thread; HPI flatbed, ATO AterraXL composite camper, Carli/King, 37s, 4.88s, etc

jbaucom

Well-known member
You have factory headlights though still, yes? Perhaps there's some conflict with my TRS XB LED's...?

Yeah, I think it's your headlights, and I'm not sure you'll be able to turn it off with Forscan either. I have the OEM halogen assemblies. Looking at the installation instructions for the XB LED assemblies for the Super Duty, there's a dedicated DRL harness that plugs into slot 35 in the underhood fuse box. Turning off DRLs through the DIC or using Forscan should cut power to the same headlight circuit, and according to what I've read, even with the DRLs enabled in the DIC, turning the switch to "O" should turn off the DRLs. DRLs also should not come on when in Park. Are your DRLs on when the truck is in Park? I suspect the only way to disable the DRLs with those headlights is to disconnect the harness that plugs into fuse slot 35, and I don't know what, if any, impact that will have on other headlight functions.
 
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jbaucom

Well-known member
Installation instructions for the XB LEDs specifically instruct to turn off DRLs in the DIC (found on the top of pg. 10) on trucks originally equipped with halogen headlights. The DRLs on these lights do not depend on the factory DRL circuitry. If you want to be able to selectively turn off these DRLs, I believe you'll need to do some custom wiring.
 
The Patagonia AT's are a good highway and gravel tire. They are crappy in any kind of slick offroad driving. I don't regret buying them, but I have to use 4wd way more than I did with the Firestone Destination MT's I had before. I won't buy them again.
 

wild1

Adventurer
You might take a closer look at the Cooper St Max , I am running the 295/70-18 on my truck and camper at around 11,500 loaded weight and have been very happy over the last 15,000 miles. They seem to have a lot of fans in the oil fields for use on heavy service trucks.
The Patagonia AT's are a good highway and gravel tire. They are crappy in any kind of slick offroad driving. I don't regret buying them, but I have to use 4wd way more than I did with the Firestone Destination MT's I had before. I won't buy them again.
keke
 

Ninelitetrip

Well-known member
Really liking this build.

No picture of the back, are you keeping the ability to tow if needed? I like those rear steps. What is the max load that can hang off the back of the camper?
I'm guessing it will be 10 foot plus on overall height?
That shelf setup in the rear seat area looks great. I'm planning on a SC and would remove the rear bench all together and have a drawer setup of some kind.
Great news from TF, hopefully approved soon and they expand the line across the various Super Duty cab setups. Will you do any skid plate for the tank?
With the F350 it helps that gross is 14,000 lbs. Coming in at @12,000 lbs. affords a nice safety margin.

I found RoadTraveler (James Langan) on YT I believe. He has done several videos on the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T and the Cooper Discoverer STT PRO with Centramatic balancers. His setup is a RAM 2500 flatbed with a Hallmark Nevada.


 

RAM5500 CAMPERTHING

OG Portal Member #183
Really liking this build.

No picture of the back, are you keeping the ability to tow if needed? I like those rear steps. What is the max load that can hang off the back of the camper?
I'm guessing it will be 10 foot plus on overall height?
That shelf setup in the rear seat area looks great. I'm planning on a SC and would remove the rear bench all together and have a drawer setup of some kind.
Great news from TF, hopefully approved soon and they expand the line across the various Super Duty cab setups. Will you do any skid plate for the tank?
With the F350 it helps that gross is 14,000 lbs. Coming in at @12,000 lbs. affords a nice safety margin.

I found RoadTraveler (James Langan) on YT I believe. He has done several videos on the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T and the Cooper Discoverer STT PRO with Centramatic balancers. His setup is a RAM 2500 flatbed with a Hallmark Nevada.



James is a friend of mine and knows his stuff,

He’s the one that turned me onto the Centramatics and I love them.
 

RAM5500 CAMPERTHING

OG Portal Member #183
I like his style. Does come across as well informed. Speaking of YT when are we going to see more of your engaging persona with the build on YT. This thing you got with mk216v is fun and all but need to see the build. ;)

Hahahahaha.

My life has been a whacky roll coaster this year and did a complete 180 career change, been SLAMMED with work and haven’t touched the truck since I don’t even remember when. It’s bittersweet.

The free time will be coming soon and hopefully I’ll get motivated again to finish it up a bit more.

Im still in a constant internal battle with myself over how I want to finish a few things. So I dunno ??‍♂️

@mk216v is a good dude with a good sense of humor. The world needs more like him!

Decision making isn’t his forte, but not everyone wakes up and pisses excellence. ?
 

Ninelitetrip

Well-known member
Hahahahaha.

My life has been a whacky roll coaster this year and did a complete 180 career change, been SLAMMED with work and haven’t touched the truck since I don’t even remember when. It’s bittersweet.

The free time will be coming soon and hopefully I’ll get motivated again to finish it up a bit more.

Im still in a constant internal battle with myself over how I want to finish a few things. So I dunno ??‍♂️

@mk216v is a good dude with a good sense of humor. The world needs more like him!

Decision making isn’t his forte, but not everyone wakes up and pisses excellence. ?


It has been a strange 24 months. I'm no closer to what I want to build than I don't when.

As long as everyone is having fun.

I'm glad to see people doing builds, warms the heart.
 

RAM5500 CAMPERTHING

OG Portal Member #183
You mean the tire quest ? :)

Way to many choices for me. I've had the BFGs and Toyo MTs. Would buy the Toyos again for a HD tire.

Ha. Among a few other things.

I mean for goodness sake, the dude bought an entire truck, changed his mind, and sold it before touching it ?

Ooooh…. The infamous tire discussions.. yeah, not opening that can of worms and totally derailing the @mk216v thread.

Tire choice don’t matter if you’re shaving half of it off as a spare! ?
 

mk216v

Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
Yeah, I think it's your headlights, and I'm not sure you'll be able to turn it off with Forscan either. I have the OEM halogen assemblies. Looking at the installation instructions for the XB LED assemblies for the Super Duty, there's a dedicated DRL harness that plugs into slot 35 in the underhood fuse box. Turning off DRLs through the DIC or using Forscan should cut power to the same headlight circuit, and according to what I've read, even with the DRLs enabled in the DIC, turning the switch to "O" should turn off the DRLs. DRLs also should not come on when in Park. Are your DRLs on when the truck is in Park? I suspect the only way to disable the DRLs with those headlights is to disconnect the harness that plugs into fuse slot 35, and I don't know what, if any, impact that will have on other headlight functions.
Installation instructions for the XB LEDs specifically instruct to turn off DRLs in the DIC (found on the top of pg. 10) on trucks originally equipped with halogen headlights. The DRLs on these lights do not depend on the factory DRL circuitry. If you want to be able to selectively turn off these DRLs, I believe you'll need to do some custom wiring.
Thx much! I hadn't yet delved back into the DRL's, looking back at install note, and/or calling TRS tech line to discuss with them; I appreciate you trying to help! I was thinking that if TRS couldn't advise, perhaps a master "Go Dark" switch might take care of what I need. My friend who helped me with the XB's (I hadn't thought of the go-dark DRL need at the time) is a 12V guru, so I'll consult him about this, when he does all my other custom wiring.


Can’t believe you aren’t considering the KM3.
I'm trying to stay focused on an a/t, or hybrid a/t-m/t, vs full m/t. I just listed the m/t's above as I had previously listed data for them in my internal wish list sheet, before I decided to focus on a/t or hybrid.


The Patagonia AT's are a good highway and gravel tire. They are crappy in any kind of slick offroad driving. I don't regret buying them, but I have to use 4wd way more than I did with the Firestone Destination MT's I had before. I won't buy them again.
Thx much for the feedback!


You might take a closer look at the Cooper St Max , I am running the 295/70-18 on my truck and camper at around 11,500 loaded weight and have been very happy over the last 15,000 miles. They seem to have a lot of fans in the oil fields for use on heavy service trucks.
Ok thx. Wizard ran them on a rig, but not many miles on aggressive terrain from what I remember. I'll ask him his thoughts.


Really liking this build.
No picture of the back, are you keeping the ability to tow if needed? I like those rear steps. What is the max load that can hang off the back of the camper?
I'm guessing it will be 10 foot plus on overall height?
That shelf setup in the rear seat area looks great. I'm planning on a SC and would remove the rear bench all together and have a drawer setup of some kind.
Great news from TF, hopefully approved soon and they expand the line across the various Super Duty cab setups. Will you do any skid plate for the tank?
With the F350 it helps that gross is 14,000 lbs. Coming in at @12,000 lbs. affords a nice safety margin.
I found RoadTraveler (James Langan) on YT I believe. He has done several videos on the Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T and the Cooper Discoverer STT PRO with Centramatic balancers. His setup is a RAM 2500 flatbed with a Hallmark Nevada.
Thx! I hadn't posted a picture of the rear head-on, but I retained the factory Ford hitch (can kind of be seen in post #1, 8th pic). I added those 2 rear HPI steps late in the design process, but glad I did. I figured they may come in handy when removing Maxtrax or water jerries from the rear camper's accessory rack.
Max load off the back of the camper; unsure, but the standard accessory rack can have 2-4 Maxtrax and 2 5gal water jerries/holders. We'll have all of that (if the Wavian rep will ever answer my 5th inquiry).
Will be over 10'OAH I bet. Will get that measurement soon.
Thx on the rear seat shelf/platform; very happy with it. A transverse-deploying drawer system in the back of a SuperCab would be slick!
No skid for the TF tank since it's a steel tank, and currently the lowest hanging fruit are the 2 support braces, so a skid might hang lower than that which I'm not excited about.
12k would be a nice safety margin, but RAM5500 will give me isht since he knows 10k was my target and I told him I thought I could make it happen.
Thx on the reminder about James, mhiscox sent me the link awhile back so I should revisit it (although I hate the aggressive right side pull from my STT Pro's on another rig).
Centramatics look the business. Plus RAM5500 is running them, so that means they're the dog's danglies.


@mk216v is a good dude with a good sense of humor. The world needs more like him!
Decision making isn’t his forte, but not everyone wakes up and pisses excellence. ?
Awww shucks, one of the nicer things you've said all year.
Just because I want to shave a new 37" spare tire a smidge so that it'll fit in the spare tire well, and ABS/traction control doesn't get cranky if I have to use it, compared to a 35" tire? Ok ok, regarding "shaving a new spare tire down...so it more easily fits into the stock spare tire well"; I found @montypower 's info again;

"36" diameter spare will fit if fully aired down (many 37" tires measure about 36" when mounted on wheels), requires force to jamb in there. 35.75" diameter spare will fit snugly at full air pressure."
So, once I decide on a 37" tire, I'll have to measure its actual size. From Peter's video, ideally I'd want it to be 35.75" (at full pressure) for an easier fit in the factory spare tire well. If my chosen tire is taller than that, then the easy play is buying a slightly used 37" BFG K02 to use as the spare (at full pressure) as we know it fits from montypower's video.
@montypower, what does your 37" Yoko Geo X-AT actually measure at for overall diameter once mounted to a wheel?


You mean the tire quest ? :) Way to many choices for me. I've had the BFGs and Toyo MTs. Would buy the Toyos again for a HD tire.
To shorten that list, personally I'd decide AT or MT, then cull based on thread depth, country of origin, country of mfr. Then reviews, availability.
To reiterate from an earlier post, I'm focusing on A/T's or aggressive A/T's "hybrid," not M/T's. Would prefer a 3ply sidewall. 3PMSF doesn't matter to me as I run Blizzak's from Nov-March, although I listed 3PMSF info below in case it helps others in their tire search.
I refined the list down to 6 possibles as I cut out those without 3ply sidewall. I'm currently leaning strongest towards the Maxxis Razr A/T (although they're 4/32" shallower than the Yoko Geo X-AT), followed by Yoko Geo X-AT (more $ than the Razr), as I haven't been able to find enough reviews of the BajaBoss A/T or Patagonia X/T since they're still very new;

37x12.5R17 A/T or Hybrid (listed in order of weight)

Maxxis Razr AT; 72lbs (a/t, 124R, D load 3525lbs@50psi, 15/32", 36.5", 3PMSF, 3ply sidewall via Scott at Maxxis technical--some sites list 2ply)
https://www.maxxis.com/us/tire/razr-at/

Yokohama Geolandar X-AT; 77lbs (a/t, 124Q, D load 3525lbs@50psi, 19/32", 36.8", 3ply sidewall)
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tire...5QR7GXAT&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes
https://tiresize.com/tires/Yokohama/Geolandar-X-AT-37X12.50R17.htm

montypower says would buy again.

Toyo R/T; 78lbs (a/t, 124Q, D load 3525lbs@50psi, 18.9/32", 36.8", 3ply?)
https://www.toyotires.com/product/open-country-rt
https://tiresize.com/tires/Toyo/Open-Country-RT-37X12.50R17.htm

Cooper ST Maxx; 78-79lbs (a/t, 124P, D load 3525lbs@50psi, 18.5/32", 36.89", 3ply)
https://us.coopertire.com/tires/discoverer-s-t-maxx
https://tiresize.com/tires/Cooper/Discoverer-ST-MAXX-37X12.50R17.htm
wild1 would buy again. montypower (in comments section of his Yoko X-AT video above) wasn't impressed.

Mickey Thompson Baja Boss A/T; 80lbs (a/t, 124Q, D load 3525lbs@50psi, 18.5/32", 36.7", 3PMSF, 3ply sidewall)
https://www.mickeythompsontires.com/light-truck-tires/baja-boss-a-t
https://tiresize.com/tires/Mickey-Thompson/Baja-Boss-AT-37X12.50R17.htm

Milestar Patagonia X/T; ??lbs (hybrid, 124Q, D load so 3525lbs@50psi?, 19/32", ?"dia, 3PMSF, 3ply)
https://milestartires.com/light-trucks/patagonia-xt/


Ha. Among a few other things.
I mean for goodness sake, the dude bought an entire truck, changed his mind, and sold it before touching it ?
Ha! I changed my mind on the chassis cab (F350 #1), as I was getting daily tirades from RAM5500 about my aluminum crossframe box/dog oven idea. :LOL: Moving on, focusing back to the flatbed (F350 #2)...
 
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mk216v

Der Chef der Fahrzeuge
Since you’ll likely be the first one around here to have an Aterra, do you plan to ever remove it from the truck?

Any idea how much of a hassle it’s going to be?

I also wonder if it could be mounted with fasguns to the jack brackets vice bolts thru the floor.


Great question. Answer is no, and that's based on a few reasons, but I'll explain further;
--The camper is designed/engineered by ATO to bolt through a flatbed in the 4 corners of the camper. At those 4 corners in the camper, there's a 12x12" reinforced area where you can bolt through. So, I had HPI add reinforcement plates to my flatbed design at those areas to give the 4 corners of the flatbed more beef as well. Once the AterraXL is finished (hopefully by late March/early April '22), Mario at ATO is supposed to fly up, perhaps with their lead tech/engineer, and assist Brent/Aaron of Oregon Adventure Trucks with the install. Set the camper on the flatbed, mark the 4 holes, drill holes in flatbed up thru camper, bolt/torque. Then drive to HPI, have them re-torque the 4 bolts, then they install their 4 underbed boxes and seal them up**. Then it's go time.
**Sealing the 4 underbed boxes 100% from dust/water; in discussing with HPI, they envisioned the smoothest process was to install/seal the boxes after the camper is on, so that the drilling for the camper-flatbed is much easier without boxes in the way. Now, if someone didn't want/need lots of usable/low COG storage from the 4 boxes, then when they wanted to use their flatbed truck as a flatbed for hauling, they could unbolt the 4 bolts, and mechanical jack the camper off the truck.
--You bring up a good point as an alternative camper mounting method; using a turnbuckle like Torklift fastgun Derringer's (OVE uses on their poptop campers) from the ATO mechanical jack brackets, to a provision on the side of the flatbed. I had discussed this with HPI, and they could have added initially, or could add now, such a provision on the side of my flatbed. However, personally it's both an issue of aesthetics (I prefer the cleaner/uncluttered look of no turnbuckles) and a semi-hassle...
--This truck isn't a daily driver, it's not trying to be a dual purpose ranch truck, it's sole objective is a QuickDeploy-GetBackOutThereRig; we had to take an honest look at this duality. The flatbed is present on our truck because of the camper. We don't need the flatbed space to haul loads of yard stuff or pallets of goods that often, but when we do need to haul something, we rent or eventually buy a trailer to haul. And so for the low usage of playing ranch truck, unloading/loading the camper even using turnbuckles seems like a hassle to me. BUT, for someone else considering the AterraXL, it can be bolted to the flatbed, or use turnbuckles.
 
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