FWC Flatbed - 6.5 or 8 ft truck?

[vermonter4life]

Hey folks. Looking for some real world experience/advice on truck length and flatbed length. I’ve done a search on the site but have not found the answers.

Looking towards the future and trying to budget/see how things would work. Our plan is to put a Four Wheel Camper Flat Bed on a full sized crew cab, Ford F350 or Chevy 3500hd SRW.

We also want to put some “boxes” in front of the camper up by the back of the truck cab. Would like a place to store inflatable paddle boards ect. on one side and then small dirty items in the boxes.

I would need an 8 foot flatbed. 96 inches - 80 inch for the floor length of the Hawk FB and that would leave me with 16 inches of space between the front of the camper and the back of the truck cab. I believe we could push the camper back to give us some more room for gear but only want to go so far as I plan on using the hitch to bring the mountain bikes along.

I have seen some folks who have a pickup with a short box, 6.5 feet prior to the flatbed. And then put an 8 foot flat bed was put on.

I was planning on going with a crewcab, with an 8 foot bed to start out. For my type of dream setup is it better to start with a 6.5 box and put an 8 foot flatbed or an 8 foot box and put the 8 foot flatbed?

Thanks for the thoughts.



Photo below is for reference, borrowed off the net.

 

[F350joe]

You can do it, plenty have before. The issues with putting a longbed on a shortbed truck are departure angle and load. Ideally, you want the load to sit between the axels. I would just go for a longbed truck for what you want to do

 

[vermonter4life]

Thanks. I was sure the long bed truck was the way to go but wanted to check. cheers.

 

[SDDiver5]

I'd agree with the 8ft being the way to go. Personally, I don't like the look of the gap between the cab and camper even tho having storage boxes there is a perfectly legit and super practical thing to have...I would prefer the camper to be forward and have that extra few feet as a "deck" towards the back.

 

[4x4JeepCamper]

I'd agree with the 8ft being the way to go. Personally, I don't like the look of the gap between the cab and camper even tho having storage boxes there is a perfectly legit and super practical thing to have...I would prefer the camper to be forward and have that extra few feet as a "deck" towards the back.

I agree with SDDiver5. I don't like the look. Since the FWC flatbed model will be a side door entry, put the space at the rear. The downside is, if the storage box is tall, it will block your rear window. If the things you want to store are not large, add underbody boxes. You can get an amazing amount of junk in those. Don't ask how I know...

Frankly, I would buy the Grandby flatbed, and forget the storage on top of the flatbed. Hawks are just too small.

 

[lzpup]

I have a hawk shell on a flatbed (6.5), and have put boxes where the side rails would be, have not added the under tray boxes. I love having extra storage on the outside, I would think having a storage box behind the cab and in front of the camper would be great. Love to store a table, portable solar etc that is completely lockable. I regularly fill the side boxes and need to add the undertray. I think this depends on what type of activities you get up to. There are just two of us at the moment, but hope to add a kid and a dog, we may reconsider the wisdom of a hawk over an larger camper at that point