Setting up Ford F250

G'day Rob & Shayne,

Not sure where you are, both F Trucks in Qld & WA sell the extended mirrors.

I dont have airbags but from what i have gleamed on many other forums is Firestone are well recommended.

Things i have done,

For long trips i have removed the rear seat [4 bolts] leaving the base legs [mine is a dual cab with no canopy] and built a steel frame that bolts to the legs, on that i bolted my Engel fridge slide on the passenger side. The rest of the frame is covered with some ply board to give a flat floor for carrying our gear inside that we dont want exposed in the ute, this is mainly because of the amount of gear we have to transport over when our BT is ready. The ute back is intended to carry a Quad bike and full length lockable alloy box's along side wheel arches with genny, chainsaw etc.

I recently fitted a 3rd battery in my F250, some owners have fitted a 3rd inside the engine bay squeezed in beside the drivers side battery, after Steve suggested underneath along side the chassis rail i went that way, built a steel cradle utilised existing holes in the chassis, i used a maintainance free AGM 100a/hr battery it is up nice and high and has a bolt on front stone guard to enable access whilst giving protection from stones etc. I had a marine sparky wire all my electrics up and he did an excellent job, I have found that a lot of the marine quality gear is better than automotive due to better weather protection.

A Blue Seas fuse box mounted on top of the engine bays fuse box powers all the accessories, Anderson plugs fitted front and rear, Engel posi plugs inside the cab for the fridge/s, large 7 pin truck plug along a small 7 pin plug, I borrowed the idea from Stewart [Black Cobra] where to position the plugs, removing the two number plate lights an using those holes for the plugs, and fitting a small number plate light above the plate gives enough illumination, plugs are up high and cannot be broken off.

Lightforce 240 driving lights, GME UHF fitted into the space in the dash beside the ash tray, eventually i may swap out the double din stereo for a single din MP3 player and fit the UHF underneath.

Change of rims to Mickey Thomson Classic 2 16x8 with Cooper STT tyres, have owned two sets of Cooper ST's previously and found them to be very durable, the more aggresive pattern of the STT's are actually quieter IMO, load rating is acceptable. Factory rims / tyres to go on the BT.

Suspension, i was fortunate to know a friend who had his F250 front suspension upgraded under warranty so i went down that path. We have an excellent truck service / repairer here locally and they did the work with new springs & HD shocks, lifted the front 90mm and made it a different car to drive. Also under warranty i had the inner door seals replaced with a better type as they were starting to pull apart at the bottom join. LHS Rear brake hose also replaced as it was rubbing on the handbrake cable. All radiator hoses were checked and already found to be secured from potential rubbing.

Now thats just what i have done, if Stewart pipes in he can tell you about the 10,000 other additions he has had done to his truck ;-)

Good luck with it,

Ok Mick might as well follow on as you have introduced me, but I will make it simpler. Rob & Shayne just go into Members List tab, scroll down to WA members and then click on my screen name you will find everything I have done listed there.

One thing I have not done yet is the actual springs or shockies as we pick up our BT in about 7 weeks I will wait and see how the whole package rides and sits on the return trip from QLD to WA and then rectify the springs etc if needed.

It probably will need some work done to the front end as since adding, bar, winch etc the front springs are flat but when I was at Mick's place I checked his out and they are like that standard, but like Mick said his improvement has made his truck ride and drive better.

Good luck with the project on the F250 as it never seems to end, hey Mick, more, more, more!

Cheers
Stewart & Marlene