1997 Ford F350 Truck Camper rig

This is a fully customized camping and towing rig built on a Ford F350 Crew Cab 4Wd truck. The truck has a 7.3 litre Turbo Diesel engine that has approximately 150,000 original miles. Ford said this was a million mile block with certain parts replacements at the quarter million mile mark. I have several friends that have nearly 300,000 miles on theirs and they are running strong with no major problems. I have one friend who is going strong at 550,000 miles. There have been several upgrades and modifications to this truck and it is in truly superb condition, mechanically and cosmetically. Read on to see all the details about this rig and the fully custom built, heavy steel tool boxes, flat bed and custom pop up camper.

Why am I selling it? I simply need a much bigger truck for a full-sized camper that I want to carry, so I am looking for a C5500 or C6500, Topkick or something similar that will carry a very large camper with tip outs and still tow my work vehicle. This a a work rig, not a recreational vehicle and so will be the new, larger outfit. Everything about this outfit was custom built to meet my very special needs and is a wonderful outfit for anyone to enjoy the outdoors, have 4wd capabilities and is extremely maneuverable. Like to hunt, you can't do much better than this outfit? Look at all the details and you will see that this is truly outstanding value.

Here's a picture of my outfit towing my work vehicle. It is equipped with a very heavy duty hitch and handles this tow vehicle like it wasn't even attached to the truck. I've even hauled a fully loaded 20' enclosed car hauler behind this truck and it towed beautifully.

The truck had its standard bed removed and a flatbed attached to the frame. It is equipped with a hidden goose neck trailer ball. Custom filler nozzles for the dual fuel tanks were installed and are equipped with dual locking caps. I then installed two under bed tool boxes that carry various towing accessories, tie downs and a full compliment of tools. The custom built tool boxes were designed to fit my customized pop-up camper that was modified for additional floor insulation and they fit perfectly, with no gaps, etc. There are built from heavy 12 gauge steel and they are brute. These are not flimsy store bought boxes. Here you can see the truck with the new flatbed and custom boxes before the installation of the camper. All the locks on all boxes are keyed alike and they are very secure.

The boxes were designed for compartments that hold a generator, custom fan cooled ventilation and additional batteries and a special marine charger to supplement the built in battery power of the camper. You can see some of the wiring harness that attaches to the camper inside of the boxes.

Here are some of the truck details, modifications and fixes to give you an idea of what is hidden from cursory views of the vehicle. All these mods and fixes have fewer than 8,000 miles on them. The truck has all new rotors and brakes. This alone was an almost $1200 fix and upgrade. I've replaced all the glow plugs and replaced three injectors. The air conditioning has been completely gone through and upgraded, I put in a brand new transmission with a heavy duty, billet steel torque converter, HD transmission cooler, and all synthetic lubes throughout. I put on a set of Firestone air bag overload springs to help with the addition weight of a fully loaded camper. The truck has a class 5 hitch that has been additionally beefed up to handle the very heaviest of loads and wired with a 7 prong wiring harness. The interior is in excellent condition, but the back seats have been removed to make for additional hauling space of my equipment (easily replaced with just a few bolts). I just put in two new batteries that are less than two months old and a complete new wiring harness worth $400 for the entire engine. I also just put on one of the new computerized electronic brake controllers. These were nearly $200 installed and are the very finest units available.

The engine is serviced regularly and is in superb condition. It uses absolutely no oil and runs very, very strong. The truck has a cruise control, auto trans, air, power everything and radio. It has a folding center console seat and power outside mirrors. The windshield has a crack in it, but does not obstruct the driver's view.

The truck has 4.11 gears and is running 235/75R/16 tires in 10 ply highway tread. The diesel performs best with higher gear ratios, ideally 3.73's so my intent was to put larger tires in size 265/75R/16. These would do two things. Optimize the performance of the trucks engine and allow for greater load capacity. I would replace the tires first thing with 12 ply rated tires in the size mentioned and they will fit the standard rims on the truck. The tires are nearing replacement time. I damaged one of the original aluminum wheels and put a standard steel wheel on in its place. Getting a replacement is an easy thing to match the originals and if I were going to keep the truck, I'd replace it when I put the new tires on it.

Mechanically, it doesn't get much better. I can't imagine anything I haven't taken care of and it gets the mechanics look everytime I take it in for a trip prep. I do have to add some brake fluid first thing in the Spring after the truck has set for the 6 months of winter. No obvious leaks, just a curiosity. One side note, every month during the winter the truck is started and run just to keep things lubed and the batteries in good condition, but they are hooked up to small solar chargers that sit on the dash just to keep a small charge going into the system to compensate for voltage loss from the clocks, computers, etc. It is also put in 4WD and run to keep it in top condition. Nothing wrong with this truck.