1997 F-Superduty ramp truck.
 

I picked up this 1997 F-450 in March for $1500. 112,500 miles on it.

I stretched the frame 5 feet. The bed is 16 feet with a 4 foot beavertail and 5 foot ramps.

It's done now but I have to resize the pictures first. I thought I'd at least get a thread started.

I got it really cheap because the IPR driver in the PCM took a dump and it was a no-start. It actually belonged to the local Ford dealership (tire service truck) and their technicians couldn't figure out what was wrong. It took me 10 minutes to get it running after I put a new IPR pigtail on it and just set a good PCM on the inner fender (original harness was shorted together thanks to diesel fuel eating away the wire insulation). The dealer didn't want to spend the money on a PCM ($500 + these days) so I offered $1500 since it's 2wd and didn't run as-is.

It received a new high pressure oil pump and fuel pump as well as glow plugs at the dealer (you know, just throw parts at it and hope it starts working) as well as a few other new parts. It just got a newly remanufactured 5-speed and a clutch 500 miles before it died for the last time. It also had brand new tires on it so I don't think I did too bad with the purchase price.

That's a really sharp build! The ramp looks really good.

So when stretching the frame, did you add anything additional to the welded areas? Internal plates or anything like that to prevent it from splitting at the weld? I've seen people do "Z" joints where the frame is cut so that the weld isn't just a single line, but even still there are some internal plates added for additional support.

Anyway, I think you need a few more trucks. :lol:

Yes. I had a local frame shop bend four sections of 1/4" plate for this job. Two 8"x3"x60" to be butt-welded to the existing frame and then two sections of 7.5"x2.75"x84" that were bolted on the inside as a sleeve for support. There was A LOT of drilling involved (you can see all of the bolt holes in the picture with the bare frame) but a 5/8" annular bit on a magnetic-base drill press made quick work of it. Also, I used 9/16" lug studs and pressed the knurled portion into the frame to avoid slop.

Between the frame rails ($700), the rear driveshaft ($800), and the metal involved ($1100), I'm into the actual "ramp truck" about $4100. I put airbags and a winch on it as well so I'm still under $5000 invested.

Yes, I have too many vehicles. I still haven't written about the 2001 CC dually (now SRW) I picked up to be "The Family Truckster" for $2000 that just needed a few transmission hard parts. It's the gray one in the background. Its D80 donated the 3.73 gears to the ramp truck - 4.63s are STUPID for a highway vehicle.

Looks like you got a bargain, sir! That was a great find!

- Jack

I never expected to have used this thing so much in the last three months. I took a derby car (63 Galaxie 2-door) 125 miles to a friend, hauled an entire collapsed 20x60 open-faced shed's tin to the recyclers and the wood to our burn pile (4 loads), and lastly this Jeep to its owner after hauling it to my house two weeks ago in a barely-running condition. I've made plenty of empty trips to town to work out bugs too......

I don't know how I ever lived without it! As a bonus, it gets the third best fuel economy of all the 7.3's on the place (hard to beat the 26-and-change of the Crown Vic).

Yeah... That's a bit of cheating, my friend. :hehe:

looks awesome man, building a ramp truck is on my bucket list

I blame "Roadkill" and especially Mike Finnegan for making me go through with building one.

I always thought they were cool and imagined how useful they could be but seeing David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan start with the white Chevy and then Finnegan keep getting bigger/better/faster ones - that really did me in.

Future plans include an E4OD and get away from the ZF due to clutch noise and MY age, charge air cooler, and MAYBE aluminum 19.5s when these 16s rot away (I tend to time-out tires, not wear out).

What's the recent update of this build? :woot:

You may consider getting a fresh set of dually wheels for that truck.

The first thing I thought when I saw this thread was Finnegan's love for ramp trucks!

Looks super handy.

Nothing yet - just driving it. I used it on the 6th to bring home my new commuter car. I'm retiring the free 1991 Oldsmobile I got 15.5 years ago as it's just not as reliable or comfortable anymore. Also factor in that it's at 290K miles on the stock cylinder head and 125C transmission and I don't have another rebuild in the short block (bored .060")...these 2.5L Oldsmobile engines are getting hard to find and they're not all that cheap. The windows don't roll down and I've put two of those plastic tape regulators in each door that work for a few weeks and then break again. The heater core leaks and I don't feel like disassembling the car to change it. It burns a quart of oil every 700-800 miles and since it's been my winter-only car for almost 10 of the 15 years I've had it, the underside is falling apart.

I bought a 2007 Taurus with a coolant leak at the front cover for not a lot of money. It only has 106K on it and it looks like new inside and out. $400 worth of timing cover, gaskets, and head gaskets (plugged passages with rust - thanks orange coolant) and it's like new....with GREEN coolant now.


Between fixing that, rebuilding 4R100s for a couple vehicles, fixing hydroseeders, and stripping a wrecked 2000 7.3 for parts this week....and the full-time job.....well....:twitch:

I don't think you have enough things to keep you busy. Probably driving your wife nuts sitting around the house all the time. :hmmm: