Well, hopefully my new F-550 rolled off the line last week. Expecting in the dealer by the 21st. I have been busy working on the new Custom Hauler bed for it. It is 8'2 x 11'6". Four (4)under bed Highway Tools boxes (2 - 4' long and 2 - 2' long). Deck is built with 9" drop x 32" wide for a future 5th air ride hitch. Top deck will have 100 gallon aluminum tank and 2 spots for the two Bombardiers. Recessed area will also house the two 12' folding ramps for loading. Deck will be diamond plate with bed liner shot on the top. Sides will be 1/8" thick smooth steel plate painted to match the new truck. Underside will be undercoated. LED lights all around for illumination. Most of the frame is 2"x4"x.125" steel tubing. Class 5 receiver at the rear for the 34' Airstream to hook up to... This has been a pretty good size job. It is getting pretty big now and estimate the weight to end up around 1,500-1,800 pounds when finished. Below is link to some pictures if interested....

http://www.ccb-design.com/Photographs/F-550%20Bed/index.htm

Looks like it will be a nice one!

Lookin VERY good

That is gona be slick when you get it done Exposed. Heck looks good now.

wow, looks like alot of work, will love to see a picture of it when you get it finished, and mounted...

Did it show up at the dealer yet ??

Still waiting on the new truck. Found out last week it was on hold. The hold was released last Friday and expecting it to be shipped this week...Hopefully... I am hoping to go pick up next Friday. It will be in Fort Worth and living outside Houston is a 200 mile drive. I have gone about as far as I can on the new bed. Need the new truck to get mounting clips fabricated and welded on to the new bed. Will finish the tracks on top of the bed today for the Bombs to ride in. Will be ready for the paint shop in a couple of weeks after getting the truck... We have been down and not been anywhere to ride the ATV's since Colorado in September. Needless to say, both wife and I are ready to get out and ride... Will get pictures posted after receive the truck....

Made headway on new bed this weekend. Got the runners built that will carry the ATV's. I wanted to make sure the tracks worked out ok since I narrowed them on the new bed from 14" to 12" wide. Now the tires fits great and loading and unloading should be a piece of cake.. I decided to see how it looks.. Loaded the wife's Outlander Max to see how it lines up.. I posted more pictures if anyone is interested. The latest are the ones after the title Bomb Loading.....

http://www.ccb-design.com/Photographs/F-550%20Bed/index.htm

Looking good Exposed. Is that fuel tank home made or?

100 Gallon Aluminum. I built a Stainless Steel one on my 99 F-350 but was built for short box. It was too tall so with the 2000 F-350, decided to make this one only 16" tall. Takes up more bed space but is much easy to work around....

that sure is looking nice, can't wait to see it all mounted on the truck...

Well, it is getting closer.. Talked to dealer last night in Fort Worth and he said truck was in Mesquite, Texas. That is the railhead station. It is loaded on a transport truck and will find out this morning when it will arrive at dealership. Most likely today or tomorrow. So we hopefully will be headed out tomorrow morning or Saturday for Fort Worth.... We are really anxious to get it. We have been waiting for a new truck since July... Will post pictures of it once we get it...

I don't know if anybody else is interested, but I am. Waiting for the Pictures, as you are for the truck itself.

I'm also extremely interested in the progress, can't wait to see the final product and the pics to get it done!

I am really ready to get finished with this project. Originally was suppose to get truck in November so would have been done by the first of the year. But now, we have not been riding on our ATV's since September so we are really ready to go. I will be taking some time off work over the next couple of weeks trying to get it finished... It is a lot of work to build your own custom bed. One thing nice is it will have all the things I want the way I want it. I will save about $5,000 - $7,000 on this bed. They sell for about $10,000 to $12,000. So far I have spend about $2,500 so far. Will spend another $2,000 on undercoating, deck coating (bedliner type), and paint job to match truck... Of course there is labor but it is something I like to do an really gives you a sense of accomplishment when done....

yeah, not only the money you saved, but the accomplishment of making it yourself is great satisfaction and you look like you've done it first class...can't wait to see it all completed...looking forward to seeing the truck also

Just got the call from my guy in Fort Worth.. Truck was delivered last night to the dealership.. So needless to say, we are headed to Fort Worth in the morning...................

Your a patient man Exposed I would be on the road right now

I agree guys cant wait to see the finished product.

Yeah.. I am having second thoughts about waiting myself.. Just figured I have been waiting for 8 months, what is another day... Plus it is Friday and I only work till 11:00 on Fridays so not losing much work.. Wife as well... She will be coming to drive her Explorer back and the new truck I was told.. ha ha....

Well, finally got the new truck.. I want to say first that ride back from Fort Worth was not as smooth as going up in the wife's 2003 Explorer Limited. However, I don't think it was as rough as my F-350 is now being empty. For a F-550, GVWR rating of 17,950 pounds and of course no weight in the back(bedless), the ride was not bad as all. Once the bed is on there, I think the ride will be fine and may not require air ride like I was planning on adding in place of leaf springs. Ford did some real wonders by adding 8 inches of spring length in the rear. I would image the new F-450 with bed would be a very acceptable ride for a serious heavy duty truck... Now for the really good stuff. Cab is XLT Lariet which is the top of line. Very nice layout, GPS worked really slick. Easy to read and operate. It is the same on that comes in the Lincoln Navigator from the manual. The 8 speaker surround sound system with sub woofer sounds unbelieveable. Like a concert hall.... All of the goodies comes in the Lariet. Really nice mirrors, power adjust, power in and out for towing, and power fold in the doors for tight spot in parking or a drive through. Dual remote A/C with dual temp controls, transmission temp and turboboost pressure on turbos. Truck layout is really nice and comes from the F-150 design. Electric seat warmers (even down here we use them sometimes), adjustable pedals for the short wife, and too many others to list. Overall cab design is the best Ford Truck I have had in over 30 years of Ford Trucks. I strayed a couple time to Chevy but came back to Ford. Now for the really good part.. The new Powerstroke... The early Powerstrokes as well as all diesels were noisy and dirty. My dad's and brother's 95 have over 200 hundred thousand miles and going strong. But they are very noisy even going down the road in the cab. My 2000 7.3 is much quieter than both of there's. Going down the road you can still hear the diesel with no problem inside the cab. BUT, this new 6.4 is unbelieveable..It cranks better than a gas motor, I mean 1 second on the starter and it is running. From the outside of the truck at the rear, you would swear it was a gas motor. At the front outside with hood open, you barely can tell it is a diesel... From inside the cab at any speed, you can not tell it is a diesel. It is as quiet as any gas motor... The only way I can prove this is go a dealer and listen for yourself.. The trip coming home from Fort Worth was nice and quiet, I can see traveling in this vehicle will be really comfortable. Ofcourse the truck drove great and handled excellent. One other thing the new Fords have a much tigher turning radius that Chevy or Dodge. Mine is the 200" wheelbase (longest) which is about 24" longer than my F-350 and I can tell it turns much easier by just backing into the shop last night. I put 245 miles on it yesterday and it was really a nice ride. It was late so I did not get any pictures yet. The color is called Dark Blue Pearl Clearcoat. It has pearl in it and looks really nice. We have the Explorer Limited with the same paint but is white. It should really look cool in the sunshine. Don't know if we will have any today or not but will take some pictures and get them posted on my site tonight.
Guess I did not say anything about the 350 HP and 650 pounds of torque, probably enough said there.. It moves this truck right on out. It seemed to be loafing at 75 MPH yesterday. Power is unblieveable as well. Trailer Life magazine tested the new motor last month pulling by a 20,000 pound Alfa (I think that was the model) 5th Wheel in the mountains.. It had no problem moving it and stopping it and I can see the same with my rig..... Anybody that pulls a heavy 5th wheel will really like this truck. One ton trucks do not have enough mass to handle big trailers. Both the Cummins and Duramax have the power but truck is just not heavy enough to really handle it in all situations.. Atleast in my opinion.... Anyway, will get started back on bed today... I am shooting for being done with bed in about 4 weeks.....