Calling all f100/f250 Prerunners

[1971ford]

i know steel has gone up but $10 is a lot for a foot of tubing.
Just check with another local place selling steel that can get you DOM
For my cab cage and bed cage i used about 7 sticks i think. Each stick is 18' long, so about 130 feet.
That would be rougly $1,300 with that $10 tubing price, i payed about $400-500 for all my tubing. Prices have gone up but not that much.

[Tycho]

i know steel has gone up but $10 is a lot for a foot of tubing.
Just check with another local place selling steel that can get you DOM
For my cab cage and bed cage i used about 7 sticks i think. Each stick is 18' long, so about 130 feet.
That would be rougly $1,300 with that $10 tubing price, i payed about $400-500 for all my tubing. Prices have gone up but not that much.

http://www.tottentubes.com/dom_tubing.html

local stock yard. If I'm reading that right they have 2" .120 for ~$2.40 a ft.

[1971ford]

I dont know, i don't understand that chart

[neo-Redneck]

im blueprinting a brushguard and a bed cage/cargo/light rack for my truck, ill be using the square steel tool rack my truck came with, i really want to offroad that truck soon.

[1971ford]

im blueprinting a brushguard and a bed cage/cargo/light rack for my truck, ill be using the square steel tool rack my truck came with, i really want to offroad that truck soon.

I'm not liking the sounds of square tubing...
How will you make bends? Miter cuts? Sounds a little ghetto to me, just go with some 1.75" .120 mild round tubing. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk but square tubing isn't for bedcages...

[Tycho]

Ryan, any ideas for a 2 tire rear cage? I'm going to take some nice pics to play with in paint. Ill post em for you so you can mess with them too.

So far this truck has the closest to what I want to do although it has the fuel cell further up. Thoughts on that?



I think I want to do that, but on the second tire have it sit flat on top of the fuel cell which will be recessed into the bed, although not as deep as yours is.
I have to be careful, because ill be doing it now with my 33s but eventually I want to move to 35s or are you having rubbing issues with them?

Also not sure how high the tire on top of the cell would be... might mess with sight lines too much might not. Ill have to do some mocking up.

Having a longbed really messes things up with all that real estate to both play with and cover

[Redcap]

Steel has gone up considerably since you guys last checked, I'm sure. About how many feet should I plan on buying for a cab & bedcage?

Steel has gone up in the last two weeks?

[1971ford]

That setup looks fine, the only thing i can think of would be when you get a flat, and you swap the further back tire, and then later on you get another flat, you might have to pull the flat tire back off too, to be able to get to the good tire that is half under the bad tire. If that makes sense. But time doesn't really matter since you won't be racing. Whip up a cage in paint like you said, that is what i did many times. The copper Ranger's basic bed cage is very similiar to mine. Then you will just need to find out how exactly those tires are secured, or whip up an idea. But why re-think the wheel, see what they do. I'm sure they just have a V handle with a bolt on the end that threads down into a welded nut on some tubing that the V bar can clamp down onto. Kinda hard to explain.

[Tycho]

That setup looks fine, the only thing i can think of would be when you get a flat, and you swap the further back tire, and then later on you get another flat, you might have to pull the flat tire back off too, to be able to get to the good tire that is half under the bad tire. If that makes sense. But time doesn't really matter since you won't be racing. Whip up a cage in paint like you said, that is what i did many times. The copper Ranger's basic bed cage is very similiar to mine. Then you will just need to find out how exactly those tires are secured, or whip up an idea. But why re-think the wheel, see what they do. I'm sure they just have a V handle with a bolt on the end that threads down into a welded nut on some tubing that the V bar can clamp down onto. Kinda hard to explain.

http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=104450

Thoughts on that cell? Not sure how I'd mount it




Good pic of my original idea.

[1971ford]

Well, that cell is 31.5" wide, without the tabs. It would be about 34" with the the "tabs".
Bumpside frame rails are about 29.75" wide, and 33.75" wide inside the channel.
So it will not fit between our frame rails. Unless, you slide it through the back of the frame in the channel, then that might be a pretty darn good fit! Slip it right in there and it would rest on the lower channel of the frame, and then you would figure a way to secure it. But it will hang down below the frame 8", which is exactly like mine. Plus that cell has the sloped bottom so it would be even better if you were to huck it and land on the rear (Kinda un-likely).
Your call.

[Tycho]

Well, that cell is 31.5" wide, without the tabs. It would be about 34" with the the "tabs".
Bumpside frame rails are about 29.75" wide, and 33.75" wide inside the channel.
So it will not fit between our frame rails. Unless, you slide it through the back of the frame in the channel, then that might be a pretty darn good fit! Slip it right in there and it would rest on the lower channel of the frame, and then you would figure a way to secure it. But it will hang down below the frame 8", which is exactly like mine. Plus that cell has the sloped bottom so it would be even better if you were to huck it and land on the rear (Kinda un-likely).
Your call.

Thanks for the tips. I'm actually trying to plan this way out ahead, as to avoid confusion and wasted money. I'm thinking now I want to keep the truck more DD/utility oriented in order to incorporate it more into my life, and to help hold the resale value better. I'm sure I could sell a unique prerunner like an F100 no prob, but I won't be racing this truck anytime soon. I just don't have any friends or family into offroad racing so to speak. I don't really have the time, either, as I'm going to school and working full time. It'd be great, to be sure, but I don't think this truck should be built to all out race. Well, it should. It deserves it. But I don't have the desire to spend the money, time and whatnot to see it to the end. The worst thing I could do to this truck is half-ass it. I'd much rather aim for a less extreme, more usable happy medium. But there's a problem...

Is it even possible to create a bed cage while retaining usable space with a long bed truck like ours? I am thinking its not. It just seems like too much real estate to work with, and a relatively narrow frame. If you have any ideas id absolutely love to hear them. I don't think what I'm describing has been attempted yet with an F100 and probably for the very reasons I'm worried about.

This thread gives me hope though...
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthr ... 417&page=2

specifically this setup..


As far as the fuel cell goes I want something that will mount flush or as close to it as possible with the bed without being a liability underneath. What are my options here? I could skip it altogether, as it wont be raced, but I hate having the tank in the cab. I see the Ranger guys mounting theirs up at the front of their beds, but the trucks have such a short wheelbase that I guess that makes it viable. Wouldn't work on a long bed truck. At least I don't think...

[1971ford]

Yep you're right, with the narrower frame it will be hard to retain too much bedspace. My bedcage shows the room you will have between the frame rails. As you can see, it isn't much. But it still is much better than a car. I can still haul a dirtbike, wood, whatever. just not as much or as big.

You can get a shallow 22gallon fuel cell, just wide enough to allow for 22 gallons and not being too deep but still fitting between the frame rails, and mount it flush with the bed floor no problem. I'd just do that. Pretty much like mine, except flush and much shallower since it would be 10 gallons less.

[Tycho]

Yep you're right, with the narrower frame it will be hard to retain too much bedspace. My bedcage shows the room you will have between the frame rails. As you can see, it isn't much. But it still is much better than a car. I can still haul a dirtbike, wood, whatever. just not as much or as big.

You can get a shallow 22gallon fuel cell, just wide enough to allow for 22 gallons and not being too deep but still fitting between the frame rails, and mount it flush with the bed floor no problem. I'd just do that. Pretty much like mine, except flush and much shallower since it would be 10 gallons less.

I see. So does the cage absolutely have to come up from the frame at a 90 degree angle? For a race cage, I'm assuming that's the case. But I'm not racing this truck. I basically need a setup that can hold spares and mount my shocks to. It looks like some guys have them going in at an angle into the frame rather than directly on top. If I did that, I'd save a ton of space, given our narrow frame rails.

Two Spare Idea... looks to be an 80+ F150


One Spare Idea...


I like the whole swivel idea so If you want to load something into the bed the spare gets out of the way, but you get the stability of a horizontal spare.

I think Ill skip the fuel cell, at least for now. I have the under bed tank that looks to be around 25 gallons (correct me if im wrong) that I can put in, and ditch the cab tank.

Edit: looks like it runs parallel to the bed frame so it'd be weighted on one side. Lame. I want a fuel cell but don't want the lines sticking up out of the bed. Might get the 22 and sit it flush at the front of the bed, and fab a housing over the top so it's all protected.

Wish you had shocks on your rear so I could see how you mounted them! Not exactly a ton of longbed caged trucks rolling around

[1971ford]

I like the first 2-spare idea. The second one i can see some problems with, well for me. First, yeah you can swing it down and load it up, but will you be able to swing it back with much of a load?? And I don't like the idea of one spare but that is totally opinion. I just like to be able to go out and blow one tire, and still have one more just in case. With one tire, you will have to quite the fun when one blows. But with the second one you can totall remove the spare before a hauling trip.
You can angle the uprights as long as they are properly inforced, no big deal. And as far as shock mounting, the shocks shouldnt get in your way. Because you will most likely be mounting your shocks off the ubolt plate, the shocks will be on the outside of the frame, out of the weigh of cargo.
RUnning the 25gallon underbed/cab tank is OK but just beware that you are putting 100 lbs of fuel in harms way of a rock. They do have skid plates.. but.... that doesn't leave the tank protected at alll from a good rock. The weight transfer to that side isn't a huge issue but it is something to htink about. I say just drop a 22 gallon cell in the bed, counter sink it, let it hang down 8 inches or so, all good to go.
Another idea is mounting the in-cab tank to the bed for now, like i did as we worked on the cab cage.
Here is a picture of the incab tank bolted to the bed, and a couple of what a sunk fuel cell looks like. It hung down too low for me being that it is 32gallons, so i had to raise it up 5", but a 22gallon should be perfect.
I simple pulled the incab tank, mocked it up to the front of the bed and noticed it is a perfect fit, drilled some holes in the drouble thick top part of the bed, slipped some bolts in and rerouted the fuel line across a crossmember. I didn't bother reinforcing the bottom since it was temporary.



You will have to figure a way to protect the lines. Maybe make a little box over them or something.

[1971ford]

actually, now that i think about it, do a mustang tank swap! that would be perfect!