99 F550 Questions...

[fastrnrik]

Hi guys. I have a few questions about my 99 F550. It's an early 99 4x4 XLT crew cab / flat bed, with a 7.3 and 6 spd trans. I bought it new from a local dealer and we used it for a work truck for our construction company. The last crew that used it wasn't very "kind" to it and around the same time it started running bad, so we just parked it. It has been sitting, and has had a few injectors and the IDM box robbed out of it for another truck. I have recently decided it's just too nice of a truck to let sit and turn into a junk heap, so I am going to pull it out, resurrect it and use it as a personal truck to pull my race trailer or boat or whatever. We are going to put a new set of injectors and new IDM in it, a decent tuner, delete the muffler/cat, add the 6637 air filter, and that should be fine for power.

Anyway, I have a few questions to help me get going....

First, The truck is crew cab "cab/chassis". I haven't got out and actually measured the wheelbase, but it appears to have a standard wheelbase like a regular F350 crew cab dually. It has a normal 8' or 9' long flat bed on it like is regularly available at most truck places. My question is: will a regular Ford Dually bed fit? I see the frame appears to be flat and fuel tank is rear mounted, obviously to accept work bodies, but will a regular bed bolt on? I like the flat bed, but since it will be more of a personal truck, a regular bed would look good too.

Second, wheels & tires.... It has the 19.5 wheels on it. The tires are just ok so we need to replace them. My thought was since it's geared so low we could put some larger tires and/or wheels on it to help with the gearing and mpg. I would like to run over 65 mph and get more than 10 mpg LOL. Is there a larger 19.5 tire that a lot of people use with good luck? The 19.5 tires always seemed to be more expensive than big truck tires, so I have also looked at the semi tire style setups, and that's appealing because they would last a long time, but was curious what some common rim and tire sizes to use were? I wouldn't mind lifting the truck 4" or maybe even 6", but some of the semi tired trucks are sky high to clear the giant tires, which I don't really care for. Maybe a low profile tire? I really have no idea, that's why i'm asking...

Thanks in advance for any help.

[fastrnrik]

No replies?

[kinnisoj]

The thing with the Semi tires to look into is the price. A few of the guys at work were looking up prices and I was blown away. I guess it would be a good investment on a newer truck but they would have a long payback time.
As far as the bed I may be wrong but dosnt the f550 have a wider fram than say the 350/450?

[HVAC SuperTech]

I think the cab and chassis trucks from the factory are a little different. One being the frame is spaced wider than a standard 350 truck. The tank being mounted in the rear def tells me that its set up different. Measure width between from rails on this truck then measure it on a 99 350 truck and you'll see what I mean. I dint think a standard truck bed will fit.

Second about the wheels.... you can order up to a 35 inch tire in a 19.5 rim size. What is the truck geared? You can order a set up from American force wheels that will mount to your truck. You can choose from 20, 22, 22.5, and 24 inch tire sizes. I think the 20s or the 22s would do you the best, because of all the different tire types available. 22.5 would mean you would have to run the standard big rig tire type and most of them come in a hwy terrain tire tread. Means you would get stuck in soft grass if you ever needed traction. Is it 4wd? That's another thing to consider. 255/70/22.5 are about 36 inches tall and in a 4wd truck you would need at least an add a leaf leveling kit to clear them. 35/12.50 size tires are gonna be the biggest you can run with a leveling kit. I don't know about 2wds, but I'm sure you can do a leveling kit there too, but it may not give you the clearance that a 4wd truck would have with a leveling kit.

Any way you go on wheels and tires is gonna be pricey. A 20 inch wheel package from American force is gonna run you 5 grand I think and I don't know if that's tires or not.

Tuning the truck will help a lot with power. Get a flip chip from a reputable tuner, along with guages and you will be fine. Tony wild man, PHP or beans diesel are the best around for tuning. Also, contact full force diesel in TN for your injectors. Might wanna step into a little bit larger set to give you some tuning capability and added power. Stage 1s if you look strictly to tow with and maybe as a driver n the weekends should do fin and not burn up the turbo. Stage 2s are going to be a bit too big for the stock turbo and could burn it up if you run them long. But stage 2s can be de tuned and you can always have that extra in there in case you do decide to go larger Turbo down the road.

[F350none]

I have seen it done more then once. It leaves about a 3" wider gap between the cab and bed. I saw one that has a filler thing between the bed and cab to fill the gap. Not sure if the bolt holes line up because I have never looked that close.

There is a red 550 with a pickup bed and topper in PA in the for sale section. Was posted in Jan.

[dieselcrawler]

4" diffrence in cab-to-axle measurement between std bed trk and 9' cab-chassis trk... 56" vs 60"

If you drop a std bed on cab-chassis frame it not only leaves a gap it sits a few inches higher and the body lines dont match up.

In short.... flat bed would be easier.

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