[Dubyac79]

I am looking at a short wheel base F350. This thing is made to pull aircraft around for the military. Some folks call it a Ford Bobtail. Before I make the investment, I am trying to figure out if the governor can be bypassed. Everything i can find on the Google machine is, it has a governed top speed to 25 mph.....for safe towing.
It also says it is a 7.3 diesel that has a 6 speed auto transmission, so 25 can't be the max speed. This is from an online surplus auction, so I can't contact the seller with questions and I was hoping a Ford Expert was in the group, that could give me the run down.

 

[ZMANN]

IMO a governor would just be an add on so that should be an item you can remove or defeat

I have seen these Bobtails before I have also seen some special units with no rear drive axle ?( they just use the front 4x4 axle for movement )
I know you have this in your thought process but a bobtail at 65 mph may be a handful to stop in a straight line

we have a few air base mechanics on here lets see if one chimes in

 

[Dubyac79]

Thanks for the reply, I am hopeful that I can mod it.

 

[Jeff-F350]

I used to be in the aviation business. There are so many types of tugs around. Most were specific to the job. Big, heavy, slow.

Short wheel base like that is going to be bouncy. Very bouncy.

Some tugs are also known to be very tippy when cornering. Dangerous. Some are still pretty heavy on top, and being such a short wheel base, not much give on the suspension, etc, they turn pretty quick, and sharp. This might be a handful on corners.

Most tugs are also built very heavy, lots of extra weight. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were weights attached some how, depending on where it was used. On an airport with pavement/concrete, usually very heavy. Off airport some pickups, I had a couple, were not weighted down. We just had front tow hitch receivers on them. For lighter aircraft and float planes.

I would guess same as Zmann the gov is just a bolt on mod that can be removed. I’d be looking into what gearing was put into it, if any. Might be geared like a tractor. And the suspension, is it stock? Might have been modified too, heavy springs. Fuel tank is probably not stock either, Not enough room under there now.

Just out of curiosity, what would you be using it for?

 

[Jeff-F350]

Another thought I just had. That thing probably has 10k miles and 15,000 hours of idling time.

 

[powerstrokeshellback]

your biggest speed governor is probably the rear gears, i bet they are LOW

 

[ZMANN]

good point

 

[diablos30]

semi-old thread, looking around for one of those bumpers lol

anyway

when its running, turning the key forward like your starting it bypasses the governor on those so i assume its electronic.

those are just f350 with a shortened wheelbase, nothing special about them. in the af we used them to tow bombs and equipment to the aircraft, actually towing aircraft was left to the larger tugs. probably lots of idling on them, just the nature of the job.