Preperations for an Overland/Camp build

Black dawg

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On a stock F350 front end I fit 255/85/16 no problem--they do come close to the bumper but no contact. For simplicity and reliable starts even with a few failed glow plugs I would install a manual glow plug switch.
A manual fuel shutoff mechanism instead of the 12v fuel shutoff solenoid in the IP would be a sweet upgrade IMHO. I'm sure it doesn't happen often but the thought of being stranded due to a failed FSS just don't sit well with me.


Manual fss would be cool. No reason to be stranded if one fails though, just remove top of pump and remove lever from fss.
 

Kevo1288

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Holy cow! $600 each, and looks like offroad only?

Yeah I changed my mind after searching and seeing prices!!!!

I did find a 4 inch lift kit for my truck I know rsk would be way to go but for ease of installation the kits only 30 minutes from me and is priced to go so I am probably going to pick that up and run some 315/75/16 on my stock alcoas
 

77f250diesel

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I think you should give some more thought to your tire choice.
285 75 16 are a stretch on stock 7" rims, 315s I think will be a problem especially if you air down off road.
 

Thewespaul

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285 is the biggest I would go on stock wheels. I’m running them on a 8.5” wide wheel and that’s pretty close to the limit on them.
 

Thewespaul

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As for the manual fuel shut off, the fuel shutoff solenoid is very very high quality, and I have never seen one fail although I’ve seen plenty cracked and missing plastic, they are a simple and robust design. I’ve seen more equipment have issues with manual shut offs than with the stanadyne fuel shutoff solenoids. If you were really worried, I would add a intake shutoff plate with a manual control. This will kill the truck no matter what, even if it’s running away on oil, where the fss will not
 

Black dawg

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I have only seen one fss fail, and it was a pickup that burned basically straight wmo year round. never really took any time to figure out what happened to it, just broke the arm off and put it back together to get home.
 

IDIBRONCO

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I've had a FSS fail in a very freak accident. This doesn't sound like it's possible, but I swear that it's true. In my first 1985 F250, I had a Kenwood radio that burned itself up. It started making a staticy noise. I looked down and saw smoke coming out from underneath the dash. Then the truck quit running. I got it towed back home, changed out the radio and no power in the cab. After a good bit of looking, I found that the fusible link off of the alternator had seperated (burned?) internally, but the outer insulation was fine. After I replaced it, I had power back to everything again but still no start. I finally found out that the FSS was not working. I swapped the whole top of the pump out with one off of another one that I had and it worked just fine after that. It wasn't really the fault of the FSS, but it did fail in a very peculiar way.
 

Kevo1288

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I think you should give some more thought to your tire choice.
285 75 16 are a stretch on stock 7" rims, 315s I think will be a problem especially if you air down off road.


Looks like I need to buy wheels then :/ I was under the impression they were 8 wide . Damn.
 

ifrythings

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I've had a FSS fail in a very freak accident. This doesn't sound like it's possible, but I swear that it's true. In my first 1985 F250, I had a Kenwood radio that burned itself up. It started making a staticy noise. I looked down and saw smoke coming out from underneath the dash. Then the truck quit running. I got it towed back home, changed out the radio and no power in the cab. After a good bit of looking, I found that the fusible link off of the alternator had seperated (burned?) internally, but the outer insulation was fine. After I replaced it, I had power back to everything again but still no start. I finally found out that the FSS was not working. I swapped the whole top of the pump out with one off of another one that I had and it worked just fine after that. It wasn't really the fault of the FSS, but it did fail in a very peculiar way.

That really sounds like you alternator/regulator decided to put out some high voltage. Most after market decks can only take 16v, if your alt was putting out say 24v it would smoke the deck, quadruple the power in the fss and the rest of the truck wouldn’t care as it’s either off or lights.

Techy note: FSS draws around 4-5 amps @14v, that’s 56-70watts of power it has to dissipate. Now let’s increase the voltage to 24v and the current goes up to 8-10 amps and the fss has to dissipate 192-240 Watts, guess why they die fast? Lol
 

IDIBRONCO

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No it wasn't unless it was a momentary thing. I still had the same alternator on it when I flipped it upside down off of an embankment a year and a half later.
 

gfemling

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Concerning stock suspension travel in off road use, my ‘87 Supercab long bed has quite a bit of flex and frame twist. Actually cracked corners of “plastic” (Rovel I think) canopy on a session. Wondering about methods of increasing suspension travel to increase articulation- anyone have ideas on this- pros/cons/$$?
 

Clb

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Start by unhooking the shocks, then flex it to the point of either hitting\rubbing or lifting a tire ,look for interference.
Fix interference, now flex again and measure shock length, replace short shocks with longer ones.

I do real rockcrawling, a tire 3' off the ground will cause contact where one 6" off the ground will not. ...let me know if the a above is not clear.
 

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