One tough F-450

[Agnem]

Judging by the dash, it has kinship.

THE TIV

 

[towcat]

hey mel-
its a '97 chassis.....darksider but still a good choice for a chassis.

 

[Nickbf2504x4]

shoot the Black beauty could do that...

 

[Freight_Train]

I wouldn't trust that thing.Doesn't seem like a safe design.1/8" thick skin,looks like the stock hood......wonder if the firewall is reenforced?Only 14KLbs and a good 4 or 5 inches of ground clearance......Not me......If a tornado can lift a fully loaded boxcar at over 100tons then I bet it could really do a number on a 7 Ton truck.

 

[budtoh3zo]

Yep i agree not good at all, but its nice they use the toughtest truck to start with

 

[Mikes91]

They know what they're getting into (as does any trained meteorologist (me) or anyone with common sense (some other folks)).

An interesting concept, though.

Mike

 

[ericboutin]

Kinda weird - what did they do just put armored plate over top of the truck? In that first pic you can still see the Ford truck headlights and blinkers through the plexiglass covers?!

 

[yARIC008]

I wonder what upgrades it has. 90 MPH while weighting 14,000lbs seems pretty quick. Looks like they strapped on some super duty mirrors in their final version.

 

[towcat]

that F450 (darkside powered) is better areodynamically than mime ever could aspire to be. blobs cut the wind better than bricks do there's a few member's here who have survived a "hot" run and will swear the flying abilities of my brick. i'm not sure of the rig's survivability, but the concept is good tho. the wind can only turn it over if it can get under it or if the side surfaces is vertical enough. that's why tornado shelters are built underground. wind can't get to them. Only problem is all the flying debris the truck's skin must deflect. There's some pretty high speed shrapnel they will have to deal with.