1972 Ford F250 4x4 - question

[thefordguy]

Ihave a high boy I'm restoring, and its a sport custom. I was just curious if my truck could have also been a camper special. could a camper special be ordered with 4x4 ?

[crewdcab]

Never seen one. I've wondered that myself a time or two. My dad bought a '76 highboy new, which actually came with warning literature not to put a camper on it. Not sure when that started, but at some point Ford didn't want a camper on the taller/higher center of gravity F-250's. It would be interesting to know for sure.

[fordman]

sorry i was going to look some stuff up earlier and get back to this. well i didnt look itup. but i doubt it was a camper special. there are several ways to tell. look under the drivers side bed. and look between the frame and the bed for a electrical plug with about five sockets on the plug. the plug will be botled to the frame. that plug goes to the camper. other ways to tell is to look for emblems on the glove box and cowl. the bed emblems probably say sport custom i would guess. and then if the original mirrors are on the truck they would be wide frames stuck out away from the cab aways. so the driver could see around the camper. a sure way to tell is to get the build sheet for your truck. you cna get them directly from ford. or these guys can get it for you. http://www.martiauto.com/reports2.cfm

[averagef250]

Nope, no camper special option for 4x4's until 78/79 when they lowered them.

[1971ford]

too top heavy?

[crewdcab]

My father put a camper on his '76 anyhow, but it handled horribly even with overloads. He then put same camper on a '78 GMC and that was much better. It was a heavy camper as far as campers go. I think not only being taller, but also narrower spring perches were the main reasons. And the crappy power assist steering didn't help.

[averagef250]

My father put a camper on his '76 anyhow, but it handled horribly even with overloads. He then put same camper on a '78 GMC and that was much better. It was a heavy camper as far as campers go. I think not only being taller, but also narrower spring perches were the main reasons. And the crappy power assist steering didn't help.

I haven't had paralelling experiences.

70's GM trucks are glorified cars. The 67-77.5 Highboy is 75% of the same exact frame and suspension as a 67-79 F-350 dually or super camper special. How much did the extremely heavy camper weigh? I wouldn't be surprised if I had 5 times the weight of the heaviest in bed camper out there on the bed of a highboy with stock rear springs and no sway bar on many occasions. Two summers ago I hauled 9 yards of quickcrete 3400 pounds at a time on the bed of my 71 F-250 4x4. Handled like a Miata! Real trucks have 34" frames.

Power assist has been discussed to death on this site. Some of us have owned dozens of these trucks and have hundreds of thousands of miles on them with power assist, actually understand how the system works, where it needs a little upgrading and wouldn't want a power box on a 4x4 if you paid us to take it. Bashing power assist steering isn't showing off your highboy awareness regardless of how many you list in your signature line.

[crewdcab]

averagef250

Once again, you make me laugh. If I am off base, I apologize in advance. I do wonder, however, if you seek out my posts for the sake of argument.

I never said the camper was extremely heavy, only that it was heavy for a camper. It was around 1800 lbs dry. Yes that is less than your proclaimed 3400 lbs, but still over half. Or did you really haul 9000+ lbs payload? Wow, if that's true, than my respect for you has diminished.

Also, it's not just the weight, but the height as well. I doubt your quikcrete was 6' above the box rail. I realize you are in the Portland area and probably don't know much about wind. Don't bother BS'ing me, I have a sister that lives there. I, on the other hand, live 35 miles east of the Rocky Mountain front. It's not uncommon to get 45-50 mph winds here, with 80+ mph gusts. Now imagine, if you can, driving into and across that with an 11' foot camper that is just about as tall. We have trains derail here from wind. We have semi trucks blow over. And yes, we have campers and motorhomes do it as well. The combination of height, weight, a taller pickup, sloppy steering make for a more unstable ride. A large part of wider wheels and tires, wheel spacers, or full size axles in a compact is stability.

You can think whatever you want about power assist. It's junk in my book and that's a fact. Just because you don't swap, doesn't make it wrong or dumb or ignorant to do so. Judging from your signature, you obviously believe that highboys can be improved upon. Embracing power assist doesn't show off your highboy awareness, regardless of all the mods you list in your signature line.

I generally like reading your posts for technical purposes. But your arrogance and intolerance for anyone not doing it the "averagef250" way is getting old. I assume there are others here that feel the same way, but do not want to be lambasted on the majority of their posts. By the way, it's spelled concours.

[averagef250]

I don't write anything as a "lambasting" and sure as hell don't feel there's an "averagef250 way" that others need to follow.

I think there's an aspect to my personality that comes through in my writing that some people who don't know me personally completely misunderstand. From your response to what I wrote above I think you're one of those people.

I thought about what you wrote there, the personal attack aside, and I don't think tapping the keyboard away to explain my point of veiw and experiences with weight and these old Ford trucks would make a damn bit of difference.

Your power assist statements really are interesting to me. I doubt it's going to have any effect on your "fact" that using power assist is akin to burning babys, but I'd like to clear up a couple things in that regard so someone down the road reading this thread doesn't assume one of us is really stupid or really stubborn (which could be true, I don't know, I'm just a guy with a keyboard in non-windy Oregon).

A power steering box has a hydraulic piston inside with pressure porting controlled by a torsion valve. All in one nice, neat, clean little package. It puts all of it's steering force through the pitman arm, pushing one of the steering knuckles off the frame. Boxes have built in force limitations.

Power assist on a 70's Ford truck used a push-pull valve with a throwaway cylinder. The idea wasn't half bad, but the execution was poor. In decent shape the stock stuff goes down the road fine, and while you may not have rough roads or mud in Montana? Here in Oregon we have some of that from time to time. The power assist is one hell of a built in steering damper and puts 100% of it's turning force from axle housing to steering knuckle. Even the original Ford garbage worked really good turning larger tires in conditions that would negate the force from a power box.

My point is the idea was fine, but the parts were poor. There are lots of really fine products out there for steering systems from AG designed components, class 8 truck stuff and motorsports applications designed to overcome the limitations of a power box. It's a simple, straightforward deal to assemble a power assist steering system that works as well at 100 mph as it does steering out of deep ruts.

If an individual wants to believe a power box is superior in ways besides it's neat little packaging that's thier choice. If they are interested in understanding the pros and cons of power assist, what products are available to install a system on their vehicle, how it can be tailored to suit thier specific needs and more they don't need to look very hard. The information is out there.

[1971ford]

I think there's an aspect to my personality that comes through in my writing that some people who don't know me personally completely misunderstand. From your response to what I wrote above I think you're one of those people.

Talk to Dustin on the phone and you will be blown away as to how nice he is.

I used to hate the averagef250 guy but took some time to realize i was taking his posts the wrong way and now he's probably the top dude on here i seek out for solid advice.

[crewdcab]

I acknowledge that there are hydraulic systems that perform well. However, I do not count the stock ford system as one of them. That was my main point in the first place. I was not bashing those systems in general. I said prior that I apologize if I was off base, and it seems that I was.