One thing leads to another: 2017 F350 Regular Cab with FWC Flatbed Hawk

CON KSO

Adventurist
The original plan was simple: swap my trusty Callen Camper with a new flatbed Hawk. It was time for a freshen up. I'd put over 30k Baja miles on the Callen and during my last trip I camped next to a guy with a FWC slide in camper - that sealed the deal for me. I had to have one.

There would be a little hassle with getting the Callen off my Tundra (the unicorn of the Tundra family: 8' bed, SR5, 4x4 - tough to find) but I knew I'd find a way - and then I'd have to get the bed off and sell it, another hassle but not that big of a deal. Here's a shot of my old rig - she's seen lots and lots and lots of Baja:

Screen Shot 2017-12-22 at 6.31.17 PM.png


And then I did something I should never do, I started thinking. Need some examples of what "thinking" can do?

Exhibit 1: Started thinking what my truck would be like with a flatbed Hawk instead of a Callen = many thousands of dollars later, flatbed Hawk on order.

Exhibit 2: Started thinking maybe it was time to rest my trusty Tundra (130k miles on the clock - nothing for a Toyota but these are mostly offroad and Baja miles - the truck is only used for fun not a daily driver - Baja miles count double - drive a truck down there long enough and it will shake itself apart no matter what it is) and then this just happened...

Screen Shot 2018-01-20 at 5.06.29 PM.png


Figured if I'm going to drop the coin on a brand new camper, might as well start with a fresh set of wheels under it - I didn't want to get to 200k miles and then have to re-figure out how to mount the flatbed and camper on a new truck.

Plus I got to get a truck I've always wanted. Specifically, a regular cab, full size (f350) 4x4, XL trim. I've always wanted a regular cab - I just like the way they look. I specifically chose the XL trim because I didn't want all the chrome and I didn't want carpet inside. The truck I found has none of that stuff but it does have the electronic locking rear differential, shift on the fly 4x4, skid plates (it came with fx4 package), upfitter switches (so I can feel like I'm lowering flaps on a 747), bench seat with fold down middle seat (I prefer bench seat so I can stretch my right leg across the "hump" when in cruise control).

I'd also heard that the short wheel base of the regular cab allowed it to be a bit more useful offroad and in the supermarket parking lot. I can vouch for the ability to whip tight parking lot turns - I was able to spin U-turns and pull into parking stalls like a Prius at Starbucks.

I had no idea how difficult it was to find this specific configuration. It took lots and lots of looking, and I had to jump in the auto-dealer snake pit a couple of times but came up aces (drove three hours out to the beautiful town of Mojave to score the vehicle). A whole other amusing story about finding and buying this truck but that's for another time.

I went with the 6.2L GAS engine - I've got all kinds of reason for getting the gas engine, if you're interested in my reasoning you're going to have to let me know and I will write about it. I don't want to piss any diesel lovers off - I used to own one, I bought a brand new 7.3 CC 4x4 Ford the last year they were offered in 2003 - great truck but not great for me. As I write this I am reminded of Strega's thread where he offered his reasons for going with the gasser - mine are along those same lines... plus add no ULSD in Southern Baja and I didn't like having to carry an extra Cam Position Sensor in the glove box of the truck I just spent 40-something thousand bucks on. But I digress...

Flatbed: Marc at XPCamper is building my flatbed for me. The guy's been really easy to work with and he's willing to add custom options to the build for me. For example: He's building a custom rectangular (his normal back pack boxes have sloped doors - I wanted a totally rectangular box on my flatbed - Marc checked with his fabricators and said, "no problem" just the kind of answer I was hoping for!) "back pack box" onto the forward part of the flat bed for me.

He's also building a 30 gallon water tank into the backpack box as well as an ARB Fridge slide on the passenger side so that I can mount my ARB fridge if I really have a need to commit a fridge solely to Tecate.

We're also going to run the ARB Dual Cylinder air pump, tank and quick connects all built into the flatbed. Dude, it's going to be epic!

The best part is that he will be able to build an aft sliding drawer into the flatbed. This will act as both storage and as a table (it has an aluminum cover).

Marc's flatbeds also include hinged sides so that if the camper is removed, the flatbed can be used as a functional bed for carrying cargo. I'm interested to see how my flatbed sides will be modified to fit the flatbed with the backpack box in place.

I will report back and post pics as they come available to me. My next big step is to drive the truck up to Grass Valley to get the flatbed installed. More to come!
 
The original plan was simple: swap my trusty Callen Camper with a new flatbed Hawk. It was time for a freshen up. I'd put over 30k Baja miles on the Callen and during my last trip I camped next to a guy with a FWC slide in camper - that sealed the deal for me. I had to have one.

There would be a little hassle with getting the Callen off my Tundra (the unicorn of the Tundra family: 8' bed, SR5, 4x4 - tough to find) but I knew I'd find a way - and then I'd have to get the bed off and sell it, another hassle but not that big of a deal. Here's a shot of my old rig - she's seen lots and lots and lots of Baja:

View attachment 36398

And then I did something I should never do, I started thinking. Need some examples of what "thinking" can do?

Exhibit 1: Started thinking what my truck would be like with a flatbed Hawk instead of a Callen = many thousands of dollars later, flatbed Hawk on order.

Exhibit 2: Started thinking maybe it was time to rest my trusty Tundra (130k miles on the clock - nothing for a Toyota but these are mostly offroad and Baja miles - the truck is only used for fun not a daily driver - Baja miles count double - drive a truck down there long enough and it will shake itself apart no matter what it is) and then this just happened...

View attachment 36397

Figured if I'm going to drop the coin on a brand new camper, might as well start with a fresh set of wheels under it - I didn't want to get to 200k miles and then have to re-figure out how to mount the flatbed and camper on a new truck.

Plus I got to get a truck I've always wanted. Specifically, a regular cab, full size (f350) 4x4, XL trim. I've always wanted a regular cab - I just like the way they look. I specifically chose the XL trim because I didn't want all the chrome and I didn't want carpet inside. The truck I found has none of that stuff but it does have the electronic locking rear differential, shift on the fly 4x4, skid plates (it came with fx4 package), upfitter switches (so I can feel like I'm lowering flaps on a 747), bench seat with fold down middle seat (I prefer bench seat so I can stretch my right leg across the "hump" when in cruise control).

I'd also heard that the short wheel base of the regular cab allowed it to be a bit more useful offroad and in the supermarket parking lot. I can vouch for the ability to whip tight parking lot turns - I was able to spin U-turns and pull into parking stalls like a Prius at Starbucks.

I had no idea how difficult it was to find this specific configuration. It took lots and lots of looking, and I had to jump in the auto-dealer snake pit a couple of times but came up aces (drove three hours out to the beautiful town of Mojave to score the vehicle). A whole other amusing story about finding and buying this truck but that's for another time.

I went with the 6.2L GAS engine - I've got all kinds of reason for getting the gas engine, if you're interested in my reasoning you're going to have to let me know and I will write about it. I don't want to piss any diesel lovers off - I used to own one, I bought a brand new 7.3 CC 4x4 Ford the last year they were offered in 2003 - great truck but not great for me. As I write this I am reminded of Strega's thread where he offered his reasons for going with the gasser - mine are along those same lines... plus add no ULSD in Southern Baja and I didn't like having to carry an extra Cam Position Sensor in the glove box of the truck I just spent 40-something thousand bucks on. But I digress...

Flatbed: Marc at XPCamper is building my flatbed for me. The guy's been really easy to work with and he's willing to add custom options to the build for me. For example: He's building a custom rectangular (his normal back pack boxes have sloped doors - I wanted a totally rectangular box on my flatbed - Marc checked with his fabricators and said, "no problem" just the kind of answer I was hoping for!) "back pack box" onto the forward part of the flat bed for me.

He's also building a 30 gallon water tank into the backpack box as well as an ARB Fridge slide on the passenger side so that I can mount my ARB fridge if I really have a need to commit a fridge solely to Tecate.

We're also going to run the ARB Dual Cylinder air pump, tank and quick connects all built into the flatbed. Dude, it's going to be epic!

The best part is that he will be able to build an aft sliding drawer into the flatbed. This will act as both storage and as a table (it has an aluminum cover).

Marc's flatbeds also include hinged sides so that if the camper is removed, the flatbed can be used as a functional bed for carrying cargo. I'm interested to see how my flatbed sides will be modified to fit the flatbed with the backpack box in place.

I will report back and post pics as they come available to me. My next big step is to drive the truck up to Grass Valley to get the flatbed installed. More to come!
Marc does a really good job on his flatbeds, or tray-backs as I call them. His thoughtful design touches enhance the utility of the overall bed with or without camper placement, and his builder is skilled. It's the only builder I would go to for a T-back.
 
Marc does a really good job on his flatbeds, or tray-backs as I call them. His thoughtful design touches enhance the utility of the overall bed with or without camper placement, and his builder is skilled. It's the only builder I would go to for a T-back.
Yes! Great to hear the vote of approval with the XP Camper trayback... super excited to see it in place.
 
Congratulations on the truck! Something about those single cabs...

My family and I have purchased a few different vehicles from Kieffe and Sons Ford in Mojave over the years. Good people.

Can’t wait to see the next evolution on this build.
 
Let me know when you're ready to wire it up! :D

Whoa - actually was just talking to my girl about "what the hell are we going to do with all those extra switches (upfitter)?". I always put Wet Okole seat covers on my truck and they offer heated seat elements that slide right under the seat covers but they are 12v cigarette type plug ins. I was telling her it would be cool to have those but to have them switched at the outfitter switches - youtubed it and I'd have to run the power into the engine bay. Girl said, "you better have a professional drill holes in your new truck." and I agree. And now you're here... hmmmm. Also want to talk about running power to the backpack box, adding light bar, rear camera to watch moto trailer... so yeah we may need to chat!
 
Yeah - just went to Adventure Wired website. We're gonna need to talk. Do you do solar - I didn't order the FWC solar package because I want an MPPT monitor, more wattage and I need the panels mounted in a specific way (translate: picky owner)? Stoked you're in San Diego.
 
Yeah - just went to Adventure Wired website. We're gonna need to talk. Do you do solar - I didn't order the FWC solar package because I want an MPPT monitor, more wattage and I need the panels mounted in a specific way (translate: picky owner)? Stoked you're in San Diego.
Yes, to all of that. The solutions are easier than you think. We should meet up and you can check out my 4Runner.

Yes, I'm in SD. You should complete the rest of your profile, with location and maybe an avatar (of anything other than the default NOOB pic) :D
 
Congratulations on the truck! Something about those single cabs...

My family and I have purchased a few different vehicles from Kieffe and Sons Ford in Mojave over the years. Good people.

Can’t wait to see the next evolution on this build.
Yep - that's who I bought the truck from. Those guys out there saved me around four thousand bucks. Here's the story for those interested.

First of all, F350 Regular Cab 4x4s with gas engines are not common in Southern California. I'd get dealers telling me, "yeah I've got one right here" when I'd say, "sweet let's write it up" it would turn out that "they just sold it" or "I can trade for one" and then, again, "Oh it's actually already sold" I think this may have been because they were dealing with a buying agent my credit union supplies for members.

The deal there is that we get a price that's invoice plus 500. I think that dealers didn't want to sell the truck at that price point, so when I called them on it they would find a reason not to sell the truck. Whatever it was, it happened four different times, it was all seeming to be a big bait-and-switch game or at the very least extremely sloppy inventory management. Very depressing really and I was starting to get pissed off.

Fortunately, after being screwed over again by a Ford dealer here in San Diego, I decided to take matters into my own hands. The guy had sent me an invoice for the truck I now own but at a price almost 5k over what he had initially offered it to me (before it "was sold to another guy - sorry man."). I typed in the VIN number of the truck off the invoice he'd sent me and I found out that it was in Mojave at the Kieffe and Sons dealership.

I called the guys at Kieffe and Sons about the truck - turns out it wasn't sold after all. And it was the only F350 Reg. Cab 4x4 XL with locking rear differential, upfitter switches, 17' aluminum wheels (I just had a Tundra with 18' rims - I really didn't want 18s again so I was stoked to get the smaller rim size in aluminum) in about 500 miles. I made an offer and the salesman said, "Look we're a no games dealership - here's your price..." The San Diego dealer's best price was 39,500 (without tax and licensing) these guys would sell me the truck for 35,500 before taxes and licensing.

Interesting thing was this: I actually offered the dealer 37k for the truck less tax and licensing - he came back with the "no games" offer that was lower (35,500 vs 37,000) than I had offered. I think he may have assumed that my offer was 37k out the door. I prefer to think that these guys are indeed, a "no games" dealership and that the price offered to me was the price they had set of the vehicle.

I think if I were in to haggling I could have got the price lowered a little more. At this point, however, after searching so long for that exact truck configuration and options, I was happy to be able to buy a truck below what I had budgeted. It was also the lowest price I'd found for that particular truck after searching dealerships from here to AZ and out even to Salt Lake City, Utah.

By the way, SLC had really helpful dealers with good inventory for this type of truck but I couldn't get them to take a snow plow off the F350 I wanted, it had all the options that I wanted. If it had been possible the SLC salesman told me he would have offered the truck to me at slightly over what I bought mine for here in California. So all in all, I felt like I did okay, not great, but okay on the truck buying side of the project.

My favorite part of the transaction was that the salesman also writes up the deal and does all the paperwork with financing etc. - it's a one man game, there's no closer, manager, upsell guy, finance guy, rim insurance guy etc. etc. It's old school. If you live in Southern California you might want to give the guys at Kieffe and Sons a shot before you buy your truck.
 
Thanks for relating your experience in the level of detail that you did... I found it very instructional.
 
That will be a nice ride!

Unless the changed the upfitter switches since mine (doubtful for Ford), all the pigtails are right next to the steering column FWIW.
 
Next steps! I'll be bringing the new truck up to Grass Valley this Friday and will be leaving it at Marc's XPCamper workshop for installation and fitment of the new flatbed. It's a bit of a drive (10 hours each way) so I'm booking a room right in downtown Grass Valley and I sense there may be some fermented beverages in my future there. I fly back the next day and then the waiting begins. BTW: I've got a delivery date on my Hawk... can't believe it's really happening.
 
Was your salesman Mr. Kieffe or one of his sons?

You’ll be amazed by Marc’s shop, and his ability to drink.
 
That will be a nice ride!

Unless the changed the upfitter switches since mine (doubtful for Ford), all the pigtails are right next to the steering column FWIW.
I was reading that mine are in the engine bay next to the fuse box. Now I just have to find functions for those things.
 
Was your salesman Mr. Kieffe or one of his sons?

You’ll be amazed by Marc’s shop, and his ability to drink.
Neither - it was a nice guy by the name of Jesse who took care of us. I like the place and if I need another Ford someday, I'll go there. Marc mentioned "grabbing a beer" is this code for 20 beers?
 
Neither - it was a nice guy by the name of Jesse who took care of us. I like the place and if I need another Ford someday, I'll go there. Marc mentioned "grabbing a beer" is this code for 20 beers?

Naw, maybe a few though at the little brewery/restaurant down town.
 
My truck is now in the hands of Marc over at XPCamper and I have to say, I'm pretty damn excited to have the guys over there build my flatbed. I'm in San Diego so getting my truck up there and then finding a way to get myself back home again was a bit of a mission. I ended up leaving here at 2:30am so that I'd be able to avoid the Los Angeles traffic beast - especially since I'd be staying on the 5 right through downtown. What a mess that freeway is. I'm glad I got myself out and driving early because traffic was just starting to pickup as it began to get light. Fortunately I missed all of it.

I was at XPCamper in Grass Valley by 1:30 or so and this is what I pulled up to see:

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This truck was loaded up to be delivered to a new owner out in Clovis. The truck, the camper, all the custom aluminum work it was kind of a jaw-dropper to say the least. That's Marc in the orange. I got a quick tour of his factory, it's unbelievably huge, there's five or six full-sized trucks in there getting fit out with flatbeds and campers, big racks of aluminum stock, all kinds of complicated looking CAD machines - you get the idea that you could pretty much make anything you want in there. Best of all, it smells like a surfboard factory because of the fiberglass work they do.

Screen Shot 2018-02-03 at 2.50.33 PM.png


This shot only shows about 1/5 of the factory. That's my vehicle pulled in behind the Tacoma in the foreground. Once we got my truck situated and I handed off the keys Marc suggested we "go grab a beer". Little did I know that the Three Forks Brewery in Nevada City is the kind of place where you don't just drink "a" beer. The place makes delicious beer. And little did I know that Bavarians (Marc) are immune to the curious side-effects of fermented beverages - or maybe the dude just has a hollow leg. It was many beers later when I finally stumbled into my bed at the Gold Miner's Inn - when my head hit the pillow I pretty much blacked out.

Screen Shot 2018-02-03 at 2.51.41 PM.png


All I can think of now is how my truck's going to look with its XP Truck Tray - the rear trundle drawer is going to be my fly rod and tackle storage area and with the lid down I'm going to use it as a fly tying station. The corners of the tray have these solid machined edges on them and they're fastened to the tray giving the whole thing this hard core, purpose built, form follows function bad-ass look. It's hard to appreciate how well put together the trays are unless you get a chance to see them up close. I really enjoyed getting to meet Marc and his wife Toni and I have to say working with XPCamper on this project has been an enjoyable, hiccup-free experience. Man- I'm going to go nuts waiting for this thing.
 
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