Ford F354 Monster Truck

This week we're putting the biggest off-road tires you can get on this old ford and taking it to the home of America's toughest rocks we're going to do it all in three days this is Crewford.

Crewford is a 93 ford f-350 that I bought off of a government surplus auction site online I was going to build it into a magazine project truck I did a few upgrades to it i put 37-inch tires on without any lift so we just kind of trim the bumpers I took it to Shaffer off-road we put 410 gears and detroit lockers rear and that was kind of it I just built this big cool truck that i could take off road but after a while I was just kind of over it I didn't really have anything else I wanted to do to it and I put it up for sale and nobody would buy it part of the problem is it's a crew cab long bed one-ton truck but it only has a small block Ford engine under the hood I was trying to figure out how I'm going to sell the thing when dirt head Dave saw it and he was like you got to keep that truck that truck is so cool I thought about what he said it was like you know what maybe we can build this thing that we can do something cool with it so I called him i told come on up we're gonna build the Ford I got one condition it's gonna be a monster truck huge tires these are mickey thompson baja quality ttc 54 inch tall tires these are like the tallest off-road tires you can get and we're going to put them on this truck in three days two and a half days two and a half days piece of cake we are mounting the tires on these I think they're 20 by tens or 12 wheels.

We're just put them on by hand this one is kind of being a bear come on Dave what are you doing give it some weight there this is what we're going to do to the Ford we have these 54 inch tires so somehow we have to fit these tires onto the truck we're probably going to need a suspension of some sort in addition to that this tire is very big the truck only has a small block so it's going to need more gearing the truck only has 4 10 gears in the axles now so we're going to add a 203 to 205 doubler some from off road design they make this product so that you can put a lower low range in the truck and then finally steering steering is going to be an issue turning that big of a tire we're going to convert the whole truck to a PSC full hydraulic steering system this should allow us to steer the truck have enough gearing to turn the tires and have enough suspension to clear the tires most of the time and you run a 54 inch tire you want to upgrade axles you want to go to like a two-and-a-half ton axle we don't have time to do that and hopefully the one ton axles will be strong enough for what we're going to do with the truck maybe down the road will upgrade to a bigger beefier axles but for now won tons 54 hydro steering lower gearing four suspension that's about it that's all I saw.

Driving Ford F354 Monster Truck

We can do it in two and a half days how's the tires coming Dave they're working all right this is the transfer case think all the bolts are out ok here goes nothing thing doesn't want to come off see some action hope you're gonna break the output shaft of the transmission some how suck it transfer case all right this is the board warner transfer case so we took out of the ford this area up here is the reduction box inside here is a giant chain the transmission attaches here and turns this which then turns the output shaft when you engage four-wheel drive it turns the front which runs through your front axle so this is what makes the vehicle four wheel drive this is not a bad transfer case it's actually pretty good however it probably only has about a 2 7 2 to one low range what we're going to replace it with is this 203 205 doubler this has the reduction box of a 203 transfer case an adapter plate from off road design and then it the venerable 205 this is one of the strongest transfer cases that something has been around for ages it's going to have a two-to-one low range here another 2 to 1 low range here which will give us a four-to-one low range is almost double what it has now you need all that low-range gearing to turn those giant tires because we don't have very low axel gears basically we're going to put this in get all of our low range in this keep our four tens which are really strong and we may have to get a new drive shafts made to run from this transfer case the current axles a dana 60 up front and a sterling ten and a half in the rear ten and half 10 yes I think 10 and 3 quarter 10.275 ten and a third don't worry about do you think.

You can roll it in here without it fallen off boy sideways holy cow about three-quarters of an inch 54 inch tire has a radius of 27 inches which is half of 54 this would be the very center of the 54 inch tire so if you look at this that tire at ride height needs at least cool like an inch cut right here in about 3 inches cut out there and out there we have a line Dave laid out a perfect arc here i'm going to just come in here with the plasma torch I'm going to cut it as close to that as I possibly can and then probably have to come in and clean it up a little bit of a grinder monster truck monster truck it looks gorgeous all right we have a new skyjacker six inch front lift springs on all brand new u-bolts we're going to put the shocks on and this will give us enough lift on the front end that hopefully we won't have to cut into the firewall and won't be the tires and be crashing and everything they look way bigger on the front than the back that's turns one I thought so the issue we're running into is right here tires going to hit right there if it turns it all and it barely turns and up front there's a bracket that hangs off the side of the frame here with a tow hook on it is really handy but that's going to have to move because that hits right there too at the end of day one we have a day and a half left approximately the front suspensions in the rear tires are on everything is cut we really need to trim some on the front so the tires can steer we started taking apart the old steering.

We're going to put the full hydro kit on the transfer case in it we got it like a 700-pound transfer case in there approx going to get the drive shaft ordered first thing in the morning get them built really quick by JE Real and overnighted so they're back here by Friday morning but we're right on schedule kicking butt real little ahead of schedule approx but we'll probably fail at something yeah something tomorrow we'll just go backwards will be plasma cutting the car burned up to the ground be done yay that's a wrap it didn't finish itself still big we're gonna start diving into this Dave is going to trim the firewall we're going to remove these tow hooks off the front we also have to address all the steering we have a full hydro kit that i want to install because it'll make it steer a lot better than the factory stuff which was already pretty tired so we're going to pull the pump off put all the new pump and ram and all that stuff on and try and make room for these giant 54s it's kind of silly that we have to stand on a stepladder just to work on the power steering pump on this car oh yeah bigger hammer truck is like a crossfit gym flip tires swing hammer good so even after beating on it with a sledgehammer I still needed to cut some more so I'll sand it up and we'll call this done what we have here is a ford dually hub and said it's basically like a big wheel spacer that built into the hub they were putting the dually hub on because it's basically a safer way to space the wheel out all right Dave bring it on in here lift touching the ground there this thing's going to turn like a dream look at that we almost get lock we will be able to back the boat up at the lake with this thing.

No problem it's all right I think I hurt my knee we're this close to being finished this we're that far from being being finished the list is getting longer ok that's it see you next time or tomorrow morning bye moring Fred I got your coffee thats Dave alright final day of the build if we don't get this thing done today we're never going to make it out off-roading what we have left to do Dave we got to do the drive shaft to get all alright we're gonna have all that stuff done by lunch time we'll be out of here doing burnouts or probably breaking axle shafts we're definitely not doing burnouts what's up little dog still runs not for sale JE Real got us three new drive shaft overnight we actually need three driveshafts because the rear driveshaft is a two piece driveshaft this part will attach to the 205 then there's a carrier bearing that attaches to the frame right here and then another drive shaft runs down to the rear end these guys we set the measurements they build them overnighted them it wasn't inexpensive but they're going to fit perfect look at that perfect how you doing all right Dave.

I think this is the moment of truth there's no turning back now we're going to see if it will actually move under its own power its got breaks ready put it in drive put it in reverse perfect i'm assuming when you were in drive I was in reverse yeah you were backwards on that one so we got to hook up the shifters button up a few little things first thing tomorrow we take it for a test drive it works Dave but we're all out of coffee so we're going to take it on our first test drive to town hopefully we don't run anything over and then we're gonna go to the desert go four-wheeling this thing's choice its like a limousine check engine lights on i think what you might have disconnected one of the wires where we're going we don't need check engine lights you think monster truck guys are going to be insulted that we're calling this a monster truck yeah what do you call it it's not a miniature truck to all you grave digger and Bigfoot fans we know this is not a real monster truck just a big truck with big tires but to all your little kids that see us driving around town yes this is a monster truck so what do you think Fred well we build a monster truck in three days.

It drives like a tractor cause it's got full hydro steering and i'm pretty sure the tires aren't balanced but other than that it's perfect hold this get out of here geeze I can barely get in this thing all these signs everywhere it's like construction zone whoa what was that I don't know let's get out of here this place is dead anyways I know it so much nicer out in the desert dude finally made it seventeen hours on the road Johnson Valley love this place is like a baddest rock crawling in America good thing we brought our mud truck good thing we brought a giant rock crawling four crew cab long bed with no winch toughest rock crawling trails in America right here and that's why i don't think we should start on the rocks we're going to play in the sand these baja claws are designed for Baja there's lots of sand in Baja plus we really don't wanna get the rocks just yet because we just got here and the last thing we want to do is break our brand new monster truck on the very first obstacle will break it in the sand that way we don't make it to the rocks all right let's go play come on come on monster Ford climb thats weird it porpoises like a dolphin it's more like a blue whale I think with jumpin it did we jumpin it I think we aired it out think we had like four and a half to 12 feet underneath the front tires lets go eat a sandwich and celebrate our dune climbing ability with our monster truck one of the reasons i wasn't able to sell this truck is because of the crew cab long bed with a small-block Ford small block.

Ford just doesn't really have enough power to push that much truck around when you add 54 inch tires and you go play in the dunes it definitely doesn't have enough power to push it around we could do a little bit more gearing in the axles beef up the transmission and definitely get more power out of the engine and then I think would be perfect on in the dunes all right Dave what's the name of this trail turkey claw why's it called that I don't know because the claws of the turkey come out of the ground and rip your vehicle apart well hows it rated on the rock crawling of Johnson Valley it's pretty hard they look Matt is behind us tell them about Matt Matt's got probably one of the coolest full-size chevys around it's got four link and coilovers and forties and tons dual transfer cases this truck is built he's wheeled with us a bunch of times and the thing proves itself he lives close by so he knows these trails so we brought the wrong truck but we brought the right support truck big tires due make the rock seem small I can't see it over this huge hood it's not a terrible rock crawler not yet here's a good stuff there you go there you go there you go that's so cool this whole truck is twisting the cab and the bed and the frame and the axles this is awesome this is why we go rock crawling this thing is actually working pretty good there you go nice and easy the truck doesn't have enough power or gearing really to climb four rocks at once so it's kind of like hitting it and it's going and that's it now it's boiling over so we're stacking a little bit to make it.

It's a one Rock wonder hit yeah it's kinda get the articulation ramp not get at the actual wheeling this is not the truck that you would probably build to come out here but it's working amazingly well you have that big of a radius of a tire it kind of rolls over stuff the transmission or the gearing somewhere between the transmission transfer cases a little upset it doesn't always want to climb hopefully we don't burn up the transmission down this gully and have to have Matt drag us out good work yeah so when you don't have a winch and you don't have low gearing you better have four buddies that like to throw rocks no matter how big the tires that's right no matter how little bit yeah largest off-road tire still not as big as the biggest rocks and Johnson valley good work Fred thanks guys we're almost out of the clutches of the turkey claw lets go how's it look Dave looks really good Fred I was spot on the other side I think somebody pushed the grocery cart into my truck while we were in Turkey claw we take this thing out.

I thought it was gonna I thought we were going to break all sorts of parts the thing probably didn't brake parts because it didn't have enough horsepower it worked really well on the rocks so like if we came back with probably some chromoly axle shafts and lower gearing this thing would actually work pretty well out here on all man that thing was awesome went through this together in three days concord a trail that I've been stuck on before in my own vehicles to get up here in this track and have it work that was a success in my book we did conquer turkey claw buddy matt and his Chevy didn't get to pull this out which is a victory for all ford guys sorry Matt but thanks for coming we man a trail in Johnson Valley with a monster truck we don't recommend doing this build yourself a really rad rock crawler come in here we'll see you next time on dirt every day we build a jet powered motor boat helicopter toaster oven if you liked this episode of dirt every day you can watch the next episode live right now on motor trend on demand