F450 Fiver Bed - Will This Fit A TC?

Golden_HVAC wrote:

Mike@Asheville wrote:
Hi all, I've been considering a TC for sometime now and I've decided to pull the trigger if one will work with my current truck. I have a 2004 F450 4WD with a Fontaine Classic Hauler Bed designed for towing a 5th wheel. The truck only has 60K on it and is used mostly for pulling a 36' HitchHiker.

My concern is the design of the bed may not allow for proper fit of the TC. The closest TC dealer is nearly 200 miles away so I'm hoping to get some insight from you guys before making that drive.

I don't see an option here to post a pic so I'll describe it.

1. The exterior width from fender to fender is 95.5". A Lance dealer told me over the phone that the inside measurements of the jacks are 99". Is that about the same for all duallies?
2. The bed depth is only 12.5" which is much shallower than a normal pickup bed. Will that be an issue?
3. The bed does not have a tailgate. Instead it has a U shaped cut out for the kingpin to pass thru. Will a side door or some other style TC work with this.
4. The bed is made of fiber glass. In place of a bumper the fiber glass is molded so that if flares out at the bottom and provides a step in the center. The outside of this step extends about 12" from the interior truck bed.
5. The bed is standard size about 66" wide and a little over 96" long.

What do you think? Thanks everyone!

I googled Fontain classic pickup bed and got this image.



Is that what your truck bed looks like?

It seems a little short, and the pickup camper will look a little weird on the bed, because the sidewalls are normally set to come out to the edge at around 19" off the bed floor, and your bed is only about 12" deep, so there will be something like a 7" gap between the top of your bed and the bottom of the camper "Wings" (for lack of a better word).

Your F-450 will support it. The camper does not really distribute much weight onto the pickup bed sidewall rails, but mostly is supported by the base of the camper on the bed of the pickup.

Looking at a side shot of another Fontain pickup you can see how the bed is about 7" lower than the windows of a normal pickup body, where the top of most pickup beds would be located.



Another problem will be the requirement of the camper to have 48" space between the wheel wells as well as a 48" wide opening in the center rear for the box to fit into the pickup bed. Your opening does not look like it is 48" wide. That is easy enough to fix. Take a sawzall and cut an opening that is wider than the pickup camper front end (that might be as wide as 49" or even wider in some custom models that have more width for the wet bath near the back of the pickup bed) and then have a body shop that can fix fiberglass repair the body and make it look factory made again. Most auto body shops that can fix a corvette body can also work on fiberglass.

Another critical dimension to consider is the top of the pickup bed to the top of the cab. In standard pickups, this is a very well regulated height. So truck manufactures have not changed this dimension for many years, back in the 60's it was about the same height as today's trucks, so that a camper cabover will fit various model trucks, even those built 30 years ago! It looks like your pickup bed might be a little taller than the average pickup bed. That might be OK, and just have a extra inch between the top of the cab and bottom of the camper cabover section. Some GMC truck owners have needed to install a 2" block platform in the back of their pickup beds to allow a older camper with a short bed to cabover work with the newer model and taller cab of a modern pickup.

Fred.