F450 Fiver Bed - Will This Fit A TC?

Mike@Asheville wrote:
BigToe did a better job than I could describing the bed. The bed quality and design are the main reason I'm hesitant to get rid of the truck. It's ideal for pulling a heavy fiver which I plan to continue to do.

I may look into having the rear opening cut out a tailgate fabricated but then I would still have the bed rail height issue. Thanks again for your help and BigToe thanks for making clear the issues in changing beds; I never really seriously considered that but now I know I won't.

I don't understand how a tailgate such as been proposed to you would create a bed rail height issue? We are not suggesting that you try and use a standard tailgate that would be taller. A standard tailgate would not fit and bears no resemblance to the Classic Traveler body lines. What was being suggested is to re-use the piece you cut out, by reinforcing it. and making a removeable (but not necessarily a drop down) tailgate out of the cut out piece, remounted with pins.

Something else... Fontaine made a tailgate option for that bed. It wasn't a field installable option... it had to be ordered and manufactured into it. But the fact that an openable, drop down tailgate was made for this bed is something to keep in mind. I don't think Fontaine has any left, but you might consider searching for images of other Classic Travelers to get ideas. Who knows, you might find a wrecked one some where.

I want to make a few more comments about the bed you have. In addition to the bed tub, which is 14 ga and 16 ga (it is my bed that is 10 ga and 12 ga), the Fontaine Classic Traveler steel tub (all galvanized, AND undercoated) is mounted to an entirely separate all steel welded sub frame. The main longitudinal rails of the subframe are heavy wall box tubing, with hat channel cross members to secure the tub. The twin 1/2" = 1" hitch foundation is welded to the tubular subframe, and talk about secure... Fontaine used hefty 3/8" thick shear plates (six of them, front middle and rear) to bolt, not weld, the subframe to the truck frame. So while sturdy as all get out, the truck frame can still twist without inducing any cracks in the bed, subframe, or frame itself. The design was intended to spread the stress throughout the entire loaded portion of the frame, rather than have stress concentrations. So with the subframe, there is yet more metal that $8K paid for.

And, don't for get the full wheel to wheel running boards that typically cost $800. ;)

Sorry to keep going on and on about this bed. I could talk about it seemingly forever, as it was a bold production attempt to leverage the increased carrying capacities of the then new line of 450/550 chassis cab SuperDuties to make RV towing safer. I think I even put a few people to sleep when I led a live tour of the production facility. I can understand being not quite able to describe to people some of the issues involving this unique bed. Not problems, mind you, but the "what is being given up" issues when considering the value proposition for changing it.

That is why bumpy's math of $60K = $8K = $52K saved isn't really an equation that solves or even addresses the nuances of the value proposition. Do you give up an engineered, OEM approved, ideally optimized bed for towing a fiver, to replace it with a compromised bed for doing everything else? If so, do you invest another $2.5K doing so, on a chassis platform that is just 15K more miles away from entering the range known expensive 6.0L engine problems that most owners reported around the 75K mileage mark (EGR Cooler, head gaskets, cab off repairs approaching 5 figures, etc) ?

Even if one "bulletproofs" it by illegally removing/blocking the EGR, putting a fake EGR cooler in, or whatever it is that people do to get the 6.0L to run, and run quite well I might add, still costs between $5K to $15K to do, depending on the vendor and how much is done. Adding all that up, even at $20K for everything, is still less than spending $60,000 on a new truck, which judging by the 6.7L forums continues to have it's own expensive problems to deal with in it's future. But that means spending more than what the truck is worth to resell, and one still doesn't have the benefits of the tighter turning radius (huge).

But to get the same fiver bed on a new chassis adds another $15K to the $60K, because everything has gone up in 10 years time. So to get more for the older 2004, one has to offer an incentive to make it worth while for those willing and able to take on the motor and mechanical risks... which might mean leaving that expensive bed on it.

If the 2004 chassis were on par with the 2014 chassis, the math could be simpler. But it isn't. Yet the risks are different. Problems with the 2004 are entirely out of warranty. Problems with a 2014 would be warrantable for at least 5 years, at the OP's usage rate. Anyways, I can see the difficulty in the decision. And, I don't think I've adequately covered all of the considerations, either.