Rear shock placement under bed (F150)

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 5:44 am

I have an 82 flareside (stepside) and want to keep the fuel tank stock under the bed. It only has the one tank on the side. This makes it hard to angle longer shocks in there off the front of the axle. Behind the axle there is nothing under the bed. Are there any real disadvantages to mounting the shocks off the back of the axle? Leaf spring set up. I don't want to go through the bed because I will be buying new oak boards and don't want to cut holes in them. Especially with how much $$ they are. This is not going to be a race truck but I like to go fast sometimes.

cs_drums · Post by **cs_drums** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 6:50 am

Look at Taylor's sleeper(haha) F150 thread, he did a behind the axle 39g bolt in replacement tank. You should be able to scavenge lines from the junk yard. I'd say the time/work invested would be better getting a larger capacity tank with better weight distribution and having the shocks in a more ideal location.

The way the springs cycle the axle move up and back so you will be getting less susp travel per shock travel if that makes sense. I'm sure it will work and can be tuned to work well but I'd move the tank before I started down a path less traveled.

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 10:06 am

The only thing is the fender only has the front fuel door. I would have to put the filler neck in the wheel well if I put on a rear tank. Maybe I will just find a dually at the pick a part and grab the bedside. Maybe going through the bed would be easiest.

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 11:18 am

Would be a shame to cut holes in something like this. Maybe I will just go super cheap homedepot wood and not care so much.

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 1:41 pm

Probably gonna use Steve's idea of i can get it I front of the gas tank.

ChaseTruck754 · Post by **ChaseTruck754** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 4:59 pm

what if you do a recessed fuel cap that is flat in the bed with the rear tank Travis? You can make it look clean I'm sure. You might have to have a temporary setup with a "regular" gas cap for smog times, but the rest of the time you can make something like this work I'm sure

ChaseTruck754 · Post by **ChaseTruck754** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 5:02 pm

Oh and as for the wood - what about a plywood with a nice oak veneer or something. Seal it well and it may last??? Cheaper than solid oak plans I'm sure.

I personally have a hard time with wood in a bed (or anywhere on a car really - but that is another debate), as I like to use my truck like a truck & therefore the bed gets beat.

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 8:57 am

Veneer????? The truck won't be hauling anything other than camping gear. I have another truck to haul dirty heavy stuff. This will be for my lady to drive. Got a great deal on some raptor take offs yesterday so I'm going to try and use those. Anyone know the stroke on the stock rear fox raptor shocks?

ChaseTruck754 · Post by **ChaseTruck754** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 12:08 pm

Veneer is a thin layer of wood glued to the top of plywood or pressboard or something. Think about some of the "oak" furniture that isn't solid oak - that's a veneer

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 12:23 pm

Tchajagos wrote:Anyone know the stroke on the stock rear fox raptor shocks?

They are basically 12" stroke, but if I remember details correctly they're 11.75"s

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 12:58 pm

Haha I know what veneer is but um ewe! Lol. I know I'm cheap but I still want to do it right the first time! Im probably going to end up buying a wood bed kit. They are around $300 for oak. Going to fully seal it with a nice stain and polyurethane like a nice deck. I will probably use a tube over the frame with tabs for the shocks. The raptor shocks are looking good for this build but need oil and to be charged. Probably am going to pick up a rebuild kit for them. They look to be 18" collapsed and about 29-1/2" extended. Should be perfect. Are there any disadvantages to angling the shocks inward a bit?

ChaseTruck754 · Post by **ChaseTruck754** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 7:02 pm

Sorry - any wood to me on a car is ewe - veneer or not. I figured if you're trying to save cash you could have the look for a lot less & not worry so much about it.

damon1272 · Post by **damon1272** » Sat Jan 30, 2016 10:13 am

Spirit would take a corner of the front tank out and weld in a patch to get the correct angle to the shock on the driver side.

Post by **SteveG** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 1:26 pm

Somewhere on GFB is a thread I started on the Off-Road Magazine article on the Spirit-built F150. It includes some photos of the under-bed shock mounts.

johncharlesb · Post by **johncharlesb** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:49 pm

SteveG wrote:Somewhere on GFB is a thread I started on the Off-Road Magazine article on the Spirit-built F150. It includes some photos of the under-bed shock mounts.

Thread: http://www.gofastbroncos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2853

Veneer will peel when it gets wet. Solid oak is pretty bad ass for wood. If you want heavy duty, it should be solid oak with a good oil based polyurethane. I would want oak, but I put in a factory steel floor when I built my flareside because it was the right size and I paid scrap weight cost for it.

damon1272 · Post by **damon1272** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:40 pm

notching the tank is not too hard and you don't lose too much capacity. The other way to do it and I probably would is to add a bronco tank to the rear with a cross member. Pick up double the capacity and is an easy conversion to do.

Tchajagos · Post by **Tchajagos** » Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:26 pm

I've been reading some other posts and realizing that the stock tank is not even going to fit. It is a short bed standard cab 4x4 and the original C6 transmission was a lot shorter than the e4od that is going in which allowed ford to run the stock mid ship tank back in 82. I guess I'm going to just go with a bronco tank since I have a spare one here.