F-250/Power Wagon

On today's show,

we'll bring project workhorse back into the truck shop as we continue to get our F 250 Super duty ready to handle just about any job site out there.

Then it's time for a new millennium twist on a tried and true classic from the people who continue to change the rules. The name is still the same, but that's about it.

Welcome to this week's show everybody. Well, there's no doubt there's a huge amount of parts available through the aftermarket that allows you to customize your truck just about any way you want to.

That also applies to all you folks out there that are using your truck for the exact purpose it was built and that's to put it to work.

Now, if you haven't seen our F 250 super duty before we've already bolted on the under generator, that way we can have power wherever we go.

Now, one of the keys to setting up a work truck is versatility. The easier things are to take on and off, the more useful it is.

So today we're gonna show you some working man accessories that are easy to take off if you need to,

but it'll definitely help you on the job site

first up is this cap we got from a re Now, this thing is their delus

commercial unit that features an all aluminum construction and already came painted to match our Ford.

It also has weather sealed doors and gas props, heavy duty hinges, not to mention

automotive style locks to protect your valuables. Now, keep in mind these things are available with a whole bunch of different options and we'll point some of those out during the installation.

Now to prep this bed, there's a few things you need to deal with. First off, you need to decide what you're gonna do with these plastic bed rail covers. Now, on a Ford strongly recommend that you leave them in place because this is an unfinished area under here. There's also a lot of holes punched down in there, so it will be hard to seal everything up and keep it from leaking.

Also for our application, we need to get rid of this tailgate

as well as these latch strikers

and these rubber bumpers

like stace already said, we wanna make sure our cap doesn't leak. So the next step is to take the foam tape that comes with the kit

and run it down the bedside as well as across the front lip of the bed. Now make sure you take your time around the corners and seams because that's where most of your leaks are gonna happen.

Looks like we're about ready to set that thing on here. Let's do it, man.

Now, to get your cap on, if you don't have access to a lift like we do, then you better round up at least four guys because this piece definitely has some weight to it. Come on,

it's good.

Now, however, you decide to get it mounted, try not to slide it around too much or you could mess up the foam seal you've already laid down.

Now, most caps are held in place by some sort of a sea clamp like this that makes them really quick to take off. But

since our application is a little more heavy duty than that, we're gonna go ahead and drill some holes in this railing and bolt it on.

Now, if we ever want to take the cap off, all we have to do is take a few minutes, pop off the bolts off, comes the top.

Now, if you're gonna bolt it on,

make sure that you use some flat fender washers like this to spread out the load on the railing. So the bolts don't pull through.

Now that we have the cap in place, we can show you a couple of those options we talked about earlier. Now, with this model, you can get double full doors that open from the center, a single F

door that opens from the side

or a lift up door like we have for great access to the back. Now, like you've already seen, we also have an opening side panel that allows us to get cargo at the front of the truck without having to climb through the back.

Now, over here on the driver's side, we have this lockable storage unit for carrying tools or paint or whatever you need it for.

We also have this slick little pull down shelf that'll really come in handy out on the job site.

Now, up here on top, we've got one of their racks so we can carry ladders or pipe or wood or heck, whatever you need.

Also for you outdoor guys, you can get a kayak or a couple of mountain bikes up here.

Now with the cap in place, we decided we could use even more storage space on project workhorse. So we paid a visit to cargo holder for this unit.

That's a combination rack and shelf all in one. Let's go ahead and get this thing on. All right.

Installations as easy as sliding it into your receiver, hit

and popping in the supplied pin.

There you go. Got it.

Now, once you have it in place,

all you have to do is pull out this pin here

and the whole unit folds up out of the way.

Now, one of the neat things about a unit like this is that it's strong enough to carry an engine or a transmission or a welder or heck whatever you got, we're not done there.

We also went to cargo holder and got one of their lockable aluminum storage boxes

that goes right on the platform. Now, you may notice it's already drilled so you can bolt this thing on. So nobody's gonna walk away with it.

And you're probably thinking, well, this is great. But what if I need to get into the back of this thing?

Well, one of the neatest features about the cargo holder,

all you have to do is flip this lever

and everything pivots out of the way.

Of course, RF 250 came with a custom wheel package that looks good,

but we thought we needed a little bit more attitude. So we gave weld wheels a call and picked up a set of their 17 by 10 forged aluminum side winders that not only have incredible strength due to weld's forging process, but also come fully polished and check this out special caps made specifically for a four wheel drive super duty.

Hm.

Now our stock tires are nowhere near aggressive enough for some of the places we know we're gonna be with this truck.

But one of the good things about a super duty

is they've got these huge wheel wells so you can stick some pretty good rubber on these things without even having to put a lift on.

But keep in mind

this is a work truck, not a trail runner. So we went to pro comp, got a set of their 33 1250 all terrain tires.

As you can see, that gives us a little more height,

a lot more width.

Good road manners, great traction off road. Not to mention,

they look a whole lot better.

Speaking of looking a whole lot better, you won't want to miss what we're gonna do with our workhorse after the break. So, stay with us. We'll be right back

later in the show. It's a concept vehicle from the folks at Daimler Chrysler.

But before we bring the past into the present, we'll add a little style to project works.

Welcome back to the shop. Now, up to this point, you've seen us put some really nice functional pieces on our super duty,

but just because it's gonna get down and dirty through the week, doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to clean it up for the weekend. Now, with all that in mind, there was no way we could resist this

hood from Keystone Restyling products. Now, it's an all fiberglass piece. It's been finished top and bottom. It

has some angry looking scoops staring right back at the driver. Let's go ahead and get it on, man. Oh, this thing looks great.

Now, the cool thing about this hood

is that it slides right on

and uses your factory hardware.

But the best part about the good hood is that it's fully functional from the vents inside

to the ones up on the top,

they'll pull all the hot air out from under the hood, which will really be nice when we're using that under hood generator.

Now, the grill is a piece that can really help give your truck a unique look all its own, which is exactly why swapping them out so popular with the sport truck crap. But let's face it. Any truck can benefit from a grill upgrade, even a work truck like ours. So we went to J and J Enterprises and grab one of their stainless steel tubular insert kits to help finish off the front end of our big old Ford.

Now, those J and J inserts are unique for a couple of reasons. First off, our particular model has the vertical bars as opposed to the horizontal bars that you're used to seeing all the time. That's really cool. Also, those inserts slide right over the existing grill. So you don't have to come in here and cut anything out. That's really nice.

But you will need to take the grill out so you can get around behind both the insert on

to do that. Take out these top screws,

then come in through the bottom,

push up on these clips

and out. She comes

with the factory grill out of the way. Now is the perfect time to put in this insert that supplied with a kit and the new piece goes right into this opening and is held in place with these brackets that allow for adjustment until you have it perfectly centered.

Once you have it exactly where you want it, go ahead and tighten it down.

Now with the grill shell out and sitting on a workbench, putting in the new insert, it as easy as sliding it in,

rolling it over

and then mount it with the supplied hardware.

Now, another really cool thing about this kit

is you've got these little grill inserts that fit into these little pockets here. That way you have a matching grill across the whole front of the truck.

Now, with all the inserts in, all you have to do is pop in the grill, put on your screws

and you are done.

Well, one thing's for sure with our new grill wheel, entire combination and hood, our truck has a whole new attitude. Now, only one problem though, the stock running boards are a little out of place at this point. So we went back to J and J Enterprises and got a set of their stainless steel, full length boards that are really gonna finish off the sides of our F 250.

Now, with the old boards out of the way

we can put on these new ones. Now, you'll notice we already have the outer brackets on,

so we'll just set this thing in place,

clamp it on

and then stick a level on it to

see where we're at.

That's right where it needs to be. Now, all we have to do is drill here on the pinch weld on the body

and bolt on these outer brackets.

Now we're ready for the center brackets. Now, these bolt right to the running board here, then on this end

they bolt to these L brackets,

they go up and mount to the body of the truck and that's what gives you your strength. Now, once these brackets are all in place, make one last check on your level, tighten everything down.

You know, we started out with a great platform in the Ford F 250. But what we've got now is the perfect combination of function and style. But before we take project workhorse to the job site, we have one more piece to slide on it. Don't go away. We'll be right back

where you on here, man.

It's good right there.

Thanks for staying with us, everybody, you know, with all the accessories we put on our F 250 we can handle just about any job out there now. But there can be one inconvenience when you put a cap on your truck, even if it has side access like ours does and that's having to climb in and out of it to get your stuff.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem in the form of this innocent looking pile of aluminum called the extended drawer system made by PV I Unlimited. Now, I know this probably looks like an oversized director set, but it actually assembles into a really nice adjustable drawer.

And it's a little easier to put together than you think it is.

The first thing you need to decide is how you want your drawer to fit and take some measurements. Now, in our case, we need to make sure it's gonna clear our generator, wheel wells and rear opening because once the drawer is installed,

it's gonna have to slide in and out.

Now, the first step to assemble in the drawer is to lay out the side rails

and the rolling mechanisms then just bolt the legs on all four corners.

Now, one of the unique features about this kit is that you can mount the drawer low down in the bed or you can raise it up like we're doing. So you have some usable space down underneath.

Now, once you have the rails assembled, go ahead and set them in the bed,

the rail slides into the bed and down each side and this is where you have to line everything up with the measurement you took earlier

to make sure you don't get it mounted too wide. Also on a special application like ours, you may have to cut these legs down a little bit to make them fit

with the rails where you want them measure how far apart they are,

then cut the cross members to size.

Finally, you can bolt them in using the supply of hardware. This will solidify the structure.

Now that space has a structure assembled. It's time to mount it to the bed floor and that's as easy as drilling some holes and securing the legs to the floor itself. Now, if you need a little bit more stability, the kid also has these brackets that mount up to the bedside.

Now we come to the only thing that you need to supply for this project and that's a half inch piece of plywood

and we'll cut it down to the same width as our cross members. So it'll fit between the rails,

then set it in place, drill some holes and mount it with the hardware that comes with the kit.

Now, you can see just how slick of a set up this really is and no matter if you mount it high or low, the load will always come to you.

The only thing we have left to do now is put on this locking system and we're done

well, now that we're finished with project workhorse, we hope the things we've done to our Ford gives you some ideas of how you might want to deck out your work truck.

Now, here's a tip. That's great any time that you're gonna be running off road and especially if you're gonna be into some deep mud

coat the undercarriage of your vehicle with some tire dressing or some spray lube or heck even some baby oil. Now, the slick surface will keep you moving through the mud and it'll also keep mud from building up underneath.

So clean up is as easy as hitting with the hose. Also,

if the stuff you're using has silicone in it, make sure you don't get it on your tires because you don't want those to be slick. One last thing,

if you're using some of these chrome rings like this,

make sure you take them off before you go off the road because a good mud hole is gonna pack those solid. You'll just have to take them off to clean them out. Anyway,

just can't get enough of trucks. Check us out online at trucks, tv.com.

Welcome back to the show.

You know, when it comes to four wheel drive trucks, very few have the power to make grown men weak in the knees and force all the women and Children to run for cover like the old dodge power wagon. Now, not only could this vehicle handle itself in any kind of a tough situation as well as anything ever built, but its attitude just standing still was without equal.

Now, with all that said, it was only natural for Dodge to reach back into their famed heritage and design a modern version of the power wagon just to see what kind of reaction a new millennium twist that their old classic would generate.

Well, how does speechless sound to you because that's exactly how we felt when we first saw this thing. Now, the original wagons were all business with the winch and heavy duty bumpers. But the concept is tucked the winch back up out of the way a little bit

and smoothed out some of the rough edges by adding four projector style headlights led turn signals. And of course a big brushed aluminum signature Dodge grill.

One of the only drawbacks with the original power wagon was a lack of horsepower under the hood,

but Dodge is taking care of that. And then some with this 7.2 L diesel power plant that runs on a synthetic fuel and generates a monstrous 780 ft pounds of torque.

Now, like we said before, the power wagon of the past was strictly business.

Nowhere was that more evident than in the cab where just basic metal levers put everything in motion

in sharp contrast. Today's version is anything but basic. It also comes with leather bucket seats

and check out the unique gauge cluster. It's got separate gauges all in one central location.

Walking down the side of this design exercise is the past and the present all merged into one from the Louvers on the hood to the flared fenders that tumble down into a running board

that continues on to the rear of the vehicle.

Of course, the bed is as unique as the rest of the truck with a contoured front panel to match the cab,

wood planks with machine metal strips, make up the bed floor

and to finish everything off, you have a smooth rounded tailgate

as well as some very cool, very large round tail lights.

This power wagon sits on a full frame as well as heavy duty axles just like its predecessor did

and also wears special cut 35 inch tall tires that pays homage to the unidirectional military tire of yesteryear,

like we said before, the concept version of the power wagon left us speechless when we first saw it.

Now that we've had a chance to catch our breath.

The question becomes, does this really live up to the past?

And would we drive one if Dodge decided to change the rules and put it into production?

Well, how does? Yes and heck yes, sound to you.

And now truck gear, parts, tools and equipment for pickups and sport utilities.

Now, one of the areas on most late model trucks that's usually not too attractive are the side view mirrors.

Now, street scene realized that so a few years ago they came out with the Calvi sport mirror. These are really cool, but the big news about these mirrors is you can now get these with the turn signal arrow

that'll let people in your blind spot see that you're changing lanes.

And the best part is they've been able to do this, give you the safety feature and still keep the mirror small and cool looking. Now, street scene has these for most late model trucks. Prices start about 250 bucks

now, if you drive an older truck, but it's still like some of the modern conveniences like power windows. Wire Force has the answer for you with their slick trick power window kit. Now, this kit comes with two power drive units and all the hardware, you're gonna need

to raise your windows up and down with a simple

flick of a switch. Another really big bonus with this kit is it'll fit inside doors that are less than two inches thick

and also handle straight and curved glass. Let wire force give you the power for about 290 bucks. That's gonna do it for truck gear. Here's a preview of next week's show.

We'll show you what to look for in a new or even used trailer.

After that, we have a pro treated 1970 C 10 Chevy to show you that has no trouble finding the winner circle at shows all across the country.

Then we'll finish the show with a hitch or at least to some important information you need to know about them.

That's all next week on trucks.

Well, that's gonna do it for this week's show. We appreciate you hanging out with us. Yeah, make sure you come and see us next week.

Where are we going, man? I don't know. I was thinking of pizza,

pizza with a work truck.

That's where all the workers go.

That's a good talk.

Trucks is an RTM production.