F350 Dually Work Truck Upgrades

(Marc)>> You're watching Powernation!

(Eric)>> Today on Music City Trucks we start a new project that'll benefit everyone.

(Marc)>> We take our new 2022 F-350 dually crew cab and throw on some modern upgrades that will improve the functionality, comfort, and looks of this new truck.

(Eric)>> Then we cover it all up and add some new storage features that make this truck a true workhorse in our shop. [ Music ]

(Marc)>> This has got to be the most iconic design! [ Music ] Welcome to Music City Trucks. I'm Marc Christ.

(Eric)>> And I'm Eric Smart, and today we're starting a new project that's gonna benefit everybody here at Powernation.

(Marc)>> This is our new shop truck and tow rig. This thing is gonna be everything that we need it to be from pulling trailers, to going on road trips, picking up projects, or even dropping off old projects to their new owner.

(Eric)>> It is a 2022 F-350 crew cab dually, four wheel drive, six-seven Powerstroke, which means that it's about the biggest truck that you can buy from the factory, and it'll pull absolutely anything you need it to.

(Marc)>> When you get a truck like this you can get a base model, or you could get something all the way up to over $100,000 dollars if you desire like a King Ranch, or Limited, or Platinum, or something like that. This is not one of those trucks. This is an STX, which means it's basically an XL truck with some shiny bits. Chrome grille, chrome bumper, aluminum wheels, chrome steps, and I think cruise control. So at a glance it looks fancy but it's basically a work truck with some shiny stuff. The good news about that is there's a lot left on the table here for us to upgrade this truck.

(Eric)>> So if you've got a truck like this yourself and you still want the fancy features but you don't want to pay the fancy dealership prices there's plenty of ways to do it where you can still use quality parts and save money. You just have to be willing to do the work yourself. We're gonna be improving the functionality, looks, and the comfort of this truck. That way it's just all around a better truck for what we're gonna use it for. Now as far as functionality goes one of the biggest aspects with a truck is storage. Now a lot of trucks lack storage from the factory, which is why we got this toolbox here, for things like ratchet straps, towing gear, and other things like that. Now this is gonna mount right behind the wheel tub on the passenger's side in the bed. That way it'll be easily accessible from outside and from behind the truck. Now that's not a whole lot of space when it comes to camera equipment, tools, and other stuff that we're gonna need to haul around. Which is why we got this tonneau cover that's gonna allow us to use the entire bed and still have everything out of the weather and locked up and secured. Now as you can see the truck itself already has running boards on it but we think we can improve the look of that with these powered running boards that we got from Summit Racing. Also since we're gonna be putting a lot of miles on this truck we got some nice, fancy seat covers to help with those long hauls, but that's not all.

(Marc)>> A couple of other things we want to think about are longevity and reliability, and we're gonna be accomplishing those with some additives that we're gonna be putting in from Hot Shot's Secret, but we'll get to that later on. For now let's talk about the rest of the stuff on the table here. Probably my favorite would be this 15,000 pound winch that we got from Warn. What's great about this, other than the fact that this is one of the biggest winches that you can mount on a pickup truck, this thing is gonna be super functional for us because when we go to pick up a new project if it doesn't run we can always winch it out with this. Or let's just say we finish a project and we take it out and have a little bit too much fun with it and get it stuck we can get it out of the mud with this thing. Also from Factor 55 we've got this recovery kit that'll help us get that same job done. Different links and straps. There's all kinds of different hookups here. We've got this hitch link that goes into your trailer hitch receiver. You use that to pull out as well, and then of course some D-links to get it all connected. Something else that we want to do on this truck is brakes. Now the factory brakes are just fine but the way they engineered the brakes are for drivability, comfort, load dust, things like that. We want something that is specifically made for heavy duty towing and hauling. We got these Duralast Severe Duty pads and rotors using the AutoZone Pro mobile app on our phone. These pads are specifically engineered for heavy duty vehicles. So you know they're gonna get the job done. As a matter of fact, I think we're gonna start here with the brakes. [ drill humming ]

(Eric)>> So when you're removing things like this that require the wheel to be stopping it always helps to have a screwdriver that you can stick in through the caliper into the slots in the rotor to hold it still. That way you can get everything broke loose. [ Music ] [ hammer tapping ] [ Music ]

(Eric)>> There we go! Now we get these new rotors put on. And like Marc said before, these are specifically designed for heavy duty vehicles that are doing a lot of stop and go and hauling a lot of heavy loads. These have an advanced carbon formulation, and a specialized coating that's gonna help with heat resistance. [ Music ] [ ratchet clicking ]

(Eric)>> Now we can get our brake pads installed, but I want to talk about them before we put them on because these aren't just any old brake pads. Of course they come with the hardware, but that's not why they're special. These are special because since they're part of the Severe Duty line they're engineered for great thermal resistance to reduce brake fade from frequent stopping, and they've got these burnishing strips on here to help with quick, easy break-in. Once you get them broken in they'll provide good, consistent stopping power no matter what you're hauling. [ Music ] Let's see if this is compressed enough to go up with the pads cause the other ones looked pretty good still. [ Music ] Oh yeah, we are golden! [ ratchet clicking ]

(Marc)>> Coming up next... [ drill humming ]

(Marc)>> ...we jazz up our new project and give it a transformation using the existing factory bumper.

(Marc)>> Well we're busy jazzing up our brand new 2022 F-350 SuperDuty. Eric's got the brakes all wrapped up. Now it's time to move on to the winch. Now earlier I showed you this 15,000 pound winch that we got from Warn. It's an M-15. It's got a 90-foot cable, super heavy duty winch. It's gonna do pretty much any job that we'll need to do with our SuperDuty. Now to get it mounted Warn also offers this kit. It's called a Transformer Mount, and what that does is it takes your factory bumper and it transforms it into a winch bumper. That way you don't have to ditch your factory bumper and do one of those big, gawdy winch mounts. Those are fine, but if you want to keep that factory look this is the perfect solution for that. It's actually pretty easy to install too. Just need to get the bumper out of the way and start bolting it on. [ drill humming ]

(Marc)>> You can break it!

(Eric)>> It's not broken, it's modified!

(Marc)>> Let's get this out of the way. [ drill humming ] [ ratchet clicking ]

(Eric)>> That's cool! Good on them for good design choices. [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Watch your bracket in the back cause it's got to go.

(Eric)>> Oh yeah, slip behind there.

(Marc)>> I think it's got to go in front. Just gotta make sure it doesn't... There we go! [ drill humming ] [ Music ]

(Marc)>> There's a lot of adjustment left in these brackets. Between the brackets and the slots on the bumper there's a lot of adjustment in this bumper. We have to make sure we get it aligned properly. Can't just throw it on there and tighten the bolts cause it won't be straight. [ Music ]

(Eric)>> Heavy duty bracket. Up and over! [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Big moment! [ Music ] Oh yeah! It fits!

(Eric)>> Obviously the first step to installing our new running boards is to get the old ones off. [ drill humming ] [ Music ] [ drill humming ] [ Music ]

(Eric)>> Nice and easy!

(Marc)>> Going your way okay?

(Eric)>> We'll bring it this way and down under the lift. I got it!

(Marc)>> Well the magical piece of these retractable steps are these little actuators right here. It's got an electric motor, all of the mechanisms to lower and raise the steps, and best of all they bolt right in the factory location. [ Music ]

[ Music ] [ drill humming ]

(Marc)>> Well the factory steps use three mounting positions but the new steps only use the two mounting positions. The third mounting position here on the passenger side is gonna be for this module. It's weatherproof, got these nice weatherpak connectors here, and this is gonna be what controls both steps, both driver and passenger side. [ drill humming ] [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Super lightweight!

(Eric)>> Feels pretty sturdy though.

(Marc)>> Did we do it the wrong way? No, we've got it the right way. That's right!

(Eric)>> Set this here. [ Music ]

Hold! [ drill humming ]

(Eric)>> All that's left is to get our power and ground hooked up, put the door sensors in, and then we'll have powered running boards.

(Marc)>> Rock, paper, scissors, go?

(Eric)>> Next up, we shoot it out to see who gets the pleasure of spraying in a bed liner.

(Eric)>> Keep it coming back, and good. Well we are back with our '22 F-350, and we just finished up putting our winch on and getting these power steps installed. Check this out! [ ooh, ahh! ]

(Marc)>> That looks good! Question is, since we're moving on to the spray in bed liner next, who's gonna be doing the job. Rock, paper, scissors for it?

(Eric)>> Yeah!

(Marc)>> You say rock, paper, scissors, go? Ready? [ drum roll ] Ahhh! That didn't work out as planned.

(Eric)>> Have fun!

(Marc)>> Somehow I convinced Eric what I really meant by that rock, paper, scissors was who will be spraying, but he's still on the hook for helping me do the prep.

(Eric)>> Tape it to the tape?

(Marc)>> I'm gonna go start connecting the bed masking to the cab masking, if you want to start trimming. With everything scuffed really good and masked off it's time to get this thing cleaned so that we can spray our bed liner. We're gonna use Summit Racing surface cleaner and degreaser here. We'll just do a wet wipe and then a dry wipe. This thing will be ready to spray.

(Eric)>> If you don't get proper adhesion on the first go you're gonna be coming back and touching it up all the time.

(Marc)>> This is Summit Racing's premium urethane bed liner kit. It comes with the bed liner, activator, and the proper gun to line one truck bed. Each bottle of bed liner comes partially filled with enough room to add eight ounces of activator. My favorite part about this is this next part. The gun actually screws directly to the bottle. So you don't actually have to pour the product out of the bottle once it's mixed up. [ spray gun hissing ]

(Marc)>> You want to apply a uniform wet coat in a sweeping motion. Varying the spraying distance and the pressure of the gun will change the texture. So if you're unsure make sure you do a test panel first. Just want to make sure I have good, full coverage on this before I move on to the floor because I'm not gonna be able to get back up in here. [ spray gun hissing ] [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Well with the bed liner all done, which I think it looks really nice, it's time to move on to a couple of other things we want to do to dress up this bed.

(Eric)>> For starters we're gonna be installing this Roll-NLock tonneau cover that we got from Summit Racing. That way we can cover up the entire bed so that anything we have in there is gonna be safe from the weather and we can lock it up for safety. Let's get it on.

(Marc)>> You didn't tell me it was gonna be heavy! Eric! Who picked this thing? [ Music ]

(Eric)>> We'll just do this the easy way. [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Okay!

(Eric)>> Not that heavy! [ Music ]

Get this taken off. Oh, he actually left! Next step is to get these brackets installed. [ Music ] Get this last one tightened up. Drop this on here.

(Marc)>> How's it going?

(Eric)>> Not too bad. Just got this one last screw to put in on the cover and it's finished.

(Marc)>> Looks good, and you didn't even need my help. What's next?

(Eric)>> We've still got to get that toolbox in.

(Marc)>> I'll grab it! Well here's our toolbox. It's gonna be nice and low profile. I've already put it to good use. First thing we need to do is take this taillight out. [ Music ]

[ drill humming ]

(Marc)>> Is it that easy? [ Music ] [ drill humming ]

(Marc)>> Get this back in.

(Eric)>> Well we've got the tonneau cover finished up and I think Marc is just about done with the toolbox too.

(Marc)>> I am finished. It's pronounced ton-eu.

(Eric)>> Oh, right!

(Marc)>> What are we doing next?

(Eric)>> I think we should probably haul something.

(Marc)>> Let's go do truck things! You're driving! I'll get the door.

(Eric)>> Fancy steps!

(Marc)>> Coming up, we hit the road in our new F-350 and test out our new upgrades!

[ ratchet strap clicking ]

(Eric)>> Well we're just about done with all the work we're doing on this F-350. So we decided what better way to test it out than to go tow something around. Now this Jeep you see behind me here has just been hanging out around the warehouse and we're not doing anything with it. So we're gonna send it off to a new owner.

(Marc)>> Before we hit the road we're gonna make sure we take care of our fuel system on this truck. Now with a diesel, as you know, you can't really go to the gas pump and press the premium button like you can with gasoline. Pretty much only get one choice, and you get what you get. Well that's where the Everyday Diesel Treatment from Hot Shot's Secret comes in. Everyday Diesel Treatment contains a concentrated level of cetane booster, which tremendously upgrades power and improves fuel economy in all diesel engines. One ounce treats up to 25 gallons of diesel fuel and a 16-ounce bottle will treat 400. EDT also cleans fuel injectors to maintain efficiency and proper spray patterns. That equates to a cleaner fuel system, better fuel economy, more horsepower, and less fuel system wear. Let's face it, fuel economy improvement alone makes it worth it.

(Eric)>> That's gonna do us a lot of good in the long run, but for right now we've got places to be. [ Music ]

(Marc)>> I know you're a Chevy guy but how does this truck pull that trailer?

(Eric)>> It's pulling pretty good. It's got all the fancy features like tow mode, trailer brakes, and all that. Stuff that I'm not used to with the old flat bed that I use for hauling. I've got to say, it pulls good. Even with the Jeep on there it doesn't drive any different. You almost can't tell. With the tonneau cover and the toolbox in the back for storage, all of our straps and stuff for the trailer, just toss them right in there instead of in an open bed.

(Marc)>> If you're not pulling a gooseneck with it you can close that bed up, lock it. We can put gear in there. We can put tools in there and you don't have to worry about it. You lock it up and it keeps it out of the weather. We didn't mention on the bed too about the spray in bed liner that we found on Summit Racing. Every truck should come with those from the factory. [ Music ]

(Eric)>> It had the running boards on it already but it is pretty cool to have them fold in and out you know. If you do ever end up off road that just gives you that little bit of extra clearance on the side.

(Marc)>> Oh yeah, we forgot about the winch.

(Eric)>> That's gonna be really helpful for those times when we're out getting muddy and dirty.

(Marc)>> These are CoverCraft, form fit. I like the way they fit.

(Eric)>> They fit really well, and the padding, it's not enough to where you feel like you're sinking into it but it's definitely comfortable. Of course we can't forget about the brakes too. I almost did. This thing stops so smooth it wasn't even a thought in my head.

(Marc)>> You didn't even notice the trailer was back there, did you?

(Eric)>> It's like there's no extra weight. [ Music ]

(Marc)>> Is there anything else you would do to this thing?

(Eric)>> Sell it and buy 10 square bodies.

(Marc)>> Touche!

(Eric)>> As far as a hauling truck goes it doesn't get much better than this.

(Marc)>> Agreed!

(Eric)>> It's got just enough bells and whistles, and all the ones that didn't come with it we just put on.

(Marc)>> Mission accomplished!