2013 F-150 slow build "Mr. Igloo"

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Scott

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3,921
Bates City, MO, USA
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Heiser
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2486

Some of you may remember me, from back in the day.. OB member 2486. I had an 04 Dodge ram 2500, and lived in Southern California. A lot has changed, and we moved from So Cal to the Kansas City, MO.

My wife and I are avid campers/preppers, and as such had a 2004 Dodge ram 2500 quad cab long bed diesel that was setup for overlanding/bugout purposes.
FB_IMG_1615725877709.jpg

Unfortunately, that truck met its demise in an unfortunate accident.
When it came time to start looking at new trucks, my needs had changed quite a bit since buying my Dodge. Rather than wanting a ton of bed space at the expense of cab space, I now need the opposite for my wife and 3 kids, so I needed a large cab, and bed space was not as important.

Enter my 2013 F150 XLT Supercrew 5.5' bed with a 3.5 Ecoboost engine.
It was purchased a small mom and pop used car dealer, for what I felt was a decent price, given the current truck market. This truck will be used as my toy, bugout vehicle, and will also tow our 4000 lb travel trailer for most of our camping adventures.

Here she is in all of her glory, the day I took her home. My kids have named it Mr. Igloo...

20210218_154921.jpg

First order of business was to ditch the air dam, drill a weep hole in the intercooler, and remove the bug shield.

20210219_075343.jpg
Next up was to remove those side steps that seemed to do nothing but get in my way...
20210307_144222.jpg

That is where I am at so far. I currently have some accessories (roof top tent, etc) from my old truck that will be going onto this truck, once I get my new bed rack ordered from Leitner Designs. Below is a list of mods planned, in no particular order...

Leitner Designs active cargo system bed rack (on order)
CVT Mt. Denali rooftop tent
Bilstein 5100 leveling struts and rear shocks
New wheels (undecided on brand or color)
35" tires (likely Falken Wildpeak ATs or MTs)
Custom front and rear bumpers with front winch if possible.
Led cubes to replace factory fog lights
Led interior lights throughout
Fx4 headlights and tail lights
Factory tow mirrors
Some sort of rocker panel protection


I'm off to a slow start currently, but I plan to use this thread as a place to document my build. First order of business is to do baseline maintenance on it, including new spark plugs and coils, then move on to mods. I will add to my list of mods as I think of them.
 
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Scott

Rank VI
Launch Member

Influencer II

3,921
Bates City, MO, USA
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Heiser
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2486

Leitner Designs Active Cargo system has been ordered. Unfortunately they are 3-4 weeks out on production, so it may be a bit before I see it.
Screenshot_20210309-205343_Brave.jpg
 
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EffinNewGuy

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Good start. I had the same truck (except in blue), and loved it for the time we had it. Especially that 3.5 twin turbo. Had to sell it to handle some other debts. I pulled a travel trailer from West Virginia to Cincinnati with it and it handled towing duties like a champ (mpg sucked of course, but that is expected).

Only issues I had were a broken wire in the pinch point of rear drivers door, steering wheel radio buttons that would sometimes work, and a cold start misfire that ended with a valve cleaning on Fords dime. I also noticed anytime I hooked up a trailer, the display would randomly go back and forth on showing that a trailer was disconnected/connected (I never did figure that one out since I didn't tow very often).

I wish I still had it since we are currently looking at getting a travel trailer and my 4Runner severely limits our options. We just bought the 4Runner in July and there is zero chance of trading in for a truck at this time. My wife, of course, wants something bigger, but I have to keep reminding her that we are very limited on choices if we want to be able to safely tow.
 

Scott

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Influencer II

3,921
Bates City, MO, USA
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Heiser
Member #

2486

Good start. I had the same truck (except in blue), and loved it for the time we had it. Especially that 3.5 twin turbo. Had to sell it to handle some other debts. I pulled a travel trailer from West Virginia to Cincinnati with it and it handled towing duties like a champ (mpg sucked of course, but that is expected).

Only issues I had were a broken wire in the pinch point of rear drivers door, steering wheel radio buttons that would sometimes work, and a cold start misfire that ended with a valve cleaning on Fords dime. I also noticed anytime I hooked up a trailer, the display would randomly go back and forth on showing that a trailer was disconnected/connected (I never did figure that one out since I didn't tow very often).

I wish I still had it since we are currently looking at getting a travel trailer and my 4Runner severely limits our options. We just bought the 4Runner in July and there is zero chance of trading in for a truck at this time. My wife, of course, wants something bigger, but I have to keep reminding her that we are very limited on choices if we want to be able to safely tow.
Yeah I knew I wanted the f150 for the cabin space alone.. I just wasn't sure on which engine, so I drove both a 5.0 and the 3.5 ecoboost. It was no question after driving them both, that the ecoboost would end up in my driveway. I would have loved a 2015 or newer to get the aluminum body out here in Salt country, but it just wasn't in the cards financially, as one prerequisite of buying a new truck meant we had to pay cash for it, so I had a very strict budget of $19,000 as the purchase price.
 

ThundahBeagle

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Some of you may remember me, from back in the day.. OB member 2486. I had an 04 Dodge ram 2500, and lived in Southern California. A lot has changed, and we moved from So Cal to the Kansas City, MO.

My wife and I are avid campers/preppers, and as such had a 2004 Dodge ram 2500 quad cab long bed diesel that was setup for overlanding/bugout purposes.
View attachment 191096

Unfortunately, that truck met its demise in an unfortunate accident.
When it came time to start looking at new trucks, my needs had changed quite a bit since buying my Dodge. Rather than wanting a ton of bed space at the expense of cab space, I now need the opposite for my wife and 3 kids, so I needed a large cab, and bed space was not as important.

Enter my 2013 F150 XLT Supercrew 5.5' bed with a 3.5 Ecoboost engine.
It was purchased a small mom and pop used car dealer, for what I felt was a decent price, given the current truck market. This truck will be used as my toy, bugout vehicle, and will also tow our 4000 lb travel trailer for most of our camping adventures.

Here she is in all of her glory, the day I took her home. My kids have named it Mr. Igloo...

View attachment 191023

First order of business was to ditch the air dam, drill a weep hole in the intercooler, and remove the bug shield.

View attachment 191024
Next up was to remove those side steps that seemed to do nothing but get in my way...
View attachment 191025

That is where I am at so far. I currently have some accessories (roof top tent, etc) from my old truck that will be going onto this truck, once I get my new bed rack ordered from Leitner Designs. Below is a list of mods planned, in no particular order...

Leitner Designs active cargo system bed rack (on order)
CVT Mt. Denali rooftop tent
Bilstein 5100 leveling struts and rear shocks
New wheels (undecided on brand or color)
35" tires (likely Falken Wildpeak ATs or MTs)
Custom front and rear bumpers with front winch if possible.
Led cubes to replace factory fog lights
Led interior lights throughout
Fx4 headlights and tail lights
Factory tow mirrors
Some sort of rocker panel protection


I'm off to a slow start currently, but I plan to use this thread as a place to document my build. First order of business is to do baseline maintenance on it, including new spark plugs and coils, then move on to mods. I will add to my list of mods as I think of them.
Nice truck! Mr igloo because its white as snow I guess?

Taking off the front air dam was a priority of mine, as was leveling with Bilstein 5100's as well.

However, if I took off the side steps, my 5 ft 0 inches lady would mutiny
 

Scott

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Influencer II

3,921
Bates City, MO, USA
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Heiser
Member #

2486

Nice truck! Mr igloo because its white as snow I guess?

Taking off the front air dam was a priority of mine, as was leveling with Bilstein 5100's as well.

However, if I took off the side steps, my 5 ft 0 inches lady would mutiny
Yep. I can only assume the kids named it Mr. Igloo because it is white... front air dam is gone, leveling with bilsteins, and larger tires and new wheels are the next priority.. hen I will look into rock rails that can also swrve as a step for my 5'2" wife . I got the rack first because my rtt and rack accessories are taking up real estate on my flatbed trailer that I'm going to have to use in a week or so..

I put about an hour into starting to assemble the rack today. 30 minutes of it was unpacking, organizing peices and reading through the instructions. I have one side assembled, tomorrow I'll assume the other side, and hopefully get it mounted to the truck. I went with Leitner Designs again on this truck because I knew the quality of his product, plus I already have all of his accessories and storage pods from my old rack, so it just made sense.
 

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Scott

Rank VI
Launch Member

Influencer II

3,921
Bates City, MO, USA
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Heiser
Member #

2486

285/70/17 Pathfinder ATs on Method Racing MR316 wheels in Titanium Grey. I absolutely despise the tin foil POS caps on the factory ford lugnuts. Thankfully my new wheels came with Gorilla Splined lugs. Looking much less like a grandpa truck now.
 

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