The vibrant shade of red covering most of the real estate, the fields of chrome that make up the front grille, they’re all there to make sure nobody misses this 1969 Ford F-800 on the road—yes, the thing weighs over 12,000 pounds (5.5 tons), which means it’s pretty hard to look past it, but isn’t it better to stay on the safe side?
On a more serious note, this 1969 Ford F-800 has a simple mission, namely to make it look like the Blue Oval built a flareside bed derivative (the carmaker only made these with the styleside flush approach). And, en route to hitting the mark, it packs a bed that’s 9 feet long and 5.5 feet wide, while sporting a pair of rear fenders… on each side.
Built by father-and-son shop Hodson Motors based in Las Vegas and documented here by the Ford Era YouTube label, the behemoth looks like no bus we’ve seen before—there’s actually a short bus chassis underneath, but this Freightliner is more about schooling other builders than taking the kids to school.
A Diesel Monster
Motivation is provided by a Cummins 24V straight-six, which is mated to an Allison six-speed slushbox, works with a generous turbo, while the latter brings some spice to an otherwise quiet cabin experience.
Speaking of the interior, this abounds in King Ranch goodies, even though the limited space deriving from the old-school Crew Cab architecture means the rear seat is, ironically, a tad on the cramped side.
However, the ride is as soft as they get, not least thanks to the rear axle sporting a custom four-link setup with air springs (the front still sports lead springs, though).
The pickup truck does have four driven wheels, but only thanks to its dually approach—we don’t see anybody complaining about the RWD take on the matter, do you?
The nickname you noticed in the title only came natural and, before inviting you to check out the slab of America in the video, there’s one more aspect we’d like to point out: those super-sized mirrors—as you’ll see, these were mandatory—remind us of the Rolls-Royce dually truck we featured earlier today.
