ULTIMATE BRUSH TRUCK

Making a Fire & Rescue Rig Capable of Tackling any Terrain

They’re big. They’re four-wheel-drive. And, they fight fires where their bigger brothers can’t. They’re known as wildland engines, patrol pumpers, grass rigs, and Type 3-7 engines, but to firefighters and civilians alike, they’re best known as “brush trucks.” Because fires don’t exclusively occur along paved streets, these heavily accessorized and customized rigs are born from the necessity of being able to access fires out in fields, timber, and in other remote landscapes. Since they have to be capable of traversing all types of terrain, the fire departments that spec them out often find themselves making the trucks even more versatile after the initial purchase.

DW-1810-FDLIFT-02 — Buckstop Truckware’s suspension lift for the ’11-16 F-450 and F-550 Super Duty was designed to improve off-road functionality and traction without compromising weight-carrying capacity. The system adds 3.5 inches of height up front courtesy of taller coil springs, raises the rear 4 inches by way of lift blocks, and allows for up to a 41-inch tire to be used. The Buckstop system also comes with new shocks, U-bolts, drop-down bracketry, and all appropriate hardware.

DW-1810-FDLIFT-03 — After positioning the truck on a 15,000-pound, two-post lift, Chad Flynn of Flynn’s Shop started by removing the wheels and tires. After that, he unplugged the ABS sensors and detached the brake lines from the factory radius arms. Then, the front sway bar bolts were broken loose at the frame and the sway bar was dropped down out-of-the-way.

DW-1810-FDLIFT-04 — Flynn positioned a jack under the truck’s tie rod assembly before continuing with the teardown process. The steering stabilizer, shown here being loosened at the frame, would be retained and reinstalled later.

DW-1810-FDLIFT-05 — Grabbing a ½-inch impact and a 15/16-inch socket and wrench, Flynn began removing the factory hardware from the radius arms. With each nut unthreaded, a hammer and punch would be needed to coax the bolts out of the radius arms.

DW-1810-FDLIFT-06 — On both sides of the truck, Flynn opted to break the radius arms free at the frame first, then detach them from the axle. Luckily he was working with a ’16 model year truck with just 1,700 miles on the clock, so most fasteners put up minimal fight during their extraction.

Even though the rural fire district of Murrayville, Illinois, had already treated its ’16 F-550 to a super single conversion and Mickey Thompson Baja MTZs, they set about improving the brush truck’s off-road performance even further. After the late-model Super Duty was dropped off at nearby Flynn’s Shop, it was fitted with a suspension lift from BuckstopTruckware that included 3.5-inch-taller coil springs, a burly set of radius arms, application-specific shocks, and 4-inch rear blocks. When the installation was complete, lock-to-lock turns were no longer an issue with larger tires installed. The truck’s off-road performance was enhanced substantially, and—most importantly—none of the truck’s weight-carrying capacity (i.e., water) was sacrificed.

Read on for an in-depth look at Buckstop Truckware’s severe-duty lift kit for ’11-16 F-450 and F-550 model Fords.

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