Michael's Platinum.
24’ Ford F-250 + FWC Hawk+ Flatbed.

Michael came to us looking to upgrade. He'd been traveling all over North America and Baja in a Sprinter van — towing an enclosed trailer with dirt bikes and gear, or running a moto hauler off the back. The van technically did the job, but the tow rating was the limiting factor. He wanted something that could pull faster and harder, get further off-road, and still serve as a livable camper. We pointed him at the Super Duty platform, and the truck rolled out a couple months later as a fully built rig.

Suspension is full Carli Pintop — 2.5" pintop shocks, fabricated radius arms with limit straps, dual high/low steering stabilizers, torsion front sway bar, and Carli's XXHD leaf pack out back, which is the heaviest leaf they make. It's a touch overkill for the camper alone, but with the moto trailer behind it the math works out. A Hellwig Big Wig rear sway bar tightens body roll up, since the torsion front bar softens the front end. Wheels stayed factory, wrapped in 37" Nitto Ridge Grappler R/Ts that clear cleanly on the Pintop kit. Carli's Trophy Hitch slots a full 37" spare into the factory location, paired with a Banks × CJC DPF-back trophy exhaust that routes up and over the rear axle for spare clearance. A Transfer Flow 58-gallon midship replacement tank gets the truck somewhere in the 600-800-mile range with the camper on board.

Up front sits a Buckstop Outback aluminum bumper — saves about 100 lbs over the steel version — customized to omit the standard upper tube so we could fit three Baja Designs LP9s on a hand-built aluminum light bar (driving combo on the outboard pair, spot in the center). Underneath the LP9s, XL80 Racer Edition driving lights in the 6" holes and Squadron SAE ambers in the factory fog spots wired to the factory fog circuit. A Warn 16.5 TI-S synthetic-line winch handles recovery, and every factory sensor — adaptive cruise, parking, the front camera — is retained through Buckstop and Camera Source relocation work. Inside the cab, a Switch-Pros SP9100 panel runs the bumper lighting, the tray water pump, and the rest of the aux circuits, with high-beam triggers and battery-side control on the circuits that need to live independent of the ignition. A WolfBox G900 digital rearview mirror gives Michael front and rear views (plus full-time dash cam recording) since the camper blocks the back glass.

Out back, a Summit Expedition Trucks 7.5-foot tray carries a Four Wheel Campers Hawk+ Flatbed — the newest flatbed model from FWC, ten inches longer than the original Hawk Flatbed and packing more storage, water, and power than the previous generation. Michael spec'd it close to the wall: rear dinette, queen bed slide, three lithium batteries on a REDARC Manager Alpha 75 + Rogue, indoor shower, indoor cassette flushing toilet, both fans, the 130L fridge, the 8-foot side awning, all the exterior lighting. We added two REDARC 180W solar panels on the roof, a Starlink Mini wired through the Rogue, and a 12V circuit running into the back seat to power a Dometic CFX5 55IM — Basil's go-to setup for long Baja trips, where the cab fridge runs as a freezer for the meat and the camper fridge stays daily-use. Michael picked the truck up about a month before we filmed, took it on a 10-day shakedown trip, and brought it back for the 500-mile checkup. Sprinter to Super Duty, no compromises.