I bought my 2005 King Rach back in March. I learned a great deal from reading posts at F150online in order to make some of the additions I wanted to make to my truck. These included the ARE cover, BedRug liner, Kenwood head unit, Kenwood navigation system, iPod (controlled through the Kenwood head unit), Beltronics "built in" radar detector and laser detector/jamming system, back up camera, and a homemade King Ranch hitch receiver plug.

One of the additions I like the best though is my King Ranch Boarding Stool. With the running boards sitting 16" off the ground, the truck was a bit too high for my elderly mother to get into. Being a rail fan, I built a boarding stool patterned after the old railroad boarding stools. On the face of the stool, where the railroad would have typically had their logo, I used King Ranch emblems. It is exactly eight inches high and makes for three equal steps up to the floor board. It works like a charm for Mom to get in and out and I think it kind of looks like it belongs with the truck.

I posted a few pics in my gallery at https://www.f150online.com/galleries....cfm?gnum=6239

Thanks to all for the shared knowledge that helped me put together the nicest vehicle I have ever owned.

OPKR05

 

That is sweet, awesome job!

 

Looks like you made a good job of that !
Very well done.
Nice to see that you were thinking of your mum....unfortunately my mother never made it across to the States before she passed away.
I know she would have liked to see what we achieved out there and I know I would have had to come up with something to help her in like you did.
In fact I did buy a plastic 2 step thingy from Wallyworld, because although I'm 6 foot tall I still could not quite reach to the middle of the hard tonneau to clean it !

 

Good looking stool, very professional. Have you thought about making some more and selling them? I might be interested.

 

Nice work!

 

Where did you get the King Ranch trailer hitch cover? I would love to get one of those.

Thanks

 

Thanks to all for the nice comments.

KRConvert - I haven't considered making them to sell. I can hardly find the time to do the projects I want build. Historic Rails sells a similar stool with various railroad logos on them, http://historicrail.com/historicrail...nfo.po?ID=8160, I chose to build rather than buy because theirs is a little too tall for me (12" vs the 8" I wanted) and I wanted it to be a little deeper front to back, mine is 12x18 on the top and theirs appears to be 10x19 at the bottom. Plus, since I learned my engineering from a railroader, I built it from 3/4" oak, with two sets of bracing inside. It's glued, screwed, and the corner miter joints have biscuits in them. I KNOW it will handle any load that it gets. ;-)

OPKR05

 

Kat- I bought the KR emblems on eBay and built a 2' square slide out of aircraft aluminum with a hole through it for the hitch pin. I cut a piece of 80 thousandths aluminum plate to the same shape as the KR emblem and screwed it to the 2" slide with countersunk screws. Painted it all and then put the KR emblem on the plate with adhesive. One tip, I painted the slide with black "Plasti-Dip" - that plastic coating that you can dip screwdriver handles in to give them a plastic coating. The plastic coating is soft, lets you push the slide exactly into place and then springs back a little so as to eliminate any possible rattle.

I can't claim any originality for the idea, I saw several posts where folks had similar looking hitch covers.

OPKR05

 

Yeah, the KR badge hitch cover was one of the 'original' KR mods back in 2001! I think dufunnel did it first... I can't remember.

 

Too bad, but I understand. Your time is the most valuable commodity you have, so make use of it the best that you decide. I looked at the website (thanks for the link), but yours looks better and seems more sturdy. I was looking for something cool to step up on while washing the beast! Guess I'll have to learn some skills or find a friend that works with wood...

 

with all that laser jamming and radar stuff you can pretty much go as fast as you want without giving a dam*, right? how much did all that run you and the ipod thing..if you dont mind? thanks for the help, appreciate it. nice ride! cool stool!

PeAcE'

Joe

 

Joe - Sorry to be slow in responding. I have been out of town and the computer stayed home. I think the laser jammer works pretty well. The alert goes off and it tells you it is "blocking". It must be keeping the LEO from getting a reading because they just keep shooting the laser. Once you have checked your speed, you tap the mute button twice to disable the blocker and then the alert will go off one more time, once they have a reading, it stops. To be honest, I don't speed that badly, what it saves me from is when I am thinking about other things and am going just enough over the limit to get tagged. The KR rides so nice, it is easy to get to going faster than you realize. I've had the truck since March and I think the system has saved me from four to six tickets thus far.

As to cost, I try not to remember. Here's the total as best I can recall. I did a LOT of online comparison shopping and everything except the iPod was bought off the internet. All the gear was new, no refurbs.

Kenwood 7015 head unit was $900
Kenwood Nav unit was $750
Kenwood iPod adapter was $100
Apple iPod is a 20GB model which I got for $199
Beltronics RX75 Plus radar/laser unit was $600 (eBay)
Rear view camera was $65 (eBay) (plus a $3 case from Radio Shack)
The PAC SWI-X to make the steering wheel controls work with the Pioner head unit was about $70

I did all the installation myself with lots of references to various "how to" posts on f150online. I also spent $10-20 on a subscription to the Ford site that let me look at all of the reference manuals for the truck. That was money well spent in terms of identifying the right wires and how to hook into stuff.

OPKR05

 

Love the stool.

When my grandma rides in my truck I have to bring a stool along too.

 

I wish this thread would disappear.....

Every time I see it I think it says "Boarding School".

If you knew what an English Boarding School was like in the 50's you'd know why it sends a cold shiver down the spine.

Any stories you've heard of bullying, beating, cold showers and food more suited to the pig sty.....they're all true.

And then there was "fagging".

(Perhaps you better not ask)

 

Now I have to ask. C'mon Lenny, enthrall us with one of your stories!