A custom F-350 built to haul the family where dirt reigns supreme

Nick Horton loves his family, he loves to camp, and he loves to work on his trucks—three passions that come together in his 2008 Ford F-350 Super Duty pickup.

“I get pride out of my trucks by building them,” Horton told us. “If I’m not working on the truck, it’s boring to me.”

This build started when Horton and wife Tara started building their family. The Horton’s already had a 26-foot bumper-tow travel trailer and a half-ton Chevy to pull it, but with baby Reese on the way, they wanted something a little bigger. So Horton did what any self-respecting family man would do: he bought a 40-ft., 18,000-lb. fifth-wheel trailer.

“We kind of went overboard,” Horton admits, but adds that the trailer gives his family plenty of room for expansion.

Clearly, the Silverado wasn’t up to towing the new rig, so Horton put it on the market and started searching for a new truck.

Horton knew the first step to a successful build is a good foundation, so he considered his needs carefully before he started shopping. The family likes to camp off the beaten path, with lots of trips to the desert and the dunes, so he needed four-wheel-drive. He wanted the durability of a solid front axle, and that meant putting aside his life-long bow-tie loyalty and shopping for Fords and Dodges.

In this case, it was the truck and not the brand that made the decision. When Horton first laid eyes on the F-350—a clean, meticulously maintained one-owner truck that, ironically, had never been used to tow—he knew he had a winner.

“It was the right truck,” Horton said. “I knew it when I saw it.” Horton struck a deal and his project was under way.

This being a towing rig, the first order of business was a hitch. With a short bed and a large fifth-wheel trailer, Horton needed a slider hitch to give him good maneuverability with safe over-the-road towing. After reading reviews and talking to fellow truckers, Horton settled on a Husky 16K unit.

The next order of business was the lift—not necessary for towing, perhaps, but high on Horton’s list of priorities.

“I love lifted trucks,” he said. “Besides, in my community, if you don’t drive a lifted truck, you don’t fit in!”

Given his plans to tow a massive fifth wheel onto uneven terrain—and with his wife and baby daughter as his travel companions—durability was a primary concern. Horton decided to go with Precision Metal Fabrication for his lift kit supplier. He had heard lots of positive feedback about their four-link kits, and he was impressed by the massive, ruggedly built heim joints.

PFM offers off-the-shelf lift kits that would take the Ford up seven inches, but that wasn’t enough altitude for Horton. He worked with PFM to design a custom kit for his truck, raising it nine inches up front and seven inches out back. He chose King remote-reservoir shocks, using a full coilover setup at the front and adding leafs to the stock springs at the rear.

At the time we shot our photos, Horton was only partway through his engine upgrades, having installed larger injectors, a Horton Mini-Maxx programmer, and an exhaust. Horton estimates the output at 670 horsepower and 998 lb.-ft. of torque, enough for a 13.1-second quarter mile at 111 mph. For his next upgrade, Horton has his eye on a 67mm turbo kit from Atmosphere.

Horton considers his truck a work-in-progress, but you’d never know it from the photos. Since he does all the work at home, by himself, keeping the truck looking presentable is a key part of retaining good relations with the neighbors.

“I work at night so they won’t see the truck getting all torn up,” he explained. He makes sure that the truck is visually appealing in the daylight and functional as well, since the Ford is his daily driver.

Horton’s favorite colors are black and red, so he chose a black finish for his 22×11 inch Fuel Offroad Hostage wheels, which complement the black-painted suspension components and power-re-tractable running boards. For rubber, he went with Toyo Open Country M/T tires, which provide good off-road traction with the load-carrying capacity he needs.

One of the coolest details on the truck is the lighting. With LEDWarehouse.com sponsoring his build, Horton decided to try his hand at fabricating the headlight enclosures, using bi-Xenon lights and LEDWarehouse.com light pods. It turned out that Horton had a knack for it, and he’s started a side business making custom lighting enclosures for other builders (see his work at http://instagram.com/nrt_designs). Horton’s truck features LED running lights and LED light bars in the bumper and up on the roof.

The blacked-out grille carries the Nixon logo, an in-joke for those who know Horton—the truck is one of his babies, hence “Nick’s Son.”

Horton’s truck may look like a completed project, and in a way it is. The Horton family is already traveling with their truck, and Horton is immensely satisfied with it, but that doesn’t mean he’s done. Since we photographed it, Horton has upgraded the lighting, changed out some of the suspension components, and is in the process of tearing out the interior.

“It looks like it’s done, but it’s never done,” Horton says. “As soon as I feel like the truck is finished, I start over.” UDBG

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