lil_Blue_Ford
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- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 8,370
- Reaction score
- 6,240
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Butler, PA, USSA
- Vehicle Year
- 95
- Make / Model
- Ford
- Engine Size
- 4.9L
- Transmission
- Manual
Yea, that's pretty much where I ended up with it. I used my Ranger for a work truck until I outgrew it with my needs for a work truck, then I got an F-150 with the 4.9L.Why would you want to lift a truck that you load? Lil Blue described his solution. 2 trucks. A worker and a toy The more off road capable you mod a rig for, the less road worthy it becomes. Even if the road is just a 2 track or a field. A toy is something you can have lotsa fun with and not worry about driving it to work on Monday morning .
That's not to say that I didn't mod my Ranger or F-150. Just the majority of the mods done to them were to improve performance in being used for work. I custom built leaf packs for both trucks to increase load handling capability and still provide a reasonable ride. Of course, that also had the benefit of lifting the truck a little when running empty or lightly loaded (my F-150 actually sits more to stock height when I have a ton and a half on it). Both of those got aggressive tires, because, well, I work construction and often have the need to get off the pavement. Good tires helps. The Ranger got a L/S rear (because it's what I found first) and the F-150 got a locker in the rear. And so forth. By building to my needs as a work truck, I also improved their performance off-road. My choptop will go places that neither work truck will, but it was built strictly as a toy, so that's to be expected. I can say that both work trucks will go places the same truck in stock form will likely not make it.
For the record.... my original build with my choptop had 5" of custom suspension lift and 33" tires. I managed to put it all together including the cost of the truck for around $1,650. Registration is $36 a year and insurance is cheap (now that my record is clean). So it's really not incredibly expensive for me to have a toy.