user47992

Just curious what people have found are the weak links in the '09+ F-150's. How do the front differentials hold up to 35's and wheelspin.

What parts are people breaking offroad?

Also, I'm curious, the info I've seen for the 2010's lists minimum ground clearance as 9.9" for the supercrew FX4 6.5' bed and 9.0" for the same with the 5.5' bed but the 2011 minimum ground clearances are listed at 8.3" or so. Seems kinda low. (assuming this is to the rear diff, the only thing I come up with as a possible reason would be tire size but I cant imagine them dropping tire size by 2"...but I havent checked yet).

09dreamer

I have put about 15,000 miles on my '09 since the lift and 35s were installed. So far I havn't had any problems. I have been off road on some trails and in a bit of mud, deep sand and such. Generally your U joints and some parts of the IFS can be overstressed with larger tires, especially without a lift kit. The drop brackets and knuckles etc. on lift kits will beef up most components and keep the front axle shaft angles close to stock so as not to overstress. I am predicting ball joint replacement earlier than would normally be needed from the added stress on this part.

So far as the ground clearance, I don't know why the difference between the trucks with different bed sizes, but as far as the 2011 clearance, if you look at the new trucks, they have a front spoiler or air dam about a foot from the nose of the truck that hangs down, probably to improve aerodynamics, this piece of plastic hangs lower than anything else on the front and may be the lowest point on the truck. First thing I'd do is take it off so that I dont rip it off off road. The 09 trucks do not have this piece. Dont see why it would change with the Diff unless the 2011s have a beefed up rear end to handle the additional power of the new V8...

john0270

The 9.9" figure is the trans cross member(mine measured 9.5 before leveling kit and tires now its 11.5"). I thought the air dam would be a problem off road too, but so far even is super deep snow(over the bumper) its not been a problem. As far as approach angles the rear bumper will drag before anything, and the the truck will get hung up on the cross member(mind did once, felt it touch a few times too. Personally I think the weak link will be all the hoses and wires on the axles, and the drive shaft, exhaust, gas tank if your doing rocks. Great thing is the body has lots of clearance even if the frame doesn't. And the the hubs, who knows how strong they are. If you stick with close to oem size tires, your not going to wreck anything as far as drive-line.

user47992

hmm guess I'll have to crawl under next time I go look (salesman will look at me funny but thats ok by me), it didnt look like much hung down below the frame rails but I only looked quickly one time.

I'm guessing I wont go as big as 35's, at least not for a while. actually, I will have to verify that the speedo/odo can be corrected before I change to anything other than a listed 'optional' size because Maine has some pretty lousy laws regarding lifts (must be a complete, 'engineered' kit) and changing tire size (can go a maximum of two sizes larger than the largest 'optional' tire size but if you have ABS, you must correct the speedo/odo r you will fail inspection). I ran 285/75/16's on my frontier for four years and managed to get a sticker every year but almost didnt last year so when I bought new tires this year I went down to 265/75/16's so I wouldnt have a problem. sad thing is, my truck looked so much better with the bigger tires.

if the air dam is visible and easily removable, it will come off quickly because they can make the stance of the truck look lower.

Probably will do a leveling kit (then again, I may just lift front and back 2-2.5" and call it good.

john0270

I would suggest the 1.5" leveling kit. I wouldn't want to go any taller without a spindle lift type system, and even then the cv angles are nearly at the limit, combine that with larger tires there will be problems. This is just my opinion, I don't have much experience in the automotive world, but do have lots in the quad world, and big tires+lift=broken axles and blown/overheated joints.

Remember any modifications from stock is going to be bad for fuel mileage, I lost about 1.5 with the level on the highway, and about 1.5 more or so with only slighly larger(1.5") 10 ply km2's They are awesome tires, just feels like your pulling a trailer compared to the stock car tires that were on the thing. They do make a 255/80-17 wich is a little over 33" tall but only 10" wide wich would look bad *** I think with the leveling kit, and still clear in most situations.

Remember its not just steering/front end you have to clear, I only had an inch from my inner well in this photo:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/BigJD/flex1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/BigJD/flex2.jpg