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all of you are correct on the lift doesn't gain you travel or clearance but the larger tire you can fit does gain clearance, but not travel. Now that being said depending on where you are and the type of wheeling you do will depend on which you need more. As I see from most of yalls pics most are out central and west, where you have rock climbing and a lot of off camber cercumstances. Now where I'm at you don't have very much rocks or any at all and sometimes minimum off camber. I tend to have deep mud and water which is why I need the higher lift and bigger tires. That being said my 99 f150 has 6.5" lift with 36" swampers as it sits now and will in a year or two maybe have 38's. I have had my truck in deep enough water that it came half way up my doors, most would say I'm crazy but I cant deny that sometimes either. I have also had a rear tire stuffed up as far as possible in the fender when off camber too. ill try to get a pic up in a few of the truck sitting in the yard.
Last edited by mudmachine22; 05-21-2016 at 09:32 PM.
Reason: Add pic
My truck is still a work in progress but my intended purposes are more trails, excursions, back roads, and so forth. I am not looking to rock climb or mud bog; those are best suited for dedicated rigs. I look at my truck similar to how the military looks at theirs in regards to terrain manipulation.
Everything is relative. Back when trucks cost half what they are now, people made half what they make now.
What is lacking is a real ability to properly utilize all the gadgets people put in/on their trucks. People these days are much too computer-centric. Mostly the only real work some people do these days are with their fingers. Off-roading skills are becoming a lost art. We can tell by how high people lift their trucks and by how much useless crap they can't wait to spend money on (CAIs, e.g.), that don't make the driver a better off-roader. Just watch some YouTube videos of just what I'm talking about...
Good point. My bone stock 2013 screw on 285s gets up and down local logging roads as good or better than my 05 ram on 33s did. Much better traction control, the torque from the EB doesn't require a ton of throttle.
If I wanted to wheel, I'd wouldn't do it in a crew cab pickup. Every time I have to 3 point this thing I'm reminded of how much I wish I still had an old Cherokee on 33s and a 4.5" long arm. (still one hell of a lot cheaper to build than any newer truck would be, relative or not).
The truck would be a comfy tow vehicle and I wouldn't have to worry about getting home after doing something stupid.
Everything is relative. Back when trucks cost half what they are now, people made half what they make now.
What is lacking is a real ability to properly utilize all the gadgets people put in/on their trucks. People these days are much too computer-centric. Mostly the only real work some people do these days are with their fingers. Off-roading skills are becoming a lost art. We can tell by how high people lift their trucks and by how much useless crap they can't wait to spend money on (CAIs, e.g.), that don't make the driver a better off-roader. Just watch some YouTube videos of just what I'm talking about...
I'm so glad I stumbled upon this thread. Great advice and amazing & capable rigs. Thanks guys for the help. I'm also one to "use" their vehicle for the intended off-road purposes. I've had many 4x4's and each of them were tastefully built for capability 1st, looks a far 2nd or 3rd on my list. Looking forward to getting the new Ford built to my specs over time. I used to be much more into rock crawling and such, but I'm now looking at building this into an overlanding rig that I can pile up the wife and kids into and hit the trails. Similar idea to you STingray1300.
This thread has given me some cool ideas. Hopefully we'll see you out on the trails sometime! Cheers, AV
I'm all for function over form, but as Ford obviously knows, it's such a small number of people that use their trucks for off road that there's no point in building them for that purpose except in smaller numbers (see: Raptor).
Most people that are serious about wheeling are going to buy a Jeep because it's going to be better suited for the job.
I like my level and 35's, looks great and rides very well, and it's more than capable of handling any sort of beat up mud/rock trail I can find in Wisconsin.
05-21-2016, 09:28 PM
