Opus-n-Bill

Thanks. Looks good.

Those are 17" rims/tires, right (LT315/70R17)? Was looking for something to keep the existing 18" Lariat rims, which seems to be the problem.

Truckin

iTrader: (4)

yeah, I had 18s as well and really didn't want a 34, but now there on, I love them, they are still own. Yes they are 315 70s. Made just for ford and are C rated. I personally don't need an E rated tire and the ride is so much better. I had E rated 33s on my 18s. Thought they looked small and rode like a cement truck

Opus-n-Bill

Finally replacing the stock tires - this was probably the hardest upgrade to decide on. So many different threads and opinions out there.

I was looking for a more aggressive look, and looking at BFG KO2's (which I had on my last truck and liked a lot, though they were not great on wet roads, which I see a lot more of than off road), but didn't want to give up much ride comfort, so was looking at the Michelin Defender, but looks wise, that's about as plain as it gets. Everything I've looked at is E rated, so I expect to give up some ride comfort, but wanted to minimize that.

I was also looking at 33" (275/70r18) vs 34" (295/70r18, which the KO2 isn't available in). Read through so many posts and looked at so many pictures of trucks with either, and there were good and bad pics of both, making that really hard to decide.

I mostly drive on roads, but do just enough driving on gravel, mud, and snow that I wanted something a bit more capable than the Defenders there, and ideally wanted something snow rated.

I looked at the Nitto Terra Grappler G2's, but they aren't snow rated, and to be honest, looking at reviews, tirerack seemed to have the most comprehensive reviews, but don't sell Nittos, so it was hard to really compare them in any quantitative way.

Cost was also a bit of a factor, and I wanted to minimize the impact on MPG and torque, though that was really secondary to the right look. Oh, and I wanted to stick with my stock 18" rims.

I ended up going with the 33" 275/70r18 Yokohama Geolandar G015's. They *appear* to have much of the street manners of the Michelins, with some "offroad" capability (enough for my needs), a more aggressive A/T look, and are three peak mountain/snowflake rated. They are also the most inexpensive ($188 on tire rack, which comes to about $210 with mounting and balancing at the local tire shop). Enough of the pics of 33" tires looked good to sway me that that's big enough, plus the Yoko's are slightly larger than, say, the BFG 275/70/18s (by about .1 inches...)

Have them on order, should be on the truck by mid next week.

Opus-n-Bill

Got new tires installed yesterday - 275/70r18 Yokohama Geolander G015's (33").

Could have easily fit 34" (295/70r18's) on it, but the 33" yoko's were about $100 cheaper/tire, and I'm still being a bit conservative to avoid affecting the ride and MPG too much.

Before (original):




After (not a great pic and the truck is kinda dirty):

Bigcat1185

iTrader: (1)

Nice progress, truck is looking good.

Opus-n-Bill

Thanks. I think next time I need tires, I'll go with the slightly larger 295/70r18 Yokos. They should easily fit with no rubbing.

Still on my todo list:

• Performance tune once the tuners for the '17s are more commonplace (Leaning toward the Stage3 Motorsports phase 3 kit that includes the Full Race intercooler, or the Livernois stage 3 kit that includes the Ford Racing exhaust)
• CAI upgrade to go with the perf tune
• Full Race "Freak-o-Boost" intercooler upgrade/relocation, which then allows for:
• Hidden winch in the front bumper
• Thinking about a Ford Racing dual exhaust (Touring version - want to keep it fairly quiet)
• BIlstein leveling struts in front (to replace the spacers) and Bilstien rear shocks, when the stock struts wear out

Also, I want to upgrade cruise control to ACC if someone eventually documents that well (there's a thread on this, but it doesn't really have the details spelled out enough for me yet, and I'm hesitant to try to figure that particular upgrade out on my own).

Motorsports One

I know you weren't really happy with your grille, Opus, but I think it looked good. Here's our trucks side-by-side.

Opus-n-Bill

Was that me or Delta? I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out, but I know he just kind of mounted the emblem flat to the grill and used a dremel to flatten a spot for it, and wasn't happy with that result. I looked at some of the other grilles like the thin black bars on the xlt sport, mainly because I thought it would have saved me some work, but then saw that they don't seem to offer that with a camera mount, so I think what I ended up with was good (and fairly unique - have only seen the three of us with this, and Delta I think got rid of his).

My emblem sticks out a bit more than I would prefer maybe, when I'm looking at it close from the side - I think your mount isn't as deep, but I couldn't make it any thinner and still fit the camera. And if I had it to do over, I'd have probably filled in the 3 leds before sending it to the painter (I think they look good on the wider raptors, but just a *tiny* bit too "busy" on a standard width F150 when they're all lit up in the dark, but I don't mind it enough to change it now). But then, I nit pick my work and nothing's ever perfect


But yeah, been watching your build, and yours looks pretty good.

Randall1111

Where'd you get the mirror caps from? Or did you have the chrome ones painted? Thanks

Randall

Randall1111

Can you elaborate a little on how to do this? You are the second person I've seen on here speak of this "FORScan". I just purchased a 2017 Platinum FX4 yesterday and I would love to make some of the changes you've mentioned here to my truck. Thanks for any input you can provide.

Randall