I'm getting ready to start a new build but I am having trouble figuring a few concepts out.

First off, never built a car before. My goal for the truck is off-road distance travel. I need a rig that will get my wife and two kids down 3-4 hours of washboard dirt road hell (hell being a few ugly transitions, lots of washboard, and just windy, rutty ol' jeep trails. Since the kids arrived there hasn't been much mexico in my life, and I'm prepared to drop a small fortune in suspension to try and fix that, since it means the wife and kids need to come along.

SO.

My vehicle of choice is a ford with a solid axle. I THINK that means a 93 f250? Whatever it is, thats what I've been told to get. But I'm not sure why? I see that it gets better traction, and I guess I want that. Are there ANY drawbacks to the solid axle? Anyway, on to my point.

Suspension. As I've never really delved into the world of off-road racing or core truck builds, I'm not sure what to look for beyond the OEM parts. I imagine my truck will have no more than a 3-4 inch lift. So what are my options? Like I said, I want the best, and I want it specifically for washboard. What I've read so far leads me to King shocks and custom Leaf springs. Am I going in the right direction? Which type of shock should I be looking for? Gas? Coil Over? 2.5? 4.5? Also, can someone tell me what advantage dual shocks will provide me? Beyond, of course, the fact that I'll have two shocks. I'm just having a hard time visualizing the difference in the ride with a second set of shocks.

Sorry for the long post, and the ignorance; I'm a rookie.

G

 

if u want a factory straight axle truck in 93, you need a f350. BUT, it wouldnt be hard to swap one onto a f150 or 250.
Suspension is pretty straight foreward, but your gonna want to peice it. Most good kits that include long travel suspesion peices are way expensive and you can peice one together for the same price if not cheaper, and get everyting youd want instead of settling for whats in a kit

 

Thanks for that info. Much appreciated. Is the axle swap worth the trouble if I'm not doing rock crawls and obstacle courses?

As for the suspension kit, I'll search around and figure out what that means and come back with more questions.

G

 

The Dana 60 is used because of its strength. To me, it doesn't sound like you need it, and it doesn't sound like you need a long travel suspension either. A good 4"-6" lift with radius arms and 35" tires will do what you want very well. For rough roads like you describe, a solid axle is actually a disadvantage over a TTB because if you hit something on one side it won't affect the other tire. With a solid axle the whole front end will be affected. TTB trucks ride much better than their solid axle counterparts and in a lot of situations the traction is better with a TTB truck.

Whoever told you that if you want a solid axle you need a 93 F-250 should be ignored from now on because they don't know what they're talking about.

 

"Whoever told you that if you want a solid axle you need a 93 F-250 should be ignored from now on because they don't know what they're talking about."

I was afraid of that. That why I thought I'd run it by you folks.

"For rough roads like you describe, a solid axle is actually a disadvantage over a TTB because if you hit something on one side it won't affect the other tire. With a solid axle the whole front end will be affected. TTB trucks ride much better than their solid axle counterparts and in a lot of situations the traction is better with a TTB truck."

I also had a feeling about this. Glad you chimed in.

 

with a 3-4 inch lift stick with the TTB. the TTB is superior in all aspects over a solid axle until its breaking point. the only arguable downside to the TTB is its infamous m"alignment" problems (pun intended). just like "there are no bad dogs, just bad owners", there are no incurable alignments, just incapable owners. learn it, love it, rally the hell out of it. ill never ditch my d50ttb and 95% of this trucks use is abusive 4wheelin/rallyin. and its never broken.

ttb with some good shocks/springs will give you the ability to smoothly rip over all those "washboards". just gotta address the lack of power at that point. . . .

 

So what about the shocks? I'm reading about kits but there seem to be all kinds. Who makes GREAT shocks, and who makes bad ones? Am I looking for remote resevior? Adjustable? And while I'm asking, since the 93 isn't what I thought, should I still be looking in that generation? One thing that's important to me is the from a short distance, it's gotta look like a beater. So new is out, and I love the look of the 90's trucks, but for me it's function over form. I was told late 80's trucks might be tougher? Any advice?

 

Shocks - Bilstein generally has the best reputation around here. Rancho also makes some very nice adjustable shocks. Everything else is basically you get what you pay for. I don't think you'll have enough lift to worry about remote reservoir but I admittedly don't know all that much about remote reservoir shocks.

The 1980 to 1996 F-series trucks all share the same chassis. They are all equally "tough" in my opinion, except for some F-100's in the early 80's that had a swiss cheese-style frame to save weight. They used the same series of engines from 1983 to 1996 so there are plenty of parts in junkyards everywhere. Some people shy away from fuel injected vehicles and prefer carbs but EFI is really the way to go.

If you keep your eyes open, you can definitely pick up a strong, reliable truck in this generation for $2000. It might not pretty, but it will rarely let you down.