F-150 FX4 handles the air time nicely, landing hard but smoothly driving away after the stunt.
Jumping your F-150 can be a risky trick, as we have seen countless video examples of off-road air sessions going horribly wrong, but this week’s “Freaky Fords Friday” video shows that with a bit of moderation, your half-ton Ford pickup can catch some air without breaking the chassis or setting off the airbags. This video comes to us from the YouTube channel of joseacuariusand it features a 2013 F-150 FX4 showing that even a non-Raptor can handle some fun in the air.
The Flying F-150
There are no details on this truck with any of the videos on the channel, but we know that it is a 2013 Ford F-150 FX4 with the 5.0-liter V8, which we know thanks to the huge decal on the front doors. The truck appears to have a set of beadlock wheels, a set of big wheel flares, a Raptor-like grille and plenty of Raptor-like graphics, while the ride height and the exhaust note leads us to believe that this F-150 has aftermarket suspension and exhaust upgrades, but without any details, we don’t know for sure.
What we do know is that this FX4 handles a shot through the sky just as well as the Raptor.
The Big Jump
The video begins with the 2013 Ford F-150 FX4 off in the distance, charging up a steep sand dune. As the truck nears the top, the deep ruts seem to slow it down a bit, or maybe the driver is trying to minimize the feet of air under the wheels, but in any case, the half-ton Ford slows down just before popping into the air. As it hits the jump and the front wheels leave the ground, the footage switches to slow motion, offering us a look at the action of the red F-Series catching air.
The people standing in the way of the cameraman prevent us from seeing just how high in the air this F-150 gets, but it appears to have at least a couple feet under the front and rear wheels before quickly returning to earth. The landing is hard, looking like it bottomed out the front suspension, but as the F-150 drives away, we can see that it made the jump without sustaining any damage severe enough to keep it from heading to park with the other vehicles.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
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"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.
"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
