I can definitely buy onto the "there's always room for improvement" statement.

It seems to me that a Raptor is already well modded, why not buy one of those? I guess the tow rating isn't very high.

So, what about an F-150 HD? Very stout and ready from the factory to yank around any trailer that an F-150 is designed to pull.

Here in South Eastern, Va, the weather is very mild and this place is littered with modified trucks and SUV's. We don't get the snow, it doesn't flood too horribly bad and it's pretty much all built up now after decades of development so the mudding opportunities are more limited now than ever.

So I look at these trucks with what I imagine is about 3K in wheels and tires, exhaust kits, after market paint and who knows what else and I think to myself, where does all of this money come from?

I love my truck, it was worth waiting for and exactly what I wanted and actually more than I needed. I've added the bed cover and the wheel well liners and when the time comes, I'll upgrade the 235's to 265's which are a stock tire size on some F-150's.

The rest of my love will be shown in expert routine maintenance as this is for sure the last and final truck, new or used that I intend to own. I think she'll last the rest of my life as I intend to buy another Focus as a DD when she's paid off.

 

think about it this way, some people like to remodel there homes all the time or do add ons. some like flashy watches and expensive suits..then some love motorcycles, snow machines,4 wheelers..ect something to play with and spend extra income on.

i like my trucks to stand out from the crowd, i love the fact people that know me can pick my trucks out of traffic from every other stock one running around. if i saved my modding money i'd have ALOT of savings LOL but i'd rather spend it on the trucks. it gets much more expensive when you have 4 trucks to keep gas in, insure, register, maintain...then mod! ask me how i know.

many who mod do it for the fun of it, lift/lower, wheels,paint,huge sound systems its what makes us happy. is there any "real" reason? absolutely not. there is no reason we could not all be driving the exact same trucks. they all get the job done. but thats not the spice of life is it? custom paint, wheels, lifting or lowering are just a extension of our own personality's. to me its a form of art. just my opinion though.

 

Scrape enough dead crotch-rocket riders off the highway and your opinion will change...

 

If it has to be explained to you, you wouldn't understand.

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-click- the pic'
Goth 150
< This space intentionally -blank- >

 

I can't speak for the way the sport bike riders manage risk, which is likely far different than the way I do. But I 'm certainly not going be one of those guys who worries so much about dying that he forgets to live. To an extent, that sentiment applies to this thread as well.

 

Sport bike riders get a pretty rough stereotype, but not ALL of us ride like that. I have a 06 Honda VFR Interceptor (sport-tourer) and my old man still has a 93 CBR1000. We don't ride like maniacs. I ride with the flow of traffic and don't weave. I see plenty of the cruiser guys doing dumb stuff, especially during bike week. We're not all a bunch of nuts (although LOTS are)

With that said, getting back on topic, I've done a few mods to my truck also to make is mine. Wheel well liners, mudflaps and some decent floor mats were a must. Then deleting the resonator (with a ford pipe non the less) and adding some mustang col covers. I'd like to keep it close to OEM and I'm not planning to put a CAI or tun on it any time soon. However, ther resonator delete may not be loud enough for me, so I may throw something else on there.

As mentioned previously, we sould not have some of the cool things we do today if folks didn't tinker

 

I'm willing to bet you have a hobby that I wouldn't find all that interesting. Only thing that matters is if it makes you happy

 

I just like being able to see it in a parking lot. Easier to find

 

Well put. I agree

 

When I got mine it was the first Electric Blue the dealer had sold a couple weeks later coming out of Lowes there mine sat next to three more. So I wanted my truck more personal to me I started simple air defelctors now a lk bigger tires are coming. A winch will come to but so far I have kept everything usable tires winch and lk well I have a large piece of property with a hunting cabin 1.3 miles off road in Southern Va that clay fills a stock tire in the first ten feet. That alone justifies everything the air defelctors gotta have fresh air even in the rain.

I do plan to add exhaust just for ego I want everyone to hear the Coyote

 

I like to play with trucks, justifies my outlook on why I do the things I do.
Every truck I've owned, and there's been many, have had changes made to them. I like a basically stock, clean look, with subtle changes. Sort of like those drawings you see, that the more you look, the more you see. Nothing that really over shadows anything else, until one sees the whole picture. The most obvious changes of course would be wheels, but even then, subdued. A bit larger, taller tires, a mild lift, some additions, some subtractions. Just enough to make a person that likes little trucks, notice and appreciate what I do to them. And, TRY, to keep it clean and unblemished. Just the clean part can make your truck really stand out around here, and it not wearing a bowtie or goathead. Ford is definitely the minority here. Of course, so are jobs and higher education! LOL Read what you want into that!! Another little subtlety, LOL!

 

I think some of it is to reverse-engineer some of the bean-counter mentality that comes from the factory, and by extension, the Feds.

Cosmetic and personalization issues are obviously for the owners personal mindset.

But come on. Some of the decisions made by the bean counters?

Little P-series sized donuts for tires on a truck that works?

Shocks that couldn't damp out a fly jumping on the bed?

Engines that (until very very recently) were so strangled by emissions that they couldn't get out of their own way, much less anyone else? (There's more than one way to skin this particular cat, and the EPA has said that THEIR way is the only way. There are so many others.)

Although, thinking about it, I perhaps wonder if some of these decisions are made, knowing that 10% of buyers are going to go crazy with mods, while the rest of us(?) are going to leave the truck bone stock. Ford leaves a LOT of headroom in a lot of their engineering.... Makes you wonder sometimes.

I wonder what would rise to the surface if you polled a different way: How many people who mod the heck out of their trucks, use them as daily drivers, as opposed to those who only use their trucks once a week, or once a month, or only two to three months per year.

-blaine

 

Great idea!! Go ahead and set that up if you want. It would be good reading for sure.

 

I LOVE modified trucks! Just not mine! And, since I buy used, I don't think I'd ever buy a modded truck.

As a certified geezer here, my guess is most people who do mods are probably single, under about 30 years old, and have a pretty good income. That, plus just good old fashioned creativity! I think that combination will get about any truck modified!

 

I doubt Ford is horribly concerned with the modding crowd. However, headroom/overkill also translates into reliability. Things don't fail when you run them at 75% of their maximum vs. 99%. Look at the Ford/Chevy wars of the last ~25 years (up until the EB/5.0 came out). Chevy consistently produced more HP/torque from their motors. But things broke a lot more frequently.

Ignoring the 6.D'OH debacle, one of the things that has kept Ford king in the emergency vehicle arena for so many years is reliability.