I think by the end of this year I'm going to sell all of my organs buy a new F-250. It's going to have the V-10, 4 spd. auto, ext. cab, shortbed, and of course 4x4. I have no concerns about the V-10 powerplant, but I will be letting it breathe with an cold-air induction kit, and a cat-back exhaust. Now I know these trucks are great workhorses, but how do they fair off-road? I've got plans to put on Fabtech's 8" lift in the future, anyone heard any bad things about this lift? I'm shooting for the dual-shock mounts up front (big meats & heavy engine needs all the damping they can get), and new leafs instead of blocks in the rear (I don't tow much and I'd like to have a bit more flex). All I know Fabtech is for their 2wd lifts, and thats top notch, is the 4x4 F-250 lift the same? I've been the second banana on a few solid axle lift kits, and I've got a hunch I can do it myself. I browsed through the article in December 2001's Off-Road Magazine about the Superlift 8" (which is my 2nd choice for a lift kit) and it looked fairly straight forward and easy to lift a F-250. I'm also planning on selling my soul and buying two sets of tires, one for road & sand (incase you're wondering, Padre Island National Seashore down in So. Texas is where I do my sand wheeling), and one for off-road. The road & sand combo are going to be 37-12.50-17 BFG MT/KM's mounted on Mickey Thompson 17x9 Challenger II wheels. I'm taking 37x17's because I'd like to have just a bit more flash on the street than with 15's, but I'm also a bit concerned about the 17x9's allowing me to air down enough for sand, any thoughts on this? The off-road combo will be 38-14.40-15 Super Swamper SX's on 15x10 Eaton Beadlocks. I'm pretty sure the off-road combo is pretty much fail-safe and damn rugged enough to handle a F-250 slogging down muddy trails. Is there any real difference between the TSL's and the SX's traction wise? To me a Swamper is a damn Swamper, it's got all the best characteristics of a mud tire (excluding the Thornbird.) I'm also planning on adding heavy duty bumpers front and rear. Rear bumpers are pretty much all of the same design, but does anyone know what kind of front bumper is on the F-250 in Dec. 2001's Off-Road (pgs. 52 & 56)? That looks like a great bumper design, not like the ones I've seen around that drastically decrease the approach angle. Gears and lockers are definitely going in, but what ratio and what kind of locker is still in the air. Ratio can be decided later, but I'm leaning toward a solid locker in the rear, with something like a Tru-Trak in the front, if it's even available for an F-250. With all that said, what do you guys think? Do I have a solid setup for on & off-road driving? Any pitfalls that I should look out for? Anywhere you think I could improve my planning or strategy? I'd like as much feedback as possible, because I'm going to be shelling out a whole lot of dough for this truck and I want to get it right the first time. TIA!

Jason L. Aguilar
munkey@ciris.net

 

Only pitfall I see is you're looking at close to a $50,000 vehicle...If I had that kinda money I would probably have a very similar setup.

Ryan
1986 F-250 HD 4x4
4.10 gears, C6 trany
351W, Edelbrock 351 Performer intake
Edelbrock Performer 600cfm 4bbl carb
Edelbrock Pro-Flo air cleaner
Extreme 4x4 camshaft
Flowmaster 30 series dual exhaust
Custom headers
3" Warn body lift

 

Actually...at MSRP with $5000 down, plus my local tax and 6% APR...the truck is $32,123...and the lift plus the two sets of tires are a bit over $5000. I priced the lift locally, and I'm doing all the work myself, but tomorrow I'm putting on my haggling gloves and taking a trip down to the dealer to see how bananas I can make the salesman. I'm going to try and haggle down to 5% over dealers cost, wish me luck!

 

Well heck pal, definately good luck. You'll have a sweet ride. I thought it would be alot more. I went to my local Ford dealer in Stoneham, MA, and was checking out F-250's and 350's. I wanted to know what the best would run me. So I checked out a 2000 F-250 XLT 4x4 offroad package crewcab shortbox. Black, every option available, V-10, and they gave me a quote of $37,000 roughly...with $5000 down and 0.9% financing (this was before Ford introduced the 0% they have going now) for 60 months....it worked out to a bit over $500/month. And I said, ok, I can't do that being 22 and a full time college student! Sounds like a nice grad present for myself though next year, huh? I figured a big sus lift installed would run you $1200 or so, and your 8 tires and wheels would easily set you back $2k, if not more. But definately, good luck bud, hope we get to see some completed pictures when you're rig is all set up.

Ryan
1986 F-250 HD 4x4
4.10 gears, C6 trany
351W, Edelbrock 351 Performer intake
Edelbrock Performer 600cfm 4bbl carb
Edelbrock Pro-Flo air cleaner
Extreme 4x4 camshaft
Flowmaster 30 series dual exhaust
Custom headers
3" Warn body lift

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-Nov-01 AT 01:58 AM (EST)[/font][p]Sounds like a lot of fun. The one thing I'm not sure about is the 15" wheels. I THINK you need 16s or larger to clear the brakes. Plus, it's an odd-ball metric bolt-pattern so you might have trouble finding wheels even if 15s will fit. Other than that...have fun spending all that money.

BTW, I love the South Padre Island area. Have stayed at Suntide 3 a couple of times. I'm not sure if that's the island you're talking about...runs in my mind that there may be a string of "Padre Islands" along the coast down there...guess I'll have to look at a map.

 

Ooh hey thanks for the info about the brakes! Totally forgot about wheel clearances, I've gotta keep reminding myself all my old off-road know how in a Jeep needs to change with a 3/4 ton truck! Suntide 3? Hmm..doesn't ring a bell, might be north of where I am, or way down south. I'm from Corpus Christi, kinda smack dab in the middle of the Padre Island chain. Thanks for the heads up though!