Always loved 'em. Now that I have another fullsize TTB, I am contemplating a very mild prerunner. More of a "look" than a real go-fast truck (nowhere around to really USE one here!).

In my head is this: 4"-6" bulge fiberglass front fenders, small lift, 33' BFG's and prerunner bumpers and in bed spare tire carrier.

So the question is this. How would all this look on a Flare Side, Extended Cab 4x4? I've only seen regular Style Side steel beds and/or fiberglass bedsides.

 

I would say it would look bad ***, if you got extended beams. Doing prerunner fenders with a drop bracket lift, rather than a prerunner lift (extended and bent beams) might look odd with such a large flare. You can get a smaller bulged fender and it would look great if you got a wide enough wheel and tire combo. I just think it looks funny with the truck really wide and a narrow (stock with the drop bracket lift) track width.

Here is a thread of hundreds of pictures of prerunner pre-97 trucks
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=36748

 

I love prerunners. I'd like to build a 2wd offroad truck one day.

 

any body know of were to get the fenders from to do this?

 

(Side Bar: Why does it say "The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters."? Is it because most of it was in quotation marks?) ?

 

I own a black flareside like yours, only a regular cab. I went with the prerunner look because I love a 4x4's stance. I have a 3'' lift and 31'' tires and my truck sits like a factory 4x4. People assume my truck is 4x4.

Do you have any plans to take your rig off road, or no? If so, I would just like to point out that with the correct gears, you can have a little fun, but be careful because without the front tires pulling it's very hard to steer. I almost ended up in a tree / ditch yesterday because of that.

Oh and another thing. There are people who make suspension lift kits for 2wd trucks like ours in four and six inch lifts. Just think kind of long and hard about it though. I feel kind of silly now that I've lifted my two wheeler. She looks good, but she's just a poser. Another thing to note too; if you're worried about your ride quality, a body lift is probably the way to go. It doesn't affect your suspension at all. You can get a 3'' lift and be sitting like a factory 4x4 and will be able to fit 33'' tires.

Don't forget to upgrade your brakes if you go over 31 inches though, just in case!

You can buy a suspension lift for your 2wd. Your truck would look great with a 4'' lift sitting on 33's.


Big Six, you're the bomb diggity gig-gig giggity! Oh Right!

Here's a pic of my two legger

 

I would like to list some pro's and con's too if yall don't mind.

Lifting a 2WD

Your ride quality will suffer if you use a suspension lift. With the larger tires your truck will be less highway capable, bouncing all over the road and trying to jerk you into every ditch that has a pot hole close by. You will also have to re-gear your truck to be able to turn over those large tires. This is an expensive and annoying job. Road noise will increase also. If you do choose to do a body lift, your ride quality will be saved, but you also run the risk of something critical breaking that could end up being lethal. Let's not forget fuel mileage; your raised truck alone will be pushing more air, thus using more power, thus drinking more fuel. The tires are also harder to turn over, even with the gear swap.

The Pro's

Your truck will look awesome. If you include a locking differential in the gear swap, your off road capabilities will be increased and you can just shrug and say, "It's a prerunner. It's meant to be." when people ask you why you lifted a two wheeler.

It is vastly cheaper and more inexpensive in the long run to keep your truck 2WD and include other upgrades, such as rims and tires, exhaust, other verious performance parts. Your truck will get better fuel mileage and performance.

I'm not trying to talk anyone out of lifting their 2WD. I think it's cool. Duh, I did it to mine. Still, I just want people to really think about it. It can be an expensive mistake. Ty, a member on this forum lifted his beautiful 2WD F-150. It looked great but he hated it. He had the Ranch hand bumper, 4'' suspension lift, big tires.. All the goodies. Oh, and he re-geared it too. An expensive mistake. Just think about it because you do it. =)

 

Autofab and henneman both make fenders for our trucks. You can get a prerunner "look" by a drop bracket lift and wheel spacers (don't advise those with lots of offroad use) or one of the basic kits Camburg or Autofab offer. Look into one of the basic kits, they make the truck look great and it still preforms with around 12-14" of travel. Hear is a pic of a prerunner 1st gen Lightning. It has equal length i-beams that are 4in over on each side(stock ones are unequal), four link rear, and bypasses on all four corners. Do the lift! Come on real offroad trucks are 2wd!

 

I love the replies so far! BTW, mine is a 4x4. I always think of the "HULK" green 1983 Bronco with the updated nose that was in 4 Wheel and off-road a ways back and I LOVE it!

http://image.automotive.com/f/images..._angled_up.jpg

I woulld definately use it as long as I could go somewhere even semi-legal.

Please, I hope this doesn't get taken the wrong way but in regards to how lifting and tires affect handling and braking etc., I am quite experienced in these things. I've built two Blazers, three XJ Cherokees, three Samurai's with SPOA's. I've had up to 39" Swampers on the Blazer with 9" of lift and down to 33" Swampers on the Sammies.

I don't mean to sound snotty, I'm just trying to get across that I have some experience with lifted 4x4's etc., but I am thankful for all the concern on the subject.

Really great guys here!

 

Well if it's 4x4 then you have the option of "cutting and turning" your beams. This allows for a 4in lift coil without drop brackets. Look over on fsb to get more info.

 

I was thinking the same thing. That's what was done of the Bronco I mentioned. I'm not a welder but I could have them done or buy them pre-made.

A wider track with those fenders would be great for trails too. That way the front tires wont fall into the ruts as much.

 

Looks like I didn't need to say anything at all! Oh well, maybe my post will help other two wheeler's out there make a decision.

 

And you'll be able to sky it over some sweet jumps!

 

I do appreciate your previous post and would've said the same things you did. I do think that there are lots of people new to trucks that don't fully appreciate the changes these mods can make.

I've seen my share of 40"-44" tires on 10 bolt GM axles in my day!

Thanks again!

 

That's no problem Sir! I love talking about this stuff. Whatever you do, just please keep us posted. I'm going to keep my eye on this thread. I sincerely hope you build your FlareSide up. Really make a flag-ship for Ford. I didn't know your truck is four wheel drive. Since that's the case, why don't you think about a six inch lift and 35x14.5's? Would really be a bad to the bone looking rig!

Do you have any better pictures of your truck as she sits right now? I would really like to compare the ride height to mine and to also see your truck better.