1977 F150

[prestonpreuss]

I am new, I am 2wd and no I wont sell it. I have a 1977 F150 with the 300 I6 and a 4 speed manual transmission. I love my truck and I have put too much time and effort into it for it to be worth selling. I would start with saying it is the simplest and most reliable piece of steel I have ever seen. Anyways, I have recently discovered I like to travel, day trips or weekend trips with my wife, I love the outdoors and I love just traveling in the old truck. But as winter comes on here in the northwest and my mind wanders to snow and offroad conditions I have been trying to think about how to better prepare my truck. The first things that I have in mind would be ARB locker for the rear axle and some element ramps. I have been trying to think of ways to optimize traction via suspension set up but have come across very little help. Any ideas or tips whether its modification or technique would be very helpful. Please don't bother to tell me to sell it. I would love to see some inspiring pictures of vehicles of my vintage. I will post pictures as soon as I can get this uploader to work.

 

[98dango]

Welcome what part of Or you want g to explore. I went all over in 2wd it can be done and is fun. A good set of tires and some clearance well do alot a rear locker helps more. There is a f250 on hear that is close to your set up.

 

[155mm]

Tires would be #1

 

[98dango]

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/135144-The-Sooper-Camper-F350?highlight=2wd



And pictures we all love pictures I spend lots of time on the coast and rarely use 4wd.

 

[prestonpreuss]

I have a brand new set of 235-75-15 Toyo HT's the previous owner bought. Not my first choice for tires but they are brand new. Granny low helps to. All of my my uploads fail for some reason, anyone have the same issue?

 

[prestonpreuss]

Here are some photos

 

[98dango]

Love the clean old Fords wish I had best mine. It's really hard to say what works for you I'd say bigger more aggressive tire when the time comes. But till then run that sucker see what you need we can say all day but till you get out and see where it's lacking you will never know what is needed.

I'm currently in Montana but I'll be in Long Beach Wa permanent and we run the cost alot if you want to tag along or have a tag along I'm always down for a trip.

 

[Sooper Camper]

thats a really clean looking truck. does it have a 9" rear axle? if so, plenty of options for traction adders there and it's beefy enough you don't have to worry about breaking it, an ARB is nice, but a nice posi unit is simpler and half the price. nice part about the 9", 3rd members are available all day long in nearly any combo of gears, diff and spline count you could imagine.
floatation tires will help tremendously, the clearance is actually pretty good on these old beam trucks, and they have a pretty good amount of wheel travel so they stay balanced well when the road gets rougher. I bet you could easily fit 32x11.5-33x12.5" tires on there without trimming and with a simple spring spacer/F250 coil swap in front. have you considered just getting a second set of tires? It's nice to have options...

regarding suspension tuning, just get the nicest rebuildable shock that you can afford and that will fit. 2 important questions need to be asked:
1. how comfortable are you with fab work?
2. how comfortable are you with modifying a clean vintage truck?

There aren't really any bolt on kits for them, so you are stuck figuring out how to adapt universal fit shocks (fox, king etc) in there. I'm not advocating you cut the truck to pieces, but you will see that with the factory mounting points you are somewhat limited in shock selection. Autofab makes a nice kit, but IMO it is very over priced. it is essentially just tube extensions welded onto the radius arms and coils from a 2-ton truck, which is good for 4-6" of lift, and they bend the I beams back to proper alignment (any medium-heavy duty truck shop can still do this for you, just look for the oldest alignment shop in town not some Firestone car care center).

 

[Metcalf]

How about a nice hidden winch behind the stock bumper? If I remember right there is a nice slot in the bumper you could use to pass the cable through....

 

[98dango]

Hidden or multi mount winch would be a good idea.

 

[prestonpreuss]

Sure thing dango. Just let me know when your out this way, always looking for an excuse to leave town. Yes it does have a 9 inch and I have considered that. I am a diesel mechanic and I picked up a free set of torque arms at work, I want to fabricate some mounts to run them as track bars. And yes I am comfortable with fab work. The link dango sent me to shows a guy who adapted some kings in the rear and I really liked that. I want to bolt up a sway bar first though before I start making mounts. In the future I want to get some 31 inch all terrains

 

[98dango]

I will be there in February.

I directed you to Sooper Camper build he has replied hear.

Sway bars will help the on road but not nearly as much off road.

 

[prestonpreuss]

I drive the truck 3 or 4 days a week so it needs to stay versatile. That being said do you think it would be worth skipping and going strait to the track bars?

 

[prestonpreuss]

Hey sooper camper, what did those king shocks cost you?

 

[98dango]

It's your butt in the seat but Un less you have lots of roll or axel wrap I'd skip both. That is Unless you just want to build stuff. I typically use a single center bar with a shackle same effect no ill effects on articulation. And with rear only keeping those tires planted to the ground is most important.


Sooper most likely got a smoking deal from his work as that's what he dose for a living.