Outdoor Adventure USA

Over the course of seven years I build up my little '89 Toyota into a monster. After regearing to 5.29s, installing lockers, rebuilding and boring out the motor and building up the suspension it was quite capable offroad, and served me well. Then last year my wife and I bought dualsport motorcycles. I had to install some coil springs on the rear to help the soft leaf springs handle the load. The little 4 cylinder struggled to pull a half ton of cargo over the mountains to the desert and back every couple of weeks. The extensive ground clearance and articulation that made it so capable off-road also made it a royal pain to get bikes in and out of the bed. As much as I loved my truck, it was time to get something better suited to my needs.



I picked up an '06 F150 SuperCrew 4x4 with the 6.5' bed. The 5.4 liter Triton V8 doesn't even seem to notice the weight of the bikes, and the extra room in the cab means I can bring guns, a telescope, even a guitar when we go camping. It's got 3.73 gears and a limited slip differential which should do alright in dirt. Unfortunately the ground clearance is a far cry from what I'm used to, and to keep it easy to load bikes I'm not going to lift it. I did pick up some 3/16" steel skidplates to protect the oil pan, transmission, and transfercase. Sadly the gas tank hangs below the frame rails, so combined with the long wheelbase I don't think I'll be doing too much in the way of crawling in the new truck. I do imagine it'll be a whole lot of fun in the sand, though.

Nice truck! That's the way I'd go if I went full size. Even though its stock, there's still so much back country you'll be able to get to with it.

Thanks! I figure so long as the truck can get me to the places I want to camp I'm set; the dirt bikes will get me everywhere else.

Andy

Nice move. I think that one of the things that you will appreciate the most is the extra room that a full size offers (especially inside). I agree with John that there are a whole lot of places that your truck will go.

I've found that the only downside to starting over again is the amount of time it takes to transfer all of your equipment to the new vehicle (radios, GPS, off road gear, etc).