OFF-ROADING

[Mike Mott]

Hey guys! Ready to go off road! All i have done is install new tires(265/70/16 Definity A/T, its a cooper tire) wind rock is 1/2 hour from here and want to go hit the trails. has step bars and dont know if i'll take them off. Any advice would be greatly appriciated.

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

If it's sitting stock height watch your clearences, front bumper/rear and especially underneath if you don't have skid plates for frontend and gas tank. Usually it's best to go with another 4x4in case something should happen. Tow straps, spade shovel and tools are always good to have when going offroad. Other than that wish I was going with you, I've been wanting to go on some good trails lately. Have fun and be safe.

 

[Mike Sove]

MY .02 ... leave your step bars on.. you will have clearance issues if your doing some SERIOUS offroading.. BUT, i found that having them on, saves the rockers.. they also work as great skid bars if your hauling *ss and get in some deep mud. once i got home after mudding the first time with my ST i had to take the step bars off.. i had bent all the brackets, but saved a few hundred bucks in plastic rockers that i would have had to replace after crushing them.

 

[Bo Loo]

Give these guys a call if you get in trouble...

 

[Mike Mott]

Thanks for the input guys. Anyone tried a SOA kit on the rear?

 

[Darrel Chaney01]

Or if you had $30,000. or so you could buy a set of Mattracks and go just about

anywhere you want to go. I would love to see "Tracks on a Trac".:lol:

 

[Chad Merry]

A SOA in the rear will give you about 6" of lift what are you going to do with the front?

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

Great way to lift rear but you're still stuck with the front end slot lower. Chads got the right idea with a solid front axle, I've been thinking of do one for a while now just don't have the money or time at the same time, either one or the other right?

 

[John Johnstone]

But doing the SOA and not have a lift in the front helped me go many places that I would have got hung up on. I've never regretted being SOA in the rear and no lift in the front. It's better than being high centered a lot. Not every one has tons of money to spend on a front lift.



SOA with no front lift...

[Broken External Image]:

 

[John Johnstone]

Besides the front lifts like the 4" Superlift still leave the lower control arms and torsion bars at the same distance from the ground as before.

 

[Mike Mott]

I've been told that I can just adjust the torsion bars. A friend of mine just recently did this on a silverado and got about 5" of lift in the front. I've been told this is safe and affective but these are also folks that could care less about there $2,000 chevy that they can find any thing they need at any scrap yard where as I have 15k in the (almost paid for) ST. Dont know if I trust this. John where did you get the SOA kit???

 

[Mike Mott]

ST looks awesome by the way John!!!

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

I like the SOA. Pictures of your truck I saw in a magazine was why I wanted to lift mine. I have done 1.25" TT, Warrior Products lift shackles and 265/70/16 Bridgestone's. Eventually when I pay the truck off or get closer to it I'm going to do a solid front axle conversion.

 

[John Johnstone]

Thanks guys! Most of my crazy mods were way before I was done paying for my ST. Wheewwww. Life is too short. Live it now. :banana:



Mike here is a posted I did about doing a SOA.

 

[John Johnstone]

In the picture above, I had fiberglass fenders front and rear. And those front fenders made it look like I had a lift up there.



BTW, the sun finally shined on me and I got some used Superlift 4" parts today. Yippee, finally a front suspension lift. I can't believe that it fell into my lap.

 

[Jerry Gerner 2]

did you get the superlift parts from chad? He had the lift with coilover conversion setup for sale.

 

[John Johnstone]

Nope, I got them from another Sport Trac owner here in Houston.