F-150 Prerunner Build Rips Through the Desert Sand
Dedicated enthusiast based his prerunner rig on an unlikely donor vehicle: a 2002 Ford F-150 SuperCrew Harley-Davidson edition.
What comes to mind when you think of a Ford off-road truck? The first one that pops into your head is probably a Raptor. Or you might picture an F-150 with the FX4 suspension package. You probably don’t think of a Harley-Davidson edition. But that’s exactly what one passionate off-roader used as the starting point for his sand-blasting prerunner build.
James Holguin from the YouTube channel Terra Crew recently got an up-close look at the unusual rig. It belongs to a man named Dustin Boost. He works in the property management industry, but he’s found enough time to turn his 2002 F-150 SuperCrew Harley-Davidson edition into a serious off-road machine – seven years, to be exact. Over the course of that time, Boost has changed pretty much everything on his truck except the door skins. The front wheels had to be pushed forward roughly three to four inches. They sit under a huge fiberglass hood that covers a supercharged 5.4-liter V8 from an SVT Lightning. No LS swap here. Instead of going with an aftermarket grille, Boost kept his truck’s original grille and headlights. “I kind of wanted to stay with that so you could tell it’s a Harley.”
There’s even more flared fiberglass on the back end. Believe it or not, Boost’s truck is street legal, so he made sure that it offers some sort of external storage. The fuel cell sits right behind the cab; under the massive spare tire there’s a sort of trunk that holds a jack and tool kit and provides some measure of cargo capacity.
To make sure it can handle extreme conditions, Boost equipped his prerunner with a variety of hardware upgrades. It rides on coilovers that provide almost 20 inches of front suspension travel and 24 inches of travel in the rear. According to Boost, “It’s about as good as it gets without sticking the shocks in the cab.” Of course, he swapped out the stock wheels and tires, too. Boost’s truck gets across the desert on 39-inch rubber. As Boost puts it, “They float on top of the sand a lot better than the 37-inch … all-terrains I had.”
Sand and saltwater can take a heavy toll on a vehicle. To make sure his rig lasts, Boost had the entire chassis and other vulnerable components coated in protective sprays that will help them survive the harsh elements they’ll be subjected to.
Even though Boost’s prerunner hasn’t been painted so that all of its panels match, it looks like a badass machine. It looks even better once he starts slinging and sliding it through the sands of Central California. The faster he goes, the more blower whine we get to hear and the more grit we get to see him fling up.
Boost may have picked an odd starting point, but he’s definitely taken his F-150 prerunner to an impressive level. He’s not done yet, though. In addition to paint, he says his truck needs some steering upgrades. A more robust powertrain and potent engine are also on his mind. He echoes the sentiment of countless project vehicle owners when he says, “It really never ends.”
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