During Hurricane Katrina, I was thanking my lucky stars that I had all terrains and a LSD on my Dodge Dakota. I had to do some serious offroading to get to my mother's house and to my dad's house. At one point I drove through an area where a road once was and there was nothing but water and sand. It was like quicksand. Luckily the AT's dug down until they bit hard and launched the truck back to moving. With that said, it was only a 2wd truck. I am not looking to go rock climbing or anything, maybe just a little off roading for fun. Most importantly, in case of emergency I want to be capable going through some rough stuff. The first thing I will be doing is ditching the stock Conti's for some AT's. I had the 3.55 LSD in my ford and my Dakota had 3.55 LSD as well. The dodge LSD seems to work very well, can anyone comment on the Ford version? I've never been in any tricky stuff with the ford and with the highway tires I can't really comment on off road traction. If it sucks I would consider installing a locker. If you were going to outfit a 2wd for occasional off road use, what upgrades would you get (ex: locker, lift) and what other items would you keep in the truck (ex: come-along, ****** strap, high lift)?

By the way, I have gotten stuck twice in my Ford. Once on basically wet grass. I could not go forward because of a tree and I had to backup slightly uphill. I couldn't get the weight down in the rear to get any traction. I didn't really have to because I was at someone's house with a 4x4 and he pulled my out right away. It kinda sucked. The second time I got stuck in some really sloppy **** way out with no one to pull me out. I had a friend and we dug out and I was able to get out with a little skill. Both of these times I blame completely on the tires. These conti's might as well be drag slicks if you get in the mud. Just a little background info.

 

why not just get a 4x4? i mean if your going to do all those mods you shoulda just paid the few extra grand and been done with it. even if you seldom use it, its those times you do you'll be thankful.

 

Do not "depend", ever, on your Ford LSD and you'll be fine.

 

x2

 

We all know what happens when you do that.

That Hummer was still freaking bad ***.

 

Ok so far, we have don't depend on the stock LSD. I'll take note of that. I don't need 4x4 as I just explained. Given the situations that I just stated there isn't any reason you could get through in a properly equiped 4x2. Most people have to go and seek out situations to get their 4x4 stuck. I am not trying to do that. I just want some info on the stock LSD and some insight as to what you would do to make a 2wd truck more capable in asphault free situations. I'm not looking to go bogging maybe an occasionally open trail ride. Besides, I've been mudriding in a FWD 86 cutlass ciera.

Also, for you to say why don't I go and get a 4x4 is like me asking you why don't you have rear lockers, front LSD, straight axle conversion and go rock climbing. You are obviously doing more things to make your 4wd more capable to do things that it can't or wasn't inteded to do in stock trim. That is all I am talking about doing with my 2wd. I'm not going to enter the local mudbog, just looking for some creative or insightful answers.

 

Chris lol. The LSD had nothing to do with shattering a pulley so I wonder if I'm just killing the joke. Low tire pressure, is practically locked front and rear (torsens), has a very low center of gravity with a large contact surface (come stock with large tires), a torquey diesel and a lot of weight. The H1 was a workhorse and I'll agree with you there.

Good response cskrmetti.

 

well to each his own. but your asking for help sooo. you could get a locker and some fairly aggressive a/ts. i would probably go with m/ts. I hardly ever have to use 4wd but I like the assurance it gives me. I don't have the lsd so I can't tell you too much about it, but from what I have read it isn't anything great... if you don't want to spend too much money you can get a leveling kit and get some 4x4 lift blocks. I think they are like 2" I would invest in some tow hooks for the front aswell if you don't have them. they aren't too expensive. you can cut the holes out in the front valence or you can buy a 4x4 valence. if you don't have a hitch you can get a hitch that way you can slide a hook attachment in. so you have a point to be pulled out from. make sure you get those otherwise you have to get dirty and crawl in the mud. i would buy some tow straps and a d ring or too. maybe even a toolbox to store it all in.

 

I'm thinking tow hooks in the front and some aggressive AT's are the first bit of plans. Like I said, I am not trying to make a mud machine. I just want to be able to go through dirt, sand, and some general light stuff when needed.

Trevino, you don't have limited slip? I know you say you don't use 4x4 that often but if you have an open dif. in the rear you are really VERY limited in your off road ability. Although you have the 4wd drive option you must have an open dif up there as well. That means when the **** hits the fan, you only have one drive wheel up front and one in the rear. That is not good at all. If you had a locker in the rear you have two wheels going at all times and if you had a LSD up front you would have two going there when you needed it. You probably already know this, but I'm stating it anyway. I'm thinking that the Ford LSD might not be that good so I might upgrade there. A good LSD or locker is a must on any vehicle that has a lot of power regardless it is a 2wd, 4wd, car, truck, van, or sport ute. It will keep you from doing pegleg burnouts too. IMO a locker is a must in the rear regardless. If I had a 4wd I would want LSD up front at the min, or a manual/electronic /air locker.

You would be suprised how few times you will have to kick in 4wd when you have a locker.

I'm not really that set on a lift. I would be, if I could find one with full adjustablility. As in the ability to lower down at highway speeds and to raise it up offroad on in traffic when checking out the hot chick in the convertable next to me at a red light!

 

HAHA!!!

You think that's funny?! I mudrode in a 1998 Ford Windstar with snow tires and never got stuck.... the rearend did some pretty funny stuff... being that it was 'taken for a ride' and it was front wheel drive! What's the funny part was that it was my Dad's van, and I cleaned it up so well that he didn't even know I did anything unusual to it. Till he took it in for service and they told him he needed like $800 in repairs, and they found that the entire underbody was cased in mud! They put it on the lift and my dad examined it, and guess who got an angry phone call... LOL

This was like 3 years ago... and what's even funnier is that they just built a house where I took it mudbogging...

 

That cutlass saw more mud in its day than my F150 has. First car and all. In fact, one of the reasons that I didn't buy a 4x4 is that I knew I would take it off road a lot and probably break something. It would have definately got some damage. That is why I opted for the 2wd instead. I'm pretty positive that I will go with 33's sometime in the near future. I had General Grabber AT2's. Very similar to a BFG AT pattern. I'm not sure what I will go with this time. There are some nice **** Cepek AT's out there. They are really more MT than AT. The Nitto Terra's don't look aggressive enough so I'm not sure yet. I don't want a super aggressive tire so AT is the only way for me. I do want the most aggressive AT I can find though.

 

Yeah I know, I meant to add the lsd when I changed the gears but I couldn't afford it. To be perfectly honest I only had to use 4wd once maybe twice. In the mud. You really don't need 4wd. I use it to get me out of trouble not to get me into it.

 

Ok, most people have some good suggestions. My $.02; i'd start just where you are heading with the A/T tires. Make sure you get an A/T that will perform well on-road in wet weather. For example, the BFG All-Terrain K/O is absolutely horrible in a heavy downpoor on paved roads due to it's absence of any lateral "water" channels in it's tread design. Being that you're on the coast like me, you're going to have that situation regularly. I've had them on my truck and I could actually feel the truck hydroplaning several times.

If you want to get more traction through the driveline, then you will probably want to look at a electric or pneumatic locker that you can engage when put in those situations. My LSD worked great for the first 40K miles, but now that i'm at 80K, I can tell it's performance is nill. I'm sure I need to change the rear end fluid and replace with fresh "Friction Modifier" to bring the LSD back to health.

I think you'll find you are correct in that replacing your stock tires with an Aggresive A/T will help you the most right now. Of course, if you're going to be cruising through deep sand, all the traction at the rear won't do you any good without having 4WD....

 

Personally, I am going to suggest this route:

1) get some moderate AT tires and see what that does for you.
2) a true air or electric locker is going to be your next best step.
With an manually actuated locker, you are going to have an open diff until you engage the mechanisim. Then you will have a full spool. Two opposite ends of the traction spectrum. The open may affect your poor weather traction and I dont think you will want to drive with a spooled rear in the rain. Might get a little hairy around the turns.

I am about in your boat. I bought a 4x4 for exactly the reasons you said. I doubt I'll ever need it, but it is my vehicle of choice for hurricane evacuations or just roaming the streets in search of supplys after a natural disaster. If I ever lift or modify the suspension in anyway, it will probably be for looks.

One thing that you need to keep in mind is that a new F150 is not a dakota. The F150 has a serious frame underneath and that means weight. If evertything else was equal, the F150 would get stuck easier than a lighter truck in most conditions. There are going to be some situations where the heavier vehicle will have more traction, but for the most part the lighter vehicle will make it out of situations easier.

In other words, I second what sackett says.

 

I was in the same boat as you, I didnt need 4wd(we dont get any snow and I live in the city) so I'd be paying for something I'd never use. However, I did want to make sure that if the situation arised, I would be able to handle some mudd or snow if need be. I have the 3.73LS rear end and added some 265/70/17 Bridgestone A/T Revos. They are quiet and were pretty capable in snow(went up to northern OH).

Be warned though, these trucks are extremely heavy, be very careful in any type of sand.