• Bucket List Item “Trip to Detroit Auto Show” – CHECK!

  Jan 30th 2014

  By: Frank

  No comments

  So where exactly did those last 2 weeks go? Boy, I’ve been busy around here but I’m finally able to get around to the report on NAIAS I promised you.

  For those who may not know me or been following my blog, there’s something you should know about me, Humble Rise best cbd oil.  I LOVE FORD.  That’s right, I’ll lay that down right now, I bleed blue.  I was brought home as a baby in a 1967 Ford Mustang, my oldest daughter came home from the hospital in a 2001 Ford F-150 and my youngest daughter in a 2007 Ford Explorer Sport-Trac.  This is a Ford family.  Knowing that, you can imagine that there are a few things in life that as a Ford fan, one would like a chance to see but sometimes it’s just hard to make happen.  One of those bucket list items has been to go to the famous Detroit Auto Show (also known as NAIAS, the North American International Auto Show) and visit some Ford stomping grounds.  We’ll get back to that in a bit, let’s just say that I had to make sure my car was looking awesome for this trip, I’m so grateful I got to work with some of the best companies in the automotive industry, like the one at https://www.autoglassguru.com/.

  I try to stay active and keep up on what’s happening in the world of Ford and one of those ways is through social media.  Ford’s been running a campaign called “We Own Work” recently and it’s aimed straight at the truck enthusiast crowd like me.  One component of the campaign is Ford owners showing off their pride and joy by creating a card with their truck’s pic and details.  Given it’s driven by the community, people vote monthly on their favorite truck and the top winners get a nice gift from the folks at Ford.  I was fortunate enough to be one of those lucky winners a few months ago and get a killer t-shirt and custom embroidered jacket to boot. Pretty righteous I thought. Have you Ford truck owners entered your truck?  As you are about to find out…there are plenty of reasons to do so, and it’s not just free schwag.

  Fast forward to early December. I receive an email that I thought FOR SURE had to be bogus.  Someone trying to tell me that based on my participation on the Ford Social site, Ford wanted to fly me and a guest out to the Detroit Auto Show, all expenses paid.  Yeah right.  I’m a skeptic by nature, so I wasn’t sure what to believe. I was soooooo hoping deep inside that this was real, that I started doing my geek thing and checking email headers, tracing IP addresses, looking at trace routes, DNS and such…and wouldn’t you know it, they all checked out and went where the guy in the email said he was from, Team Detroit.  For those that don’t know, this is the ad agency that handles a lot of campaigns for Ford such as the We Own Work and many more.  At that point, I was dying a little inside and praying this would be real.  I made the call, and a human answered.  Good sign right?  I meet this nice chap by the name of Cole.  Immediately my brain associates him with Cole Trickle, which one of you racing fans knows where that name comes from?  🙂  So we proceeded to have a nice conversation and confirm that this was no joke.  I simply couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Before long, I was in touch with the coordinators of the event from Ford and had to give them my details, including who was going with me.

  So most folks think the natural choice would be my wife.  You’d be wrong…she’s not hard core about cars like I am and she wasn’t at all interested in going.  I had to choose from all of my good friends which would really not only appreciate this kind of event, but one for whom this was also a bucket list item.  The list was short, but I knew it had to be one buddy in particular, Kevin.  He is also my service manager at Bickford Ford and you could say lives, breathes and eats Ford. He’s also a fellow blogger at Final Point Logic so he was a natural for the event. This was poised to be an epic trip and one we would both remember for ever.

  Upon arrival in Detroit, I immediately thought we had been diverted and landed on an alien planet.  As we were coming in, all I saw from above were frozen lakes and snow.  What the heck was that? We don’t have that in Seattle! An entire lake frozen over? Nonsense.  And upon looking at my phone, I see we are in some place called Romulus.  ROMULUS?  WTF!!! I was waiting for Klingons to appear at any moment. As I exited the plane with a raised eyebrow, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Now, I’ve never been to Detroit, and of course, we all hear the stories about it (not necessarily the good kind).  What I saw was one of the most modern looking and fantastic airport terminals I’ve ever been in.  Complete with a Delta monorail from one end to the other!  The hotel for the venue, the Westin, was also actually IN the terminal, complete with it’s own TSA security checkpoint for maximum convenience in departing the airport.  Pretty darn snazzy if I do say so myself.  The folks at Ford know how to host an event. I’ve been to more conferences than I care to and Ford had the check-in process down pat.  Very smooth and expeditious. We were greeted by cheerful faces and given our credentials and some pretty nifty swag.  Things were already looking up.

  

  Kevin and I then dropped our gear off in our rooms and grabbed a quick lunch with the rest of the Ford bloggers and had a little down time to relax.  Dinner that evening was a hoot.  The gang of over 120 bloggers from over 41 countries was all in the room and socializing.  I think the open bar and endless flow of booze provided a nice way to break the ice and meet new friends. Before dinner, Ford’s social media grand poobah, Scott Monty kicked things off and we were treated to “the Moth Storytelling Presentation” which was pretty neat. Dinner followed with desert and more socializing before calling it a night.  Monday morning would come early and would make for one heck of a long day.

  Captains Log – Monday, January 13, 2014: The day started off promptly with breakfast at 0530hrs. Damnit, I haven’t been up at this early hour of the morning since boot camp.  Ok, well…I got up earlier to catch the flight to Detroit, but this better not become a habit.  We gathered for chow in the lobby with the rest of the Ford Bloggeratti and loaded up on buses for Joe Louis Arena and were rolling by 0645hrs.  Now I’ve lived and driven in some traffic nightmare cities but Detroit was putting a whole new meaning to wacky drivers that morning.

  We must have had no less than half a dozen cars dive-bomb our bus and literally just not give a hoot that there was a BUS in their way, all of this on icy roads no less.  This is when I thank God I work from home, not sure how folks handle those kinds of commutes.

  We arrive at the arena just in time to make our way to the Ford F-150 Press Conference.  And boy was that impressive!  I usually go to tech geek conferences where the reveal is a gadget, this was something special though.  To see when they revealed the new 2015 Ford F-150 and those trucks came busting through the walls, that was simply put…AWESOME!  Immediately following the press conference we were able to make our way down to the floor and get some hands-on time with the trucks.  It was a mad house. People were all over it, the arena was electrified with buzz and activity, all wanting to get a piece of that new F-150 action.  Upon closer examination of the truck, it’s no wonder what all the buzz was about.  The truck was simply amazing.  I own a 2011 F-150 EcoBoost as many of you may know, and I honestly thought that would be the last truck I bought for a very long time.  I have to tell you, I’m looking at that upgrade already.  What a phenomenal piece of automotive goodness this truck will be.  Many of the things I have wished would have been done have been addressed.  I won’t cover all the details here, you can find that all over the web and some of the details have yet to be revealed by the fast roadside assistance in Louisville, KY, such as the improved towing numbers.  For me, that’s a big one.  I tow a travel trailer that’s over 10,000 pounds and have zero problems, but sometimes wish I had a little more of a safety net and not so close to the limits.  This could very well be the answer.  Only one item that I can think of wasn’t addressed, which I personally would love to see improved in a dramatic way, and that’s the SYNC system.  During the course of the day I actually had a chance to speak with Ford’s CEO, Alan Mulally, and ask him about the future of SYNC and mobile devices in our vehicles. he had some good things to say. You can see some of that in the video I’ve linked to below (click here for the full official story on Ford Social):

  The rest of the day was spent in a variety of Ford breakout sessions on everything from the Ford Design Process, to future trends, sustainability, automation and new product deep dives.  In what has to be one of the more memorable evenings in my life (as if the day wasn’t already epic enough), we were able to attend a very special session that evening with some of my favorite Ford racing drivers and legends both present day, and those that I have watched growing up as a kid.  I was able to personaly meet and spend time with the likes of Ned Jarrett, Dale Jarrett, John Force, Jamie Allison, Vaughn Gitten Jr., Brian Deegan, Greg Foutz and NASCAR Champion Brad Keselowski!!! To top that off we spent time with Hollywood celebs from the upcoming movie “Need For Speed” and watched a 20 minute preview of the film.  Dinner was fantastic, with another open bar and good times with new friends.

  https://goo.gl/photos/9bUD53CjerVEriA86

  Captains Log – Tuesday, January 14, 2014: Well, Monday had gone down as one of the most epic days of my life so I wasn’t sure how Ford could top that off in the half day we had remaining.  We got a bit of a break and breakfast started at 0630hrs that day before we were shuttled off to the Dearborn Inn. Interesting hotel with a ton of history. We were split up into two groups and went off to do our thing.  This morning we were put into groups and given certain vehicles to drive based on our personalities and interests.  I’ll give you one guess at what I drove?  You got it, a new 2014 F-150 EcoBoost.  Overall, a nice upgrade from mine as I have an FX4 and the one I drove was a Platinum.  But this was no ordinary test drive.  I was hoping we were going to do something on the test track, but to my pleasant surprise, got something even better.  We were given a route to navigate upon getting in our respective trucks.  It wasn’t until we were approaching the final destination when it hit us…we were at the Ford Rouge Factory where the F-150 and Raptor is made!!!  Being the geek that I am, I just happened to have my iPad with me where I had a copy of my window sticker.  A quick look revealed what I suspected, ROUGE was the plant where my F-150 was born!!! This was going to be a truly special day.  We proceeded to get a VIP tour of the plant with several Ford representatives that were there to answer our every question along the way.  We learned some amazing facts about not just Ford, but the factory and how eco-friendly it actually is.  People have this misconception about auto factories being these insane pollution plants and nothing could be further from the truth.

  A glimpse into the Ford Rouge Factory in Dearborn, MI:

  https://goo.gl/photos/Fc9GxP3fDrL25pxs6

  After getting the grand tour, we drove back to the Dearborn Inn for some additional breakout sessions. The first session was spectacular, I had chosen to attend The Design Process: Mustang from Concept to Final Product.  In this session I was able to meet the lead designer on the mustang, Kemal Curic, and learn about his vision and how the new Mustang came to life.  We were also fortunate enough to meet many of the other members of the design team and learn about every aspect of the design process.  As a User Experience Designer, this was fascinating to me.  It was a completely different world view of what I do applied to a different field.  Loved every minute of this session.  The guys from Stangtv.com were there with me and captured a great clip on the interior design process:

  And a few pics of the design session from my Google+ albums:https://goo.gl/photos/pJ3njF7vKpeua3mN8

  From there, my next session was on Big Data. This session dove into how data collected from products and customers becomes the catalyst for future design and planning.  Another one that as a computer geek working for the worlds largest database company, simply had me mesmerized.  It’s jaw dropping to see the amount of data flowing through Ford on a daily basis and how they are able to siphon out the important bits and be able to apply that data in the proper context.  Data for a guy like me is everything, it’s how we quantify what we do and know if our designs are making an impact and our users are getting what they want.  Overall an incredibly awesome day to top off an amazing 3 days. From there it was time to grab a quick lunch and head back to the airport and hotel.

  Here are some additional Ford highlight pics from the show:

  https://goo.gl/photos/v2mcXzr5AKsNYvXu7

  I can’t thank the folks at Team Detroit and Ford enough for this amazing opportunity. They made it possible to take at least one of my bucket list items off the list and for that I’m grateful. I hope I can be part of that group of bloggers again and be able to report back to you folks on all the cool future products coming out of Ford.  Hope you enjoyed the report.

  Frank

  Automotive

  Dearborn, Design, Detroit, Detroit Auto Show, F150, Factory, Ford, Ford Social, MI, Mustang, NAIAS, Rouge, Social, social media, We Own Work, WOW

• 2014 NAIAS Report Coming Soon…

  Jan 16th 2014

  By: Frank

  No comments

  

  Hey folks!  It’s been a long time…too long.  Life and work have just been going gangbusters leaving very little time for much blogging.  Truth be told, I’m more active on social media since RSS seems to be on it’s death bed.  You can find me on Google+ and Twitter these days if you would like to keep up on the day to day stuff. Yes, I said Google+…I find it to be significantly better as a social network than Facebook, including the way you connect with customers as a business.  More on that later…

  So I’ll kick off my 2014 posts with a little heads up on a post that will be coming soon.  I just returned from the 2014 NAIAS (Detroit Auto Show) and boy, what an experience that was.  In full disclosure, I was invited to participate with a very special group of bloggers by Ford Motor Company and Team Detroit, the agency who handles their Ford Social site.  I was there to see first hand the unveiling of the new 2015 Ford F-150 and boy, let me tell you, Ford did NOT disappoint.  Many of you have been following my IRONHIDE truck build and I have to tell you, the 2015 F-150 is something special.  I was also able to see some really neat stuff and get up to speed on a lot of the technology behind the scenes at Ford.  It was a trip I’ll never forget and one I hope to be able to attend and write about again.

  

  I’ll cover some of the neat things I was able to do and see while at the 2014 NAIAS with an obvious slant towards Ford products as that’s what I had the inside scoop on more than anything.  Besides, is there really any other truck you’d want to own out there? 🙂  Stay tuned gang, I’ll post up pics from the Ford events and some of the other highlights from the auto show.  Now back to compiling all that info and doing some editing…until next time.

  Frank

  Automotive

  F-150, Ford, NAIAS

• the Mint 400 Great American Off-Road Race

  Mar 28th 2012

  By: Frank

  No comments

  Hey folks, been busy around these parts as usual but I wanted to take a second to put up some pics from the Mint 400.  I made a quick road trip to the desert and back to put Ironhide through the paces and boy can this truck groove in the dirt.  Here’s the highlights from the 2012 General Tire Mint 400…

  If you are on an iPad or iPhone, click here:
  http://www.flickr.com//photos/bisonium/sets/72157629327032870/show/

  Ford F-150 Project Truck, Offroad, Racing

  Best In The Desert, BITD, General Tire, Madmedia, Mint 400

• Project Ironhide: Suspension, Part 2

  Feb 24th 2012

  By: Frank

  No comments
  

  Heading out on our CA Adventure

  Ahhh, the long awaited follow-up to part 1 is finally here. Lets just dive right in. The rear suspension…man, was this a disappointment. I simply didn’t account for the weight I typically carry back there which is usually at least a good 500+ pounds. As I mentioned in the previous post, this left me with no option but to add 3″ blocks to bring the rear up until I figured out what to do. I looked at several options, one of them being replacing the rear shocks with some long-travel ones. Although this approach would work just fine, I still had the concern with the weight and if the shocks would blow-out over time. In order to do it right, I really needed to beef up the rear springs. A good friend of mine had just recently purchased a Ford Raptor and while going over my dilemma, he suggested I have a chat with some folks he knew. I left my last post talking about some new friends in CA, the folks I’m referring to is Raptor Performance Group (RPG).

  I first spoke with the lead engineer at RPG. He’s one heck of a cool dude.  I discussed my problem with him and he had some suggestions on how to not only solve my problem, but improve the performance and ride qualities at the same time.  The first recommendation was to replace the factory leaf springs.  RPG has worked with National Springs (down in the San Diego area) to co-develop a leaf spring for the F-150 that can not only handle the kind of load I carry, but to give owners a truly progressive spring that makes the truck ride like an entirely new vehicle. These leafs come in a Standard Duty (SD) version for folks that don’t require the load capability I need, as well as the Heavy Duty (HD) version for guys like me.  My springs were tuned to carry a constant load of about 700 pounds while still providing a kick-ass ride and bringing the rear end of the truck up to level without the use of the blocks.  Sounded like a plan to me.  Then he had to go open his mouth about this “Stage 3 Kit” that he has for the Raptor.  The Stage 3 Kit is basically made up of a frame support, Fox 2.5″ Air Bumps and the National Springs leafs.  Now up to this point I had heard of frames on Raptor being bent by guys in the desert going all Rambo over some big ass whoops, but I figured that was a Raptor.  Why would I possibly need such a thing on an F-150?  Well friends, lets hold that thought for a few and I’ll come back to that.  The next thing were these air bumps.  WTF is that you ask?  Good question, I didn’t have a clue either since I haven’t been a huge off road fan until now.  Basically, in a nutshell, these air bumps replace the stock piece of rubber that keeps the axle from plowing through your frame when your suspension compresses.  By utilizing these air bumps, you replace those OEM rubber bump stops and can eliminate running a stiffer shock and provide much better bottom-out control, which helps maximize your suspensions travel.  Sounded pretty good to me.  So now what?

  Lucky for me I had just recently planned a holiday vacation to southern CA to take the wife and kids down to Disney Land.  Flying is just stupid these days and not wanting to get groped by the TSA, I figured I may as well make a killer road trip out of it and take the girls on an adventure.  It also gave me a good opportunity to test the “Eco” in the EcoBoost and see what kind of real fuel economy I would get with the big meats I had just put on the truck.  More on that later.  I told the guys from RPG that I would be in town during the break and they offered to meet me at my hotel, pick up the truck to do the install and drop it back off.  I thought, DAMN…now THAT is customer service!  Sure enough, the day came that I expected them and there they were, ready to transform the beast.  I looked at them with a raised eyebrow knowing this is my BABY and I am handing over to the keys to complete strangers.  Hell, my WIFE hasn’t even driven Ironhide!  But something told me these guys were legit and I was in good hands.  Secretly I was jonsing and having a complete internal meltdown because I really just wanted to be there with the guys doing the install and taking pics or helping wrench on the rig.  But daddy duties came first and I had to take the girls to see Mickey.  This was going to be one hell of a long day I tell you.

  So as I watched Ironhide drive off into the distance, I sat there thinking…”Damn thats a good looking rig.  I hope it comes back…”  😛  No – but seriously, I was going out of my mind wondering what the kit would do to the truck when they were done.  As I’m sitting there at Disney in line for Space Mountain, the first of a bunch of pics from RPG start coming in on my iPhone.  There go the tires, then little by little I see parts of my rig on jacks, on the floor, I’m just thinking…”holy crap”.  Then they start sending the good stuff and I practically start hyperventilating.  It took all I had not to look like an idiot, but I’m sure people were wondering why I was sitting on a ride at Disney staring at my iPhone with a shit-eating-grin on my face.

  

  Stock springs (with AAL) vs. National HD's

  So what seemed like the longest day EVAAAARRRRRRR finally comes to a close around dinner time, the girls were wiped out so we decided to go back to the hotel.  The guys from RPG were already on their way to bring back Ironhide.  I met the guys back at the hotel and decided we’d all go to dinner.  Before we could even get out of the hotel parking lot, they start telling me ok…turn here.  I knew damn well the BBQ joint wasn’t in that direction but they had something else in mind.  We get on I-5 heading south to where they know are some NASTY bumps in the highway that I had previously driven through and just about knocked the fillings out of my teeth.  Right when I braced for impact and white-knuckled the steering wheel, I felt like we were floating on marshmallows and the ass end of my truck is just cruising over these bumps like nobody’s business.  I just looked over at these guys with a gaping wide jaw slammed to the cab floor of the truck and they just sat there smiling.  They knew they had me.  I just simply couldn’t believe what a transformation a set of springs could do to this truck.  Not only did I have the normal gear I carry in the back, I also had the old springs in the back adding a couple hundred MORE pounds, PLUS two more full grown dudes in the cab. MONEY baby…it was MONEY.  Or as Jarrett likes to say…”it was LEGIT.”  So that was the first part of the demo.  Then we hit a couple of other areas where I could really squash the suspension.  As we hit that, I hear the bumps getting slammed.  I had no idea what it was and Corey says…there they go, now I knew what the air bumps sounded like as the axle was plowing through the rear on it’s way to hit the frame.  Although I couldn’t SEE the bumps in action, I somehow had a MUCH higher level of comfort now knowing those were there.  The truck is now just simply…A BEAST.

  So as we get to the BBQ joint and we are outside looking at my rig, that’s when Corey says, so I have a little bit of bad news for ya.  I thought, uh oh.  That’s not exactly what anyone wants to hear in this kind of situation.  Corey proceeds to tell me that my frame was bent about 1/4″.  I looked at him like “Huh?”  Turns out that it’s not too hard to bend these frames under the right conditions. Jumping it is of course one of those (which I had not done), but in my particular case it was something as simple as hitting a speed bump too hard while carrying a lot of weight in the back. It’s that simple folks.  That’s where the Frame Brace comes into play.  While mounting the brace there is a section of the brace that comes in contact with the frame and if your frame is bent even the slightest, you’ll be able to see daylight through that section.   Measure the daylight, that’s how much your frame is bent.  Thankfully, by adding the RPG brace to the frame, not only do I not have to worry about the bent issue, it will now protect my frame from ever bending again.  This is yet more peace of mind that I’m protecting my investment and won’t do anything to the rig that will tweak the frame while I’m out in the middle of nowhere.  There are a couple of great write-ups on the Ford Raptor Forums that go into even more detail about the RPG Stage 3 that are worth taking a look at: http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f5/rpgs-stage-2-kit-rear-frame-support-fox-air-bumps-10553/

  

  Goodbye CA... 🙁

  I can tell you without reservation that this has made the most AMAZING difference in the ride of my truck.  If you’ve ever had your teeth just about rattled out of your jaw when cruising in the right lane of a highway that’s real bumpy, you know what I mean.  Going over some whoops is a reality with this suspension.  Being able to get rid of the blocks also made it much safer.  So I’m feeling pretty good with the truck and suspension overall.  Next month I’m planning to head down to Vegas for the Mint 400 and hoping to meet up with the RPG crew down there.  Jarrett has already told me to “lighten up the truck” and take out everything I don’t need.  I think he has plans for Ironhide to meet the desert and catch some air.  🙂  I’ve also been given a heads up that they are working on some additional “upgrades” for the F-150 and my wallet is already sweating the thought of what these guys are up to.  If I had to pick one item I want to upgrade next would be the rear shocks.  Although I’m doing quite ok with the Fox 2.5″ Piggy Back Shox, what I really want are some 3.0″ long-travel bypass shocks. I’m pretty confident that moving up to the long-travel shocks would complete the rear end of the truck.  I’m thinking for the front end, some nice new tie-rods might be in order as well.  RPG has an amazing set of products that just absolutely kill the competition if you ask me.  I’m looking forward to establishing a long-term relationship with these guys.  I’m a pretty happy customer and that’s not an easy thing considering how picky I am.  And so my California Adventure comes to an end and back to WA state we went.  I have to say, I really fell in love with the Orange County area of CA.  I miss it quite a bit and look forward to getting back there on another trip and having RPG add some more beefy parts to my rig.  Thanks a million to Corey and Jarrett for completing an awesome adventure for me.  Until next time…keep the antenna side up!

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Automotive, Ford F-150 Project Truck

  Air Bumps, Bickford, Bump Stop, Camburg, Ecoboost, F150, Ford, Fox, FX4, Ironhide, Leaf Springs, National Springs, PA, Raptor Performance Group, RPG, Stage 3, SuperCrew, Suspension, Truck, WA

• IRONHIDE Photo Update

  Feb 6th 2012

  By: Frank

  No comments

  [AFG_gallery id=’1′]

  Automotive, Ford F-150 Project Truck

  A.R.E., Air Bumps, Antenna, ARE, Bickford, Black, Budget, Bump Stop, Camburg, Camper, Canopy, Canopy West, Cargo Box, Cargo Rack, CB, Cobra, Ecoboost, Everett, Exhaust, F150, Firestik, Flat, Ford, Fox, FX4, HALO, Headlights, Ironhide, Leaf Springs, LED, Lights, MegaWarrior, Mod, National Springs, NGP, PA, Projector Beam, Raptor Performance Group, RECON, RPG, Shell, Speaker, Stage 3, SuperCrew, Suspension, Tip, Topper, Toyo, Truck, WA, Yakima, Z Series

• Project Ironhide: Suspension, Part 1

  Jan 3rd 2012

  By: Frank

  No comments

  Hey…look at that, it’s 2012.  Happy New Year! It was a crazy and wild ride coming into the tail end of 2011 and between work and life in general, I fell behind updating the blog on Project Ironhide, so lets kick off 2012 with an update to what a lot of you have been waiting on…the suspension.  One of my requirements for this project was that I be able to take this rig off road into just about any conditions I could encounter here in WA and the western half of the US.  I want this rig to be able to handle Snow, Mud, Sand or river rock and do it with ease.  As good as the Ford FX4’s stock suspension that I purchased from Pedders, it is a stock factory configuration and we all know that anything stock can be improved upon.  One thing I did NOT want to do, however, was lift the truck using conventional lift kits.  I know there’s a lot of debate and opinions about this, but the bottom line is that when you lift a truck, you change the geometry of the suspension and how things were designed to work.  No matter how good the lift kit, at some point, components WILL fail (but that is the price you pay to play and any responsible truck enthusiast should know and understand that).  There are also center of gravity issues and just a host of problems I didn’t want to deal with on a new truck (like my wife and kids needing a ladder to get into the rig).  So how do I get the clearance required to get big meats under the truck and improve the ride quality at the same time?  After exhaustive research on the best way to do this, I decided to go with the Camburg 4WD Performance Kit. Camburg’s kit is absolutely amazing.  This kit allows you to add up to 3 inches of lift and over 40% more wheel travel over the stock F-150, bringing it almost in-line with the travel of a Raptor. The Upper A-Arms alone are just night and day from the stock A-Arms.  Comparing them side by side, there’s no doubt you will see the quality and beefiness of these UA’s.

  

  The Camburg kit also includes Fox Racing 2.5″ Long-travel Coil-overs in the front and a set of 2.5″ Piggy Back’s in the rear.  These are OEM bolt-on replacement parts so there is no special machining, welding or modifying of anything to get these on your rig.  That being said, they are exactly what I just said, OEM replacements and that means that if your application goes above and beyond the factory application, you might be in for a surprise like I so rudely discovered.

  My rig is carrying more weight than a typical user might carry.  I’ve got the ARE canopy on the bed, several hundred pounds of SAR and recovery gear in the bed, and a hitch-gate with full-sized spare hanging off the rear of the truck.  This added weight wasn’t designed for the stock OEM suspension and once everything was in place, the rear end was drooping pretty bad.  Now some folks like that CA Ridin’ Dirty look, but I prefer mine level.  If I take out too much of the pre-load on the front coil-overs. I’m not going to clear the 33.6″ Toyo Open Country M/T meats on the front, so how do we raise the ass-end of this rig?  I knew the answer, but wasn’t in any position at the time to do something about it as I needed a way to drive this rig home.  My mechanic, Buff, at Bickford Ford is a rock star.  He had a set of add-a-leaf’s in the back which we thought might do the trick.  After installing them, believe it or not…we were still ridin’ dirty.  So at this point there was really only one thing to do, which is what I was trying to avoid at all costs…blocks.  We threw in a set of 3″ blocks and sure enough, it did the trick.  But at what cost?  Now I have a real problem.  The Fox shocks for the rear are not long-travel shocks and I just tore 3″ of travel out of them with those blocks.  To say I wasn’t a happy camper was an understatement.  But this is the price you pay when building a customized rig…you live and learn.  So I’ve got 2 options…beef up the leaf springs in the rear and/or get some long-travel shocks like a set of take-off OEM Raptor shocks.  Anyone seen what those cost these days?  Sweet mother of…

  So for the time-being, this is a temporary fix until we do things right.  As for the tires, You’ll see in some of the pics a set of chrome wheels with some 35’s wrapped around them.  As much as I wanted to fit those in there, there simply isn’t enough room without going full-on lift kit.  I could possibly trim an insane amount from the front valance, but that really isn’t the right way to do things so I downsized the tires to just a hair below 34’s (LT275/70R18 or 33/11.0) which is what you’ll see on the black wheels (Fuel Offroad “Gauge” Wheels in 18×9 with a 4.5″ Backspace & -.20 offset).

  I’m going to leave you with some pics of the install and you can take a look at the results.  It looks great, but I’m not about to take this off road anytime soon until I get things done right (just to be safe).  And that’s where part 2 of this series comes in.  In part 2 I’m going to cover how I solved the block and shock problem in the rear, and I’m also going to show you something that nobody in the F-150 community has seen before.  Trust me when I tell you, this is going to blow you guys away.  I’ve got some new friends in California that know a thing or two about Ford Raptors and Baja 1000 trophy trucks that have some incredible new stuff coming out for the Raptor, that just happens to work for the F-150 too. You’re going to dig this, and you’re going to want this…stay tuned…

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Automotive, Ford F-150 Project Truck

  Bickford, Camburg, F150, Ford, Fox, FX4, Ironhide, Suspension, Toyo, Truck

• Project Ironhide: Budget Mod…Painting Exhaust and Tip Flat Black…

  Nov 5th 2011

  By: Frank

  No comments

  Here’s a quick and easy mod for anyone.  I have been wanting to get one of those RBP black exhaust tips since I got the truck.  I have debated this endlessly.  Is an exhaust tip really worth almost $200?  I simply can’t justify that for something that doesn’t do anything other than give a pipe a nicer look.  So I went down to the local auto parts store and decided to make my own, in my garage I have stored some classic Mustang parts, at one time I owned a mustang. I bought a 4.5″ chrome tip and some VHT (Very High Temp) flat black spray paint.  I had some fine grit sandpaper at home and was good to go.  I started by giving the nice new chrome tip a good scuffing to allow the paint to stick to it better.  After a good wipe-down, I started painting the exhaust tip with nice even strokes and light coats.  This paint dries pretty fast and with an hour I had laid down a good 3 layers of paint and the tip was done.

  Well, a nice flat black tip does you no good with an ugly stainless steel exhaust pipe.  That had to be fixed as well.  After some taping and masking of the surrounding areas, I followed the same process and gave the exhaust pipe a good base of flat black.  Once everything had dried, I ran the truck for a bit to cure the paint on the pipes.  Once it cooled off, I installed the tip and repeated the process letting the paint cure a bit more.  That’s it!  Pretty easy and it looks 100% better.  Check out the pics below…

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Automotive, Ford F-150 Project Truck

• Project Ironhide: A.R.E. Z-series Canopy and Yakima Rack/Cargo Box Install

  Nov 5th 2011

  By: Frank

  No comments

  One of the requirements for my project truck was being able to carry a lot of my Search and Rescue gear as well as other gear for fishing, camping, or any number of other activities I plan to do with the truck.  I also wanted a canopy which could serve as a solid shelter in the event I have to spend the night out somewhere unexpectedly.  As I started doing my homework, I narrowed down the list of canopies to 3 manufacturers.  I did a ton of research on the internet, then went to some local dealers and finally settled on the A.R.E. Z-series.  I loved the look of the canopy with the nice lines that blended in with the bed of the truck, the frameless windows for a clean look, and the interior carpeting which matched my BedRug perfectly.  My local A.R.E. dealer, Canopy West in Everett, WA, was absolutely fantastic to work with (and is a primary reason why I also chose to go with one of their products).  I spent a good amount of time chatting with Mike, the GM,  and he took me through all of my options before I settled on the A.R.E.  I looked at every single element of these canopies and after comparing all of them, the A.R.E. had me sold primarily due to the quality of the hardware components (one look at the hinges on the rear window and you will know exactly what I mean), the clean look on the rear window (no visible hardware other than the locking latch), and overall quality of the paint job (which turned out to match PERFECTLY with my truck).  Mike was a huge help in showing me the infinite number of options and how I could configure the canopy to best suit my needs.

  When I ordered the canopy, I chose a few options that made a lot of sense to me.  First, the rear sliding glass window that sits up against the cab of the truck.  There are a number of options here, but I definitely wanted a sliding window since I had one on the truck, and I really like the fact you could choose to have it swing down in order to make cleaning of both windows easier.  That has come in super handy.  Another option was the interior 12V LED light.  This one is definitely a must have, but I have to say…it’s not as bright as I had hoped.  This is a large canopy and the small LED light just simply doesn’t do it any justice. Luckily this is pretty easily remedied with some additional LED lighting options that are out on the market. I also chose to have Mike mount up a clothes hanger and fishing rod carrier.  These options are absolutely great for when I go out fishing.  Last, but certainly not least, the Yakima rack and Megawarrior cargo basket.  Getting the rack installed by the factory is an absolute MUST.  This is not a trivial installation once the canopy leaves the factory.  When the canopy arrived, I had no worries about drilling into a new canopy and possibly misaligning the rack holes.  This is done on a large jig at the factory for precise alignment and I couldn’t be happier with my decision.

  On installation day, I was amazed at how these canopies are installed.  Before I had arrived, the cargo box had already been mounted to the rack to make things easier on the installation.  I had also opted for the shovel/axe brackets on each side of the basket which were also already mounted.  Mike’s tech, Jason, has clearly done this a million times.  The canopy was loaded up on a forklift and prepped for the install with the proper weather seals and wiring go here to check it out.  Before I knew it, Jason was sliding that canopy on the to bed of the truck while Mike guided him in.  Once the canopy was in place, the wiring for the 12V LED was put in place and tapped into the main battery via a dedicated wire (not the tail lights).  There’s a slick little device that sits on the hydraulic arms to the rear window and it triggers the LED light when you open the window.  Once the canopy clamps were installed and clamped down, Jason hit the interior with the air gun and got it all nice and cleaned up for me.  It looked AWESOME.

  I’ve had the canopy now for a couple of months and have been out on some camping and fishing trips.  I seriously don’t know how I had lived without one of these on my previous trucks.  If you are debating on getting one of these, DON’T.  I couldn’t be happier with not only getting a canopy, but choosing the A.R.E. and buying it from Canopy West.  These guys are true pro’s at what they do and they know their stuff.  Do your homework, look at what’s out there and make sure you work with a reputable dealer in your area that will be there if anything goes wrong.  Here’s the pics from the install…

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Automotive, Ford F-150 Project Truck

• Project Ironhide: RECON Projector Beam HALO Headlights

  Oct 20th 2011

  By: Frank

  No comments

  Here’s another quick one for today.  Finally installed the RECON headlights.  There’s just not much to say about these other than they look AWESOME.  Installation took < 1 hour.  The headlights come in a HUGE box, individually packaged nicely with plenty of protection.  There’s some minor pre-wiring work to do, but pretty basic stuff.  To bolt them to the truck takes 3 bolts, that’s it.  You screw in the factory bulbs and you are up and running.  LOVE the new look…

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Automotive, Ford F-150 Project Truck

• Project Ironhide: CB Radio Install

  Oct 18th 2011

  By: Frank

  No comments

  Hey folks.  Been slammed here recently but I wanted to throw a quick update on the truck on here.  Finally got around to installing the CB Radio.  Pretty simple setup.  I’m using the Cobra 29LX with a 4ft. Firestik tunable antenna mounted with a HD Spring on the Firestik NGP Antenna Kit with a door jamb mount at the tailgate.  I ran the cable through the bed of the truck, along the side (underneath the bedbug).  At the back of the bed (behind the cab) there is a plastic drain plug and I routed the cable through there and came up underneath the cab of the truck (pax side).  Behind the rear door on the floor board there is a small rubber grommet/plug which you can use to route the cable into the cab.  I then ran the cabling under the carpet and pax seat to a small hole in the right rear section of the center console.  Through that hole you can poke the cable up into the center console, which is where I mounted the CB.  The CB doesn’t have an ideal location in these trucks and I didn’t want to drill into the console, so I improvised using some velcro with sticky backing (you can pick it up at any craft store) and it holds everything perfectly.  Once the antenna is in the console, you just need to solder the end connections in place and you are almost done.  For power, I used a cig. lighter plug with +/- leads straight to the power plug on the CB.  It’s got an inline fuse and makes the install way easier that running to the fuse box.  I also added a PA Speaker under the hood and ran a PA cable from under the hood of the truck to the CB.  This one is MUCH trickier.  There’s simply not a lot of entry points from the firewall into the cab.  I used the same location as I did for the rally lights and fished some 18g speaker wire through that hole and under the carpeting into the center console.  It was a bitch, but not impossible.  The CB is hidden and out of view from nefarious types and easy to get to if you are driving. After the install I calibrated the antenna using the built-in SWR meter and got it down to < .25 on the scale, WELL within acceptable limits and it’s got a nice clean strong signal.  Couldn’t have asked for an easier setup.

   

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Automotive, Ford F-150 Project Truck
• • 1
  • 2
  • >

• We’re Green! Are you?

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  mattress protector amazon

• Recent Posts

  • Bucket List Item “Trip to Detroit Auto Show” – CHECK!
  • 2014 NAIAS Report Coming Soon…
  • the Mint 400 Great American Off-Road Race
  • Project Ironhide: Suspension, Part 2
  • IRONHIDE Photo Update

• Categories

  Categories Select Category Automotive Ford F-150 Project Truck Offroad Racing

• Archives

  Archives Select Month January 2014 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011

• Links

  • Bickford Ford
  • Flickr Photo Stream
  • LinkedIn

© Copyright . All rights reserved.