Ford F150 High Rider

[savate]

Hello guys. This is my first post to almost 4x4 forum., so, it is a plesure to meet you!! :)

I am considering to buy a car for offroading (so hopfully I will have a privilage to meet you for real in a couple of months :) ).

Since this will be the third car in the family I was considering f150 high rider (fx4 off road, 6" lifted by the factory). I just think is a quite good value for money. Since my of roading will not be to extreme, but I hope frequent,... What you guys think about this pickup truck for desert driving purposes. What about rolling angle competed to usual off road veichels (Patrol, jeep, FJ,...) any kind of sugestion will be very helpful.

Kind regards and thx :)

[Yoghybear]

Hello guys. This is my first post to almost 4x4 forum., so, it is a plesure to meet you!! :)

I am considering to buy a car for offroading (so hopfully I will have a privilage to meet you for real in a couple of months :) ).

Since this will be the third car in the family I was considering f150 high rider (fx4 off road, 6" lifted by the factory). I just think is a quite good value for money. Since my of roading will not be to extreme, but I hope frequent,... What you guys think about this pickup truck for desert driving purposes. What about rolling angle competed to usual off road veichels (Patrol, jeep, FJ,...) any kind of sugestion will be very helpful.

Kind regards and thx :)

Hi @savate,
I have a pick up (Dodge RAM) so quite a huge experience with this kind of vehicle...but honestly speaking I would suggest you to avoid them.
The F150 looks good, but often the look has nothing to do with performance....first of all the height off the car, too much, but this car has also many other weak points.
I am not saying the the car is not good, might be good for US or Australian desert, but the desert in UAE, very technical with sharp crest is not ideal for the set up of this car.
Said that, with this kind of car you can drive up to Newbie level, starting from Intermediate level you will suffer a lot and the risk of roll over will be your fellow traveler.....
I can write for hours about pick up, believe me, anyway, I will be more than happy to discuss with you this matter, so feel free to contact me over the phone should you need more details about this matter.
Cheers
Yoghy

[savate]

Thank you so much [MENTION=1633]Yoghybear[/MENTION] for your answer, and thank you so much for your offer to give you a call for chit chat about the subject :have a nice day:

The point is that all the info you can find about off roading with pick ups is from American websites, and actually this is something completely different compared to the terrain in UAE. Even when they are mentioning desert they are mainly talking about Baja, and this is again something that has nothing to do with our dunes, and all trucks are modified for Baja.
My point is, as someone whos only off road experience is, that I got stucked with Tourag in my back yard :grin:, and actually it was fun, (Ok I had a couple of safaris, with Nissan Safari :yaeh am not durnk:), and if you consider that, from my point of view, which is that F150 High rider, with compressor, is a little bit more expensive than FJ Cruiser, but you get hell more of a luxury, and a lot more of a car, than FJ. And actually this is all i know. And dealers, of course, no matter which car you buy are telling that they are unstuck-able in the sand, and great for the desert!!??

It would be great, if there is time and will, if someone can write pros and cons, (maybe compared to good old classics Jeep, Fj, Safari,...), because this kind of info is really hard to find on the web.

Kind regards and thanks :)

[Dave]

Having done a few private drives in the company of the Ford Raptor I have to say I was very unimpressed. For such talk about it's upgraded suspension and 400 plus horsepower the two drives I recall it did struggle on the dunes. Too heavy. Too big. And hard to recover when it did park on a crest! Eventually we had to stop as it's transmission oil temperature started going into the red and let it cool down. A truck of this size needs a minimum of 400 bhp.

The High Rider just lifts the body of the Ford 6 inches into the air, and will be far less capable than the Raptor. The car actually as no lift as the axle still sits were it was. The only way to gain true clearance is larger wheels and/or bigger diameter tyres. As Roberto states all you gain from the High Rider is a bigger risk of roll over off road.

All that said I went for a test drive in the New F150 double cab last week with a friend who is changing from his Range Rover. He is right in saying its great value for money and up to Newbie level it will be capable enough. And I truly believe the standard F150 will actually perform better than the High Rider off road. I see many cruising JBR Walk at the weekend. But none in the desert! If was to buy an F150 @savate I would go for the standard model.

[savate]

Having done a few private drives in the company of the Ford Raptor I have to say I was very unimpressed. For such talk about it's upgraded suspension and 400 plus horsepower the two drives I recall it did struggle on the dunes. Too heavy. Too big. And hard to recover when it did park on a crest! Eventually we had to stop as it's transmission oil temperature started going into the red and let it cool down. A truck of this size needs a minimum of 400 bhp.

The High Rider just lifts the body of the Ford 6 inches into the air, and will be far less capable than the Raptor. The car actually as no lift as the axle still sits were it was. The only way to gain true clearance is larger wheels and/or bigger diameter tyres. As Roberto states all you gain from the High Rider is a bigger risk of roll over off road.

All that said I went for a test drive in the New F150 double cab last week with a friend who is changing from his Range Rover. He is right in saying its great value for money and up to Newbie level it will be capable enough. And I truly believe the standard F150 will actually perform better than the High Rider off road. I see many cruising JBR Walk at the weekend. But none in the desert! If was to buy an F150 @savate I would go for the standard model.

Thank you so much [MENTION=8472]Dave[/MENTION].

This was nice explanation, because most of the things you find about f150 is just how great, and cheap, they are, but as you said, and I noticed, there is not to much footage of F150 in the desert. So I had my concerns about F150 desert capabilities.

I will probably reconsider my purchase!! :))

[Dave]

[MENTION=10034]savate[/MENTION] Don't let my opinion deter you from your choice of truck! Having sat in the new F150 last week there was no denying its comfort and value. From 2015 the model is up to 700lbs lighter than the older generation and in standard from it has about 400bhp. It's by far the best selling truck in the USA.

Because of their size trucks in general are not ideal here in the UAE desert. [MENTION=1633]Yoghybear[/MENTION] has worked a lot of magic and modification into his Dodge to make it a monster off road. He is the true expert on trucks. But he will tell you himself it was not a cheap journey ! If you are planning on being an odd weekend off roader the Ford will suffice. It really did feel an impressive and safe place to be when I sat behind its wheel last week. But as I said earlier, stick to standard. Sometimes less is more.

However, if your plans are for more serious off roading in the future. A truck may not be the best choice here. Unless you have deep pockets! Everything can be modified at a price! Good luck in your car shopping. It's always an exciting time.

[savate]

[MENTION=8472]Dave[/MENTION] Actually, what you said is kind of my idea, to be an "Odd" weekend offroader :), and in the meantime trying to get stuck as less as possible in the sand!?

The point is, my wife is not a huge fan of dune bashing and getting sea (dune :)) sickness, and we have dogs, so any kind of jumps are out of the question! So idea is to have a cozy (as possible) ride through the dunes! (Sorry guys if I am talking rubbish here, but I never had a proper dune bashing, so...:have a nice day:) We would like to explore UAE as family, and sometimes with dogs this is a little bit complicated!? So we would like to have a truck (car), that is comfortable as possible but on the other hand off-road capable, and since this would be the third car,... to get best value for money. I know it is quite complicated, and there to many opposites in the sentence written before, but F150 seemed more or less a perfect choice. It could be easy upgrade for roof tent, for eventual camping, and you can get a lot of stuff in it!

I was on test drive with High Rider, and if you don't mind that those huge tires which are actually making a ride on tarmac a little bit noise, and if you don't mind that you can not have a U Turn in one move :), the ride was quite comfortable, actually enjoyable, and 411bhp seems quite enough :). BUT, I didn't tried it off-road!!!

On the other hand I had a test drive in FJ Cruiser, and we got stuck on pile of sand on parking on Al Wasell in front of my wifes Clinic! So the poor guy had to call a recovery land cruiser from the agency:)))

So I don't know, we will see, I think that I have first to try some desert driving and see how much involved I want to be in this "hobby".

Anyway thank you so much to everybody for your help. If there is some more sugestions, just keep them coming

Thx :))

[Duli]

Hi [MENTION=10034]savate[/MENTION]....
I drive an F-150 2013... Its not a Hi-Rider and definately I wouldnt recommend the Hi rider.... As [MENTION=1633]Yoghybear[/MENTION] mentioned.. it has a higher chance of a roll over. If you would still want to go for the F150 I would suggest going for the normal one and then if you wish you could upgrade the suspensions with a 2.5" lift.

I have been using it for almost everyweek for offroading since Jan 2014 and enjoy it. Keep in mind as Yoghy mentioned -It is a challenge and this vehicle is not for our terrain.... It takes a good amount of practice to know how to drive this machine offroad. If you see Yoghy's truck you will see the amount of upgrades done on his monster to get better in the dunes. And trust me when I say this... but trucks need a good amount to be spent for upgrades. Just FYI the suspensions upgrade could set you back by 15k-22k depending on the brand and setup.

Talking of the 2015 F150... I wouldnt be able to comment on this model as I havent seen it offroad and how reliable is the new body when it comes to the dunes. Even as you mentioned that you will not be very frequent you will still have to be careful on newbie drive level as well, as you will still be crossing dunes.

For getting a roof top tent... please check the car properly... As the 2013 model that I have does not have side rails where you would attach anything even offroad lights... this would make you end up drilling the roof of the truck which I am sure you wouldnt prefer and that could end up ruining your peaceful drive with wind noise.
Again... as you mentioned that you will not be frequent... be warned my friend... 'Once the bug bites you... you will always come back for another bite"

[savate]

Thank you [MENTION=8900]Duli[/MENTION], and thanks to everybody for your answers it really helped a lot.

Now I just have to figure out which car to buy,.. and I really like this F150, but as I said, that would be just the car for off roading, (OK, pick up would also come handy sometimes for my job, but any car with big trunk would, so...) and, yes, if I buy the car for off roading, I want it to be ready as possible for the desert, so to spent as little as possible for eventual modifications.

we will see.Thank soooooo much guys :encouragement:

[yboi]

Now a little more subjective and much more objective info from somebody who ACTUALLY drives and uses the car similar to the one being discussed in the thread.
What I’ll write below is in no way to encourage someone to rush and get the Hi-Rider, but more of analyzing the truck and the way it was modified by Ford (Al-Tayer), it is also to get some false info mentioned here corrected.
First addressing the point of “too high”. Yes, 6 inches lift sounds too high, but it is relative. The F150 is a low and wide truck in stock form to begin with. Still 6” lift needs to be compensated by wider stance, this is what Jeep guys do all the time, they use spacers or smaller backspace rims to push the tires to the sides. And that’s what Ford done with Hi-Rider by using rims with less backspacing resulting in much wider stance than the stock. BTW this is where Dave is wrong, the tires and rims are not stock, but 35” dia Nittos on aftermarket rims. Also having an axle where it was after a lift is true for any car, not sure what the point of that sentence was. Now to the “relative” part. I might be wrong but relationship between height, width and center of gravity is what decides if one 4x4 or the other is more prone to side rollovers. You can see some pictures of my measurements and some of the more popular stock 4x4’s blueprints superimposed on the photo of my F150, all the 4x4s are scaled to the height of the F150 to get width-to-height ratio compared. The width of my truck is 211cm from edge to edge of the tires and the height is 204cm which is a better width-to-height ratio than a stock JK Rubicon, from pictures it also seems that it is better than LC200 and Patrol. I know, it’s not very scientific, but better than just look at the car and say it’s “too high”. Center of gravity is higher now, but if you look at the truck from the side, there is not much above the bed line – mine has two pillars and 80cm of roof, that’s all, so my guess is my COG is actually lower than some of full size 4x4s.
I’ll be lying if I said Almost is the only club I drive in, so I have experience driving at levels that far exceed newbie level at Almost, and at no point I felt the truck losing its balance, that also has to do with several other things except the geometry – suspension setup is very hard, so the truck does not lean much when going sideways and it has good useful power (I’ll come back to that later) so it is easy to keep momentum going and not to get stuck on a side of a dune.
Now to the point of power and performance in the sand from my experience. I never drove a Raptor, but I can tell you, I have way more power than I usually need for the drives that I do here and beyond the club. Not trying to start a pissing contest here but this video is just one example: https://youtu.be/oHk1N8J2ACI , 2 x Wranglers, FJ and Xterra all failed to reach the top, Xterra climbing highest only couple meters further than Wrangler, my climb was, with almost no run up, all the way to the top, with power to spare. Overheating, I’ve done a lot of drives this summer never had to switch my AC off - none of my temp gauges moved a needle, not once. Regarding stock LWB vs Hi-rider, my approach angle is ~50deg, departure ~34deg, breakover ~35deg, because of that I’ve never crested, never hit anything in the front and back, except losing a number plate once, but that was held by cable ties which didn’t hold up. Expect to get crested a lot in the stock one or jump trying to avoid to get crested and risk major damage.
To sum it all up. Is Hi-Rider ideal 4x4 for a newbie – absolutely not, like any modified vehicle it needs understanding of its limitations and its advantages to be in control and out of danger. Is it a good everyday vehicle – no way, the suspension is hard, turning radius sucks, it is too wide for some parking garages and too tall for others. Do I wish it was a little lower – yeah I do, 3-4” would be enough I think. But at the same time, do I think that it is modified to the point where it is a major risk to mine and others safety – not more so than some other modified and stock 4x4s in the club that I’ve seen.
Last thing to add is I’VE NEVER GOT STUCK IN MY TRUCK, maybe it says something, maybe not, I’m sure I will at some point. At the same time, I always try to not be overconfident, but it is difficult not to be overconfident in this truck :grin:. Love it.