Maximize Off-Road Capability.. No Lift

[amattis13]

Alright team.. I am looking to maximize the off-road capability of my '14 Laramie Crew LONG BED.. without a lift.

The truck is going to spend a lot of time on the fire roads in GMUs throughout Colorado and Arizona, but I will also be putting around 30,000 /year on it, so MPG is a concern.

Short of a lift, what can I do to maximize performance? Just tires?

Thanks!
-AM

-----------------
Orion's Kin TV
http://www.OrionsKin.com

 

[2014StormTrooper]

well from previous experience of living in the mountains of colorado and owning a Jeep, i would suggest the BFG A/T as a tire. It is great in the dirt/mud, snow, and rain and it has a long life span. They arent too loud on the highway either. I plan on putting these on my truck when i need new tires. I have been in some heavy snow with them, mud, rainy road, dirt mountain roads and NEVER once did i ever have a problem with traction.

My .02

 

[Stangshcky12]

Is leveling an option?
There was a change in suspension geometry in 2014 (been pretty much the same for 20 years) so there arent all to many quality leveling kits out yet but they will be in the next 2-3 months

What size wheel is on your truck? The stock 18" and 20" wheels come with a stock ~33"
A larger more aggressive tire will help in sloppy conditions, something like the nitto terra grappler is ok for less then extreme offroading while still being quite on the highway and not hurting MPG to bad
A hybrid AT/MT like the exograppler or new toyo tire might be a better choice

 

[2014StormTrooper]

^^ like he said, i forgot to add, Maybe go a tire size or so up, something i tiny bit taller and wider?

 

[iam_canadian22]

Goodyear wrangler duratracs for tires, in my opinion, i will never get a bfg at again hated them but thats only my opinion, good set of shocks to take the abuse, for those its up to how much you wanna spend, fox rancho and bilstein are your top 3 here with price in mind, if you wanna step it up icon has a nice setup but $$, mud flaps may be worth it also to protect the paint a bit on your new investment


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BoldAdventure]

Remove front bumper to help your approach angle. Leveling the front is a good suggestion and does not cost a lot. If you have side steps, throw them away. They just get hung up on crap off road and are not to be confused with true rock sliders.

Do you have the protection group package? Because that's another suggestion. Armor.

I'd counter the other tire recommendations with Toyo Open Country AT or General Grabber AT.

Get yourself some recovery gear.

 

[Johnn123]

My suggestions would be a leveling kit for the front, Cooper STT tires or Cooper AT3 tires, downgrade to 17" wheels if your truck has 20's, winch for recovery, Offroad lights and skid plates. Great suggestion above about removing the side steps, they will get hung up on stuff!

 

[JasonK94Z]

Shocks, AT tires of your choice with an upsize, install the factory front diff and transfer case skid plates.
Reread it's fire roads. I'd look into the mud flaps and fender flairs to protect the paint!

 

[bloombloom88]

On board air might come in handy for a number of reasons

 

[Andrew09HEMI]

Id say pretty much everything here, with addition of limited slip if you dont have it already. I dont like the BFG ats either but to each their own. Armor and recovery are probably the most important next to tires, traction and clearance, depending on your budget you can get the basic tow hooks and straps or go all out with bumpers with D rings, winch, lighting etc...

 

[brandonbomer]

Agian on those side steps. The factory ones will do nothing but mess up your door if you get them (don't ask how I know this.... Just trust me lol) and as far as tire Imo like a trail grappler or something. It's kinda a hybrid as mentioned above but not something that Is little more then a street tire like a terra grappler. But if I was you I would get some buckshots or federals or something aggressive like that. But that's just my opinion and what worked for my particular area

 

[amattis13]

Great suggestions guys - thanks.

Factory side steps are long gone for many of the reasons here. I traded in the truck below because the MPG was killing me. Thats where the "no lift" mindset comes from. I put 40,000 on it in the first year and averaged 12mpg on the highway. At the price of diesel, it was just too much.

I like the no bumper option. Anyone have any pics of what that may look like? Also, I do have the 20's. I like the idea of jumping down to an 18 to get the bigger sidewall.

I'm starting to really dig the Ram Runner setup too. Maybe a scaled down version. remove the bumper, lots of armor, and great suspension. Only concern with that route is highway performance.

 

[iam_canadian22]

There was a post on here a while back from someone who installed the icon stage 4 kit which consists of front shocks upper control arms rear piggyback shocks and rear variable rate coils and said it performed awesome on and offroad, although its a pricy kit im sure its likely worth, personally ill be doing the fox shocks in the back and one day will swap my front rancho qll's for fox also, i also looked into downsizing rims to 18 for more sidewall but the tires i wanted i couldnt get close to the height and width i wanted, only size i can get with more sidewall was wider then i wanted to run so keeping my 20's i ended up with a tire with more sidewall then i could get with 18's so thats something to checkout also


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Stangshcky12]

Is this truck a 1500 or 2500?
When you said crew cab long bed I assumed an 8ft bed only available on 2500

Should have deleted the other truck.

 

[amattis13]

1500 - 6' 4" bed!

 

[Hemi395]

OK I'm a little confused. I thought the 2013+ 1500s couldn't be leveled without changing the control arms because the ball joints pop out?

 

[iam_canadian22]

OK I'm a little confused. I thought the 2013+ 1500s couldn't be leveled without changing the control arms because the ball joints pop out?

Leveling kits and bilsteins pop the ball joints yes, can replace them with cheap aftermarkets or expensive zone or icon arms, i have not heard of any issues yet running ranchos and have none on mine either and its sure being tested,i bet spring preload spacers would also work without issue vs strut spacers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk