Originally Posted by BlackDawg

If you are looking to be talked out of doing mods then just don't do it.

Originally Posted by StoveTop

To the OP,
First off, can I clarify what you were originally getting at: "do you regret modding your rig, and if so, then why."

For me and my '05 SCrew, no regrets. Albeit my mods are minor compared to some on this forum. I have a 2" AS level kit, aftermarket 18" rims and 33" tires, EDGE programmer, AirRaid Jr. and other such bolt ons and I am pretty confident that things are not any more unreliable then stock. Since my truck's center of gravity is higher than stock, do I have a higher probablilty for rollover? Maybe, but I won't blame that on my mods per se, but on my decision to bolt them on. BTW, I went with the 2" level kit rather than the 2.5" due to CV angles so did I decrease the chance for problems? I THINK so, but the jury is still out.

However for 7 years I had a 6" lifted, 4 door, 2wd Chevy Tahoe with 33x13.5 wheels/tires. This rig saw a lot of action but experienced problems that I believe were directly related to the mods. Problems included multiple front ball joint failures, u-joint failures (rear end was properly shimmed), premature steering sloppiness (replaced all with heavy duty Moog components), increased braking distances (already had crappy undersized chevy brakes), etc. The scariest issue was I lost a front wheel bearing which tore off the passenger-side spindle. Luckily I was only doing 10mph at the time and was able to safely pull over.

Now believe me I understood all of these potential issues before lifting a 2wd truck and putting big wheels on it and the fact that it wasn't made to handle the extra rolling mass, wider track and greater stress on the front end components, etc. But the question here is, did I regret it? Well since no one was ever hurt, my answer is "no". I think the bottom line for me, and the lesson I learned from this is to echo what the others have stated:

- Research
- To live within the tolerances of the truck (in my specific case)
- Don't do things half assed
- Buy quality components from reputable manufacturers
- Install/tune/troubleshoot by someone who knows what they're doing

and most importantly,
- Understand the "SYSTEM" and not just the components. I think once someone undestands the impact to the system, they can deal with it and ensure reliability with no regrets.

Originally Posted by MGDfan

Me too!

'Course, he is Canuckian

RMS - I respect your experience, but, please don't preach. Pretty please?

I'm sure if you two guys met, you'd hit it off famously.

This one's on me --->

Bubba

Originally Posted by mlawdawg

I'll weigh in and make sure I never look back at all the know it all replies. I'm happy with the mods I did (gears, supercharger, long tubes, exhaust, etc.). Makes it a totally differnet and very fun truck t o drive. However, if you do have a problem and your tuner is not close by, you'll likely find most Ford dealers scratching their heads, or saying they can't look at it because it is modified.... And in Mustang and Fast Fords (or maybe 5.0, I'm not going to look it up) one of the columns was speaking to the issue of all of the readers who had commneted how much more they enjoyed driving their stangs before they were so heavily modified and had resulting problems. So I don't think it is valid to say it is ludicorus to think you may lose some reliability whiel modding. Tuners, dyno tunes, exhaust, headers stuff like that, I don't see much risk of damage to reliability. The more power you add, though, the more likely you exceed what other parts are engineered for (driveshaft, tranny, etc). When you exceed that, stuff breaks. So its a consideration to have if you have to have you truck ready every day without some backup.

Originally Posted by Grubrunner

Anyway, interesting thread, and more interesting replies.