Here are some of my photos from a trail near Lake Tahoe, CA.




As a side note: My friends Jeep got caught at the EXACT place I'm going over in the pic above...I passed by without even flinching! Another pat-on-the-**** for Ford...


On a sad note, after this particular day of offroading, my chrome rails in these pics had to be scrapped from the beating they took from rocks and boulders. Oh well, it's less restrictive without them anyways!

Hope you guys like the pics!

 

C5guy312,

Might I suggest you put them back on when you go out again. Just imagine the damage your rocker panels would have sustined without them.

JMC

 

I stronly disaggree. I took my sidesteps shortly after I started four-wheeling regularly and have never looked back. They need to stay off unless you have a sick lift and absolutely no need for extra clearance.

 

I don't usually care one way or the other when people disagree but today I do. If the bars got scraped and scartched while C5 was off road I would think that the rocker panels would have gotten scraped and scratched too. If you are playing in the mud or sand then you do not realy need bars. If you are going to cross over rocks then I would recommend the bars or be very careful of the line of travel you choose. One mistake and your panels are damaged.

JMC

 

Yeah. but let's not forget the damage that happens if you break a bar and it then gets shoved through the body panels or rips the bolts holding it onto the truck loose.

 

It acts as a reinforcing bar. Look at the size of it. Would you rather have your rocker panel hit an object hard enough to bend your bar? Face it is you are wacked enough to go places that are going to mangle your truck to the point of bending bars. Bars alone will not help. You will need a cage and nerf bars that mount to the frame. Rocker panels will not stand a chance against such forces. We are talking about a stock truck with side bars that are put there to step on. They are not meant to stop the carnage that the two of you are talking about. Nothing will. Personally I would rather scratch bars than paint.

JMC

 

They're called rocker panels for a reason. They are suppose to provide protection. IMO, if you're so afraid of damage that you need to wheel with nerf bars, then you have no business off the pavement. Nerf bars cost a good 3-4 inches of lost clearance. Ditch em and get a $100 body lift if you need.

This was the last trail I ran with nerf bars (The grill got chopped with an angle grinder also).

 

So if I understand you correctly me and my friends can not go off road and have some fun becasue we want to protect our paint at the expense of a 2 or 3 inches of clearance under the rocker panel. C5 has a brand new truck. I was mearly suggesting a way to protect it. If you want to hard core off road go right ahead.
I will continue to advise new comers about what precautions are available. In closing take a close look at the paint in your pictures and the tires and compare them to the ones in C5's pictures. I don't think he is ready for the kind of bashing you put your truck through. Regardless, enjoy your truck. At least its a Ford.

JMC

 

I would paste a picture, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it. I copy from my files but when I come to this screen it doesn't give me the option to paste.

 

Oh, I wasn't trying to start an argument or anything, just saying that when you're four wheeling, sometimes you get carried away and aim your truck at something a little rougher than what you've been `wheeling on, and it's possible that you can break the step bars and send the broken parts through the sheet metal on the side of the truck. I've done this (not with my F-150, thank God), so it's just something I like to warn about. If you don't need the extra ground clearance, and if you like them, then by all means, leave them right on there.

 

Hey all. Although my first set of pictures of my Xterra aren't up anymore I have another one that I did this winter.



Had the wife and 2 kids with me and everyone was OK. Didn't break any glass out either luckily, all I did was break the mirror off. Anyways carnage pics are always cool.


Axle

 

Axle-

Cool pic Glad the family was ok. Bet you heard it good from the misses, hell I would have!

Can't wait to get my digital camera for x-mas! I can't wait to get out there and show you fellas Hoss! I love my Ford and only wish I some pics of Hoss doing the nasty with mudd, snow, small ponds and large hills.

Keep the pics comming guys!

 

Actually it wasn't all that bad. She had to stop for a pee break, as we were trying to catch back up to the group we were with they stopped around a corner just as we got there and said something on the radio just as we saw them. We were only doing about 10 MPH but the truck didn't want to stop on the snow covered ice. One of those instacnces where you've only got a milisecond to decide. I could have either went left and off the side of the mountain, straight and plowed into the back of the other truck causing a chain reaction or possibly pushing one of them off the side of the mountain, or go right and try to steer into the ditch to avoid eveyone. The truck turned to the right but wouldn't come back around left to straighten out in the ditch. Instead it went up on the hill and over we went. So she doesn't blame me for that one.



Axle

 

I love this thread. Here's my contribution...



Outer Banks 2004

 

Yo Sherm, Nice! I’ve been to the Outer Banks before myself but only site seeing. I lived in NC for 5 years. I know that bad boy of yours will kick some off road butt! Better run, Hoss might hear me complimenting your rig and get jealous