Sooooo.... I went to "the dunes" (Oceano, Ca) on sunday with my friends for a little offroading. However, things didnt go as planned. At the top of a pretty big hill, on the other side was a 2-3 foot drop-off. As I was going up, it was in sand so I needed to keep my momentum (I was in 2wd with no problem) well... I was probably at about 5-10 mph at the top of the hill and it was prettyyy steep so when I came over the top of it my truck did a little wheelie (which prolly would have only been about 1 foot of air if there wasnt a drop off, no prob.... BUUTTTTT..... THere was.) and my front end suddenly had 4-5' between it and the ground. My truck came crashing down and it did nooooot feel good. My back still hurts. Amazingly... the only thing broken was something not made by ford, of course... My helo maxx rim. It split right down the center and pankaked the side it hit on. (I had 10psi in my tires.... not much cussion). That and my alignment got royally messed up. Thats No big deal though.

So0o0o... Enough said, here are some pics:

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Now if you had been rolling on stock Ford rims this wouldn't have happened........... haha I hate sand but live 3mins from the beach. Anyway great looking truck and send that rim back to helo and tell them you don't know what happened.

 

Damn... I'm surprised that tow truck was willing to tow you. I have AAA and anytime I need a tow they will send nothing but a flatbed for a 4x4. A few times they've sent a normal tow truck, only for the driver to get there then have to call and have them send a flatbed.
They say it'll mess up the 4wd. The way I see it is if I put the transfer case in neutral what could it hurt?

Anyway, hope you get all that worked out soon.

 

Wow!! I'm surprised the rim is what broke. Are sure that nothing else bent?

I'm guessing the once you get the right tire put back on and drive it, you might find some more problems. If not, sweet and lucky you.

 

I don't even want to know what that tow bill was... Steve is a douche... anyway...

That sucks! I've been going to Pismo for many many years and know all to well what can happen out there. Good thing it only took out a rim and nothing more...

 

I used one of my other 18" rims temporarily untill i get my new black one in tomorrow. It drives fine... I just had to get it re-alligned. THats about it. I thiiink I hear a clank noise when I go over a bump on occasion but I think it is in my head and I am just looking for "bad noises" comin from my suspension. Correct my if I am wrong, but isnt Rancho the strongest/toughest lift you can put on a new f-150? It is built with some pretty thick/heavy duty steel... The thinest pieces are like 1/4" and it looks really really well-designed.

Ill crawl under my truck and double check. What kinds of things should I look for?

OOOOh, and about the tow bill... Yeaaahhhh. Steves has a monopoly out on the dunes and is the only tow company that can legally charge to tow people outa there. It was $300 . I was out past comp towards the drags (on that long skinny hill that has the smoke stacks sticking out...)

Love the tow truck though. I was talking to him and each rim/tire cost about $6,000. THey are like 3 feet wide. lol. Has like prolly 8" lift on top of the stock suspension too. THe bottom of that thing like... comes up to about my window.

 

I just though I would add: A chevy would have probably snapped in half!

 

damnnnnnnnnn thats crazy good thing you didn't get hurt, yea if you had some beadlock wheels or stock...that wouldnt have happened but those don't look as good (imo)...i wonder how my 24's would have held up?

 

well since your rims blackF150 there not Ford Tuff so I would expect the same! haha However I think a suspension part would break instead of the wheel. Probably the tire would come off the rim. Who knows go out there and do some research!

 

There was a thread on some other forum (I'll try to remember where it was and find it) very similar to this, only much worse. It was a Chevy something or another (1500?) with a 3 inch body lift I believe. Guy took the top of a sand dune too fast or it just dropped very steep as in your case. I'm fairly sure he bent the frame (truck kind of V'ed a bit).
He also was paralyzed from what I remember... so I'd just warn to be careful with stuff like that because it can turn out a lot worse then just a broken truck.

 

owned.

 

Oh WOW. I have been going to the dunes my whole life with only minor accidents, like one time I was riding my qad out there jumping off hills when i hit a lip and my back end shot up too fast and i flipped head over heels. I only broke my arm. Some things you just cant avoid. At Oceano dunes, most of the time there are like... "foot hills" you can go one and avoid the steep aggressive hills, I think from now on I will scope out an area by driving around on those before I start having fun so I have an idea what is at the top of each hill.

In my case, unless I did that there was no real way to avoid it. I would have had to slow down way to much. to the point where I would have just sank half way up the hill. When I came to the top of it, I was rolling over it, I just let off the throttle and let my momentum carry me. as my truck was starting to level out so I could see the ground again, My front end was going into a "whoop" (Im sure you all know what that is if you have been in sand) and before I could stop my front end was coming out of the "whoop" and I got a little air off of it, it wouldnt have been so bad if there wasnt a 2-3 foot drop-off on the other side of that whoop. It was just a deadly hill... maybe I will draw a picture of it with paint if you guys want me to....

 

Bummer man... hell of a story though. G'luck getting it all straightened back out. Sounds like it was fun -- but now it's going to be expensive.

 

Thats what you get for having crappy rims. lol j/k I guess no jumps for me.