When thinking about building a prerunner, a young man's thoughts often drift to half-ton trucks - most often a Ranger or F-150. Oh sure, you see a few Broncos, Blazers and Chevy 1500's out there, but for high-speed work, Ford suspension design (the TTB / TIB front end) is a cheap and reliable way to develop serious wheel travel.

But what if you want more beef than a 1/2 ton truck can provide? What if your "Prerunner" doubles as a tow vehicle? What if you want (Gasp!) 4-Wheel Drive?

With the "Super Duty" line, Ford returned to the solid front axle / leaf spring design, abandoning the travel happy Twin Traction Beam front end. For many it was a godsend as the Dana 44/55 TTB was known to fail without some additional beef. For others, the return to a solid axle meant kissing wheel travel good bye….

Or so they thought.

When Pat Chicas (ORC's Chief Chef eu'de Poi) began the buildup on ORC's "Great White", he wanted it all - the brute force of a 7.4L Navistar diesel, the uberbeef of 1-ton running gear, 4-Wheel Drive, AND large amounts of wheel travel. Sure, wanting it all in one nice, tidy package is one thing, but actually getting it is a different story entirely.

With primary duties as a chase truck for our race coverage efforts, GW sees pretty much the whole range of abuse. Lots of highway miles while traveling to and from races, prerunning race courses at speed (gotta' see where the jumps are ya' know!), hauling a bunch of sleep deprived and caffiened up editors and their gear to Hell, AZ (Population - 5, and a coyote) and back. Then doing it again the next weekend without spending the rest of the week in the shop, or on a frame rack.

While the aftermarket is booming with suspensions and accessories for the big F-trucks, Pat decided that an "off-the-rack" suspension wouldn't yield the performance and reliability he was looking for. He was after a professional caliber suspension, and that meant going to a professional fab shop to get it done.

For many, experience with the F-truck was limited or non-existent. After talking with a few shops in California and Nevada, Chicas decided on Foutz Motorsports in Mesa AZ. Known for campaigning a successful Stock Mini Ford Ranger, Greg and the guys have since stepped up into the full-size wars with a 1-ton 2WD Super Duty. FMI's experience in modifying the Super Duty for extreme performance was the deciding factor.

The Basics

Great White started life as a loaded to the hilt F-350 crew cab / short box Super Duty XLT "Lariat", complete with a 7.4L Navistar Diesel. Running gear consists of a "Sterling 10.25 in. rear axle and Dana 60 front, hung on leaf springs (spring over configuration), with power fed through a Borg-Warner x-fer case and 4 speed automatic. If you look up "beef" in the dictionary, you'll probably see this rig's picture right next to the cow.

Before work began, Pat laid out the limits as to the performance he was looking for, and what he was willing to sacrifice to get it. First and foremost, he wanted to retain the truck's bed space and it's ability to tow a load. Right off the bat, that eliminated any exotic suspensions like 3-4 link coilovers, and quarter elliptic springing. After several discussions with FMI it was determined that retaining the standard leaf sprung suspension was the best option, but because of the limitations imposed by retaining the full box (I.E. no cutting up the bed for the addition of tall shock towers), there would be serious challenges involved.

Front Suspension

Up front, things were pretty straightforward. National Spring was called upon to arch up a set of 10 leaf - leaf springs that provide over 12 in. of wheel travel, while dealing with the full weight of the diesel engine. A single 3 in. body King Shock per wheel (with attached reservoirs) mount vertically over the axle centerline and connect the spring to a custom fabricated shock tower that extends well into the under-hood area. To protect against over-extension of the shock and driveshaft slip joint, FMI employed limiting straps as a needed safety measure.

The custom valved King Shocks, National Springs and bracketry and design by Foutz Motorsports yield 10" of everyday, useable travel at axle to bumptsop and 12" of travel at wheel apex with sway bars connected.

Steering While the 1-ton components of the F-truck are pretty stout, Pat's choice of 37 in BF Goodrich Baja T/A tires and a Mile Marker hydraulic winch placed some serious demands on both the steering box and the factory pump. After a quick call to Howe, FMI had secured some heavily upgraded hardware. Combined with a currently stock pump, the Howe steering box makes for effortless steering even with the monster rubber, and even in the ugliest off-road terrain. These very same steering box regularly handle 4500 lb "Trophy Trucks" traveling at over 140 MPH, so a "little" streetable F-350 presents them with little problem. While Great White still incorporates the stock and quite massive drop tie rod / drag link assemblies, FMI added a drop pitman arm to help relieve the inherent bump steer caused by high drag link angles and serious suspension "droop". Unfortunately there's a little bump steer remaining, but it's nothing that isn't easily adapted to. Eliminating it entirely would require either full hydraulic / ram steering, or a complete redesign of the factory steering system.

Rear Suspension Out back is where the fun really began. To begin, Pat and FMI agreed that 1-ton rear springing would not be conductive to smooth or abundant wheel travel. The only solution was to de-rate the spring capacity of the rear suspension. This would effect ultimate towing and load bearing capacity, but a compromise was reached between sheer wheel travel and sheer brawn.

To get around the de-rating of the leaf pack, FMI installed a quickly removable air bag system. With the air in place, Great White specs out to load bearing figures in excess of the factory numbers, and allow Pat the luxury of cranking in the amount of pressure needed to compensate for the load at hand. With the air bags off, GW is free to take full advantage of all the travel the suspension can provide.

The detachable air-bag, load system provides carrying capacity surpassing the original 1-ton springs when needed.

With that in mind, FMI again called on National to build the springs. Totaling 13 individual leafs and nearly 12 in. worth of wheel travel, the previously mentioned limitations required some severe shock angles, and some extremely stiff dampening. The 37 in. Bajas' and added weight of the heavier spring pack develop considerable force when cycling through their range of motion. Once again King Shocks were called into play, but this time the 3 in. bodied shocks were fitted with remote reservoirs to cut down on weight and inertia as the shock swings through it's arc. Because a shock loses dampening efficiency as it's operating angle increases, the position sensitive design of the Kings allowed FMI to valve the shocks to compensate for the loss. The end result is a shock that operates as it should when controlling wheel motion despite the severe angles involved.

Mounting the Kings proved to be a challenge as well. FMI chose to mount the shocks in an over the housing position to obtain maximum ground clearance, and to provide the shocks as much protection from rock damage as possible. Custom bracketry allowed FMI to choose the optimal mounting location within the limitations demanded by the under-box design. Once again limiting straps were employed to keep things under control. Because of the shock length and mounting angle, it would be easy to hyper extend the suspension and cause serious damage to the shackle/frame mounts. That relatively small and inexpensive piece of nylon webbing ensures that the suspension will work within, not beyond the design limitations.

Added Traction After the initial shakedown cruise (A.K.A the Baja 2000), Pat saw the need for traction bars to control the severe wheel hop the truck was developing. With several hundred-ft. lbs. of torque feeding through the big T/As, spring wrap was a very real problem. The guys at FMI determined that a simple 2-bar system mounted from the axle to the frame would cure the trucks hopping woes. Built of chro-moly steel tubing, the bars incorporate 3/4 in. spherical rod ends at each side, letting the axle fully articulate in rocky or off-camber situations.

Custom traction bars were built to help deliver the massive torque of the modified Powerstroke Diesel to the ground.

Suddenly, spring wrap became a thing of the past. Where before GW would "shudder" when accelerating even lightly on the highway, or develop severe wheel hop when in the dirt off-road, it now simply powers through the rough stuff, taking all the throttle Pat can give it without fear of encountering spring wrap induced parts breakage.

Real World Performance After several thousand miles on the street and in the dirt, The guys at FMI can definitely be congratulated on a hell of a job. In many ways the truck handles more like a race truck than the vehicle that tows it, yet it's highway manners are actually superior to stock. Although bump steer remains the one chink in GW's armor, it's not unmanageable. In fact, it's a small price to pay when compared to the benefits that the massively upgraded suspension provides. Had FMI been given an unlimited budget and a no-holds barred "Go Ahead" from Pat, we'd have likely seen a far different rig than what you're seeing here, but then again, he wasn't looking for a race truck. Despite the many modifications, the truck retains nearly all of the functionality it had as a tow rig. While it can no longer really be considered a "1-ton", there's more than enough capacity to pull all but the most obnoxious of loads.

Think "F-250" territory and you're in the ballpark of GW's weight capacity. Best of all, if you're interested in getting a little "Great White" into your own personal rig, there's hope! FMI used our project truck to prototype all the parts you see here. Yes, you read it right, you can actually buy the ultimate F-350 suspension, and you can contact Foutz Motorsports Inc. at the address listed below for all the details. As for us, we're heading out to the desert to flog this beast a little more….in the interest of a thorough evaluation you understand…yea! That's it! A thorough evaluation! Ya' know? This job really does have its advantages! Foutz Motorsports Inc.
1222 East Baseline
Suite 102
Tempe, Arizona 85283
Phone: 480-838-2100
Fax: 480-755-1088
Email - Foutz@FoutzMotorsports.com
Website - www.foutzmotorsports.com