Are they capable off-roaders? My buddy has a Bronco, and we love to argue the Dodge VS. Ford debate until our throats get sore (It's kind of a hobby we share). He argues that his Bronco is better off road, then I usually argue that my Cummins will haul him around like he's not even in gear. Are the first gen 4WD trucks even worth anything off-road? I know they have MASSIVE springs that limit articulation, but what would happen with a mostly factory truck in some sort of pit? Like the one in my sig for example.....

In my experience....Too much weight and too big to do much offroad, up here we have tight trails and a lot of the full size rigs can't even make it without a few "additions" to the bodylines added by trees. I know there are plenty of guys who do it, so it can be done. But my truck even running to the "campsite" at the base of one of our trails, started sinking in. We had a buddy run his chebby durosmack once, and it was just that, a one time deal, he rides shotgun now. The second the ground got soft, he was done, it wasnt set up at all for offroad, but it was still pretty dissapointing.

I think you be better off with a 1st gen for 4 wheeling as opposed to 2nd or 3rd gen. They're lighter, but I will say that I was amazed how bad my truck's front end sinks due to the heavy CTD. If you have decent tires tho, you have plenty of torque to power thu just about anything. Its all about putting the power to the ground...

i've heard that with the weight of a diesel tall skinny tires are the way to go. no expeirience on that. heard the reasoning for mud was that you are too heavy to float so you sink into the harder stuff below and roll along. my 4x4 wouldn't stand a chance in the woods, but my wheelbase is 171 inches :o [laugh]

finding the bottom is fine, but if there is no bottom and you bury that front diff, you're toast!

finding the bottom is fine, but if there is no bottom and you bury that front diff, you're toast!

Agreed......there is lots of deep mud in my neck of the woods where lots of weight and skinny tires is the WRONG way to go......you don't want to intentionally try to find the bottom!! For a true mud performer, power to weight ratio is everything and these trucks just don't have that going for them. As long as your offroad performance expectations aren't too high, a CTD when properly equipped can do OK but there are certainly other vehicles that will perform notably better.

Agreed......there is lots of deep mud in my neck of the woods where lots of weight and skinny tires is the WRONG way to go......you don't want to intentionally try to find the bottom!! For a true mud performer, power to weight ratio is everything and these trucks just don't have that going for them. As long as your offroad performance expectations aren't too high, a CTD when properly equipped can do OK but there are certainly other vehicles that will perform notably better.

Yeah - out on the ranch the tall skinny tires on the truck (or the tractors) work better at reaching down through the black clay and grabbing the bottom, but stay out of the pits that'll float your framerails!

The big tires float well, but make sure they've got plenty of bite, or when they load up that's all you'll do - float!

i said TALLLL....

http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/pics/data/500/28071dodge_Ram-med.jpg

lol, point very much taken, just throwing out what i've heard, i never mind being corrected.