4x4
 

What are the best characteristics of a good trail 4x4 but also keep it street legal?

it depends on what type of 4 wheeling you do, and how much street driving you do. Is it a mud bogger, a sand machine, rock crawler, what do yuo wanna do with it? Do ya need it to drive to work every day, or are you simply driving it to and from your favorite 4wheeling locations?

I have a stock F-150 SuperCrew 4x4 and it does fine for most off roading applications. I have trouble when the water gets inside of my truck but that is expected and I have trouble with rock crawling.

Sand is always a good time and so is mud. I often go to the freshly plowed corn fields and new contructions sites and I love my F-150 for those type of applications.

When I go out i bring friends that have added 4-8" lifts just in case... My buddies trucks have winches which are a big help at times...

mostly i want to use it for trail and sand and i only need to drive it to and from those locations. i was planing on geting a set of road tires and off road tires im going to do a suspension lift get a winch and im going to build a rollcage

sand means big horsepower and low end acceleration, a lift is not gonna help you much in the sand, and actually may hurt you if you plan on doing much hill climbing (dunes etc.) the winch might not be a bad idea, and the roll cage isn't either, however neither one of those are replacements for plain old common sense. Many people new to the sport seem to think that because they have big tires, a winch, and a roll cage, that they can attempt incredibly stupid things. Also don't confuse a light bar w/ a roll cage, they serve two different purposes and a light bar will offer you NO protection in a rollover. Suspension lifts vary greatly in quality and price, some can actually hurt your offroad performance rather than enhance it. DO NOT under any circumstances use blocks to lift your front suspension, they have been known to come out and cause you to be unable to steer...pretty scary stuff when in happens at highway speeds. If you seriously are only gonna drive this rig to and from the trail, Invest in locked diffs, bead locks for your off road rims, a pull pal for your winch, a tree strap, a good quality tow strap (another area that the money is well spent), and some good tow hooks attached to the frame. I don't know if you have a rig in mind that your planning on using, but if I were to shop for one, I'd look at CJ5's or CJ7's aftermarket parts are readily available and for the most part, kits are available for any performance mods you wanna do.

thats alot of good info thanks and yes i already have a rig its a 82 wagoneer with the amc 360 v8 i was planing on building a rollcage inside going down to the frame and also was planing on doing a pro installed 6 inch lift for the trails out here in washington the sand is going to be a second area mostly i want to pull out a little trailer onto the sand to set up camp then roll a dune buggy off the trailer and rip around on that. and beadlocks are a must

That type of activity has been known to get people injured.... and not from vehicle mishaps.