Lifted Trucks

Grimm

I'm looking to buy a truck and i have a couple questons about one i found today. Its a 2002 GMC Sierra K1500 Z71 Extended Cab, 5.3 V8, with 57000 miles. Does anyone have any opinions on this truck? Also its been lifted, as in raised up. My dad tells me he used to have a truck like this before i was born and they are horrible in the snow and rain. I like the way it looks and i would like to do some off roading, but with the amount of wet weather here, I'm not sure it would be worth it to buy this truck if what I'm hearing is true. What do you guys think?

Thanatos

Lifting a truck raises its center of balance, which is going to make it much more likely to roll over, especially on slick surfaces.

Grimm

While this is true, i dont think thats what my dad ment. He said something about the bigger tires doing something. I cant remember what he said at the moment.

Gotcha Force

are you really buying it to go off roading or are you buying it because it "looks cool"

if the latter, thats a stupid reason to buy a lifted truck

Grimm

Gotcha Force wrote:

are you really buying it to go off roading or are you buying it because it "looks cool"

if the latter, thats a stupid reason to buy a lifted truck

I do plan on going off road. I live fairly close to the mountains and travel there often. Family has a camp there and a bunch of people we know. There is a reservoir there that's kept drained in the fall and winter months. Perfect place to take a truck off roading.

Pheezer

Bigger tires mean big knobby wheels. These are good at gripping loose terrain, like dirt, sand and to a lesser extent snow. The problem is though, they get shit for traction on smooth surfaces because so little of the tire is actually making contact.

Now when those smooth surfaces are slicked over by rain or ice, you have reduced traction to begin with, and typically flat pieces of rubber that don't channel water or slush very well doing the gripping. This makes it much more difficult to control.

Add to that the fact that pickups as a whole do not control well on wet or icy roads what with the extremely uneven weight distribution. You think you're gonna enjoy filling the back of a lifted pickup truck with sandbags in November? It's going to fucking suck and the vehicle won't be safe to drive unless you do.

Off roading is a luxury activity. Buying a vehicle for that purpose is buying a luxury vehicle. If you do not have a secondary, practical vehicle, you should not be buying a luxury vehicle. If you live in a region that regularly imposes winter driving conditions, and you do not need a pickup truck for a very good reason, you really do not want to buy one as your only ride. I mean, just the gas costs alone should be a good enough argument against buying this thing as a daily driver.

ViolentChemistry

pheezer FD wrote:

Bigger tires mean big knobby wheels. These are good at gripping loose terrain, like dirt, sand and to a lesser extent snow. The problem is though, they get shit for traction on smooth surfaces because so little of the tire is actually making contact.

Now when those smooth surfaces are slicked over by rain or ice, you have reduced traction to begin with, and typically flat pieces of rubber that don't channel water or slush very well doing the gripping. This makes it much more difficult to control.

Add to that the fact that pickups as a whole do not control well on wet or icy roads what with the extremely uneven weight distribution. You think you're gonna enjoy filling the back of a lifted pickup truck with sandbags in November? It's going to fucking suck and the vehicle won't be safe to drive unless you do.

Off roading is a luxury activity. Buying a vehicle for that purpose is buying a luxury vehicle. If you do not have a secondary, practical vehicle, you should not be buying a luxury vehicle. If you live in a region that regularly imposes winter driving conditions, and you do not need a pickup truck for a very good reason, you really do not want to buy one as your only ride. I mean, just the gas costs alone should be a good enough argument against buying this thing as a daily driver.

Not to mention that another failing of those tires you were talking about is that they wear down to nothing about five times as fast as normal tires if you use them on pavement instead of loose-terrain all the time. Bald tires are about the only thing worse in the rain and hard-packed snow/ice.

Grimm

pheezer FD wrote:

Bigger tires mean big knobby wheels. These are good at gripping loose terrain, like dirt, sand and to a lesser extent snow. The problem is though, they get shit for traction on smooth surfaces because so little of the tire is actually making contact.

Now when those smooth surfaces are slicked over by rain or ice, you have reduced traction to begin with, and typically flat pieces of rubber that don't channel water or slush very well doing the gripping. This makes it much more difficult to control.

Yeah, that's what my dad was saying.

ViolentChemistry wrote:

Not to mention that another failing of those tires you were talking about is that they wear down to nothing about five times as fast as normal tires if you use them on pavement instead of loose-terrain all the time. Bald tires are about the only thing worse in the rain and hard-packed snow/ice.

Your right about that. Wont just be the tires wearing out quicker either. Its gonna cost way too much to keep this thing up.

pheezer FD wrote:

Off roading is a luxury activity. Buying a vehicle for that purpose is buying a luxury vehicle. If you do not have a secondary, practical vehicle, you should not be buying a luxury vehicle. If you live in a region that regularly imposes winter driving conditions, and you do not need a pickup truck for a very good reason, you really do not want to buy one as your only ride. I mean, just the gas costs alone should be a good enough argument against buying this thing as a daily driver.

I do need a truck as a daily driver for a few reasons though. I'm an apprentice in the carpenters union and i do alot of side jobs involving construction and technical theatre. Also, i need to be able to tow a ATV trailer and haul stuff for camping.

Anyways, I've decided against getting this truck. I found another very nice non lifted truck today too. Gonna see if i can talk them down a bit on the price. Also just found out about a new place to look next week. Thanks for your help guys. Guess you can lock this thread now. I might make another one in a week or so to ask your thoughts on the other truck if i decide to go for that one.

Fats

pheezer FD wrote:

Add to that the fact that pickups as a whole do not control well on wet or icy roads what with the extremely uneven weight distribution. You think you're gonna enjoy filling the back of a lifted pickup truck with sandbags in November? It's going to fucking suck and the vehicle won't be safe to drive unless you do.

I think unsafe to drive is a bit strong. I would have slid off the mountain long ago if that was the case.

Anyway, Grimm, good choice on skipping the lifted truck. Even for most offroading, you don't need or want the lift. You don't need the big knobby mud tires, either. For whichever truck you get, I'd recommend the BFG A/T KO tire, which is not only very nice on the road, but has good traction offroad and in the snow too. And, as a bonus, you'll get 50k miles out of them.

Grimm

Fats wrote:

pheezer FD wrote:

Add to that the fact that pickups as a whole do not control well on wet or icy roads what with the extremely uneven weight distribution. You think you're gonna enjoy filling the back of a lifted pickup truck with sandbags in November? It's going to fucking suck and the vehicle won't be safe to drive unless you do.

I think unsafe to drive is a bit strong. I would have slid off the mountain long ago if that was the case.

Anyway, Grimm, good choice on skipping the lifted truck. Even for most offroading, you don't need or want the lift. You don't need the big knobby mud tires, either. For whichever truck you get, I'd recommend the BFG A/T KO tire, which is not only very nice on the road, but has good traction offroad and in the snow too. And, as a bonus, you'll get 50k miles out of them.

I'll look into them. Thanks for the suggestion.

ViolentChemistry

Tires are the best modification for normal people to do to their cars. You will get more improvement in all aspects of performance for less money just putting on better tires than doing all the things you'd have to do to get that change without changing tires. But yeah, solved and locked.