Getting Attention and Getting the Job Done (The Art of Ride Height)

Those who read our posts realize the theme rather quickly: pickup trucks are meant to be used. There is a fine line between taking care of your truck by spending money on it and turning your truck into something that it was never meant to be - an attention getter (1:13). We realize that a lot of the nation out there doesn't always read our commentary, so we always try to give you some entertaining pictures to look at. If you decide to read today's post, it's about how you can raise or lower your truck for both right and wrong reasons.

Now, we have all seen a lifted truck or two. The reason to lift a truck is for it to perform better off-road. If you see a lifted truck with chrome wheels, you should ask yourself, what's the utility of chrome wheels in mud? I have researched this question thoroughly (I ask it much more than I would like to), and I have come to this conclusion: there isn't any. Chrome wheels perform just as well off-road as rims without a shiny "look at me" finish. It is mind boggling but true.

Okay, so what do you ask yourself when you see a truck like this?



























What the heck is a Harley sticker doing on a school bus?! Well, maybe your first thought was different. Here are the rest of my thoughts: this truck cannot go off-road because it does not have a suspension lift; it has a body lift (one of the reasons it looks so ridiculous), and it probably weighs 10,000 pounds. This truck would still be great for pulling a large trailer, except it has a cap on the bed and therefore no fifth-wheel capability. It would be great for hauling stuff if it had a built-in loading platform so you could reach the bed from the ground. It would be great for carrying people (like a school bus) except that it has two seats. So what is it great for? Well, it got me to stop at this used car lot and take a picture!

I will rarely use a Dodge as an example, but here's a lifted truck that could actually go off-road if it ever wanted to (or needed to in the case of a zombie attack):

This is a Dodge Ram Power Wagon (from back in the day before Ram disowned Dodge or whatever). It is a factory off-road package (with a Hemi!). The truck has plenty of ground clearance with this lift, and it has black wheels that look tasteful without begging for your attention. The truck is not so high that you couldn't pull a trailer with it (although it is too high for most parking garages).

Now we'll explore the other end of the spectrum. Why would anyone want to lower a truck? The only reason we could find besides racing in NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series is, you guessed it, for attention. Here's what I'm talking about:

The only reason anyone would put big rig chrome wheels with low profile tires onto their lowered dually is to get attention. In this truck's defense, the colored parts of the front right quarter panel and tailgate appear to be from a full truck decal. If your truck is for "business," then getting attention is part of its job. But if you're just taking your amigos to Chick-fil-a (as I verified the case to be here) then you've got another thing coming.

Besides, if your truck is for business, it will get more attention with an animal print pattern - this is why women's lingerie is more likely to be zebra striped than white with chrome:

To quickly revisit the utility of lowering a truck, if you for some reason raced your truck on a track, it would be a good idea. Or, if you race your S-10 Xtreme down the interstate, lowering the truck will help it make those last minute lane changes without warning. That was this guy's plan:

...and look how it turned out for him. Tasteful and certainly not overdone. This is a true high performance machine. I was lucky to capture a picture considering the speed at which it was traveling.