My "Demo" Truck

[Vycor]

A forum member messaged me after seeing my truck somewhere else... suggested I share it with you guys. This is my '15 F-150. It's a combo daily driver and my demo truck for my side business. I'll have it at the Long Island Truck Jam in Riverhead on September 25th, but as a vendor (have to ask them if I can enter it in the show as well, or if vendors are not allowed).

It has a 6" Fabtech Lift, 20x9 Fuel Vapors and 35" Nitto Terra Grappler G2s
All LED lights for the tails/blinkers/etc... including the headlights (upgraded LED Conversion Kits in the headlights/fog lights... yellow on the fogs). 54" Curved LED bar on the roof, 23" where the license plated used to be, 20" in the bull bar and 4" Baja Designs Squadtron XL Pro's on the pillars

[iceburg]

Nice man,,Great looking truck..

[SimpleMan]

A forum member messaged me after seeing my truck somewhere else... suggested I share it with you guys.

That was me. Again, looks awesome.

I plan on buying a pick-up soon and want it lifted. You did the research for me.

[UVBNAXED]

Wait, are you the guy that keeps pushing his LED busines?

[Vycor]

Negative, although I run a business that sells LED lights and had someone ask me questions about my LED lights... not sure why you think I'm "pushing it" when someone asked me "hey where did you buy those LED lights" and I told him I run a business... soo yeah...go figure

SimpleMan: It has it's ups and downs (no pun intended). Upside is it looks cool and gives you more clearance for whatever you plan to do. Downside is your turning radius isn't as tight as it once was and the truck loses some HP/MPG due to the bigger tires/rims... I went from about 13-14mpg (I have a heavy foot) to about 10-12mpg depending on where i'm going. Then again I've yet to calibrate the speedometer/odometer for the bigger tires yet. We'll see after Tuesday when my programmer comes if it helps out.

[Mad Russian]

I have a question: I bought a set of cheap LED lights and they caused a lot of interference on the AM band. When I put chokes on the wires the chokes made a high pitched sound. The problem is bad design for the LED drivers.
How do your lights differ?

[Vycor]

Sounds like you have a grounding issue, which was very common back in the day when people put car audio systems in and they shared the ground/power for the radio with other devices in the vehicle.

How did you wire them up? Where did you connect the ground wire to? Did you run the ground wires back to the engine bay... even the power.

If you run power lines anywhere NEAR your antenna (or the wire that goes from the antenna to your radio) you'll get interference regardless of what brand light/equipment you use.

Also are you referring to headlights or light bars or what exactly?

[UVBNAXED]

I have a question: I bought a set of cheap LED lights and they caused a lot of interference on the AM band. When I put chokes on the wires the chokes made a high pitched sound. The problem is bad design for the LED drivers.
How do your lights differ?

You may end up needing a ground loop isolator we spoke about in another post.

[SimpleMan]

SimpleMan: It has it's ups and downs (no pun intended). Upside is it looks cool and gives you more clearance for whatever you plan to do. Downside is your turning radius isn't as tight as it once was and the truck loses some HP/MPG due to the bigger tires/rims... I went from about 13-14mpg (I have a heavy foot) to about 10-12mpg depending on where i'm going. Then again I've yet to calibrate the speedometer/odometer for the bigger tires yet. We'll see after Tuesday when my programmer comes if it helps out.

Please keep us updated. My truck will not be my daily driver. However, I want to be as practical as possible (I still have kids to put through college in a few years).

[Vycor]

Well my nephew who's all of... 8 or 9 I think, was able to get into the truck (easier then my 5'0 wife I should add) but getting out he had as much difficult as my wife. He couldn't really reach the ground so he had to use the running board, same as my wife. I have no issues but I'm 5'11

If you have bad knees or a bad back/etc... I'd advise against a lift, because there is a lot more punishment when you jump DOWN from the truck. I guess if you got out of the truck CORRECTLY you'd be fine, but I tend to use the running board to get INTO the truck and just jump/fall out of the seat to get out. I'm sure if I were 50-60 that might not be a good thing but being I'm in my 30's I'm fine for now.

I'm not concerned with MPG since I drive about 16 miles a day to/from work combined, so no real issues for me there. I've yet to take it on the highway for big trips so I can't really tell my proper MPG. I do have to get to Freeport from the SSP this week so I'll see how it does on a 30 or so mile trip.

Lifts come at a price. You're talking about $7k when all is said and done with taxes/etc... if you have money to burn for toys/etc... i'd say go for it. But if you don't have money to burn I'd advice against it, especially if you have kids (I do not have kids now, otherwise the wife would have never let me do this)

[SimpleMan]

You may end up needing a ground loop isolator we spoke about in another post.

I don't need to speak for Mad Russian. I am sure he appreciates the expertise you provided him. However, seeking a second opinion is a good thing.

[Havfun]

Cool looking truck

[UVBNAXED]

I don't need to speak for Mad Russian. I am sure he appreciates the expertise you provided him. However, seeking a second opinion is a good thing.

Then why say anything at all?

[Mad Russian]

Sounds like you have a grounding issue, which was very common back in the day when people put car audio systems in and they shared the ground/power for the radio with other devices in the vehicle.

How did you wire them up? Where did you connect the ground wire to? Did you run the ground wires back to the engine bay... even the power.

If you run power lines anywhere NEAR your antenna (or the wire that goes from the antenna to your radio) you'll get interference regardless of what brand light/equipment you use.

Also are you referring to headlights or light bars or what exactly?

These were just 6 led rectangular lights.
The car is an '07 Trailblazer. I ran power off the battery post, ground to a ground stud in the engine bay. The positive for the relay off the DRL, switch and relay grounded on the same ground stud.
The secondary issue was that as soon as installed the ferrite chokes and turned the lights on the chokes emitted a high pitched sound, like an old television (if anyone remembers the old tube sets).

How do your lights differ in the LED driver design?

[Havfun]

lot of hostility on a post about a guys car.
and some harmless questions .