• Written by Jay Ryan

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It’s that time again! The second installment of everyones favorite automotive odyssey. This is where we lift the veil on some of the inquiries that we have shotgunned at us on a daily basis. Here we go.

“Can I do tires later?” Technically…yes. Can you brush your teeth using cake frosting? Also technically yes. We get this question asked mostly due to budgetary reasons simply because the nature of our work can be expensivish. I mean come on, we make trucks bigger, this shit is extra. So when it comes time to do say, a lift wheel and tire package on a truck the tires can sometimes be the most expensive part. Folks will ask if the truck will look funny if they go ahead and do the lift then wheels or tires later. My professional response, because if I’m anything I’m the epitome of professionalism, is that it will look like a shopping cart. Or Yosemite Sam with his itty bitty little legs. It will have gone to the gym and skipped leg day as they say. Dumb as hell is the short version. You won’t like it and people will make fun of you. NEXT AWESOME QUESTION!!!

This is a good one. “Can’t you just fab something up?” Specifically we get this question in regards to steps for some reason. It usually comes across as something like, can you weld another step on to the bottom of the step that’s already there? What? You mean like a mini staircase? Naw man, like a step and then another step. We have just described the same thing. And no, we don’t do that. Another oddly frequent step modification request is to attach another step on to an Amp Research Powerstep so it can drop down like normal, but then fold out another stop. Listen, if we had the know how or capabilities or magic derived exclusively from selling our souls to the devil for straight up magic powers then we wouldn’t be selling tires. I’m sure someone somewhere can create such a thing but the cost and engineering would far outweigh the economy of scale required in the truck accessory game. So no, we don’t do that either.

Alright, this is one that Blake caught awhile back. Fella called and said, hey man I need a gooseneck hitch installed. Blake said, okay, what truck are we working on? ’14 Ford F150. Great start right? Here’s your price for parts and labor sir. No, I just need labor cost, I have the part. Part? Yeah I got the ball. Do you have the brackets and other parts for install? No, I just need the ball welded in the bed. Whatcha haulin’ sir? 40 foot camper. This gets better as we go. Sir you need more than a ball welded into the bed. Well hell I did the same thing in my last truck. Really? Really really? You’re sure you just had a ball welded into the sheet metal of your truck bed? Well if ya’ll can’t do it I’ll just take it to someone else. That is an acceptable resolution to this situation.

One more? Okay let’s do one more. Can I save some money by not doing an alignment? This may not be common knowledge but when having suspension modifications performed it is necessary to perform an alignment to ensure proper tire wear and handling characteristics on your vehicle. It’s like wiping your ass after taking a shit, you absolutely must perform this task or you will for suuuuuuuuuure have some problems. So when we give someone a quote for a leveling kit or lift kit, we say sir or ma’am this price includes parts, labor, alignment, tax, title, license. And sometimes that sir or ma’am goes, how much is it without the alignment? We won’t let it go without an alignment. Period. This is for two reasons. One is for the end user so they can get the most life out of their tires and the other is for our reputation. We pride ourselves on our alignments as well as our other work so we don’t want someone to shit talk us saying we didn’t do an alignment when we were specifically asked to not perform one. Not gonna happen. Not on my watch pal!

So there ya go. Just a couple few questions we receive here at Off-Road King. Will there be more in the future? You bet your ass there will be. Will there be another one of these articles in the future. Hell yes brother. K love you bye.