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This year’s Jump Champs was an event that we will not soon forget. From Jerry Larimore’s high-flying prerunner [2] to Jason Burford’s stickered-up Ford Ranger [3], the off-roaders were out in force. They showed the crowd what chutzpah and long-travel suspension could do if put together – awesomeness.
One fellow who was competing that day was Ben Prall. He brought out his 1996 Ford F-150 to take part in the time trials and see how the truck fared. We stopped by to get a better look and explanation on how it came to be.
[4]The all-important cage on this F-150 is two-inch-diameter tubing, “built to race and to be rolled” as Ben said. He admitted that the truck had already been rolled twice before, commenting that “one of them wasn’t my fault, and one of them was.”
“I bought the truck online, bone-stock, with the intention of turning into how you see it today,” said Ben. “It came with the 5.8-liter V8, running and driving, so I drove it home, tore it apart, and built it up from there.”
From 2013 to 2014, Ben did the work to get the F-150 freshened up and ready for battle. “I did all of the work myself,” he said. “About nine months ago, I redid the back half through my work at Outlaw Offroad [5].”
[6]For lighting, the truck has GG Lighting out of Santa Ana, California. A 30-inch light bar flanked by square pods gave the truck plenty of forward nighttime visibility, while rock lights made it possible to inspect the truck in its nether regions.
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When asked to give us the inside scoop on the build specs, Ben said, “The motor and transmission are bone-stock, they’re the only things left stock on this truck. The rearend is a Ford 9-inch with 4.88:1 gear ratio in a custom-built housing.”
“The rear suspension is from King [8] shocks, with 16-inch coilovers and 18-inch bypasses,” continued Ben. “The front has Giant [9] links and I-beams, again with 16-inch coilovers but no bypasses. The cage is two-inch tubing, built to race and to be rolled.”
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The fiberglass panels were a funny story all their own. According to Ben, one of his buddies had bought them for his own F-150, which he later rolled. "I bought them off of him before it went to the junkyard!" said Ben. "The old back half had gas doors, we back-halfed it, lost the gas doors, and shortened the wheelbase by about eight inches. So that's why you see these big holes for gas doors now."
Future modifications for the truck are not pressing, nor are there very many. In fact, as Ben stated, there seemed to be only one on his mind: “Paint.”
It sure was cool to see what everyone brought out to Jump Champs this year, and it makes us excited to think what we might see next year. Be sure to view our Top 5 Trucks from Jump Champs [2], and keep it real this Memorial Day weekend!
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