F-150 "Lightening"

Any creative (free/cheap) ways you guys can think of to drop some weight on my soon-to-be daily driven 1995 F-150 SuperCab Flareside 4x4?

I don't tow at all and I'd like to take the family trail riding. I'd like to keep the utility of the truck while dropping as much weight as possible. Interior is mint and I'd like to keep it that way.

Not much weight to pull out of a truck and keep it nice.

Best bet is to add more power!

In reply to 93gsxturbo:

Ya got me there! If afraid once I got started with cutting weight I'd end up with what I did to my Samurai: about 40% of the original sheet metal.

I'm really wanting pre-runner fiberglass fenders. Not a cheap way to drop weight. May not even be any lighter!

Well, let's see.

Fender liners/inner fenders. If you go trail riding your engine bay will get dirtier. Rear bumper. Do you bumper tow? Does it have a hitch? Toss the hitch! Spare tire? Don't need that for off-roading right? Speakers, stereo? Headphones are good enough, right? AC and power steering systems? Family trail ride in a straight line in nice weather? Smaller wheels and tires. Trail riding means small tires are ok i think. It's not rock crawling right? Convert to 2wd? Full fiberglass body panels?

To be completely honest, this whole idea seems like a good way to waste a lot of effort getting crappy results. Nothing on that truck is built to be light and your intended uses encourage you to keep the truck heavy, more or less. You could get real creative cutting metal out but in the end you'd probably be lucky to dump 300 lbs off a 4600 lb truck.

Remove bed, install only when needed?

Get lighter wheels, LS swap to aluminum block... lexan windows. CF hood. Gut the bumpers/shocks. Gut all the strength out of the box sides or replace the whole thing with aluminum diamond plate & tie downs. Aluminum drive shaft. Lose the cast iron manifolds, big honkin muffler and heavy gauge exhaust pipe. Dump the spare. Lighter battery. Bore and dimple the frame rails. Acid dip the whole chassis and body... replace all the fasteners with titanium... starve all the potential occupants down to the bare minimum weight they can survive at.

If you aren't going to gut the interior you are out of easy options. You can take it all out - remove all the sound deadener and tar and put it back in though.

That isn't the sort of vehicle that lends itself to lightness but... what the hell. You might as well try.

there isn't a whole lot you can do to fit your criteria- you could maybe pull the interior, remove the sound deadener, and put it back in, but that would only take off 20 pounds at best and result in a noisier cab...

take off all the emissions stuff. you not only add lightness, but you also add power and efficiency.

which engine does it have? trans?

In reply to novaderrik:

5.0 E4OD.

I admit what I want to end up with-- same truck minus enough weight to make it more nimble--is bordering on pipe dream.

I have aluminum wheels, smaller battery, lost the spare. I guess I'm thinking of making the drivetrain last longer off road by stressing it less with less sprung weight.

Sterling in back and a straight Dana 60 up front would be a much more fun method of curing that!