45 Mods on My 2021 Ford F-150 - The BEST truck on YouTube!"

hey guys this is Dan with gears and gadgets thanks for tuning in I do want to run through everything I've done to this truck upgrades that I've done to my 2021 Ford F-150 power boost now when I set up flies well I tried to record this video in a much more Scenic location but the Flies and mosquitoes had other plans in mind which is okay I actually have a list of 45 modifications to go through on my 2021 Ford F-150 surely if I put out a video tomorrow on any new accessory I put on the truck somebody's going to ask hey what are those so I just decided to come in here and actually make a video about what all of it is I will link everything in the description down below so these are actual modifications to the truck these are not accessories I will do a separate video on accessories that I kind of carry in the truck with me this is solely meant to be bolt-on Performance Suspension those kinds of things so I'm going to kind of cover this off-road performance exterior lighting interior audio and utility then I'll chapter the video accordingly so number one off-road was actually a modification Made For Me on road without really my consent which was the removal of the active air dam these trucks do have an air dam that will drop down down low and kind of help divert some air in the front of the vehicle I thought it was actually kind of cool I liked it however the tire tread that I hit didn't seem to like it and it's kind of bent it up and it never really worked right after that so when I went to wheels and tires and suspension and all that I just decided I'm done with it I'm not going to spend a few hundred bucks to fix it and keep going through you know fixing it if it breaks again so just removed it number two is the 18 inch fuel that is the matte black Rebel six these are the 20 millimeter offset for these wheels and I think it gives it just enough poke without being obnoxious it doesn't Mar up the side of the truck by throwing rocks up I think it has the perfect stance the way that it is and those are wrapped in the Nitto Ridge Grapplers these are 275 70 18s so that is a 33 ish inch tire I believe I would like to go bigger eventually but that'll be another video in kind of the build 2.0 series possibly number four would be the Bilstein 6112s to those of you who question how I say Bilstein my neighbor came over the one day German as German could get and this is how he said it oh you got the peace sign in there so I did the bill Stein 6112s up front and those are actually on the highest circlip setting on this truck this is a power boost it's the hybrid powertrain uh it did fit it was quite a process to get those on there but I did it at the tallest setting and got a two inch lift and then I did the 5160s in the rear those are the reservoir shocks and it's really nice when you have the leaf spring suspension when you start going over washboards those leaf springs like to get real bouncy and those reservoir shocks really help settle that down quite a bit very happy with those now on the front end I also did the BDS upper control arms not probably necessary but I figured I was already in there doing the job might as well do it right so I did those as well number seven Talent garage skid plate setup now I worked with those guys early on with this truck those skid plates are awesome this truck did come with the FX4 package so it already had some skid plates things like that but I was more interested in catalytic converter theft we don't have a ton of it around in this specific area but with all of the parts shortages it was something I just did not want to even remotely have to deal with sure it's an insurance thing you can get you know covered for it but who knows if you can even get the parts it might not have your truck for months and months and months so those tail ends garage skid plates help solve for that because you can't get to the cats at least not very easily and criminals are lazy turds and they will not spend typically more than a few seconds trying to get at whatever they're trying to get at they will continue on down the road and that is the intent now number eight I'm considering this an off-road modification in terms of ground clearance You could argue whether or not it belongs there but the AMP Research power steps I have run those power steps on my last two trucks and I love them they are fantastic with the switch now the switch on the interior is fantastic to have because you can override them and tell them not to drop down when you are on a kind of like an off-kilter sort of suspension angle maybe a rock is sitting there and you don't want to ding them up or maybe you just want to drop them down at the car wash to wash them very easy to do that so uh very happy with that that is off-road now let's move on to Performance number nine these performance mods I can already see the comments down below people are very passionate one way or the other about these things I'm somewhere in the middle but I do always do the cold air intakes just something that I've always done and I like them so I did the Ford performance cold air intake on this now I did a whole video on cold air intakes and I'll link that up above on MPGs I bought them all it was a quite an ambitious video but there's one more I would like to maybe try to but I'll link that video again again I currently am running the Ford performance intake now I also did the CV fabrication Titan V2 intercooler up front I wanted to do that because I live in Phoenix it's super hot these are just air-to-air intercoolers and the trucks are known to heat soak just to me felt like something that would make sense to do and that's what I did so when I did that I also added the turbosmart blow-off valve I'm a former V8 owner I love V8s but if I'm going to make the switch to a twin turbo V6 at least let me hear the turbo and I when I put that on the truck it added character back into what I perceive to be kind of some stripped character when you go to the V6 I like it it makes the truck kind of unique now after I went through all of that I did see that CB fabrication launched the uh the hot and cold side piping so I just went through recently and did all of that as well I am kind of of the mindset I've watched a lot of banks power videos and I very much agree that a vehicle is nothing more than basically an air pump and the more efficiently you can get air into the motor the better it's going to run and I put those on there I I think it's a great modification and I'm happy that I did it but again I can see some comments down below from some people who may or may not disagree now the most useless and pointless modification that I did but for some reason I had to do it was the power Dynamic air scoop from AFE it's basically just a replacement of the OEM air scoop it's a little bit larger however it does neck down to the same opening in the air box anyway so it really kind of a useless modification but I did it anyways I also added an oil catch can that is a J L oil separator I think at any of these vehicles nowadays it's very important to do that as they're recircing some of that stuff through the motor now it is important to note that these 3.5 twin turbo Ford Motors they actually do have an injector that does get the top of the valves so it does help keep them cleaner but again I am a very big fan of oil catch cans now the last performance modification this is number 15 that we're at is the Mongoose OBD2 programmer this I put in a performance thing because it affects all of the electronics on the vehicle computer programming one thing Ford has not done very well but they are recently finally kind of catching up with their own Ambitions is software updates there is an entire threat on forums and a ton of support from people out there about how to do these upgrades it's it's a it's a mess but you do gain a lot of features back in the vehicle and I think that it is a good investment for that Mongoose cable if you really are interested in making sure that your Ford has the most up-to-date software it is basically doing all of the computer programming yourself if you take it to the dealership there's a very good chance they won't do it for you because dealerships in general have a very much if it ain't broke don't fix it mentality so if you go in there and say hey can you flash this to get me the newest and greatest they'll probably tell you no that's my opinion at least and I like to just be able to do it all myself in the driveway getting into exterior a lot of this obviously on the exterior is just aesthetic but it is modifications nonetheless I did switch over from the blue badges to the black badges I wanted my truck just to have kind of this white and black Motif so I did switch over to the black badges front and rear of course I tinted the windows number 18 I did the rear wheel liners now another exterior I'm calling this an exterior modification when I did the air-to-air intercooler Swap and the blow off valve the back up Ding and what I would call spaceship sound that these trucks make for the hybrid powertrain it's a little speaker under there I got rid of it because it was kind of annoying there was times that I was on job sites that I would be driving you know at a low speed and you just had this weird like whirring sound out of the truck it just didn't sound normal and I I got rid of it and number 20 is the Billet fuel door pin to replace the plastic OEM which just happens to break off quite a bit great way to solve for that problem now on to something that I think is some of the most fun is the lighting and electronics first off I have the switch Pros switch panel and if you can see here there is an app that I have on my phone that allows me to do things like control remotely the fog lamps I can also dim fog lamps down changing the brightness of these lights and controlling it from the controller is a fantastic thing if you were to talk about using this maybe in like a camp lighting type setup of course I can control both of my ditch lights separately and I like that because then I can use them actually as work lights also without having an excessive amount of light and just have enough to be able to turn them and you know work with them that way uh fantastic operation and getting it installed in there it was my way of basically having the Raptor flip switches which I think is limited to six but either way I actually think it's a cooler setup and more functional you can retrofit in the Raptor switches if you want there's kits out there for it but this actually ended up being cheaper and I think a better application for running the electronics now the ditch lights I do have the Ridgid D series Pro ditch lights and those rigid ditch lights are mounted with the Z roads light mounts now coming down here I did retrofit in some driving fog light setup if you've ever ridden driven through snow these new LED headlights that come on these vehicles they're awesome but it is good to have some amber light down low and I think it just kind of gives it like a unique lighting signature without doing the Raptor lighting signature in The Grille that a lot of people like to retrofit on their truck I don't want to do that because it's not a raptor so I'd like to have my own kind of like lighting signature and and again these are the two Banger hxb LED pods from Morimoto and these are SAE approved so they are street legal fog lights and they throw out a pretty good amount of light I'm very happy with them now I also did this uh number 25 the XB LED tail lights on the rear I was very hesitant in terms of what I thought that was going to look like and I almost canceled the order because it took months for those things to show up and it gave me a lot of time to second guess whether I was going to like it or not very happy that I waited for them uh the again kind of custom looking lighting signature I think they fit the white and black look perfectly the lighting signature out of them is awesome they're perfectly bright not too bright not too dim they look very OEM and I love things that look like they came from the factory but are different from what everybody else has on the road now naturally of course I also matched the x3b LED brake light that was something I'm very happy that I did because it just kind of matches and the lighting again the output from it it's fantastic now when I ordered those of course they did the suggestive selling of adding in the backup light booster bar I did that and man it throws a ton of light when in reverse and the cool thing is that when I talk about the next thing which is the BCM light flasher from Z flash that is what number 28 that we're at that light flasher when activated also includes now the backup booster bar so provides a little more lighting to the rear when using the hazard light setup now a lot of people ask why I have that and initially when I bought this truck I was using it in construction I do a lot of drone stuff did a lot of drone construction stuff and at times was maybe out on job sites that were not ground broken yet and in Arizona here you got to kind of be careful when you're out somewhere by yourself you don't know who you're going to run across and maybe end up on somebody else's property it's just nice to have those flashers it kind of sends a signal to people that like you know maybe you belong where you're at doing what you're doing it just creates a little less skepticism I suppose in those scenarios without having to put a roof you know light bar on the truck which with these aluminum bodies is very hard to do anyways so that is it in terms of lighting getting into interior this is uh the first one is pretty interesting we're at number 29. this I consider to be one of the best mods I did very early on and it is brought to you by the Ford forums and it is the nickel trick these armrests the center consoles when you get in these trucks I hope they fixed it since you know the first model year but I doubt they have when you open up the armrest if your truck is even remotely parked you know nose down it just flops right down it doesn't have very much resistance to kind of hold itself up so you pop a couple nickels up underneath that spring increase the tension rate on it and it's enough to give it enough to to Really hold itself up there pretty good so thank you forums for that now the console safe that is also something that I'm a very big fan of uh whether it be Pew pews or just a wallet or something that you want to lock out of range if somebody were to smash your window it's one more line of defense before something like that is uh taken with that console organizer is a modification that's arguably an accessory but I put it in the modifications because it is a necessary modification these center consoles are so enormous that without any separation like you're it's basically just a trash can you throw stuff in there and it just piles up on itself good luck ever finding anything so those organizers are very helpful and uh very happy I put that in there because it helps keep everything organized now in the back of the truck I did the orange row rear seat storage organizer these trucks from the factory do have the ability to have a built-in tray that is lockable fantastic it's great however for me some of these these YouTube trips it's you know family gets home at four or five in the afternoon I'm hitting the road to get as far as I can to somewhere maybe in California and I might just choose to sleep in the back of the truck so when I found this orange row on Amazon I believe it was uh it was the maximum amount of storage and I can just unthread it and if I want to sleep in the back of the truck I can take that tray out throw it in the back of the truck and now I have the entire flat load floor with all of my belongings in the bed of the truck and it's just an easy way to kind of move stuff in and out and maximize that space now number 33 the dash Mount from built right Industries I use that for a couple different things I do have a handheld radio that I'll put up there a scanner that I'll run if I'm doing drone stuff to listen to air traffic especially here in Phoenix there's a lot of air traffic and I like to just have my my ears about me when I'm flying in those scenarios so I do have a mount that I can put that scanner up there there's a foam mount a couple different things but the main thing is that built right dash piece kind of makes that a much more useful area even if you don't put the attachments on there I like the fact that it's got some slots where if I go to the airport and I park I can just put my ticket right there there's some slots it works out really well which kind of helps increase the usability of that space uh next is the ocdplug.com screen protector kit that one came courtesy of a sponsored video from another YouTuber mine is not sponsored OCD plug screen protector kit uh Back Road driver had it on their Channel I saw it I think I ordered it the day I watched that video uh very happy I did it because it also adds like a matte finish to these screens these screens are actually really reflective and the matte really helps kind of knock down some of that reflectiveness and it also really helps protect uh the the screen from scratches now the other thing I did modification wise I hate how OEM manufacturers have Chrome on the inside of vehicles it is the dumbest thing I don't know why they do it because when the sun catches it even with tinted windows it just sends that sun right up in your eyeball and it's like blinding so I did order some silver brushed car wrap that I just got off Amazon it is from Vivid I believe and I just kind of covered some of that I want to do it better it's not done fantastic but it does get rid of that problem of getting Sun shot directly into your eyeball uh the last interior modification number 36 was the built right rear seat latch on the driver's side these vehicles do not have an easy way to drop down that rear back seat and with that latch it gives you access to that whole area it's not huge but I do find with the sun shades which I'll cover in my accessory videos that when you don't use them especially in the cooler months here I can just get them back you know behind that seat out of sight out of mind and not have to wrestle with them now getting into audio early on I did switch to the stubby antenna I hate the giant antennas that come on these trucks and I know I hear people in the comments already that they're there so you don't hit low stuff I know when I can and cannot clear things I think that's an absurd thing if you don't know that's insane but the stubby antenna it's it's great because the the tall just steel antenna it just flops around in the in the wind it's it's super annoying it actually you catch it out of your peripheral vision and to me it's very annoying uh now I did do and this is a little bit controversial to me I was not a fan of the limited volume that I had out of the OEM speakers now I do have the most premium bang Olsen Unleashed system it sounded fine to me however I always felt like it was limited in its volume capability with the windows down I don't know just so I I decided to try to switch to Rockford fosgate's uh the front six and a half inch are the Prime series I also did the center three and a half inch that's an infinity and then the rear Prime series Rock for fosgates are the six and a half three ways so the front again are components the rears are three ways and number one I had to turn the surround sound off because it just did not sound right when I switched it back to stereo I'm able to get it to sound right again but I think I need an amp and a whole setup we'll see I do kind of wish it had a little more punch to the audio and the the the upgrade to me and the speakers it's fine but it's not as good as I would like it to be to the point where I almost like yeah you know should I have done it I don't know probably not so just kind of a bummer now let's talk about utility mods we are number 41. I did a Linex bed liner in this truck pretty early on I always do I think Linex is great but I don't know why this version of Linux whatever I have in the truck it just seemed more slippery than the last truck and when I would put things into like a plastic case a drone case and hit the brakes it would just stuff would go flying and smash into the walls it was just it wasn't enough and I thought about doing a rubber floor mat the stuff that I'm putting back there isn't like tie it down type stuff it's throw it in there it's in a plastic case tonneau cover is closed it's fine but I couldn't keep it from sliding around I'm not breaking ratchet straps out every time I do something like that so I was going to do a rubber mat but I decided to buy something that I've always thought was the dumbest thing ever which was the bed rug so I put that over top of Linex probably didn't need to do Linux I love the bed rug it's for some reason it's not as dumb as I thought people who comment that they think it's dumb I get it I used to be that commenter after owning it I think I'll probably have it in every truck going forward the only way I would not have it in there is if I was doing a lot of like loading two by fours in and out of the back of the truck where I might be kind of like digging into it and ripping it up and things like that but I don't use my truck that way to the people who say like oh five and a half foot bed you need a longer bed I'd much rather just get a trailer and if I'm gonna haul a bunch of lumber a hall on a trailer I I prefer to tow heavy stuff anyways these trucks can tow like you wouldn't believe payload wise I don't know I'd rather just tow this stuff so I like the bed rug big big fan uh toolboxes these swing cases now in older trucks I used to just put totes at the bulkhead but with a five and a half foot bed I don't want to make it any shorter so when I saw these swing cases actually a former co-worker of mine Ryan thanks for the recommendation had them in his truck I ordered them love them they're fantastic they fit everything I need you'll see that in the accessories video but those things are fantastic now number 44. plus nuts this is uh something that's more of an accessory because of what I attached but definitely had to drill into the bed of the truck some people will or will not be on board with that but for me the bed of the truck it's it's a truck it still is a pickup truck now I just did a video on the Badland Jack that I bought from Harbor Freight now on the accessory side of things I'll cover them out which came from Grove Fab Works but I'll kind of show that more on the accessory video I wanted a way to permanently Mount that jet because it's like 70 something pounds and if you get in an accident heaven forbid you end up doing a rollover kind of thing you do not want a 70 pound projectile flying around through the air killing somebody or you know coming through the back windshield and you know catching my daughter a lot of the stuff that I do with my truck is with the safety in mind of not putting heavy things I will never store a hitch underneath the seat of my truck because again if you get in an accident now you have a giant piece of Steel that's just flying around the cab of the truck not super smart and if you do that I would recommend you reconsider it or at least understand that it is dangerous so these plus nuts in the bed of the truck were put there specifically to be able to mount this Jack so that it is rigidly mounted but also still removable so if I want to use the bed for hauling things around and it's in the way I can remove it throw it in the garage here and carry on using my truck as normal however off-roading type stuff I want to have that Jack in there it's going to live in there pretty much permanently unless I do need to remove it for a specific use now when I was doing that I also plus nutted in the air compressor which I will show in another video just nice to be able to have the compressor bolted into the bed of the truck and if I need to remove it for space again I can as well so big fan of those plus nuts just learned about them recently and they work out really well now the last and maybe controversial 45th mod it's it's not controversial but some people may view it this way is the back x4s tonneau cover now I just did a video recently with a another Taino cover it was fine I had no problems with it I just prefer the back x4s which I already had so with that being said this is the end of my 45 mods done to my 2021 Ford F-150 pickup truck and uh very happy with the way this is currently I built this truck specifically for my use cases as a daily for a construction project manager I now work from home things have changed and I might take this build now to like a build 2.0 of maybe less of a daily and more of Adventure type vehicle I don't know let me know in the comments down below what do you think I should do with the truck but again my needs have changed since from when I bought the truck to where I'm at currently and with that maybe I'll start doing some different stuff with it but the way this is now I think that this is the most responsibly built truck on YouTube in terms of a daily practical driving truck with a bunch of additional added utility for somebody who's maybe in the trades uh similar to what I was doing maybe getting out on job sites and needing or wanting just a little bit more functionality out of their truck and maybe just a little bit of a differentiation from every other F-150 that's out on the road and that was kind of my initial build series uh and and I think I really achieved it quite well so maybe we're on to build series 2.0 we'll see how that goes so again thank you guys very much for tuning in this video was quite lengthy a lot to cover but I wanted to make sure I kind of put it out there soup the nuts on everything I've done to this truck to this point forward on modifications so with that being said guys thank you very much for tuning in if this is your first time tuning in please hit that subscribe button down below remember likes go a long way to support the channel I'll see you guys next time maybe on the accessories video

Channel: Gears and Gadgets

Views: 45,971

Keywords: Lighting Mods, Electrical Modifications, Vehicle Modifications, 2021 Ford F-150, ford trucks, 2021 f150, Ford F-150, Truck Mods, Off-Road Upgrades, ford f150, F150, Trucks, Utility Enhancements, Truck Enthusiasts, Truck Accessories, off road upgrades, Truck Lifestyle, Off-Roading, Truck Customization, Performance Enhancements, Epic Truck Mods, truck level, new ford f-150, Popular Mods, Custom Truck, truck suspension, truck driver lifestyle, truck wheels, tires, Powerboost

Id: 3UyS7sn86Lk

Length: 26min 1sec (1561 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023