- Heathen. I'm just trying to get excited
about pre-runners, Lawson. - Okay 3, 2, 1, action! - I don't need your action.
I can make my own video. You're not even my real dad. - Right on the set! - If you're anything like me, then you probably spent your
childhood playing with trucks and tractors in the dirt. I've got many hours
mobbing through the dirt on my hands and knees. And while most of these talking
trucks were pretty freaking cool. There's one of them
that sticks out in my memory, unlike any other. It was an old square body
looking Chevy pickup truck on these massive mud boggers. And of course it had a massive lift kit. Although things have changed
in the toys that most of us are now playing with are bigger
and much more expensive. Like my Duramax, that obsession
with lifted trucks really never went away, but there's one type of build
that just gets me every single time. Every time. These long
travel suspension, big tire, small wheel having off-road machines, have a special place in my heart, and they probably always will. But where did they come from? What makes them so special
and for God's fricking sick, why are they so cool? why are they so cool? I'm Dustin with the Custom Offsets. You guys can follow me
on instagram@dusty.co. And today we're having a quick little chat and going over just why you
may want to pre-run or build. Roll the intro. For the first time ever, I can actually say that
before we jump into this one, because well, pre-runners jump harder
than the ever popular Ford Raptor video. You guys know the one I'm
talking about where they would launch it in the airbags. It's great. - Ooh! - If you're brand new to the
channel, and this is your first time watching one of our
videos, then hey man, welcome. Thanks for joining us. I hope you enjoy the channel. - Thanks, I'm glad you
came along, partner. - Thanks, I'm glad you
came along, partner. - If you've been here before
then, hey, welcome back. It's good to see you. As a reminder, that if you guys are looking
for wheels and tires, a lift kit or other mods, like performance parts, lighting products, and the likes, whether that be for a pre-runner or not, go ahead and click that link
down below in the description, or just head on over to CustomOffsets.com. It's pretty awesome. It's a great place. You should check it out. Also, we've been building another
SEMA truck for SEMA this year. So if you haven't seen those videos yet, we'll link one of them down
in the description for you as well. It's this one right
here behind me that you maybe can see, but maybe can't see. Either way, It's really cool. So let's talk about
pre-runners. First and foremost, what the heck is a
pre-runner anyway? Well, the term is thrown
around a lot in industry. There are not too many people who actually know what it means. Word on the streets is that
the term pre-runner comes from the racing world where these
vehicles are used to actually pre-run an off-road race course. We're talking things like trophy trucks, off-road ultra four cars,
you know, stuff like that. You know, Baja 1000 type stuff. The stuff that we all wish
that we could play with, but you know, most of us can't afford. RIP. See, most of these race teams have a separate secondary vehicle that is built in a similar fashion to their actual race truck. These pre-runner vehicles
allow race teams to drive the course and get familiar with
the terrain in a vehicle that's going to handle similarly
to the race truck without risking the entire prized
race truck. You know, and that way you don't have
the opportunity to like, wad it up into a twisted ball of
steel and broken components. Like prior to the big dance. You don't want to do that. It's a bad day. As desert racing grew in
popularity of these pre-run vehicles continued to grow and
much like everything else in the world. If it looks
cool and people like it, it's bound to show up everywhere. As the desert racing seat
exploded in Southern California, people outside of just
race teams began craving this purpose built truck style, but in a street legal configuration. And thus the pre-runner scene was born. So what makes a pre-runner
so damn appealing? Like what makes these slightly
awkward looking trucks so popular with their wide set front wheels and oftentimes Cali leaned or Carolina's squatted appearance? For pre-runners, it's
all about functionality. Even if you're not on a pro race team, pre runners by nature are
designed to be ripped through the desert, taking all of those bumps and rough terrain in stride, and ultimately leaving you
ripping through the desert at mach 10, and still being able
to run up the five to LA, if you need to make a business call. Pre-runners are going to
typically feature a long travel suspension widened track
width on the front end, and of course, big old all-terrain,
or even in some cases, mud terrain tires on a
smaller wheel for more of that off-road style look, additionally, most pre-order builds are
going to feature some sort of wider body work than factory. This is going to help not only
with the clearance for that wider suspension and
bigger wheels and tires, but it also looks fricking bad-ass. Like I've yet to see a
pre-runner style build with wide vendors that just doesn't look wicked cool rolling down the road. Look at all the cool
stuff RK sport is doing. I'm convinced that you cannot
have an ugly pre-runner. It just doesn't, it's
just not possible, right? It just doesn't exist. So let's say you want to build
a pre-runner first of all, what kind of truck are you
even looking for? Well, there are several extremely
custom builds up there, seems the most popular builds
are going to be based off either the Ford Ranger,
or the one and only iconic Toyota Tacoma platform. Not only did these trucks
make up the majority of the sportsman racing classes
between the early 80s and the mid 2000s, but they're also one of the
most inexpensive trucks to build into a pre-runner style build. In more recent years, we're also seeing full-sized pre-runner builds pop-up
with F-150s, Chevy 1500s, and of course, who could
forget the iconic Raptor. So what about suspension setups, right? What should you be looking
for if you crave that off-road dirt slinging and
goodness of a pre-runner? Well, for starters, let's just have a quick
chat about lift kits, right? This probably where most of
this starts we'll share a standard lift kit might give
you the look of a pre-runner. If you want to walk the walk,
when it comes to pre runners, you're going to be looking for
a long travel suspension kit. Now, long travel suspension
kits are different, because, ready for this? It's groundbreaking. They have longer travel
than a standard lift kit. Hence the name, this is
important for two reasons. Reason number one, the
faster you want to go, the more suspension travel
that you're going to need, because the quicker you're
going to take the bumps. Number two, when you launch
this thing off of a sand dune, you're gonna want to make
sure that you have a nice soft landing when you come back down. So your airbags don't go off
and break your fricking nose. For this reason long travel
lifts are going to feature longer than normal, upper control arms, as well as lower control arms,
a longer coil over upfront, remote reservoirs and other
features to help them ensure that your truck is set up to
handle all of the abuse that you're inevitably going to throw at it if you build a pre-runner. Unfortunately like everything
in life, if you get more, it's also going to cost you more, and it's quite a bit more if we're talking long travel lift kits. Where an average lift kit
can cost you somewhere between $1500 and $3,000, long
travel kits can be upwards of 10 grand or more. Other build parts are going
to include things like aggressive minimalistic style bumpers, like the ones that ADD makes to lower approach and departure angles. Lights on lights on lights, so you can see where you're
going when you're shredding the dunes in Southern California in the dark. And of course, function over form inspired
wheels and tires with most guys running like nine or 10 wide wheels, usually not bigger than
20 inches in diameter. Wrapping around those wheels
is usually 35s or bigger. And again, we're talking old terrains
or in some extreme cases, mud terrains, depending
on where you're located. Well, there are plenty of guys
that are actually using their trucks to like shred
the NAR in the desert. There are just as many who were inspired by the pre-runner look, but are taking cues to build
their trucks on maybe a street truck style set up. Take
this one, for example, which combines the styling
cues of a pre-runner with a larger polished wheel and
tire combo. And in my opinion, it just looks really
fricking cool. Or this one, which is about as
perfect built as it gets. It's like the polar opposite of my truck, and it looks fantastic. With all that being said, though, why would you want a pre-runner? Well, I can't say for certain, what I can say is that the
pre-runner guys are some of the most fun people that I've
ever met in my life period. These guys spend every weekend
that they can running through the desert jumping sand dunes, shredding the flat wide open
desert to the Southwest and throwing rager parties in
the middle of nowhere with a circle of trucks and
UTVs and dune buggies, and other awesome off-road
capable vehicles that look great, function fantastically, and are just an absolute blast to drive. What do you guys think? Would you build a pre-runner, or are they more not your style? Let us know down in the comment
section below and as always be sure to like the video and
consider subscribing to the channel if you haven't already. with that, I'm Dustin with custom offsets. We'll see you guys on the next one. I go home now.
