Photography: Craig Perronne
Jeeps and Moab go together like peanut butter and jelly. This is for a good reason as Moab has plenty of steep ledges, climbs, and drop offs that make the tidy trail dimensions of a Jeep ideal. The larger rear overhang that a fullsize pickup bed brings usually means some destroyed sheet metal when coming off a ledge. And a huge wheelbase often results in a truck getting beached on its belly like some poor whale that has washed ashore. Or, it means doing an endless 100-point turn to navigate a tight section of the trail while those in smaller Jeeps look on in amusement.
That is not to say that we don’t see fullsize trucks out at Moab. Usually when we do they have employed a few tricks to overcome their overabundance of body. Many have been bobbed or narrowed in the front and rear—or all three. While this can help, most still show the body damage of encounters with the unforgiving rocks of Moab. Finding a fullsize out at Moab is rare. Finding one that is completely free of rock rash is almost unheard of.
That is why Fab Fours’ 2018 Ford Super Duty, dubbed Daylighter, quickly caught our attention when we first spotted it cruising the trails at Moab. With its massive 44-inch tires, Daylighter is absolutely huge and impossible to miss out on the trail. It is also a brand-new Ford Super Duty that hadn’t had any body damage yet from being out on the trail. It also caught our attention because it simply worked. Some vehicles seem to have a magic combination of tire size, wheelbase, suspension flex and traction. They simply work without much fuss and Daylighter is one of those. It impressed us with its ability to walk over and through many obstacles at Moab.
Another surprise when it comes to Daylighter is that it is a fairly simple truck. There wasn’t months or years of toil in a garage. In fact, from rolling off of the dealer’s lot to rolling on massive 44s, the total build took only two weeks. And, unlike some of Fab Fours’ other extremely unique and one-off builds (like the very radical Kymera), Fab Fours built the Super Duty using existing, off-the-shelf products. That way anyone who wanted to could replicate it. Let’s take a look at what makes a simple and effective trail truck.
The rear suspension consists of Skyjacker springs and blocks. While the setup might be fine on the street and for light off-roading, the bigger blocks predictably produce a decent amount of axle wrap on bigger climbs. With the two-week build time being a mad rush to get to Moab, there is now more time for Fab Fours to figure out how to keep axle wrap at a minimum.
Products we used in this article
Products we used in this article
Protecting the rear of the Ford Super Duty is a Fab Fours Premium rear bumper. It provides stout 3/16-inch D-ring recovery points to help with extraction should the big girl ever get stuck. Handy steps on the sides help the vertically challenged and the wee ones get up into the bed of the truck. It is plenty beefy and was up to being unceremoniously dragged down some rock faces when the length of the truck was simply too much.
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