97 F150 prerunner/trophy truck

Max id like to start a prerunner project and since your the suspension god had a couple questions for ya. I would like to add 4-5" width to each side in the front and make a set of upper and lower tubular control arms. and was wondering whats the best setup for the balljoint I seen a few of the companies are running heims with high missalignment spacers. by the way the truck is 2wd. and do I have to get a taller spindle I see there are comapnies that make them or is the stock one ok .Ill be running 2.5" king coilovers with 10" travel for the front which should get me around 15" at the wheel. for the rear I wanna do a 4 link on a ford 9" the question I had here is how far forward do I bring the 4 link to maximize travel without binding the driveshaft. the rear will have2.5" king coilovers with 14" or 16" travel and an added shock. now Id like to be able to drive this on the street also so not sure if that will effect anything. thanks for any input

Wow! You are asking A LOT! There are SO many other things that you need to concern yourself with other than proper ball joint use. You might be better off buying a kit or finding a reputable shop to build you something. But take it from me, if this is your first off road project, you don't want to dive in feet first without doing a TON of homework. I will help as much as I can, but I could write an entire book to answer your questions.

check out a kit for sure unless you are going to build a trophy truck a kit is the way to go all the geometry is already figured out. check out blitzkrieg motorsports, they are putting out some of the better stuff these days. ball joints are nearly non existant in the dessert world everything is built using hiems and mono balls....when choosing a track width remember to keep resale value in mind if its not with in regulation of any sort of racing ie bitd, mdr, score ect. it will be harder to sell because it's use will be limited... typically trailing arms will come as far forward as the rear of the cab door again there are kits for this also an f150 is a full size truck i'm almost certain that youd be strecthing the capabilities of a 2.5 shock or coil i run a 2.5 on my class 7 ranger  you probably should run 3" up front and possibly 4" with a 3" bypass in the rear. if you 4 link your truck vs running deavers or some sort of a long travel leaf pack you will experience alot of body roll on the street as well as a good amount of bouncing.... these trucks are typically set up for the sole purpose of handeling what the dessert throws there way not so much the streets... another thing to think about if you four link it you will have to put in a role cage to stiffen the frame as well as keep ya safe on the dirt just my 2 cents take a look around and find some one locally whos been doing it its an exspensive hobie and will cost even more if you jump into it with out having a plan

  To give you an idea of what you have to look forward to...This is the blitzkrieg kit we used for the ranger we use as a chase truck we were able to keep the ac and fit both a coil over and a bypass. Pic taken before the bypass went in   

for the info Kris it will def be getting  a full cage for safety and for stiffening it up I wanna be able to air this beast out. as far as looking around to see who's doing it by me there's nothing like this up here by me. Me and a friend will probably have the only 2 in hundreds of miles. I was looking at the camberg kit for the front which looks very similar to what you posted up above. the rear I def want to go 4 link what would you reccomend for 4" shock and coil over setup for the rear  also Id be running 35's if it makes any difference. One more question what do you think are better bumpstops the air or the hydraulic?

Im doing a bunch of research on this kinda thing for a current project im working on, i have found a lot of useful info and build ups on www.race-dezert.com    

what about a 4x4 99 f150 ...i have seen some ifs 4x4 ford with longtravel