Unlocking Our Diesel Power Stroke Potential – K&N’s New Ford Super Duty Transformation

At K&N, we believe Performance is meant to be Unlimited. We build products that fuel our passion as automotive enthusiasts and we’ve been doing just that for the last 57 years so it’s no surprise that when we had the opportunity to add a new tow rig to our stable, we chose one of the most popular diesel platforms around, a brand new Ford F-250 Super Duty with the 6.7L Power Stroke Diesel. These trucks offer a lot whether you’re towing heavy weight, hitting the trails, or like us, commuting to the office daily. Of course, good enough just isn’t our style so we quickly came up with a plan and took our new ride over to SoCal Super Trucks to transform our run of the mill HD truck to the Ultimate Diesel Adventure Rig that would be right at home both on and off the trail.

SoCal Super Trucks is well known for building some of the coolest off-road machines around so we knew our Super Duty would be right at home with them to outfit it for both adventure and work duties. The guys at SoCal Super Trucks quickly got to work and had our new adventure rig ready to hit the trail with a whole host of new parts and accessories to spice up our diesel.

Everyone knows Horsepower Starts with K&N and this build was no different. Luckily our K&N Engineers just released a whole new lineup of Performance Diesel Products for some of the most popular diesel trucks available today. From our most advanced NextGen Air Intake Systems packed with a hybrid open-top design with an enlarged factory fresh air inlet that lowers inlet temperatures and optimizes airflow as well as smoother more consistent airflow at higher volumes that deliver more towing performance with no tune required. We went with a NEXTGEN Diesel DryFlow Air Intake (50-2613D) and definitley gave our new Super Duty an attitude adjustment adding just almost 18 Horsepower and just over 39 lb-ft of torque. This particular intake flows almost 19% more air than the stock system did so we can rest assured the K&N NEXTGEN Diesel Air Intake will be up to the task of adventure, heavy work or spirited commutes through SoCal freeways. 

The NEXTGEN Diesel Air Intakes are packed with a large DryFlow Air Filter element that increases air delivery while keeping harmful contaminants out of your engine’s induction system no matter how hard you’re working it.

We knew we’d be adding more weight to our Ford Super Duty with our list of accessories and gear for adventures or traveling the open road to events with a loaded bed or pulling a trailer, so being able to pass on a grade or merge onto highways faster than the competition in the next lane was a must. The K&N NextGen Diesel Air Intake features a hybrid airbox that is semi-enclosed to help lower air temperatures while an enlarged fresh air inlet provides improved airflow and better protection against harmful diesel environments. An oversized DryFlow® Filter draws in more air and features Quick-Lock™ technology for fast, secure installation with minimal hardware, sealing in place with just one hose clamp. 

We knew we wanted to roll on some big meaty tires, so we called up our friends at Toyo Tires and got a set of their Toyo Open Country R/T Trail tires in 37x12.50R18 with a Load Range E to handle all the stuff we planned on throwing at our new Super Duty. These tires have been the perfect balance of off-road prowess and sure-footed manners on the highway. They’re pretty quiet for such an aggressive tread pattern and we’ve found these tires great at handling wet roads, desert trails, rocks and even a little mud.

The factory wheels just don’t offer the looks and performance we were aiming for so a set of Method Race Wheels 709-HD in 18x9 Machined Aluminum finish with Bead Grip Technology and the optional Forged Impact Rings were just the ticket to dramatically change the look of our diesel Super Duty while adding more off-road performance to our Diesel Adventure rig. These wheels are made from solid A356 T6 Heat Treated Aluminum and have a 4,500-pound weight rating which means we don’t have to stress out when hauling heavy weight in the bed of our truck.

Of course, we couldn’t just stuff 37’s under our truck without giving the suspension department an altitude adjustment and thankfully, our friends at BDS Suspension were excited to jump onboard and help us get more clearance for trail duties. We went with a BDS 3-inch lift kit that includes some big beefy tubular radius arms and progressive rate Diesel specific Pro-Ride coil springs. The kit also features a high strength 1 3/8-inch solid steel track bar to correct the steering as well as sway bar relocation brackets and brake line brackets. Out back the kit uses high-strength fabricated lift blocks with longer u-bolts. The icing on the cake are the custom FOX 2.0 Performance Series shocks with internal floating pistons and massive 5/8-inch hard chrome plated heat-treated alloy steel shafts at all four corners.

The ride quality is absolutely fantastic on the road but off-road, it’s a game changer. We can point our Super Duty pretty much anywhere we want to go and the suspension flexes over obstacles with relative ease.

A set of Fox 2.0 Performance Series shocks with BDS’s own special valving soak up the bumps while a set of Fox Steering Stabilizers keep us tracking true and straight even in the roughest desert two tracks. It’s worth noting that it also helped fight all the pothole riddled roads on our daily commute.

With our initial mods out of the way, we turned our attention over to proper protection for the front and rear of our Ford F-250 with a set of Addictive Desert Designs bumpers. We went with a Phantom Winch bumper up front because we knew we wanted to stuff a big 12,000-pound Warn winch inside it but keep it sleek and stylish to match the aggressive look of our truck. 

A 3/16-inch heavy duty aluminum skid plate offers lower front-end protection from trail obstacles or rush hour iPads on wheels. The Phantom bumper also features 1-inch-thick clevis mounts for D-ring Shackles in case we need a little extra help recovering ourselves whether our pals our pulling us out of the slop or we’re doubling up our Warn winch’s synthetic line with a snatch block to run the line back to a D-ring on our bumper.

An Addictive Desert Designs Bomber rear bumper fits high and tight to our Super Duty and matches the lines better than the factory bumper ever did and we especially love the heavy-duty construction with the hammered black powder coat finish with satin black panels as well as the 1-inch thick clevis mounts that take 3/4-inch D-ring Shackles with 7/8-inch pins for recovery duty. We’re also happy to see that the ADD bumper retain the factory backup sensors since we do plan on daily driving this beast.

When it comes to lifted trucks, one of the best mods you can make is adding a set of side steps to make it easier to get in and out of your rig. Thankfully we don’t have to compromise ground clearance as we went with a set of Westin Pro-E Power Running Boards. The Westin  Power Running Boards automatically deploy when the door opens and will retract when the doors close which gives you the best of both worlds – functionality and looks! The Pro-E Powere Running Boards tuck under the truck when retracted and give us the best possible ground clearance while driving and quickly deploy a 6-inch wide step along the both doors when we need to hop out for a quick trail snack. Additionally, they provide protection for the rocker panels from potential trail damage and of course, they feature LED Lights to help illuminate the step and the ground below which ensures we keep a solid footing when we’re off the beaten path when setting up camp in the dark. The weight capacity of these steps is also 300 pounds per side which comes in handy when it comes time to wash the truck.  

Since we’ll regularly haul gear to events, road trips and adventures in the dirt, we knew we would need all the storage space available on our Super Duty so we turned to SmartCap to get their EVOa Adventure SmartCap for the bed of our truck. The EVOa Adventure is built for extreme use both on and off-road and features a 5-piece modular stainless-steel design with double-walled stainless steel Gullwing doors as well as interior MOLLE panels to mount all our gear where it’s easily accessible but still has the ability to lock up our stuff securely and keep it out of sight.  

Just in case we end up hauling some of our friends out to events, we wanted to make sure we could still carry luggage and less critical gear without losing cargo space in the bed under the shell, so we set our sights on a Sherpa roof rack to add a little extra cargo capacity. The Thunder roof rack is built using 1/4-inch-thick aircraft-grade aluminum side panels and uses stainless steel hardware to secure everything.

What this all boils down to is a heavy-duty roof rack with plenty of tie down points along with a 700-pound static weight capacity and a 300-pound dynamic weight capacity while adding only 55-pounds above the roof our Ford Super Duty Crew Cab. We were impressed that we didn’t have to drill any holes into our brand-new truck as Sherpa’s The Thunder roof rack requires no drilling which makes installation a breeze. The roof rack has a sleek black textured powder coat finish with black anodized crossbars and black oxide stainless steel hardware for corrosion resistance.

A pair of 10-inch Baja Designs S8 Amber LED Flood Lights help light up the edges of the trail while a 20-inch Baja Designs OnX6 Straight Driving Combo LED Bar mounted above the center of the bumper throws 24,920 Lumens far down range which means we don’t have to worry about outrunning our lights when the speeds pickup during spirited night run sessions.

A pair of Baja Designs LP4 driving combo lights add a 200-degree spread of illumination with up to 8,857 raw lumens to cover all our lighting zones and then some.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also added a Baja Designs 50-inch Baja Designs S8 Straight LED Light Bar that delivers an impressive 31,750 Lumens to turn night into day at the flip of a switch.  We also mounted our Starlink on the roof rack to stay connected out in the middle of nowhere.

We also stuffed some rear facing Baja Designs Squadron Sport lights to make it easier to hook up a trailer in the dark or simply setup camp under the stars in the mountains or desert.

We’ve got a few more upgrades to make on our Adventure Super Duty before we start racking up the miles. We’ve already gathered some more accessories like AlphaRex headlights and taillights to give our Super Duty a sleeker look as well as some trail gear from Inspired Overland and a Fridge Freezer from ICECO. Be sure to check back in with us here to see where our next adventure takes us with our new multipurpose rig.

As you can imagine we’re excited to get our all-new Ford F-250 Super Duty Power Stroke Adventure Rig out on the road and on a few trails and of course out to a few events around the country so keep an eye out for our new rig.