Minitruck modifications

A minitruck is a compact pickup built for light duty usually Chevrolet S-10s, Ford Rangers, Toyota Hilux, Nissan pickups, and Mazda B2000s, that have been modified and customized often with an emphasis on achieving the lowest ride height possible.

Customizing compact trucks is a lifestyle/hobby referred to as Minitrucking. This trend started in the 1980s and has grown in popularity in the following decades. The magazine Minitruckin was published as the popularity of this style increased.

Original modifications included lowering the truck by any means possible, such as heating or removing leaf springs, flipping leaf springs upside down, notching the frame, adding air shocks, cutting coils from coil springs, and cranking down torsion keys to establish a lower ride height. These methods usually result in a harsh, bouncy ride.

As minitrucks increasingly grew in popularity, modifications became more extreme. Modern modifications include airbag suspension, body drops (channeling), (door handle) shaving, suicide doors, removable hardtops, custom paint jobs, custom frames and suspensions. Most examples of these trucks have very large wheels up to 22 inches in diameter with low profile tires. With current airbag technology and modern suspension design, ride quality has increased and in many examples surpassed the original equipment offerings.

Minitrucks and Minitruckers have also established an activity all their own, unlike lowriders who's goal was to achieve lowest possible ride height without touching the ground, some minitrucks are specifically designed to lay the frame rails or pieces of metal to touch the ground before the frame does on the ground at any given point and often used to "drag" the vehicle while driving causing sparks to fly out the back of the truck. while "draggin'" is not excepted and applied to all minitrucks it is a very big attraction to most minitruckers.

The most common type of minitruck is a Chevrolet S-10 pickup of any year, while it is not the only type of truck used it tends to be the most common and most easily modified truck due to the number of companies that provide specific parts for the S-10 such as 3 links, frame notch kits, and custom made backends to replace the stock bed behind the cab of the truck.