One thing that always concerns me in modding pickemups for FE is in decreasing the amount of work it can do. If I reduce trailer-towing capacity, or load-bearing capacity, then I'm going in the wrong direction. And just because I don't need it today (the future that appears like the past; magical thinking) doesn't mean that straitened circumstances may not arise tomorrow. So, gear and tire changes that make it difficult for the truck to get started under a heavy load are counterproductive . . and I may not have time or money or both to "fix" my alterations. While a grille block is easily removed, for example.
So, while it's always a pleasure to see a guy get 20-mpg in a pickemup (an impossibility in the years I was growing up, it still astounds me) and I pass along my congratulations to you, I'd be mighty careful about gearing/tire-height/load capacity changes. Burning up a trans is a nightmare, to me. As is prematurely wearing out axle gears.
I might someday need
more than the book says I can do. For the time that I own a truck it is to my familys' well-being that I do so with this in mind.
One should never think ones self exempt, IMO:
.