ok, so believe it or not your replies have actually helped, I did some thinking, I live in northern Wisconsin, my truck was built in Janesville wi and up around here its adorned with rocks, mud, clay and sand! there's always a truck and tractor pull or mud bog to be found during the nicer months, thinking even further it would still be nice to be able to use the truck as a truck too, doing truckity truck things like going to menards, home depot, hauling lumber etc or pulling a big ol' boat to the lake and this is where it may start an argument but Wisconsin is the home of four wheel drive (kind-of but please feel free to read a little history below)! this also played a part in my decision. id love a nice lowered pro street style c10 1/4 mile ripper but my local track is 2 hours away and I really don't think itll be happy pulling a boat or a load of whatever home from the big box store, so jacked up k20 it is!
History lesson :
The four wheel drive auto company was founded 119years ago in Clintonville wi as the badger (badger was dropped in 1910) four wheel drive company and first production with a established facility was in 1911.
in 1908 the first 4 wheel drive car that actually worked was built and was named the battleship, admittedly by todays standards this would be considered awd. either way the fwd company patented this full time four wheel drive system that had a lockable center differential with double-Y constant velocity universal joints for steering.
The success of the four-wheel drive in early military tests prompted the company to switch from cars to trucks and supplied thousnads to the military for ww1. in the very late 1920s the fwd company built a four wheel drive miller (in regards to harry miller the race car builder and designer) and it raced well during the 1931 season and later at indy 500. This was all suppose to show the advantages FWD's lockable center differential and that it was more useful than just for off-roading.
In 1958, the company's name was changed to FWD Corporation. they never really became a big contender or a household name as the never really diversified and stuck with one product. legal issues came to light in the early 2000s but the fwd corp is still around and still producing.
sorry if I board you.