Towing with a 7.5 vs 8.8

[rusty ol ranger]

Ive had 3500+ lbs behind my 87 and never really had a problem with stopping. Electric brakes are never a bad idea but not usually nessacary as long as you pay attention.

later,
Dustin

 

[Will]

&.5 and 8.8 shafts are the same--same steel, too. Same parts.

There are two things at work here. The rear axle has two jobs. It's a semi-float, meaning the weight of the truck is carried by ends of the shafts. The second part is that the thrust of starting and stopping the load is also carried, in torsion, by the shafts. The he load in the bed is the same no matter what engine you have. It's not a problem for any Ranger axle shaft.

Now you have to look upstream. What engine are you trying to throw at the load? The Ranger engines run from a 2.3L to a 4.0L. Te Ranger shafts are in no danger of being twisted up by these engines, and the loads are acceptable to the shafts. The bigger motors, Ford thought, need bigger ring and pinion gears to handle the engine torque and the deccel and accel surges. That's all. drive smoothly and a 5.0 with a 7.5 axle will be fine.

 

[kryptonitecb]

I believe the ranger 7.5 & 8.8 are similar but the explorer 8.8 is stronger.

Sent from the road while ignoring traffic

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

The 7.5 was supposed to have fairly weak spider gears, the 28 spline 8.8 fixed that.

I never had a problem with them, just that vibration that could have been anything from an axle bearing to a messed up shaft.

 

[wildbill23c]

So its safe to say that my stock 84 B2 will tow an average of 1800lbs with no problems and not have to worry about breaking anything including land speed records LOL.

 

[Mac]

So its safe to say that my stock 84 B2 will tow an average of 1800lbs with no problems and not have to worry about breaking anything including land speed records LOL.

I flat towed a Courrier truck, had to weight over 3000 lbs 200 miles with no problem, just kept it out of fifth. That was with my '84 BII, bone stock.
Dave

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I think one problem that may come up is braking. Start driving thru the mountains and you don't want to start smelling burning brake pads. I almost caught some on fire once and I wasn't towing anything. On the flats I don't see any problem with any weight.

Richard

 

[wildbill23c]

I flat towed a Courrier truck, had to weight over 3000 lbs 200 miles with no problem, just kept it out of fifth. That was with my '84 BII, bone stock.
Dave

I've always stayed out of overdrive when towing regardless of what vehicle I was driving. I don't plan on towing very far maybe at the most up to a couple hundred miles if I goto the farthest camping area that I goto maybe once a year, other than that the farthest I would tow is about 50 miles round trip and that's just up to the hills locally to cut firewood. I know my grand parents used to tow a 16' camp trailer with the 84 ranger they used to have and that I drove around for several years, and it did just fine without changing anything on the truck other than having the auxiliary transmission cooler added and the tow package with trailer brake controller.

I think one problem that may come up is braking. Start driving thru the mountains and you don't want to start smelling burning brake pads. I almost caught some on fire once and I wasn't towing anything. On the flats I don't see any problem with any weight.

Richard

I don't think with the roads I'd be towing on I would have a speed problem the vehicle would rattle and shake to pieces at any speed over about 20-25mph, and I don't like driving fast up in the mountains regardless. The trailer I would be towing isn't even equipped with trailer brakes, and the b2 doesn't have a brake controller. If I start venturing up in the hills more with the B2 and the trailers I would be using I might look into getting a set of electric brakes for them both, along with a brake controller but really the mountain roads to where I camp locally aren't all that bad for controlling speed they're relatively flat and very gradual slopes in a couple of places. Washboard gravel and dirt roads are more of a problem as far as keeping control of a vehicle than speed will be. I can get a trailer brake controller but in these old vehicles I wouldn't have a clue how to go about installing it. In my 08 pickup it was a couple screws to mount it and wire in the plug then plug it into a connector under the dash.

 

[Kingoverace]

Not just the axle width, but also remember a Explorer 8.8 has disc brakes. Once I did the swap, I swore I'd never want drums again.

 

[ancient]

I haul fire wood every year loaded until I'm on the bump stops with my '88 short box. Probably 50 miles each trip. No noises or leaks at 160k.

 

[twescott89]

personal would not recommend towing with a 7.5 over like 4000lbs my 89 ranger with a 7.5 used to tow little things all the time but the minute i hooked up to a 206 dodge Dakota on a car dolly and towed it 50 miles i completely shattered my spider gears and turn my left rear axle shaft blue lol i had inspected and changed diff fluid just before the tow and the rear axle and spider gears looked brand new
take it for what its worth but just my 2 cents have a pic of the tow in my profile on here

 

[wildbill23c]

I'm not even going to be close to 4k with the bronco ii, so I should be completely fine then as far as the axle. I'm thinking about having the trailer brake controller installed when I have the wiring done just so I have the extra braking power if needed.

 

[twescott89]

yea if u wont reach 4k then id tow with a 7.5 all day they are decent rear ends very under rated in my opinion but i would defiantly have that controller made a wold of difference with my truck especially for those asshole flat landers that like to cut you off because they think there gonna move faster then you

 

[wildbill23c]

yea if u wont reach 4k then id tow with a 7.5 all day they are decent rear ends very under rated in my opinion but i would defiantly have that controller made a wold of difference with my truck especially for those asshole flat landers that like to cut you off because they think there gonna move faster then you

My heaviest trailer I'd be towing is 2400lbs fully loaded, so nothing close to the 4K. I'm working on getting trailer brakes put on my little camp trailer as it don't have brakes period. I will definitely be having a brake controller installed though.

As far as people that cut you off, I've had my fair share of those, had an idiot cut over 3 lanes of traffic right in front of me at 65mph and slow down for the exit 100 feet in front of me, this was with my 1988 Ford F-250 4x4 and towing a 21' travel trailer, if it wasn't for trailer brakes that idiot's little Hyundai Accent would have been a speed bump. People are really stupid around trailers for some reason.

 

[twescott89]

they act like they dont see the damn thing when half the time its twice the size of them