Calling all members with a lowered 4wd...

Yeah, yeah.. I know this topic comes up every now and again and ends pretty quickly, but I'm looking for something different this time. Not asking how to lower the truck, but trying to find a particular member that already has.

I know that Blown has a lowered his and made it all wheel drive, I was a little too involved in the brainstorming for that project. Sorry man, but yours is not the truck I'm looking for at the moment.

Can't remember this member's user name and been a while since I've come across one of his posts (or at least realized that I did). I recall that his truck is a 4wd SLA (98+) 4wd Ranger, and in his signature is mentions that his truck has a 2" drop front and rear.

Wanting to do about the same to my 99 and wanted to PM him a few questions, but I can't recall who it is.

Whatever, I found I did not like it dropped even 2" up front because that limited up travel too much. I don't know about moving the axle up maybe? My rig is now at about a 1" drop front and 2" rear so it sits pretty level. I also changed to lighter springs and air shocks for a better ride.

Good luck getting yours how you want it.

Not sure if this is what your lookin for>>>

This is my 98 XLT DD that I removed the 3" rear blocks and kept the Ranger torque arms to drop it some in the front with the weight of 5.0L.

I'm running 235/70's front & 275/60's rear on 15x8 Jeep Canyon wheels.

Blown said:

Whatever, I found I did not like it dropped even 2" up front because that limited up travel too much. I don't know about moving the axle up maybe? My rig is now at about a 1" drop front and 2" rear so it sits pretty level. I also changed to lighter springs and air shocks for a better ride.

Good luck getting yours how you want it.

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Dude, meant no offense. I just knew that if anyone replied the majority would probably be about your truck. You seem to be our most frequent poster with a lowered 4wd, and I'm already somewhat familiar with what you've done to it. Did a lot of reading up on it while during the Explorer AWD case thread I started, and even more while you were getting the Dana 28 case installed. Although IIRC at the time you were trying to go lower.

What was limiting your up travel? Shocks, bump stops, suspension design?

There is/was another poster somewhere around the forum that has it mentioned in his signature. Can't remember who it was. Still making plans and not doing anything until current tires wear out, which will hopefully be next year. Want to gather ideas from as many sources as possible before pulling the trigger.

chvlfrk said:

This is my 98 XLT DD that I removed the 3" rear blocks and kept the Ranger torque arms to drop it some in the front with the weight of 5.0L.

I'm running 235/70's front & 275/60's rear on 15x8 Jeep Canyon wheels.

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It that a 4wd or a 2wd torsion bar? Unfortunately I don't have, and don't plan to add, the weight of a 5.0L up front. If I were going to go 5.0L, I'd stick at current height and tire size. Don't plan to ever do that in this truck. Got the 2wd 86 getting a V8 eventually, and my next project will be a 68 F-100 4x4 with a 390 V8. This one is staying V6 and will be a back-up DD, unless I sell my car in which case it will be the DD.

I'm currently thinking about a ~29" diameter. My truck came stock with a 245/75-16 which comes out to about the same size as a 31x10.5-15 IIRC and about 50lbs per tire. It's currently wearing a few inches of lift and a 32x11.5-15 that weighs in (new) about 56lbs per tire. I love the way it sits and looks, the tire size is almost perfect looks wise for a 4wd Ranger. It also did well offroad as long as the transfer case motor was working (not often). That said, I don't like the way it performs and drinks gas with that heavy tire. The larger tires have also hurt its ability to haul and pull a trailer.

Now that I've got an ATV the truck won't be seeing much offroad, as such I no longer needs the extra tire. I'd also like to purchase a (relatively) light weight 16-20 foot camper in the not too distant future. I will be pulling a trailer or carrying weight in the bed more often. As such I want remove the lift shackles and factory lift blocks and run smaller lighter tires. At about 29" I can still get a decent AT tire and cut almost 20 lbs per tire. Regardless of size differences, the 80lb reduction in rotational mass aught to help.

Still haven't decided on a 15" or 16" wheel yet, or figured out what supporting changes need to be made. Obviously reinstall stock springs and shackles instead of the Explorer springs and lift shackles. Uncrank the torsion bars and remove the spacers (nuts) I've got on the front shocks. Not sure about shocks themselves. Stock 4wd be adequate, or shorter shocks necessary? What else?

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't test it, but notice that if you lowered it much with the T-bars, it didn't leave much room for up travel. At 2" it was resting at the bump stops. At 1" lowered I have had drivers side tire rub in the top of the wheel well slightly when on a dirt road going over a water bar (pretty good twist). That's mechanical limitation.

I guess you could call this thread a survey of those who have lowered a 4X4, not many responses.

The slight lowering, slightly wider tire, 1.5" wheel spacers, AWD, less spring and added air shocks have made it much more pleasurable to drive for me.

JoshT said:

Still haven't decided on a 15" or 16" wheel yet

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I hate to say it but 15" is the new 14", poor things are dying out.

I think one of the big pushes for bigger wheels on the newer trucks is to save weight (it sure isn't for cheaper tires anyway ) with maybe a bigger rim and smaller tire being lighter than a smaller rim and bigger tire, but you give up ride quality doing that.

>>>>

JoshT said:

It that a 4wd or a 2wd torsion bar?

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4x4 Ranger chassis that was a 4.0L, so didn't swap in any of the Explorer suspension, but do plan on putting an Expo 8.8 with discs when I recoop some of my investment into the swap.

Blown said:

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't test it, but notice that if you lowered it much with the T-bars, it didn't leave much room for up travel. At 2" it was resting at the bump stops. At 1" lowered I have had drivers side tire rub in the top of the wheel well slightly when on a dirt road going over a water bar (pretty good twist). That's mechanical limitation.

I guess you could call this thread a survey of those who have lowered a 4X4, not many responses.

The slight lowering, slightly wider tire, 1.5" wheel spacers, AWD, less spring and added air shocks have made it much more pleasurable to drive for me.

Click to expand...

I'm going to leave the AWD alone for now, but I still like the idea. To do that on my truck I'd have to swap out a bunch of stuff to get the live axles. Not sure it would ever be worth the effort. I think a better place to spend that energy on mine would be a rear axle swap, for disk brakes and LS.

1" drop might be all I need to get what I want. I need to decide on a tire size and go from there. I'm all over the place as to what I want at the moment.

Kinda thinking about sticking with a small AT tire for those times that I do need 4wd this truck will still be used to get to and from the woods and for camping. On the flip side I've considered a street/highway type tire for better road manners.

Current Tires: Falken Wildpeak A/T2 32x11.5R15 at 56.2 lb/tire

In the AT department I'm considering a Falken Wildpeak A/T3W (have A/T2 now and like them):
30x9.5R15 (29.5 actual diameter) 44.1 lb/tire
235/70R16 (29x9.5) 36.8 lb/tire
255/70R16 (30.1x10.2) 39.7 lb/tire

The first would fit the 15" wheels I'm running now (and really like), but don't think they are what I want.

Those 16s are closer to what I want. I've still got my stock 16" wheels but I'm not crazy about them. With the right tire and a wheel spacers they might be better though.


I'd really like to find a set of these if going back to 16, but haven't had any luck with finding reasonably priced takeoffs.



With either of the 16" options I'd also have to run spacers to get fitment similar to what the current wheels have.

85_Ranger4x4 said:

I hate to say it but 15" is the new 14", poor things are dying out.

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Don't I know it. 16" is still a good balance between tire and wheel, but I see it going the same direction in a few years. I don't look forward to that day, I really don't want to run a 17"+ with off road tires. I don't even like running a 17" with street tires, bad experiences with my Kia and potholes.

Well thinking about it, I guess what I'm probably going to end up with is about the same stance as you've got on your truck Blown.

I'd rather have the 29" diameter 235/70R16, but I'm afraid that might look a little too small on the truck. Go with the 255/70R16 and settle the truck as low over that as I can. Those 1.5" spacers you've got put the wheels out about the same as my current 15x8 setup.

I am running 255/70-16s at 30.1"s. The 1.5" spacers help fill-out the wheel wells with stock Explorer Limited rims, before they looked a little smaller, tucked back in further. I am sure the wider stance contributes a bit to better handling and effectively lowers the spring rates a bit.

JoshT said:

Well thinking about it, I guess what I'm probably going to end up with is about the same stance as you've got on your truck Blown.

I'd rather have the 29" diameter 235/70R16, but I'm afraid that might look a little too small on the truck. Go with the 255/70R16 and settle the truck as low over that as I can. Those 1.5" spacers you've got put the wheels out about the same as my current 15x8 setup.

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235/70-16 is what a lot of 02-10 Explorers wear, they don't look too small on them IMO.

It was the factory size on my 4wd F-150 and yes, they did look small. Hippo on a roller skate small.

Reviving this thread.

Lowering the rear: Remove stock leaf blocks, buy 2wd u-bolts, 2wd sway bar end links and 2wd rear shocks. Looks factory when finished.

Lowering the front: Use 08-up 4wd torsion keys and adjust to the height you want. Shave down front bump stops about 1/4-3/8" to gain compression travel. Stock front shocks can be used.

2" was the most I could drop the front of my truck while retaining stock alignment specs.
245-70/16's rub a bit at full lock, I'm used to it. Truck drives soooo much better on the highway. Zero issues with the useability or reliability of 4wd and front axles, etc. Been driving it this way for several years and nearly 40k miles.

Before I installed the 16's:


With 16's and 245-75/16's that came on the wheels. Sorry, don't have a pic with the 245-70's on these wheels.