Tonka
Well-Known Member
I've towed, more than once, 3000 pounds of sand or gravel in my single axle dump trailer (1800 pounds empty). The trailer has brakes and I've got the brake controller turned up high enough to help slow the truck instead of the other way around. I put in a 160 degree thermostat, and I already have the rear axle from a 96 explorer with the 8.8 and disk brakes to throw on if the one on the truck gives up before I'd like it to.
Honestly, the truck doesn't seem to mind level ground but with that much weight it's not happy about climbing.
1987, 2.9L, 5 sp, 4x4
Have you had the leaf spring mounts relocated to the top of that Explorer axle yet? I wanta do that with my ranger. There's a metal fabricating shop 1/4 mile away. What happens if you don't swap over to the Explorer master cylinder? I'm wondering how well that works. You'd lose metal when you (torch?) them off, then you'd mess with the tampering of the steel on the axle housing when you weld them back on. I'm curious to see if that would weaken the axle housing at the welds.