D44 TTB Ranger swap: narrow the mounts or lengthen the arms?

[skrape]

Greetings, my first post here as I'm new to Rangers but been fabbing on other trucks for years. Yeah, yeah, so I'm a Ranger noob but have SAS'ed other trucks.

The great pictures you all have posted have hooked me, and I'm planning what atrocities to perpetrate on a '96 Ranger 4x4. I'm kind of hot for the wide-stance 4x4 prerunner thing, which leads me to want to do a D44 TTB swap.

I have been searching the forums, here and elsewhere - for instance
http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25516
I may have missed "The Thread" about this, but - There are so many threads on doing this that I want to beat this dead horse a little more, just to confirm what the others are telling me...

The D44 TTB radius arm mounts are 2" narrower than the mounts on the Ranger, right?

So, the alternatives are to make new mounts on the Ranger frame that are 2" closer together than stock, or to lengthen the TTB arms by 1" each so they match the Ranger mount points.

So rather than asking which approach is "best" I'll be more specific:
Which involves the least work?
Which is cheapest? (from what I see I can fab the stuff for both, but could probably buy sexier brackets than I could easily fab.)
Which is stronger?

 

[4x4junkie]

The D44 TTB radius arm mounts are 2" narrower than the mounts on the Ranger, right?

I assume you mean the beam pivot mounts? (radius arms are the arms mounted behind the front axle)

The beam pivot mounts are infact 2" closer to each other on the F-150 than on a RBV.

Best is lengthening the beams 1" each near the pivots. IF the brackets on your Ranger are wide enough to allow drilling another hole 1" inboard of the existing holes, then that would make for the least amount of work. If the brackets aren't wide enough though, then lengthening the beams is gonna be your best bet.

Welcome to TRS.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

There is a guy [not on this forum anymore] that was selling a weld it yourself beam brackets kit that would accept both d-35 and d-44 axles and provided 1.5" of lift. If you google "copykat" you will find him on various forums. I don't know if he is still making and selling these. I bought a set several months ago but have yet to find time to install them. They are 1/4", look like they are well thought out, keyed for alignment for simple construction. I'm eventually going to put 44 outers on my 35 beams, apparently is stronger than either individually.
If you start on this I hope you will start a build thread.
Good luck

Richard

 

[4x4junkie]

I keep forgetting about Joel's kit without him around here anymore.

He does make some good sturdy stuff, no doubt.

Villain Motorsports I think was the name he sold them under.

 

[skrape]

Yeah my searches turned up some of Copykat's posts, and I emailed a "Villain Motorsports" in Canada, but they weren't the same outfit.

Thanks for the welcome, by the way - seems like a good forum so far, the signal to noise ratio is good.

I was thinking D44 swap because I think I want extra width for the rig I have in mind (and also because Craigslist in my area has lots of opportunities for cheap D44 lockers and gear sets). Does the D44-outers-on-D35-beams trick increase track width?

Hmm - what's the weight difference between a D44 TTB and a D35?

 

[LameDuck]

He doesn't make them all the time but does make batches every so often. might be able to get in on them
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/showthread.php?t=109428

 

[prerunnerwannabe]

http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51465

 

[4x4junkie]

Hmm - what's the weight difference between a D44 TTB and a D35?

Haven't weighed them exactly, but I would venture a guess around 60- 75lbs, a large part of the difference being due to the ribbed aluminum vs. cast iron centersection.

 

[-Nathan-]

I have a set of CopyKats brackets, and they are EXTREMELY beefy. Made of all 1/4" steel.

Keep in mind I have D44 arms with D50 C''s, knuckles, and outers, so mine is wider than a D44 would be.

 

[skrape]

Cool - I gots some reading to do ...
Just missed a steal of a deal on a Ranger equipped like I want, but I'm still looking.

 

[skrape]

urgh - looks like Copykat is taking a break, hopefully he'll be making them again by the time I get the other junk together... I'll PM him on that other board.

 

[prerunnerwannabe]

Did you read the thread that I posted a link too? It wouldn't be as epic as using Copykat's brackets but it would make it a bunch easier!
Good luck!

 

[skrape]

prerunnerwannabe - Yeah, I read that thread, thanks for the point - I gather that poster used the stock Ranger beam pivot points (on a set of Skyjacker lift brackets) and stock Bronco D44 TTB arms, and had all kinds of interesting problems to solve regarding axle shaft lengths...

I got a set of Superlift 4" lift brackets (thank you Craigslist). I've also scored a D44 out of an F150 that already has the D50 center joint in it (and a nifty set of McMillan prerunner fenders -woo!).

I'm gonna set these side-by-side and decide whether I'm going to move the pivot points inboard 1" each on the Superlift brackets, or extend the D44 TTB arms so they're 1" longer each, like was done here:

I'm still researching to see if extending the TTB arms, and the geometry changes that come with that, necessitate any other changes.

Between that skull-work, and accumulating parts, I've yet to cut metal...

 

[skrape]

Made progress

I can't believe it's been so long - but I'm actually making some progress on the truck.

I finally did decide to extend the beams, and do a cut-n-turn on them.

Extended 1 inch at the eye end:


Moved the lower balljoint out:


Plated the whole thing over:

 

[skrape]

Reinforced them with some 'flange' kinda work:


and ported and reinforced the passenger side beam port (I suspect the port is probably not opened enough yet):