GAWR

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Weird...just went and looked at my 93 2.3l 2wd and couldn't find a sticker on any b-pillar or door, and nothing under the hood either. There was a calibration sticker on the drivers b-pillar. No sign of the sticker ever being on the truck.

 

[glenny49]

As far as i know a sticker should be there on the inside of the drivers door,you can't miss it.

 

[don4331]

Originally the stickers were on the door, but it was found when doors were replaced due to rust/accident damage that the sticker when with the door. So, if you have a later door, it might not have the sticker as it had been moved to the jamb.

The 1st question is: Which rear axle do you have? The 7.5" (standard), the 8.8" (with hd payload pkg) or heaven forbid the 6-7/8" (I know it as 6-3/4" for Mustang II/Pinto), mostly found behind 2.0s with autos, but some 2.3 autos.
2nd question: What springs do you have? (number of leaves)
3rd: Which tires does it have?
4th: Does it have a/c?
5th, Would be Supercab or regular/short or long bed
Last, would have been automatic or manual, but from your signature, I'm assuming auto

They are combined at Ford at GAWRs are spit out: Somewhere between 1,851 & 2,600 lbs front and 2,012 & 2,750lbs rear.

And guys - at least let the new guy get 10 posts.

 

[glenny49]

Ok,thanks don4331.My truck has a 84 axle which i guess is a standard 7.5" one.My truck has 4 leaves,including the short one at the bottom.It did have 5 leaves but i had one removed to improve the hard ride i get with it.lt did nothing for it at all.The rear tires are uniroyal tiger paws,snow tires i believe.The front tires are hercules mrx plus 1v.My truck has a/c but hasn't worked for a long time.My truck is a supercab with a short box and it's a 2.9 litre auto.

 

[Josh B]

Ok,thanks don4331.My truck has a 84 axle which i guess is a standard 7.5" one.My truck has 4 leaves,including the short one at the bottom.It did have 5 leaves but i had one removed to improve the hard ride i get with it.lt did nothing for it at all.The rear tires are uniroyal tiger paws,snow tires i believe.The front tires are hercules mrx plus 1v.My truck has a/c but hasn't worked for a long time.My truck is a supercab with a short box and it's a 2.9 litre auto.

Nice looking truck Glenny

 

[glenny49]

Thanks for the compliment Josh B,but the old girl don't quite look like that anymore,you see that photo is about 12 years ago,but i plan on a reserection.

 

[don4331]

Ok,thanks don4331. My truck has a 84 axle which i guess is a standard 7.5" one.My truck has 4 leaves,including the short one at the bottom. It did have 5 leaves but i had one removed to improve the hard ride i get with it. lt did nothing for it at all. The rear tires are Uniroyal tiger paws,snow tires i believe. The front tires are Hercules mrx plus 1v. My truck has a/c but hasn't worked for a long time. My truck is a supercab with a short box and it's a 2.9 litre auto.

Glenny49:

Your interest in 4 cyl Rangers threw me off. But my response was better than it should have been: you need the whole package. I have 2 Rangers on driveway - one has no A/C, manual and payload pkg #1 while other has A/C, Auto and Payload pkg #2. As a result, there is over 500 lbs difference in GAWR on rear even though engines are same.

To your truck: Interesting - 4+1 leaves were never installed by Ford to my knowledge and certainly not with 7.5". There is an aftermarket pack made in that configuration with rating of 3,500 lbs - each of the 4 leaves being very thick. And thick leaves are known to be very stiff.

If you swap the pack for a 3 +1, you will enjoy a much smoother ride. The 2 +1, while lower in capacity, ride rougher as individual leaves are thicker.

The other "solution" is to "flip" the front spring mounts left for right, and mount them in forward/new holes leaving the original rear holes open. This allows you to run 64" Chev spring with axle still in OEM location, and lightest 1/2 springs, 2+1, are more/less same as Ranger's. The extra 6" of spring length makes for smoother ride. (hopefully, that made sense).

Up front, as you have the SuperCab with A/C, V-6 & auto, you will have the heaviest coils (or maybe one down as it shouldn't have the HD payload pack given the 7.5"). Again, finding a regular cab, with manual/without A/C would net you softest ride.

Note: Softer springs in front and back will have side effect of lowering your Ranger and taking away its functionality as a truck - not sure if you want that or not.

For tires, I was actually trying to find out if you had the stock size - I believe P215/70R14s for you combo or they had been replaced with something heavier, i.e. LT235/75R15s. Again, an LT tire rides much rougher than a P.

 

[sgtsandman]

The 4+1 leafs are actually rated as 1,750 pounds for the pair. The 3+1 leafs are rated as 1,250 pounds for the pair. The quoted rating numbers on the web sights are for a pair, not the individual leaf pack even though they sell the leaf packs individually.

 

[don4331]

Trying not to be too much of @$$hole here, but I had rough day at work:

I have the Ford Dimension Data documents for several years ('00, '08, '09 & '11) and it lists capacity of the 2+1 spring pack as 2,550 lbs combined at ground/1,125 lbs per spring at pad and 3+1 as 2,750 lbs combined @ ground/1,225 lb per spring as pad*. If Jim and/or anyone else would like them for the tech library or their own personal use, I'll gladly forward them. Unfortunately, I didn't get the older ones, before Ford took them down.

In addition to rating for springs/torsion bar rates, they have the wheel ratings, weight of options, etc.

*300 lbs for axle and wheels on Ranger seems a little heavy for me, but I can't explain the delta between springs at pad and combined at ground rating any other way. I suppose 255/70R16 tires are close to 50 lbs apiece, rim would be ~20 and 8.8 about 140, so maybe not a far off as I thought.

 

[sgtsandman]

I see where you are coming from, total capacity, not load capacity. There lies the difference in what we are talking about. I was just looking at just load capacity.

 

[pjtoledo]

Trying not to be too much of @$$hole here, but I had rough day at work:

I have the Ford Dimension Data documents for several years ('00, '08, '09 & '11) and it lists capacity of the 2+1 spring pack as 2,550 lbs combined at ground/1,125 lbs per spring at pad and 3+1 as 2,750 lbs combined @ ground/1,225 lb per spring as pad*. If Jim and/or anyone else would like them for the tech library or their own personal use, I'll gladly forward them. Unfortunately, I didn't get the older ones, before Ford took them down.

In addition to rating for springs/torsion bar rates, they have the wheel ratings, weight of options, etc.

*300 lbs for axle and wheels on Ranger seems a little heavy for me, but I can't explain the delta between springs at pad and combined at ground rating any other way. I suppose 255/70R16 tires are close to 50 lbs apiece, rim would be ~20 and 8.8 about 140, so maybe not a far off as I thought.

if you could send me the 2000 I would appreciate it.
or post them here.

 

[don4331]

2000 Ranger, 2002 Explorer, Sport & Sportrac.

 

[glenny49]

Glenny49:

Your interest in 4 cyl Rangers threw me off. But my response was better than it should have been: you need the whole package. I have 2 Rangers on driveway - one has no A/C, manual and payload pkg #1 while other has A/C, Auto and Payload pkg #2. As a result, there is over 500 lbs difference in GAWR on rear even though engines are same.

To your truck: Interesting - 4+1 leaves were never installed by Ford to my knowledge and certainly not with 7.5". There is an aftermarket pack made in that configuration with rating of 3,500 lbs - each of the 4 leaves being very thick. And thick leaves are known to be very stiff.

If you swap the pack for a 3 +1, you will enjoy a much smoother ride. The 2 +1, while lower in capacity, ride rougher as individual leaves are thicker.

The other "solution" is to "flip" the front spring mounts left for right, and mount them in forward/new holes leaving the original rear holes open. This allows you to run 64" Chev spring with axle still in OEM location, and lightest 1/2 springs, 2+1, are more/less same as Ranger's. The extra 6" of spring length makes for smoother ride. (hopefully, that made sense).

Up front, as you have the SuperCab with A/C, V-6 & auto, you will have the heaviest coils (or maybe one down as it shouldn't have the HD payload pack given the 7.5"). Again, finding a regular cab, with manual/without A/C would net you softest ride.

Note: Softer springs in front and back will have side effect of lowering your Ranger and taking away its functionality as a truck - not sure if you want that or not.

For tires, I was actually trying to find out if you had the stock size - I believe P215/70R14s for you combo or they had been replaced with something heavier, i.e. LT235/75R15s. Again, an LT tire rides much rougher than a P.

Thanks for your input Don4331,what i can tell you about the leaf springs on my truck is that a spring shop in Windsor, Ontario told me a few years ago there was an extra spring leaf in the spring pack.i was also told by the original owners that the truck was used to haul around a boat.That probably doesn't mean anything,it's just a little more information. With all do respect,i'am not getting the fourth paragraph down at all.It sounds like your suggesting to swap out the front axles of my ranger for a chev product of some kind.I'am not a car mechanic and i'am a novice at all of this but i do have a basic understanding about how things work on a vehicle. I would still want an extended cab truck. The tire size on the front is p215/70r14 and the rear is p205/70r14.The snow tires on the back are smaller because they gave me a good deal on them(so they said)

 

[don4331]

Glenny49:

1st let me apologize, I usually deal with 98-11 Rangers, so forgot '83-97s have slightly different front spring mounts. 98-11 Rangers are slightly easier as you re-use couple of the original holes; 83-97s only reuse 1.

This article explains it better than I have (pictures being worth 1000 words):

https://www.therangerstation.com/tech/64-inch-leaf-spring-swap-shackle-flip/​

​

Don't let the fact that most of the truck in the pictures are lifted. If you shackle flip, about 1/4 down the page - the "from this to this" pictures and Front Spring Hanger from about 2/3rd down, you can run stock Chevy 64" springs without any lift.​

​

As the Chevy leaves are ~15% longer, they will give you 15% smoother ride.​

​

Hope that helps you.

 

[glenny49]

Glenny49:

1st let me apologize, I usually deal with 98-11 Rangers, so forgot '83-97s have slightly different front spring mounts. 98-11 Rangers are slightly easier as you re-use couple of the original holes; 83-97s only reuse 1.

This article explains it better than I have (pictures being worth 1000 words):

https://www.therangerstation.com/tech/64-inch-leaf-spring-swap-shackle-flip/​

​

Don't let the fact that most of the truck in the pictures are lifted. If you shackle flip, about 1/4 down the page - the "from this to this" pictures and Front Spring Hanger from about 2/3rd down, you can run stock Chevy 64" springs without any lift.​

​

As the Chevy leaves are ~15% longer, they will give you 15% smoother ride.​

​

Hope that helps you.

Again thanks for trouble there don4331,I went off on the wrong tangent there when you talked about flipping the front spring mounts left to right.I thought you were referring to the front coil springs,believe it or not.This idea of putting in longer rear springs sounds like the wright way to go.I want to change trucks eventually,but not ready quite yet.When i do,i'll be buying a 4 cylinder,manual transmission, hopefully no a/c and changing out the rear leaf springs for longer ones(3+1 pack) all thanks for your valuable input.I wasn't getting anywhere with the locals around here.Very good,thanks Glen.