Lowering

[Scoop549]

Is there an economical way to lower a b2300/ranger 1997?

 

[svtcards]

On my 87 I lowered it with ibeams and flip kit.but ibeams were pricey.i guess it all depends how low u want to go? Front springs and rear shackles r pretty inexpensive.did u look into those yet?

 

[Ranger850]

Rangers have never been easy or economical to lower. Going the cheap rout will usually cost more in tires and agony. The best way is to get new front spindles and an Explorer rear end. The expo rear will drop the rear about 3", then het the correct lowering spindles for the front.

 

[stmitch]

You can lower that truck 2" in front and rear for the cost of some cutoff wheels and a few grade 8 nuts/bolts.

You'd cut the front coil springs (more than 2" drop from springs alone will be difficult or impossible to align) and in the rear, you do a shackle flip by cutting/drilling the rivets that hold the rear leaf spring shackles to the frame, flipping the shackles over, and reinstalling with the grade 8 hardware. Searching for "ranger shackle flip" should get you some results with pics.

Drop springs are preferable to cutting stock coils, and they involve a lot less trial and error but they cost a couple hundred bucks.

Nobody makes drop spindles for Rangers, and an Explorer rear axle would give you more like 5" of drop in the rear, at which point you'd need drop beams to get the front low enough to match.

 

[franklin2]

Is there an economical way to lower a b2300/ranger 1997?

If you do not understand what these guys are talking about, take a jack and put it in the middle of the truck crossmember up front and jack and it up several inches. Look at what the front tires do when you do that. The tops of the front tires will be splayed out, the bottoms in. The same thing will happen if you try to lower it, except in the opposite direction. When you lower it with just the springs, the top of the tires will tilt inward, the bottoms will splay outward. Besides not looking that great, it's bad for tire wear. The upper balljoints do have some adjustment to fix this, but not much. If you want to be safe, I would not lower it more than 1.5 inches if you want your alignment guy to be able to get it back in. The other poster said he went 2 inches, that must be really barely getting it back in.

 

[ericbphoto]

Let the air out of the tires. It'll go down.

 

[Ranger850]

Imo if you want an "easy to lower" truck, get a Nissan Hard body. I have one and that thing is stoopid easy to lower. The torsion bars adjust from the front, no keys like a Ranger, and then block the rear with an alignment.

 

[svtcards]

Rangers have never been easy or economical to lower. Going the cheap rout will usually cost more in tires and agony. The best way is to get new front spindles and an Explorer rear end. The expo rear will drop the rear about 3", then het the correct lowering spindles for the front.

Flip kit would get u 4 " just by putting springs from top to bottom.with same

 

[svtcards]

U can put 2 " drop springs and get an alignment if that person knows what that doing.tires should be fine.100 for springs and shackles cheapest way out if u do the work yourself.no rearend change needed

 

[Ranger850]

I am no expert on lowering for sure. I wasn't trying to put out false info, I just know it can get expensive quick and it ain't the easiest truck to lower.

 

[svtcards]

If u don't want to cut springs and lose integrity of the spring

 

[Ranger850]

Flip kit would get u 4 " just by putting springs from top to bottom.with same

But the front is more complicated to get right without chewing through tires and front end parts from exploding because they're operating at their limits. Don't get me wrong, i like the look of a lowered Ranger, when it looks right

 

[svtcards]

I get it man.fords r a bitch for sure to lower without screwing up tires and so on.i just know what I tried and seemed to work for me.but I don't usually go lower then 3" 4" on mine.

 

[svtcards]

They do look good when done right.i totally agree

 

[franklin2]

I believe you when you say you are getting it in with a 2 inch spring drop, but boy it bet it's touch and go. That has to be the absolute limit with a spring drop.

I have cut springs before, it doesn't seem to hurt them. But if you want it to fit back in the spring pocket correctly you have to take fairly large chunks out of it. It actually works pretty good, as you make the spring shorter, the spring gets stiffer, which is what you want since you need to limit travel some when you lower the truck.