Suspension upgrade on a 2003 FX4? (with front chicken-leg shocks)

[Uncle Gump]

I believe the hard stop in extension on the front is the upper control arm contacting the frame rail. At least that is what I remember when I put the shocks on over the summer. it also happens that the shock is at full travel when the arm contacts the frame.

 

[gw33gp]

I went out to take a look at my Ranger because I don't remember seeing that. I was going to disagree with you after looking at the driver side because there was no sign of contact of the upper control arm on the frame. Then I walked around to the other side and again saw no sign of contact on the frame at the rear of the upper control arm. However, when I looked at the front side, I saw and shiny line on the outer corner of the frame that indicated it does have at least light contact. So, it seems the full travel shock stop and upper control arm contact with the frame are very closely timed.

It just so happens my left shock hits full travel before the upper control arm contacts the frame but the right side contact at the same time. I guess manufacturing tolerances dictate which hits first or at the same time.

Good catch. I am surprised they would design metal to metal contact as a stop. There is probably a softer contact in the shock that slows the impact before it hits the hard stop at the frame.

 

[spiff-d]

Bilstein shocks for a regular 4WD Ranger will work for you. My 2002 FX4 came with Ford tuned Bilstein shocks and I thought they were a little soft for off-road. At around 100K miles I installed Bilstein tuned shacks and am very happy with them. I have run with the 1.5" torsion bar lift since near new and the those Bilstein shocks work just fine with that. Bilstein keeps changing the part number but I think they are called B6 4600 now. If you lift higher, you may want to go with Bilstein 5100 shocks.

Does anyone have the Bilstein part numbers for the 5100's? My Rancho shocks are toast and I was going to upgrade to the 9500's front & rear, but there's not stock through my suppliers. I've read that many people like the 5100's over the Rancho as well. I have the Belltech shackles in the rear and the pre mod key in the front.

 

[Erland]

So I don't know about the 5100's, but the standard Shocks & Bilsteins are acting as the extended travel/droop limiters. However there's only about another 1.5" of wheel-travel remaining before everything binds up in a ruin-your-ball-joint and upper-arm-hitting-the-frame way. That works out to be about another 3/4" of shock travel. The twin-beam front suspension is really the way to go if you want to really change the overall travel, otherwise whatever you gain in compression travel is subtracted from droop. The spindle lift kits are still going to have the exact same travel, but you're starting with the CV joints now at a much more extreme angle.

I ended up raising the front about 1.75" by cranking the passenger side key and replacing the driver-side key. Now both adjusters are near their mid-point of travel and the truck sits level side-to-side. I also added about 1" of lift to the rear with extended shackles. The rear still has tons of droop with the standard Bilstein shocks. I will say the ride and handling were greatly improved just with lifting the front end a bit and leveling it side to side (it was off by about 3/4" L-R, now I have it about 1/8" higher on the driver side). The new shocks further improved on the handling and I'll be taking it in for an alignment after I replaced the fixed upper control arm bolts with the new caster/camber bolts.

 

[Erland]

What an improved ride.