98 Torsion Bar to earlier TTB swap

[KenP1984]

Hey yall, this is my first post and didnt see anything real similar or found an answer to this.

Is it possible to swap my 98 Ranger Single Cab Long bed torsion bar suspension up front to a ttb setup? I can imagine ill probably have to fab something up, especially since i plan on putting an F-150 D44 front axle with a mid travel kit for the dunes. I noticed there were D44 swap/conversion kits but those are for already ttb rangers. Would getting a ttb parts ranger and cutting up that from be a good idea? or would it be a smarter option to do it to another ranger thats already ttb. Any help or advice would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[MaicoDoug]

Hello Ken,

Sounds like a really cool project as any off-road ranger project is. You may have a better idea than Ford ever had regarding the Twin I Beam front suspension, however.......I myself may consider fabing up some of my own swing arms, trailing arms as others have done.

Check this guy out if you haven't already...Dunes Dude TIB

Or you can always start simple with something like Tyler did. Him & his friends are fabing swing arms and have vids of doing it. His truck is a TIB. Doesn't mean that you can't start with a simple non TIB frame. Me personally, I'd look into a full sized TIB front end off an F100, F150 as long as you're considering using that front axle. Would rather cut out and shorten a cross member of a full sized frame than mod a Ranger frame. The full sized frame already fits up the axle you're considering. But I'm only bench racing here. Tossing a Ranger body over a F100, F150 front end would be my first consideration....lets see here... If a guy were to~ Heck the wider Ranger fiberglass fenders require a wider axle stance anyway. WFO!

 

[KenP1984]

Hello Ken,

Sounds like a really cool project as any off-road ranger project is. You may have a better idea than Ford ever had regarding the Twin I Beam front suspension, however.......I myself may consider fabing up some of my own swing arms, trailing arms as others have done.

Check this guy out if you haven't already...Dunes Dude TIB

Or you can always start simple with something like Tyler did. Him & his friends are fabing swing arms and have vids of doing it. His truck is a TIB. Doesn't mean that you can't start with a simple non TIB frame. Me personally, I'd look into a full sized TIB front end off an F100, F150 as long as you're considering using that front axle. Would rather cut out and shorten a cross member of a full sized frame than mod a Ranger frame. The full sized frame already fits up the axle you're considering. But I'm only bench racing here. Tossing a Ranger body over a F100, F150 front end would be my first consideration....lets see here... If a guy were to~ Heck the wider Ranger fiberglass fenders require a wider axle stance anyway. WFO!

A buddy of mine was suggesting i get a 4x4 single cab shortbed OBS F-150 frame of which already has the 9inch rear and the d44 up front to slap my body on and then go from there, which opens up multiple other potential mods later on. I am gonna go with the 4 inches of extra width on some prerunner fenders and bedsides on my truck so the extra stance from the f150 axles would be perfect for it. My only concern with that would be the 5.0 swap as I have nearly everything i need to do it apart from the 96/97 Explorer donor vehicle. Im fabbing up a 4 link for the rear axle at the moment so i suppose it wouldnt hurt to fab something up for the front end as well lol

 

[MaicoDoug]

Meshing the two ends up who knows where, but that's what you're taking on. The Ranger rear axle would need to be wider also. Perfect fit from the F150. I just don't trust the stock Ranger anything, but the lighter weight is a hard thing to walk away from, as the as already built assembly. Look what Manny Esquerra did. Multi year champ desert Ranger

Considering the typical route, something is bending, breaking. Weld it up, install bigger braces, larger & heaver supports and then you end up with a thin mounting spot. It's all a procedure. Flex is sometimes a consumable and with many, many designs, the simple identification of that consumable is an acceptable situation for most industrial mechanical "systems". Then someone installs some new structural member thing made from carbon-graphite and the whole thing gives up. Typical of the bicycle frames that I wrecked when I was testing my "stealth" carbon fiber mtb suspension forks on other mass manufactured framesets. Their tubing, welds started failing like crazy.

Some say over build it, some say simply just do enough to effect your design. Then test & evaluate it. At that time you will know what to do next. For the final "ever changing" design. In retrospect, having something that allows you a "platform" to proceed with is a preferred elective. Having that advantage (as one may call it), allows you to work within a design knowing exactly what the advantages are. And what their not. In R&D, the candle burns at both ends.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Similar plan that I want to do to my '00 5L explorer... hopefully do a Jana54 with a 10.25 out back, have everything but the time and shocks

 

[scotts90ranger]

To elaborate a bit my plan was to take some 1/4" plate and make some pivot brackets then fabricate a crossmember from there then make some radius arms that mount back near the torsion bar crossmember and hopefully go coil over with some bypass secondary shocks... supposedly 18" of travel isn't hard to obtain at that point, get some 5.13 gears with 37" tires as low as I can get away with, hoping for about 5" lift. The hardest part is going to be the swingset steering setup and adding a steering box to the system getting rid of the rack and pinion...