dangerranger1983 build

[Beef52751]

i like the deer winch idea.

i was wondering, how are you liking the sas on your truck??? ive been reading through your and escorts build threads and im starting to wonder if i shouldn't put my money into a sas instead of the ttb??? what is your opinion??? i have neither axle as of now.

Thanks for your input and sorry to jack your thread

 

[dangerranger83]

Your talking about SAS so you are far from thread jacking.

I love my D30 SAS, best thing that I have ever built and put into any vehicle. I love how it performs and what it does. I like how the simplicity of it is too, say change a bearing unit on it. The after market on them is nice in size so not to hard to find parts for them and there is tons of info on how to fix them, upgrade, etc... for them too. As far as the strongest, far from it, but easy suites my needs for what I do with my truck, and I have sewen these been through some hell too and servive. Just all depends on your driving. Ya the D35 is 99% bolt in but i had got my axle for free too so went that rought but was wanting to do a D30 swap anyways (and 2 weeks later one landed in my lap).

Many guys say dont do a D30, if doing a SAS, do it with a D44 at mininum. I wonder why I would need to put a fullsize truck axle under a compack truck that weighs much less and doesnt have the engine of a fullsize? Now I know some people do have fullsize truck engines in their ranger but for those who dont, why would you really need more?

One thing that i do like about the D30 axle is the 4 link points of the axle, and combined with longarms, you can super fine tune your axle under your truck too. Now this can be done with a D44 as long as you put the 4 mounting points on them and not run radius arms, and yes Jeep D44's are like this and sold this way, and I would rather run longarms the radius arms any day.

Above all it comes to how much money you are willing to spend and time into doing this and TTB is the same way. I just dont like TTB because of it needing tunning non stop (seems that way). And the after market for them doesnt seem to be as big and theres not as much info on them either plus many shops arent to familiar with tunning TTB either, let alone a modded one and alot of them wont touch them either.

One question you have to aks yourself is, what do you use your truck for and that will decided it for you from there.

If I got another 4wd ranger, i would end up doing the samething to it hince why im looking for a 2wd.

 

[escort_gts]

^ yep, like he said. Research to find out what you want to do with your truck. If a daily driver with minimal off road then a Dana 30 would be fine. Anything hardcore then the d30 will break on you. But if you take it easy on the throttle you will be ok. I have beat on mine some. Hit some pretty hard bumps and everything is ok still. I just don't want to do any rock crawling with the d30.

But....if you find a d44 rubicon axle then go for it. It's just not worth the price IMO.

Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk

 

[dangerranger83]

Safe to say I need to clean the bed of my truck out more then once every 6 months. Under the tool box, there was a ton of crap that was holding moisture that was just wanting to rot it out.

As for the deer winch thing, it can be applied to more then just that but thats what it was built for but it will see other things. I would like to make an inbed crane one day, but may go electric on that, need to look up schematics on how they are made and go from there.

Why buy something that I can easily build for half the price and have twice the pride?

 

[escort_gts]

Why buy something that I can easily build for half the price and have twice the pride?

I agree. Just look at our trucks.

Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk

 

[dangerranger83]

Next thing I want to make is a light bar. Want to do stuff to the truck that doesnt keep it from being driven.

Now to go look up what others have made and go from there.

 

[escort_gts]

For the front or in the bed?

Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk

 

[4.0B2]

But....if you find a d44 rubicon axle then go for it. It's just not worth the price IMO.

Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk

nope. i disagree.. its a glorified d30-- and its expensive as heck, they have the same outters. the ring and pinion is larger... but other than that, its not much difference. the axles are not strong enough to justify the money, chromo's for your d30 are better bang for buck..

 

[escort_gts]

nope. i disagree.. its a glorified d30-- and its expensive as heck, they have the same outters. the ring and pinion is larger... but other than that, its not much difference. the axles are not strong enough to justify the money, chromo's for your d30 are better bang for buck..

If he came across one that was cheap or free then it would be ok. The price I see them for on eBay and other places is not worth it to me. You could build a D60 cheaper than a rubicon 44. Or...even buy a rockjock 60 for a little more than a rubicon.....anyways my d30 works for me.

Sent from my HTC using Tapatalk

 

[dangerranger83]

As long as I can run my longarms, Im all good.

I want to build a light bar for the bed so that I can have more lights for the front, and a couple for the rear, but one that hugs the rear of the cab so that I can still have my tool box in the back.

 

[dangerranger83]

Alright after thinking about it, this is what I have come up with. This will resemble what it should look like. Measurements are close to what I got from the truck and angles and some other stuff may/will change but giving you and idea....

Im looking at about 15 foot or so of square tubing that will be 1 inch and an 1/8 inch thick and the bottom parts will be made from 1/4 inch and will need 1 foot of that. If i do decide to add bars in the center of it, that will add to how much square tube that I will need. I plan on running 4 lights on top and maybe 2 pointing backwards.

 

[dangerranger83]

Okay got the metal for it all, bought 20 foot of it, and the angle iron for the mounts for $47 bucks. Now to turn it into what I have pictired, or close to it, into it.

Note to self, when i doubt, strap stuff down. The metal doesnt like to take turns when hangging slightly out of the bed and it likes to act like a rocket flying out the bed and into the road plus os really loud too. Good thing I was just about home.

 

[dangerranger83]

Okay here's what I got done in two hours before I had to leave for work.

Will hopefully have it done tomorrow but no lights on it but enough to drive around with.

 

[dangerranger83]

Okay got it done for now. Wont have lights on it for a bit but when I do decide on what ones I want and whatnot, Ill weld light tabs on it. Doesnt look exaclty like what I designed but went together better since I did plan it out.

The center bars are parallel to eachother and at 90 degree angles but due to the angled ones on the sides, it makes the optical illusion its not.

Metal

Primered

Painted

Baking in the sun

And mounted

It wouldnt be a project if I didnt get hurt.....

 

[dangerranger83]

Got tired of looking at the back cover for the tail gate so I took it off. Some screw holes it was rusting out the tail gate.

Before

After

Cleaning stuff up on the truck due to a fall meeting on the 22nd, at least getting the inside done.