Front and Rear suspenion before i start cutting.

[rocks]

I am going to do the jeep coils on the front end. I have ordered 4 Bilstien 5150 soft valving shocks 10" travel for the front. I currently have 6" skyjacker brackets on the front with the extreame drop pitman arm ( the one for the f150 ) Without the spacers under my coils (1" washers) the steering sits level on the truck. I think I can leave the front in the 6" brackets and use maybe a 22"-24" spring. My truck is a single cab 4.0. I can not find out how much these jeep springs will compress. I will also extend the radius arms when I do this.

For the rear it will be the chevy 64" springs possibly rearched 2" with the beltech shackles to get rid of the stock block. I was thinking about running
15" travel shocks in the rear. What travel shocks are you guys running with the chevy springs?

 

[4x4junkie]

You need to have the steering matched up exactly with your lift brackets to run flexier coils. Being that the Skyjacker #FA600 "extreme" drop arm drops down exactly 4" from stock, you will need to set the axle up in the 4" bracket holes for it to work correctly.

A reg cab 4.0L should be somewhere around 2000-2100lbs sprung weight up front (you didn't say longbed or short). A 240lb, 22" long (free) coil such as Skyjacker's JC-60F (Cherokee) should sit at around 4-4.5" lift on that truck (15-15.5" compressed), and may be a good match for your project.

Sorry I can't comment on the Chevy leafs though, I still have the 57" RBV leafs on mine.

 

[rocks]

Hm I guess my skyjacker 6" springs must be sagging, no telling how long they have been on there I bought the truck lifted. Without the washers the steering sits level with the 4" pitman arm.

The truck is a reg cab short bed. I am hoping i can get at least 14-15" of travel with the shocks i bought if i can get that much ill be happy with it.

 

[4x4junkie]

Yeah, not only the steering needs to be level, but the axle too (so they both are "in phase" with each other). Saggy coils will let the suspension sit too low.

Take a look over this page, it should help you in getting your suspension properly prepped for the Jeep coils

http://www.therangerstation.com/Magazine/winter2008/steering_tech.htm

 

[rocks]

One more questing I can't remember did you move your coil buckets up 2" or did you leave them in place. My shocks for now are only 10" travel, so I will probably not have as much travel as you but it should be far more than enough for what I am doing. I should be able to order my springs and DOM tubing this week and hopefully start on it next week. Thanks for your help.

 

[4x4junkie]

My coil buckets are raised 2", yes. This worked perfectly with the 2.5" lift axle brackets on my BII (think of it as running the same coils on 4.5" lift brackets). Your Ranger being a little heavier will probably compress the coils 0.5-1" more, so the 4" position on your brackets should put you right smack in the middle of the ballpark I'm thinking.

A 10" travel shock should be good for about 17" travel out at the wheel.

 

[rocks]

Thanks for the awnsers. I am going to use springs from Rustys Off Road. The website says they are 190# springs but came across some jeep forum searching and they are more around 240-250# when tested on a spring rate machine. I can't wait to make my buddys with thier solid axle rigs cry haha. Hopefully the dual bilstien shocks will be good for some high speed stuff also. They are 170/60 valved. Got them slightly used for 200$.

 

[4x4junkie]

Lol, yeah, that's the nice thing about a good TTB setup, even with it built for some crawling, if you decide to pick up the speed a little, the solid axle rigs will have a harder time keeping up. Running duals, those shocks should work pretty nice.

Keep us posted on your build.