i beam flip

[88BII]

has any one flipped the i beams on a 2wd ranger to achieve lift and if so how hard is it?

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

umm...im guessing you would have some really neat camber specs if you were to attempt this

 

[88BII]

not really i have pics of a friend of mine did.

 

[mjonesjr]

LOL, then post them. I doubt you would ever be able to get it aligned.

 

[88BII]

for granted this was on a full size truck the suspensions are practically identical.

 

[88BII]

lmk what you think it is very possible to do it if you have the right tools and matrial

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

those pics dont prove much. his caster cant be very good with the kingpin leaning out like that, and for that matter, we cant see if the camber is anywhere close or not...plus those radius arm brackets look right out of the "scary steering" webpage.

you may have noticed on your axle beam where it says "do not heat, cut, weld"? theres a very good reason for that.

if you want to turn a good truck into a ghetto, half-assed hack job, just to save a few bucks, then why did you bother to post? please, bust out the tourch and go to town. my only request is that you do NOT drive this time bomb on the same roads that me and my loved ones use

 

[Spdrcer34]

All those cobwebs makes me think it's not a daily driver....

Makes you wonder why he hasn't driven it in years....

Ryan

 

[88mudder]

those radius arm brackets look scary as heck..please keep that truck away from me on the roads.

 

[canyoncritter]

that is flat out ghetto......steering angles are all messed up, no caster and I bet its a handfull to drive.

the reason that worked on that truck(wellI guesss you can call it worked) IS cause its a mid 60's-79 truck with equal lenth beams.And the beams have a kick as you can see at the end of the beams.(right before the kingpin)

The ranger is un-equal lenth, you have a short and long beam.and the ends do not "kick" at the ends like the old equl lenth beams.

besides if you just flip the beams the only thing that going to be holding the beams to the psindles is going to be the lower now upper ball joint nut.not the ball of the ball joint.and that would be very dangerous.

If you want to lift your truck more than a couple of inces around 4inches look in to bent beams or just get some drop brackets to correct camber from the taller springs.


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Only the 89 and newer ranger,bronco2, f150's etc have the "do not bend/weld" casted in to them.As they are "cast" beams. every ford 88 and older has forged beams.
The reason this was casted in to them, is cause back in the day 81 and older f series trucks to aline them they had to bend the beam as there was no adjustment in the kinpins.
Once the beams went to ball joints they had adjusment.but soem old timers proably never caught up on that and ford to save thier ass, proably thougth it was a good ieal to cast that in to the beam.So joe the aligment guy didnt bend the beams like he always had then 50 miles down the road the beam snap and for get sued.

Truth is, the cast beams can be bent and weld on.But you realllllyy have to know what your doing.

 

[88BII]

you may have noticed on your axle beam where it says "do not heat, cut, weld"? theres a very good reason for that.

the i beam was not cut or heated or welded. if you notice they are upside down so where do you get cut, heat, weld? the drop brackets for the radius arms were the only thing that was cut. here is a pic of the front of the truck

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

in order to get the caster anywhere close to proper, the beam would have to be cut or bent.

 

[84projectFORD]

yeah its just a bad idea all together, ball joints that are now filped around and being pulled on instead of how they were designed to be pushed down apon so i see ball joints poping out in the near future. that FS has king pins so he does not have to worry about that. caster will be way out so your steering wont return to center and will probably give bad bump steer. If you post up some better pics of your buddies beam ends i can show ya between your beam ends and his why it wont work well and be a bad idea.