Low Key Upgrades for 2WD

[Low-N-Slow]

Hello everyone. I came across this site while looking for options to make a 2WD 2007 Ranger XL more offroad capable. Any upgrades must be low key. The truck belongs to the municipal electric utility that I work for, so no huge tires, 6" lifts, 4WD conversion, etc. The upgrades also have to be a wise use of rate-payers money.

My thoughts were to add a front and rear receiver for recovery points (no tow hooks), then possible add a portable winch in the future. Since the offroad driving would be mostly mud (power line rights of way) I would plan to just air down and put on chains if necessary. The rear is an 8.8" 3.55 LS with a 4.0L engine and AT. I don't expect it to perform like a 4WD vehicle, just want to make it as versatile as possible.

Am I expecting too much? Am I overlooking some other upgrades? And as far as the front receiver, has anyone used the Warn Trans4mer for a 2007 2WD? I read that the valence may have to be trimmed on later model trucks. The other front receivers available seem to hang down too low.

Thanks

 

[86 slo-vo]

Best thing you can do for a 2wd is put some sort of locker in the rear end.

 

[stegomon]

Mabey some kind of m/ts would help. And just be carefull.

 

[stegomon]

Some skid plates

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Airing down a radial street tire probably would not really make any difference. When people talk of airing down tires, they are mostly talking about running oversize off-road tires where airing down means more tire in contact with the ground. Take my choptop for example. My 35x12.5x15 tires are rated for something like 45psi. At even 35psi only the very center of the tire is in contact with the road (you can see this if you make a chalk line across the tread and drive a short distance - the chalk will "wear" off of where the tire contacts the road). I'm running around 12psi because that is the point where the tires are wearing evenly, although there would be less rolling resistance at a higher pressure, since it only gets used for local driving and some off-roading, I'm not concerned about slightly better fuel economy. If those tires were on something heavier (like my F-150), I would be running a higher tire pressure to achieve a proper wear pattern but since the F-150 sees more road time and more weight, I would have to run an even higher pressure - thus airing down off-road would help because it would flatten the contact patch. Make sense?

A locker, chains, and some aggressive AT tires would be my first choice. Mud tires are great in the mud, but they suck in the snow, on ice, and they tend to wear fast on the road. Last time around on my F-150 I went with Mastercraft Courser CT tires. Take a look at the tread pattern on those bad boys and you'll see what I mean about aggressive AT pattern. Aggressive AT tires wear better than MT tires and they will perform well off-road. A winch is also a worthy investment.

 

[Low-N-Slow]

We typically put Destination A/T's on our 1/2 ton trucks--would these suffice? If we were able to get a locker installed, would it make sense to regear? Nothing too radical, but it seems like if you have to open up the differential it makes sense to at least consider it.

This vehicle won't see a lot of offroad action, but when the lights are out sometimes you have to get into some not so great locations.

I found a few pictures of the Trans4mer installed with the permanent winch but none with a front receiver. Does anyone have any insight on them?

Thanks for the tips so far.
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[lil_Blue_Ford]

Oh, and from the reviews I've read, a lot of people get 50K miles out of the Mastercraft Courser CT tires (they're made by Cooper). IMHO, Destinations are better than crappy all-season radials, but they're just not aggressive enough for really playing off the paved road.

Regearing largely depends on tire size and desired crawl ratio. I ran 235/75/15 tires on my 3.0L Ranger with a manual trans and 3.73 gears and it worked out to be just about right for what I used it for - a good all-around setup - it was my DD most of the time, but spent a good bit of time out on muddy jobsites, played in the snow, did some hauling, and was my work truck for awhile. If you're sticking with the stock tire size, the gear ratio you have now might be good or it might not. If I changed the gear ratio in yours, I would probably go 3.73 unless I was making a significant change (like my Ranger had 225/70/15 tires stock, had I gone to 31x10.5x15 tires, 4.10 gears would have been the way to go).

Arguably, what may help more than changing gear ratio would be to change the transmission out for a 4x4 one with a transfer case. Naturally without a 4x4 front axle the front output does you no good, but what such a change does is give you low range for crawling along slowly. I had considered it a few times with my Ranger but it's not exactly a low-budget, low-key thing.

As far as lockers go.... A Detroit would be doing it up right. Or an E-locker. But you're going to spend on those, IIRC most Detroits are around $500 plus you have to have them installed and re-set the gears. If that's not in the cards, there are other options like the LockRight and Ox lockers which are cheaper and can be installed by anyone. Just pull the tires and brakes in the rear, pop the diff cover, pull the C-clips for the shafts, pull the center pin, rotate the spider gears out, pop the side gears out, and slide this little unit in there. Put the center pin back in, diff cover back on and fill with gear oil. Of course, they are a bit noisy and not very smooth, but they work.