Lowered 4wd's?

[Insanejughead]

Hey all,

I am just wondering if it causes strain on all the components in the front end.

I found a unbelievably good condition '85 shortbed, 2.8L, auto, 4x4 (manual hubs), complete w/ camper shell and family of rats for a Ben Franklin.


My ideas are to put dropped springs on it and correct the camber, but I wasn't sure if that would be bad for it because of the increased angles.


I also wouldn't use 4wd much at all. I would really like to find a l/s for it and have my dream ranger built up that can race but also be incredibly stable on snow and ice as well as being able to go most any place off road that it would clear.

Thank you

 

[bluovaldude]

Well you should be ok, but to lower a 4x4 is as about as useless as a poopy flavored looly pop.

Man I do not want to shoot your hopes down or anything, but if you lower your 4x4 you are only going to get maybe 2in and it may not even be that noticeable.

Now yeah dude props for thinking outside the box and one heck of a find.

But not to get you down and out or anything, so yeah the way you plan on going about lowering it will work just fine, and it has been done before to.

So what I would do to save you some money: get a set of coils from the junk yard, cut about 2in out of them and then flip the rear shackles in the rear. This all around will net you about a 2in drop and should be fairly in expensive for you to do too.

So if you are unhappy with the results, you never really lost any thing in the process.

Good luck and hey post some pict I wanna see this beast.

 

[Insanejughead]

I understand it will be mostly useless... but somehow I'm set on having a great looking pickup that can handle like a snake on the road as well as have power and grip to pull whatever I want. If I get my 2wd 2.8L up and running like I really want... this project would be reserved for a v-8 swap.

I'm certainly not going to slam it. I wouldn't care if the drop is barely noticeable. The objective I would want to get at would be to make it not look like a 4wd and be hard to notice from just standing in front of it (keep people from seeing that front differential, mainly)

Oh, and I have quite a while to wait until this thing is done. The military isn't too big on letting people modify their vehicles or have time to do so. I'm also quite a ways away from where I would be doing this... so its highly likely that it won't be much past being started until I get out of the military.

Damn... I can't wait for the next one year, ten months, and 2 weeks to go by FAST!!!

 

[tanbuddy]

In the rear u can take out the factory blocks, that would be easy and cheap! The front, get coils or cut the factory ones, but u wont get much from it.

 

[bluovaldude]

I see what you mean by lowering it, and if you do go the route of lowering it for "performance" so to say and looks of it being that much , lower you may want to think about a bugger rim size and maybe some low profile tires or something else to help out with the driveability of the truck.

 

[Mutant Pony]

If you look at the bumpstops in the front of the truck now you will notice that it can only be dropped an inch to 1 1/2" and the frame will be sitting on the axle. Drop spindles are not possible.
You could cut out the front frame and graft in an all wheel drive aerostar front end and built a gen I 4x4 that is slammed.

 

[jaymegriffiths]

If you look at the bumpstops in the front of the truck now you will notice that it can only be dropped an inch to 1 1/2" and the frame will be sitting on the axle. Drop spindles are not possible.
You could cut out the front frame and graft in an all wheel drive aerostar front end and built a gen I 4x4 that is slammed.

yes. what he said. awd aerostar. that would be sick

 

[JohnnyO]

If the one you got was cheap, I'd say sell it for profit and buy a 2wd.
It is possible to scrap the front axle and replace it with parts from a 2wd Bronco II but I don't know how much that would help.

 

[kunar]

seriously guys?? this threads a year and a half old...

 

[constant_projecttruck]

seriously guys?? this threads a year and a half old...

that's what I was thinking.

 

[Jay FX4]

I noticed that, too. Be we have to revive old threads to keep the forum alive! It's not like there's 15 pages of new posts to look at if I'm not on for a day...

 

[JohnnyO]

seriously guys?? this threads a year and a half old...

Heh, I didn't even notice the dates.

 

[jaymegriffiths]

Heh, I didn't even notice the dates.

me niether. i never notice em.
geez

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Nope.... me neither
hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Richard

 

[Insanejughead]

Nope.... me neither
hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Richard

Lemme guess, you waited almost three years to post this comment?


I haven't even looked at this thread since about a month after I posted it, until now.

(Btw, this thread may have been my first posts. I won't go on a rampage looking for exact dates, but I joined in Jan '08. So it's like, my baby thread.)