Nathan's "The Rangebe"

[-Nathan-]

yea i just know that on brendank69's truck, he wasnt super impressed with his front flex, and for the simplicity and cheapness of a set of trail gear springs I bet I can achieve decent flex.

 

[MountainMike]

That is true. I've just never really been a fan of leaf sprung front ends but I have seen it work so it's really just up to what you want the truck to do.

 

[94xcab4x4]

Great build man. Makes me miss my old 94ranger. It was the same model and color as yours just an auto with a 4.0. I had plans for it then the motor blew up and a bought my current truck. Needed something that could haul four guys to the jobsite. Keep it for a few years with intintions but never did them then sold it and now regret it.

 

[legoms013]

Well the winch worked out awesome, but I had one beef...the lack of controls inside my cab. Sure, I mean I could just plug in my wired remote and run it through my window, but thats kind of lame.

So...I decided in-cab controls were necessitated.

First, removed the front panel,

Decided to first make a switch panel here, instead of the silly step thing Ford had designed. Cut it first with a grinder

then fine tuned with a dremel

at this point, found some suitable material...0.125 aluminum...also known as a stolen road sign

bent it up and cut some holes in it

this is the switch I got from 12voltguy.com it is a push button style, with an LED safety switch, so I cant accidentally hit the buttons.

at this point, gave it a little paint, and bolted in the switch.

Ill save you guys the details about the wiring, heres a pic inside the solenoid box from my winch...kind of intimidating if you dont know what youre doing.

basically I just tapped into the in/out lines that went to the wired remote, as well as the earth ground.

It works fantastic, and its really nice not having to get out of the cab to use the winch. It will be super nice for those rainy/snowy days.

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask

I know about solenoid wiring, its a pain in the butt. I put my solenoid box next to my battery, to get it away from mud and water. Then I ran 1 gage welding wires (3x of them) from the solenoid to the winch. From the solenoid I then ran three wires into the cab and cut a hole in my cup holder for the plug in for the winch controller. I think there is a pic in my build thread somewhere.

Nice build by the way! Good looking truck. Oh and I see you bought a California rust absent vehicle....looks immaculate!

 

[-Nathan-]

Okay boys, so the Dana 60 is on its way for the front, and Ive got a 14 bolt semi float on the way for the rear.

Pretty set on going leaves in the front as well.

have considered NOT narrowing the axles, and just running hummer beadlocks, due to the 7" of backspace, it would keep me fairly narrow still.

 

[-Nathan-]

going for something along the lines of this...

 

[MountainMike]

have considered NOT narrowing the axles, and just running hummer beadlocks, due to the 7" of backspace, it would keep me fairly narrow still.

That seems like it would work out alright

 

[Boggin]

just read this from the beginning. your work is amazing, like youve been doing it for a hundred years, much respect. good work

 

[bobbywalter]

not one to bury a winch...as when the need arises its nice to have it in the open. i hope you never have issues....this is about the time the connections have issues in the salt belt if it gets gooey mud caked as well regularly..





on the full width consideration get your steering figured out to run the hummer h1 wheels unless your having them built with a custom offset, and 16.5 tires are hard to get near me, i dont remember if the h1 work with the 03 axles, but they dont with the leaf style knuckles, you want specific offset histeer arms and have to cut the stock ford tiepoints.

if you run the h2 wheel those work on all of them iirc.




on edit,
to run leafs, not sure if i would go trail gear with a v8 but definitely with a 6....you may need to install a custom shim on the leaf pack to get the operation clearances you want, dont forget that option. leafs are too not bad, just finding the right balance

 

[86 slo-vo]

so your going 60 now? what are the brackets going on?

 

[-Nathan-]

Haha look at the dates of those posts Jon. This is the original thread of my OLD ranger, the one that got totalled off...it looks like this now:

I had a 60 lined up for it, but totalled the truck before I actually committed to buying them.

 

[86 slo-vo]

i saw that this morning, bobby walter got me all fawked up

 

[CodyXLT]

Alright here are the pics...here is what I started with...a 2 inch block STACKED on top of a 3 inch block. It had HORRIBLE axle wrap, and my springs were inverted (stock ranger springs).

Here you can see the "shackles" ie.... pieces of flat bar with holes...they got replaced with belltech 6400's.

Heres the new set up...explorer 4 leaf pack with a 3 inch block. I double nutted the u bolts just to be safe.

Overall Im quite happy, i have little if no lift, but I managed to get rid of the 2 inch block. There is no more axle wrap, and it drives so much nicer, the ride is quite a bit softer. I think it will flex out quite a bit more as well.

-Nathan-

I was just wondering where did you get those u-bolts at and what steps did u take to remove your dash, I dont want to mess anything up and just get it done right the first Also you have a great looking truck, you set it up the same way I want to have mine one day!

 

[ianyboy]

What type of truck is the snorkel originally for?