New to prerunners

[AidenKoop27]

I’ve been wanting to get into prerunners, and I’ve been looking at ford rangers to be they truck that I use, but I’m not sure what year to get, I’d like to build one but I don’t have very much money to put into it. I live in east Texas where there aren’t many people who can help with stuff like this.

 

[Curious Hound]

I’m not a pre runner expert. But from what I’ve seen, they generally use a long pivot arm suspension in the front. For that, the 97 and earlier generations with the twin I-beam (TIB) suspension would work nicely.

TIB is the rear wheel drive designation and TTB is the 4x4 designation.

 

[AidenKoop27]

Thanks, from what Ive seen, these seem to be the general reccomendation for prerunners

 

[scotts90ranger]

I'm with Eric, I'd look for a 4.0L 2 wheel drive just to get some horsepower, aside from the lift brackets and stuff you might be able to do it on a budget, there's a fair amount of info in the tech library on 4x2 lifts or someone might chime in...

 

[AidenKoop27]

Is the best option to buy rangers locally? or is there certain places I should look, should I just wait for a marketplace deal?

 

[scotts90ranger]

You're best off with something from the south to avoid rust, private sales are going to be less money than a dealer.

 

[AidenKoop27]

Is there a better way to do it than Facebook marketplace or Craigslist?

 

[Curious Hound]

Is there a better way to do it than Facebook marketplace or Craigslist?

Not that I’m aware of.

 

[SenorNoob]

I wish. Both of those are a mess. There is a site called Local Sales Network too. It's not really any better tho.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Both kinda suck right now but if you're persistent you can find what you're looking for... 4 years ago I found my '97 Ranger daily driver for $450 that just needed some simple stuff (to me, they thought it was the end of the thing, replaced the suspension beam and door and was done, they replaced the door but just cut all of the wires and didn't even install a door panel and it was a white door on a burgundy rig...) and now I've put 70k on it and it's been pretty reliable...