perches

[RangahDanga]

Any suggestion on spring perches? Looking at the RuffStuff 8.8 simple swap kit (31 spline). i know there are other places to but the things, but RuffStuff seems to have the strongest/most complete kit? i've got 3 more perches to cut off along w/ shock tabs, then it'll be time to order some toys...

Axle out of a 99 explorer, 3.73 gears w/ LS. also need to change those to 4.10's to match the front. any suggestions on that also? looking for cheaper but still quality. Engineering students are pretty broke these days...

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[kunar]

I used the ruff stuff kit, was very happy with it. We get a discount too, I think its 10%. As for gears, those explorers had 4.10's pretty commonly. You can probably buy a good 4.10 axle for cheaper than you can buy gears and an install kit. Sell your old axle and put that money back in the bank.

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[rangerbum]

I made my own using 6x3" .25 wall rectangular tubing. Just took a six inch length of it, find and mark dead center, then I used a drill press and a 3¼" hole saw to cut the opening for the axle tubes. After that I cut it down the middle. It should look like basically [ ]. I then trimmed the ends down so the approach and descent want square, I can't remember the exact angle I cut them. In the end, the contact pad is 6" long which is good for helping with spring wrap, the hole goes nearly halfway around the axle tube, which gives a great amount of weld securing the perches to the axle. And the best part. It cost me $8 to make a comparable part equal or greater in strength.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, I got 1' of receiver tubing and did similar, I did some math and figured out I could get two 7" perches if I cut the angle in the right place, welded some spacers in the middle then used a hole saw like above, gave about 3/4" lift and is beefy, was even able to cut one off and rotate it when I spun my axle tube

Jim has about the best deal on gears for these things that I could find when I was doing mine a few years ago...

 

[RangahDanga]

It cost me $8 to make a comparable part equal or greater in strength.

Jim has about the best deal on gears for these things that I could find when I was doing mine a few years ago...

$8 is pretty damn good. Got my college to fund $120 of the project, its a "mechanical engineering final project" so they're gonne give me some cash towards the build. Just enough for the RuffStuff kit.

As for the gears, maybe i'll try to find a JY set from a low mileage explorer/mustang/ranger. I believe any 8.8 gear set will fit on another 8.8? correct me if i'm wrong. i'm not doing any crazy rediculous off road driving (yet) so a Yukon gear set might be overkill (and expensive)?

 

[4.0B2]

the ring and pinion should interchange but the carrier will NOT... remember to check your specs when you regear... and look up specs for used parts if you are not going new bearings and stuff. I'd recommend an install kit.

I reused my stock perches, I just cut them off a lot cleaner than you did.. lol. I like the RuffStuff but couldn't see myself paying that much for it when I could just use the stock ones and just flip them to the top. Remember to use your TRS discount code for RuffStuff or the Facebook one

 

[RangahDanga]

yeah... all i had was an 8" cutting wheel on a 4.5" grinder so getting a decent cut was tough without cutting up the tubes. Gotta pick up a grinder disc and clean the welds off. it'll be heading out for shot blasting and some powdercoating begining of Feb.

 

[kunar]

i agree the spring perches are pretty easy to do yourself. the rest of the kit is where the value is. it includes 5/8" ubolts with hardware, spring plates and shock mounts. everything in the kit is way overbuilt. any stronger isnt gonna be of any benefit. i couldnt have gotten my hands on all the same stuff from anywhere else for much cheaper, and i would have been driving all over town and ordering from multiple places to try to do it. for me, it was well worth the ~$100 i spent.

 

[4.0B2]

I used my 7.5 axle shock mounts..
cut everything off with a 3" cutoff wheel with no issues.


an 8" on a 4.5" sounds kinda scary lol



get some good 36 grit flapper wheels to clean the welds off... gives most people a better finished product.

 

[scotts90ranger]

In my shock mounts and perches I think I have $12 in steel... $10 for that receiver tube, then some pieces of 1/4" plate for shock tabs (at $.50/lb), and got the spring plates from a junkyard F150 with an 8.8 for like $5, and got U bolts custom made from Napa for about $40... so about $60...

 

[RangahDanga]

get some good 36 grit flapper wheels to clean the welds off... gives most people a better finished product.

Thanks for the advice, i would have spent hours trying to get a clean look, would have never thought of flap discs to clean the welds off.

RuffStuff kit is in the mail, gonna be nice. Thanks to everyone who chimed in with their setup. I kinda wanted to go with the kit from the beginning, but if i hadn't messed up my original perches i might've gone with those.

 

[4.0B2]

So it's a good thing you messed them up! Lol

 

[brinker88]

I used ballistic fab perches. They completely box them in. I would honestly just use RuffStuff ones next time around.

 

[RangahDanga]

So the ruffStuff perches came in, and got them welded on. Pretty beefy things and it all just worked (that never happens). I'm gonna try to get it under the ranger this weekend. is there anything i should know about the ranger driveshaft to xploder pinion? will it all match up?

 

[SenorNoob]

Is welding this as hard to do as I've heard? Stories of even shops melting through the tubes and the tubes warping after being heated?

Note: I still wouldn't try it myself. I've tried to weld twice. First time the weld broke about halfway around. (Exhaust) The next time I melted through the headlight for my bike.