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Picture diary of a 4X4 RCD to Dixon Brothers LT Conversion


Did the aal make your truck ride super stiff? Is it comparable to the block? Im thinking about doing an aal instead of the block.
 
Did the aal make your truck ride super stiff? Is it comparable to the block? Im thinking about doing an aal instead of the block.

Honestly, I thought that the ride improved over stock when I added the RCD stuff. The performance of the Bilstien shocks may have compensated for the extra stiff spring setup. My stock springs also had 115k on them when it was installed and may have been getting a bit tired. That being said, without any weight in the back of the truck, the back end can still feel harsh and will skip around. With weight is isn't too bad.

Personally, block vs. add a leaf, I would choose an add a leaf setup.
 
Cool, thats what i thought. Im also considering taking the block out and getting longer shackles. I dont haul a lot of weight ever, but i will getting a full size spare soon.
 
So I finally started my axle swap/Giant 64" long travel leaf spring swap. Sorry for the picture quality. I only had my cell phone with me when I shot these pictures.

The axle: Ford F150 9.75 (equivalent to a Dana 60) axle with 4:88 gears, disk brakes and factory posi.

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Welded axle tubes

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New brake lines.

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Front leaf spring hanger.

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Rear leaf spring hanger and flipped 8" shackle.

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Mounting the springs.

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Axle mock up.

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So far, the most difficult part of the swap has been getting the 9.75 axles redrilled to 5 on 4.5 and removing the factory hanger rivets. The rivets did not want to come out. With the heads removed, an air hammer was not enough. We had to make a long punch with a sledge hammer to drive them out.

I will be running this setup on factory shocks for a while until I and afford the link killer shocks and bed cage fabrication.
 
Installed

Sorry for the dirty truck. I have not had a chance to wash it yet and we are expecting rain tonight.

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Truck is level in the back. The camera was tilted.
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I can now reduce the preload on the front springs and drop the front end a couple of inches. Once the springs have settled and I am comfortable with the ride hight, I will trim the ubolts so that they do not extend below the bash plates. 16" Link Killer double bypass shocks and a bed cage will happen somewhere in the future.
 
The truck looks great! How much wider is that rear axle? I wouldn't reduce the pre-load on the front springs.
 
the main reason i dont like most prerunners is that they usually dont have a bed. so that why im lovin yours right now. a fully functional truck man!

did u remove the front cv axles?
 
Are you talking about the truck that have a full bed cage and just fiberglass fenders, or lack of bed space? Once he gets shock hoops and a full size spare or two...goodbye bed.
 
im talkin bout a bed cage and glass fenders.

id tuck some shocks on in the fenders and not have to cut the bed. he now has the room to do that with a full width axle in the rear and fit some 16" shocks.
 
the main reason i dont like most prerunners is that they usually dont have a bed. so that why im lovin yours right now. a fully functional truck man!

did u remove the front cv axles?

Thanks, I intend to keep as much of the bed functional as possible. With the full width axle, I would like to see if there is a way to mount the shocks such that they will sit between the bedsides and the outside edge of the bed. With 6" flared bedsides there is a bit of room available. If that does not work, I will try to keep them in the void space in front of the stock wheel well hump.

As for spare tires, I will loose some bed space to accommodate those, but I will be looking for a design that will allow for me to regain that space if I choose to unload the spares. I like to pitch my 2 man backpacking tent in the bed, so I would like keep that option open. I have a couple of ideas that need to be mocked up. Unfortunately the Ranger was not designed to carry a full size spare under the bed.

Lastly, my CV axles have been removed until I can pay to have the front end differential regeared to 4:88.
 
History Lesson

Somebody asked, so I thought that I would provide a little bit of history on my truck. The pictures are not all sequential, but are intended to highlight the different modifications that are mentioned.

I bought this truck in 2003 from an elderly gentleman in Sun City, AZ. It was immaculate and only had 31,000 miles on the clock, 4 wheel drive and an open 8.8 with 4:10 gears. He had also added his fair share of bolt on modifications which included: a bug deflector, fiberglass body matching steps, a black locking tonneau cover, a rubber bed mat, and sheep skin seat covers. I have been looking for pictures of my truck in this state but have not been able to find any. I will edit them in later if I come across them.

Modification 1:
My first modification was to remove the seat covers and install an Alpine head unit that supported Ipod use. At this point I was happy with the truck and it stayed remained in this state for several months.

Modification 2:
In mid 2004 I took my truck on a camping trip. Access to the camp site was over a poorly maintained forest road. Overnight it rained heavily and filled the rocky, clay road with several large (2'-3') deep puddles. There was a certain spot on the road where there were two large puddles back to back. I was afraid that I would become stuck in the soft clay if I did not carry some speed through the puddles. As I left the first puddle, the suspension extended. Before I could clear the hump between the two puddles the suspension settled and the truck came down hard on the driver side fiberglass step. The force folded the step in half but the step saved my rocker panel from sustaining any damage. When I returned home from that trip, I removed both fiberglass steps and realized that the truck looked better and taller without them installed. Once again I was happy with my truck.

Modification 3:
In 2006, my family and I moved from Phoenix to Tucson, AZ. Within a few months of my move I met a new friend that was serious about off roading. To this point my idea of going off road was driving to campsites and trail heads on maintained forest roads. My new friend drove a lifted Toyota Land Cruiser that was very capable. As we started to explore some of the Tucson back country together, we decided that we needed to be able to communicate between our vehicles. Thus modification number 3, the addition of a Cobra CB radio unit. I chose a single din sized radio that had an integrated front firing speaker. Because of the size, I was able to install the radio in my dash directly below my Alpine deck. The install was/is very clean, but the radio has never functioned to my expectation level.

Modification 4:
Towards the end of 2007, with work and family absorbing most of my free time, the only opportunity that I had to integrate 4-wheeling was to make night runs. Well, it did not take long before I determined that my stock headlights were insufficient for the technical driving that was required on these night runs. So I enlisted the help of a friend of mine that owned a metal shop and we worked for a couple of nights and designed a prerunner style bumper that would mount around the factory bumper. To meet my lighting needs I purchased two Lightforce 240 HID lamps and mounted them to the new bumper.

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Placement of axillary switches:
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Modification 5:
As time progressed, the trails that we were running were becoming more technical and rocky. Since I was still running on stock sized AT tires without any sort of lift, I became increasingly concerned about protecting my rocker panels. After all, my second modification was a direct result of rocker panel type damage. To this end, in February 2008, I enlisted the help of Rocky Road Outfitters to make a custom set of "super sliders" for my truck. At first they were not overly interested since they did not see a strong marked for the Ranger platform. When I reminded them that their web page mentioned that they would support all makes and models, they made time on their schedule and used my truck as a prototype for their Ford Ranger Super Sliders. They turned out quite nice and have served me well.

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Modification 6:
In mid 2008 after much deliberation, I decided that it was time to jump to 33" tires and a lift. I knew that I did not want to run a body lift, and was not happy with the current torsion bar ride, so I was left with RCD as my only remaining option (at this point, I had ruled out DBR because of the cost). So, I selected a local shop to perform the install and ordered the kit. I also ordered 5 33X10.50 BFG MT KM tires on Black Unique Steel Wheels. I chose the 10.50 size because I wanted to limit the adverse impact of the larger tires to the degree possible. This proved to be a successful combination and I made several off road trips with this setup.

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Modification 7:
When I went to the larger 33" tires, I discovered that I no longer had the ability to mount my spare under the bed. Since I did not want to have my spare and other off road equipment floating free within my bed, I decided to put my CAD skill to the test and design a one-off bed rack for my Ranger. This took several weeks of thought and friend that is a much better fabricator than myself to pull off. In the end it turned out pretty cool.

Here is a copy of a build thread that I did for this rack:

http://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2/f6/f42/68804-bed-rack-2000-stepside-ranger.html

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In the fall of 2008, I met up with a friend of mine that is an editor for Off-Road Magazine and 4 Wheel Drive and Sport Utility Magazine to do some off roading in Flagstaff and Sedona, AZ. This trip led to him writing a feature article on my truck for April 2009 issue of 4 Wheel Drive and Sport Utility Magazine. That issue even had a 2-page picture of my truck on the magazine index sheets. The article was titled "2000 Ford Ranger Supercab - The Ford Side of Life" and can be found at the following link.

http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/features/0904_4wd_2000_ford_ranger_supercab/index.html

My truck showed up again in the same magazine a few months later in a followup article that discussed the trip that we had taken. That article was titled: "Sedona, Arizona - Red Rocks, Pink Jeeps, And New Age Dogs
4Running Northern Arizona" and can be found at the following link.

http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/adventures/southwest/0909_4wd_sedona_arizona/index.html

Here are a few additional pictures from the same photo shoot:

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Anyway, to wrap this up. In early 2008 I was invited to help provide pit support for the Greer Brothers Trophy Truck at the 2008 BITD Parker 425. This was my first introduction to desert racing. Over the last couple of years my interest in desert racing and prerunning has increased dramatically. As a result my end vision of my truck has also changed. While I still want to explore the back country of Arizona, I also want to be able to play on the desert courses as well. To this end, I decided to abandon the RCD kit and install the Dixon Brothers long travel kit. That takes us to the where I started page one of this thread. Hopefully you have enjoyed this walk down my memory lane. It is amazing to reflect and see how much things have changed over the past couple of years with this truck. Here is looking to the future.
 
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Updated pictures

No crazy action shots yet. I still need to get a bed cage fabricated and install some bypass shocks before I can play hard with this truck. However, it seemed that it was time to get a couple of dirt shots...

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And a couple of comparison shots that I took in a local parking lot...

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Out of Curiosity , what did you do with the old RCD Kit , i am looking for a lift kit to match the rear suspension work i did , I cranked the torsion bars , but that was not near enogh lift , i was wondering if you still have your old lift kit , or if you scrapped it

and that truck just looks Badass
 
Out of Curiosity , what did you do with the old RCD Kit , i am looking for a lift kit to match the rear suspension work i did , I cranked the torsion bars , but that was not near enogh lift , i was wondering if you still have your old lift kit , or if you scrapped it

and that truck just looks Badass

Sorry, I sold the front half of the kit almost a year ago. I still have the rear parts and am trying to get those sold. For a drop bracket lift, the RCD was a pretty nice kit and it improved the ride quality over stock. I would recommend it if you can still find one, assuming that is the direction that you would like to go. Thanks for the compliment.
 

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