skyjacker 6" or camburg 5"

[nooch450]

Im looking into getting as much travel out of my 1991 ranger 4.0 4x4. I love prerunners because of there amazing suspention designes. I want to turn my truck into a 4x4 prerunner. Not for the desert but for fast pase woods driving/ open pits. How much travel can I get out of a 4x4. Does anybody know the wheel travel gained from a skyjacker 6 inch lift? . I would really like some coil overs in the front at least. Im not afraid to cut up the truck a bit to install shock mounts ext. I've been looking around for 4x4 long travel kits and I only see the camburg kit offering 10-12 inches of travel. Im not sure this is enough though. I hate the sounds if bottoming out and good suspension is my way of avoiding a rough slamming ride.


Please give me any info you can on the above subjects it will help me a ton!

 

[Damon Toth]

I'm in the middle of building a 1989 ranger stx supercab 4x4 prerunner.
I am installing a Dana 35 cut & turned with modified coil bucket and shock mount to install 10" shocks to get +/- 15" of wheel travel.
The rear will be Deaver springs and new shocks- travel +/- 13"

Avoid the lift kits with the drop down bracket.

 

[nooch450]

I believe i have a dana 35. i need to get my beams cut and turned, how do i go about getting that done?

Why not make coil over mounts for front and just shock mounts for the rear?

what other parts are you using besides deaver springs? flipped shackles?

Im really interested in your build! and i have a ton of questions lol

 

[4x4junkie]

The 6" Skyjacker kit is good for about 13-14" of travel if you get it with the extended radius arms.

I tend to agree with the drop bracket comment if you're looking for higher speed performance vs. at slower speeds (crawling, etc.). The shorter brackets give you a few extra inches clearance when landing jumps and what-not.

 

[nooch450]

The 6" Skyjacker kit is good for about 13-14" of travel if you get it with the extended radius arms.

I tend to agree with the drop bracket comment if you're looking for higher speed performance vs. at slower speeds (crawling, etc.). The shorter brackets give you a few extra inches clearance when landing jumps and what-not.

Is my only option to cut and turn my beams and add extended radius arms to get 13-14" of travel without sacraficing ground clearance? Wont the beams not be wide enough? I mean aren't the pumpkins going to be just as low all the time as the drop mounts will be on full suspention compression?

 

[4x4junkie]

A proper cut & turn done at the ball joint has very little impact on the axle's width, and should add maybe about an inch or so to your clearance under the differential. With the C&T, your pivot brackets should never stick further down than the differential itself when the suspension is at full compression, whereas a drop-bracket lift could make them more vulnerable (if I was to guess, I'd say your typical bracket lift would put the pivots to somewhere within 7-8" of the ground at full compression to the bumpstops with 33" tires, whereas with a C&T lift they would be about 10" or so off the ground in the same instance).

The C&T has very little influence on actual amount of wheel travel however. This is almost solely a function of how much movement your shocks & springs allow (plus having extended rad arms).

One downside to the C&T though is it increases the jacking effect on the suspension (affecting stability), so I probably would not suggest it if you still think you'll be doing a lot of trail running/hillclimbing/rockcrawling where you'd be off-camber sideways a lot.

 

[nooch450]

A proper cut & turn done at the ball joint has very little impact on the axle's width, and should add maybe about an inch or so to your clearance under the differential. With the C&T, your pivot brackets should never stick further down than the differential itself when the suspension is at full compression, whereas a drop-bracket lift could make them more vulnerable (if I was to guess, I'd say your typical bracket lift would put the pivots to somewhere within 7-8" of the ground at full compression to the bumpstops with 33" tires, whereas with a C&T lift they would be about 10" or so off the ground in the same instance).

The C&T has very little influence on actual amount of wheel travel however. This is almost solely a function of how much movement your shocks & springs allow (plus having extended rad arms).

One downside to the C&T though is it increases the jacking effect on the suspension (affecting stability), so I probably would not suggest it if you still think you'll be doing a lot of trail running/hillclimbing/rockcrawling where you'd be off-camber sideways a lot.

Well I still want to do hillclimbing and rock crawling and I don't want to lose stabability
... is the only advantage of getting beams cut and turnred extra ground clearence because I would not mind losing 1-3 inches vs having an unstable truck under rough conditions.

Besides ground clearence issues do you think its perfectly stable jumping a truck with drop mounts? So long as I get extended radius arms and good shocks?

 

[4x4junkie]

Some guys will claim better strength with a C&T, though as wide & massive as brackets such as Skyjacker's are, I can't see how when these brackets are much stronger than the thin factory ones that are typically used with C&T beams (I still would strongly suggest gusseting the beams themselves though).

You can jump no problem with a bracket kit, you'll just have to be a little more careful what may be present in your landing zone is all. Don't even think about jumping with those run-of-the-mill twin-tube shocks that are common around bracket kits though, you'll still need to spend a little coin here if you want good performance out of it (may as well get a kit without shocks). Also good progressive bumpstops.

 

[nooch450]

Some guys will claim better strength with a C&T, though as wide & massive as brackets such as Skyjacker's are, I can't see how when these brackets are much stronger than the thin factory ones that are typically used with C&T beams (I still would strongly suggest gusseting the beams themselves though).

You can jump no problem with a bracket kit, you'll just have to be a little more careful what may be present in your landing zone is all. Don't even think about jumping with those run-of-the-mill twin-tube shocks that are common around bracket kits though, you'll still need to spend a little coin here if you want good performance out of it (may as well get a kit without shocks). Also good progressive bumpstops.

I will weld and reinforce the beams.
run skyjacker drops and ratial arm bars, and pitmant arm drop.

I want to order the skyjacker kit with no shocks, no coils, and no leafes.

ive been looking into shocks, id say foa, fox or king, which is the best bang for my buck?

I like the deaver springs but there way to much...

i need something cheaper for leafs, any sugesstions?

im not sure but say i get 12 inches of travel in the front than ill go for 14 in the rear...

id love bumpstops, the only ones i saw were very expensive! ill have to look into this deeper.

the thing is i want to just figure out the best way to do everything befor i start to buy parts

 

[Bennybooster]

Fox or king no doubt, check Poly Performance and ORW for good deals on shocks

 

[prerunnerwannabe]

I will weld and reinforce the beams.
run skyjacker drops and ratial arm bars, and pitmant arm drop.

I want to order the skyjacker kit with no shocks, no coils, and no leafes.

ive been looking into shocks, id say foa, fox or king, which is the best bang for my buck?

I like the deaver springs but there way to much...

i need something cheaper for leafs, any sugesstions?

im not sure but say i get 12 inches of travel in the front than ill go for 14 in the rear...

id love bumpstops, the only ones i saw were very expensive! ill have to look into this deeper.

the thing is i want to just figure out the best way to do everything befor i start to buy parts

why don't you want to use the skyjacker coils? They are pretty soft, and good quality.

 

[nooch450]

why don't you want to use the skyjacker coils? They are pretty soft, and good quality.

there is a thought in my mind that skyjacker coils could never perform as well as a FOA with a dual spring rate coil over mounted on it... plus i would either have to extend my spring buckets to get the wheel to flex hight into the wheel wells anyway so i may as well just make coil over mounts and run fiberglass fenders... i think im guna try to pull out the bed with a spreader...

i figure the lower the truck with more travel the better.... making the cab go up will only make it harder to drive, not to mention unsafe

im so exited to build this ranger but i have a broken wrist from an mx accident i just want my wrist better first!