The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob

[Bray D]

Nice!

 

[cdawall]

I like it. Surprised you chose the 14bolt of a sterling considering clearance.

 

[Kage]

Nice!

Thanks!

I like it. Surprised you chose the 14bolt of a sterling considering clearance.

Sterlings cost a bit too much to lock up as well, and its a little more expensive to get the disc brakes on there too. The 14 bolt is just the cheapest option, and more than strong enough to handle what I'll be throwing at it. If the clearnace becomes too much of an issue, I can allways shave it to gain some ground clearance back.

 

[koa's93ranger]

question...for the front axle, are those waggy leafs 2.5" wide? wondering how you made it fit on the 3" wide perch. did you shave down the perch or leave that 1/4" gap on each side of the leafs?

 

[Kage]

question...for the front axle, are those waggy leafs 2.5" wide? wondering how you made it fit on the 3" wide perch. did you shave down the perch or leave that 1/4" gap on each side of the leafs?

The perches are 2.5" so no problem there. Even if they were 3", I don't see a reason why you couldn't run a 'narrow' leaf (within reason).

HTH

 

[bobbywalter]

its funny on the 77-79 dana 60 axles.



with the ranger its a 6-8 hour deal to swap one in....push it forward a few inches and its not even required to clearance the crossmember...

you dont need any extra parts besides the histeer arm....

reuse the longside ranger tierod


make bolt on hangers with box/channel/angle and a drill.

run a decent spring from a gm/ford/dodge.


wont be a ramp champ but reliability simplicity and just plain ol works are on my list of pros...


that in and of itself goes a long way towards offsetting initial costs.


that is if you start with a functioning donor like i did.

 

[koa's93ranger]

How do you reuse ranger tie rod? Please elaborate as this may be very useful for me

So some Dana 60s and 44s use 2.5" leafs? Hmmm never knew that. My 44 uses 3". Could I use a 2.5" spring or would that not work? Trying to find an easy way to use Chevy 52s without having to do too much fab.

 

[Kage]

...wont be a ramp champ but reliability simplicity and just plain ol works are on my list of pros...

Yup, you can get a leaf setup to flex pretty good though. Flex is overrated anyway, you tend to be ahead of the game by spending the time/effort to lock both ends before you stay up all night worrying about flex

I've been on a few trail rides with people that seemed like they had maybe 2" of travel total, but locked on both ends, still make it around just fine. But their kidneys didn't care for the ride a whole lot

...So some Dana 60s and 44s use 2.5" leafs? Hmmm never knew that. My 44 uses 3". Could I use a 2.5" spring or would that not work? Trying to find an easy way to use Chevy 52s without having to do too much fab.

I'll nab a few better photos of the leaf mounts tonight. ASSUMING you use a beefy enough spring plate (Something like the Ruff Stuff plates, which are bent, and are stupid thick) there's no reason you couldn't use a 2.5" leaf on a three inch perch. The main worry I would have if you were using a small leaf on a wide perch might be the spring plate bending which wouldn't clamp the springs correctly. With a beefy enough plate, this should be a non issue.

Now if you were going to an extreme, say a 1" wide spring, on a 4" wide perch, you might have issues then with keeping everything in place. But for a 1/2" in difference, I wouldn't sweat it.

 

[kris97ranger]

If u were using a 2.5" spring in a 3" perch id just make a spacer the same thickness as the spring and weld it to the spring plate that way nothing bends or could shift

 

[koa's93ranger]

If u were using a 2.5" spring in a 3" perch id just make a spacer the same thickness as the spring and weld it to the spring plate that way nothing bends or could shift

That's what I was thinking, weld a 1/4" plate on each side of the spring plate to fill the gap. Awesome. This just saved me a whole lot of fab work and I gained oodles of flex by not running 3" springs haha.

Those pictures would be greatly appreciated

 

[Kage]

Whelp, turns out I'm a bit of a liar. I could have sworn those perches were 2.5" wide, but they're actully 3" on both the '78 F250 D44 I have and the '79 D60 I have. So I can tell you first hand that there's no problem running a 2.5" spring on a 3" perch with a 'ubolt' flip as I've been running them like this for nearly 10k miles now.

D44:

Cast side (I ground a spot in the lower casting to allow for the ubolt flip to work):

D60:

Same Grinding:

HTH

 

[bobbywalter]

people actually worry about 2.5 springs on a 3 inch perch


pipe over the ubolt shanks works fine if you do.

 

[Kage]

people actually worry about 2.5 springs on a 3 inch perch...

Apparently so. I just slapped my junk together without even thinking about it

 

[koa's93ranger]

Well this is my first sas so I would hate to have it fall apart haha. Or have enormous play in the front suspension because I ran the wrong width leafs. Thanks for clearing this up kage. Now I have to find the right leafs. Any ideas?

Little big foot ran Chevy 52s. Railman ran ranger 56s but added leafs. Or I can find a Chevy 56 and remove leafs. Any input?

 

[Kage]

Well this is my first sas so I would hate to have it fall apart haha. Or have enormous play in the front suspension because I ran the wrong width leafs. Thanks for clearing this up kage. Now I have to find the right leafs. Any ideas?

Little big foot ran Chevy 52s. Railman ran ranger 56s but added leafs. Or I can find a Chevy 56 and remove leafs. Any input?

It all comes down to how high you want it to sit, and wether or not you want the shackels in the front or rear.

I'm digging the waggy leaves that I'm running now from Team Grand Wagoneer: Leaf Springs Stock Height GW 1976-1991 (scroll down the page). I liked the thin 7 leaf pack, but they just didn't last long for my application. I do like theat the springs are farily flat under load.

But to be honest, its a pain in the ass to figure out exactly what spring you're going to need. Thankfully, its not too hard to tune the pack by adding or removing leafs as you need them. So I suppose the best advice I can give you is find a leaf pack that is easily obtainable in the Junk yard, and start working from there. And shorter is better on the front of a street driven rig, though you can make long springs work.

On second thought, Just run airshocks, its probably easier