Ultra cheap offroad race Explorer turned rock crawler

[Shran]

what kind of knuckles are on the 44 now?

Stock 75-77 Ford ones I think.

 

[Ab_Reed]

Solid axle swapped square body explorer on swampers is a thing of beauty. Ive always dreamed of building a baja SUV because it looks so badass, but a rock crawling SUV is equally as cool

 

[ryan]

Stock 75-77 Ford ones I think.

There's so many hi steer options for that axle, and you'd be good for full hydro at some point then too. Might help with your pitman arm issues significantly. I can't for the life of me remember how the explorer box is set up

 

[Shran]

Solid axle swapped square body explorer on swampers is a thing of beauty. Ive always dreamed of building a baja SUV because it looks so badass, but a rock crawling SUV is equally as cool

Swampers make anything look good! I still want to race this thing but three of the four series races being 6+ hours away is hard to do with work & kids. I figured I would get more use out of it as a crawler.... and it will be a unique build.

Explorer box is in the same location as a Ranger box, I think for the moment I am going to run what I have and see how it works - maybe upgrade if it sucks, I would love full hydro though. I do have some flat top Chevy knuckles but I think they have the small spindle hole.

I was trying to keep this rig as low as possible, I am really happy with the ride height in the rear but matching that in the front will only give me about 4" of uptravel at the very most before I start running into the steering box, and the driveshaft is already into the exhaust...and it's pretty close to the starter too. I think I might just have to live with it even if I do go full hydro, and it'll just end up being a little taller than I wanted.

Full hydro would allow me to move the axle much further forward though, then a lot of those clearance issues go away.

 

[ryan]

I would 100% go full hydro personally. Much better on the trail, much easier to package. I would love to replace the hydro assist on my jeep, but tires are so expensive and next season I don't think I'll have money for both.

 

[ryan]

Also, I really like the TMR arms because you can upgrade the knuckle as a whole later if you want, or stick with the 3 hole

Dana 44 High Steer Arms - Flat

TMR Customs Dana 44 high steer arms are the best of the best!TMR dana 44 high steer arms come drilled with 5/8" holes for rod ends. Please purchase our tapered reamer (SKU 1679) if you wish to ream your high steer arms to accept a tie rod end or drag link end. The additional 4th hole makes the...

www.tmrcustoms.com

 

[dvdswan]

I actually used ORD for my D44. The knuckle doesn't care if its Ford or GM steering...

Those are a great price though.

Dana 44 - Steering Arms - Steering

www.offroaddesign.com

 

[Shran]

Finally I got some parts in. Some of the threaded tube inserts were on indefinite backorder so I cancelled the order and got the joints elsewhere. I need to cut out some brackets on the plasma table but otherwise I am ready to start building again. Bummer that spring turkey season starts this weekend for my stepson, we are going to Arkansas the week after that and then my turkey season starts after that. I have too many hobbies. I need to just buckle down and build.

 

[Shran]

A bit of progress last night. I played with locating the axle a bit more accurately with plumb bobs and then took a bunch more measurements and got the axle end lower link mounts tacked on.

I think I am going to make this the extent of my uptravel. I may be able to play with the steering linkage and pitman arm a bit and get another inch out of it but overall I am pleased. It looks like the lower links will clear everything at full compression and I should have no problem mounting the upper link on the driver's side, outboard of the frame, without running into clearance problems with the tires or other stuff.

Kind of funny but I think my front driveshaft will work or will at least be very close. I thought it would be far enough off that it wouldn't work at all.

 

[Shran]

Minor updates, should have more done this week:

Lower link mounts on the axle need to be moved in about 1/2" per side. I thought I had this dialed but the tires are rubbing pretty hard at full lock. Frame end is good, I am happy with that and am going to get those tacked on.

Steering linkage has been up in the air, I would like to have the tie rod above the steering arms but I knew I would run into clearance problems with the pitman arm, especially if I run heims. My F150 parts truck had a 2wd steering box on it and the pitman arm is almost flat instead of dropping a couple inches. I think that may solve a bunch of problems.

I should have worked on it last weekend since I had all of Saturday and most of Sunday free but instead I went to yard sales and bought a bunch of junk so I burned up a bunch of time monkeying with that instead. I need motivation.

I did order a 5th tire now that I can get them again although at a ludicrous price... $450. I need a spare so I guess it is what it is. These tires used to be about half that and not that many years ago.

 

[ryan]

ever check the blem list? https://www.intercotire.com/blem_list_0

Good way to get new interco tires at a good price.

 

[Shran]

Yeah, there are some great deals on there. I haven't seen them ever sell what I have - which is kind of an oddball size - Q78-15LT, basically a skinny 36" tall tire.

Why did I go with that size? I got a like new one for free about 10 years ago so I figured I would buy three more someday because at that time they were only about $200/tire. I procrastinated until they went up to $330/tire. When I had the money to buy a 5th one, that size was totally out of stock everywhere. 8 of them popped up on eBay recently for $450/tire. Fawk me this hobby is expensive but I need a spare.

 

[Shran]

I relocated the lower link axle mounts and am tentatively happy with where those and the frame brackets landed so those are all tacked on. Using a couple pieces of PVC pipe to simulate fully assembled links was pretty handy.

I started drawing the upper link axle bracket, and then spent a couple hours playing with cardboard for the frame mount. It will be outside the frame near the cab mount so getting it just right was difficult - then it occurred to me that I can just make a little U shaped piece and mount it in single shear with the bolt running all the way through the frame. I think that will be fine, sleeping on it last night made me think that it's still not a stupid idea. More to come soon.

 

[Shran]

Back on this project after taking a couple months off.

Mounting my upper link has been a challenge, I wanted some separation and the axle mount ended up too high or the frame mount too low. I think this will be a good compromise. Next on the list is a tie rod, I am going to have my buddy make me a piece of threaded DOM for that. Then I can swap pitman arms and have him make me another threaded piece for the drag link, and I can move on to building the track bar and be able to cycle the axle up & down to measure for shocks. I think I am leaning towards Fox coilovers, I had been planning on air shocks but the coilovers are only a couple hundred bucks more.

 

[Shran]

Quite a bit of progress this weekend. First and foremost I shortened the lower links. Several people who I trust advised me to do so because of how the geometry and upper link was set up. They will end up being 32" long instead of 46". I think that will be satisfactory. I maybe could have cheated a couple more inches out of it but I decided that I needed a different transmission crossmember which will be much easier to build skid plate mounts off of... so 32" it is.

I also am moving forward on the steering linkage. I had my buddy tap a piece of DOM for a tie rod, I'm using heims like I did on the other crawler, and will do the same thing for the drag link. I was able to get the toe and caster set pretty close to where I want it last night so I just need to cut some tabs for the drag link and then have him make me another threaded piece of DOM.

Another big hangup was the pitman arm. The stock one gave me no clearance for anything... it was pretty close to hitting the tie rod (this is all assembled at full bump/suspension totally compressed.) I found a 2wd F150 pitman arm that has just a little bit of drop but it still wasn't enough... then I found this 2wd Ranger pitman arm that has almost none! Dorman p/n 541419, application is an 84 Ranger 2wd with 2.0 engine. I drilled it out for a 3/4 bolt and have just a tiny bit of clearance... perfect. And it's not even totally seated on the steering box yet, just lightly tapped on with a hammer so I'm expecting a bit more clearance out of it once it's fully seated.

Drag link and track bar are next.