a buddy of mine is looking for a ford ranger to lift. i told him that he should do a sas on one. but when he started to ask me what all it involved my mind was blank. come to find out i dont know much about them. thats where u guys come in.
what would it take to do a sas on a ranger? what type of axles shold i look for? springs other components? i did one on my toyota but not too sure about the fords.any help would be appreciated.

i have everything. first you need to figure out if you want to run leaves or coils. if you go with the coils you can get some lift springs for that year ranger. if you go with coils you will need radias arms and rad arm brackets from a 78/79 f150 or bronco. then you will need a trac bar mount. if you want the super easy way out then get an early bronco front axle. almost a weekend bolt on swap. if you go fullsize then its easiest to run air shocks or coil overs. http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10844&page=29. look at the white rino truck.

TTB lift coils for Rangers dont work well with SAS's you need to use bronco or jeep coils. the TTb coils are super stiff, so they dont work well with a solid axle

in that case use the 8" lift xj springs. that will only give you about 4" of lift.

TTB coils suck, period. They don't work well even on the TTB.

What year Ranger is he looking at?
The '98+ ones benefit the most from SAS'ing (mostly because they have a far greater IFS handicap), but are harder to SAS. TTB Rangers ('91-'97 for the stronger frontend) are already very capable offroad just as they are with only a little work, but are significanly easier to SAS if absolutely needed.

For an axle, 80's Wagoneer or early Bronco D44 axles are popular. The Jeep D30 is also used often (but is weaker than the stock D35 TTB frontend).

Leaves are easier to use on '98+ trucks, coils easier on earlier ones (due to much of the hardware already being present).

pre-98 would be much easier. that way you can reuse the steering box. The 98 + you have to do alot of cutting. and you have fab up a mount for a steering box. because 98+ uses r&p. However it is doable.

Here is 98+ Ranger or 95+ Explorer with full width HP44

http://www.explorerforum.com/photopost/data/500/medium/Front_Brakes.jpg

as for the 8" giving you 4" I'm not sure, if you use the stock coil buckets then a spring should give you 2.5 more than it is rated for at least with EB coils

ITs really not that bad...it can be a pretty much bolt on opperation if you want...get some coils for an EB, radius arm drop brackets from a 78ish bronco/f150, and figure out something for a trac bar and you get get a solid axle under the truck...

I went from:

http://photos-524.ak.facebook.com/ip005/v40/107/64/9111361/n9111361_31257524_372.jpg

to

http://photos-959.facebook.com/ip005/v40/107/64/9111361/n9111361_31270959_162.jpg

and had it driving 50+miles home down the highway in one day. I choose to make all my bracket on spot so i didn't run into any problems but buying the old parts works just as well..

88 with air shox and extended radius arms
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e258/mikes1988pos/jeffshop.jpg

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e258/mikes1988pos/crossmember.jpg

Looks like the front is a bit stiff on that thing. Cool though.

don't think anyone mentioned it before but if you're using the stock t-case you'll need a drivers drop axle