ive been thinking about doing this for a while and i am finally getting ready to start. this truck is also my dd most of the time so it wont be too extreme but i want to be able to hit the dunes with it at sand lake and winchester bay. this weekend i am picking up a set of 33/12.5/15 toyo all terrains. i also have a free 91 front clip that will be swapped on i am looking at the hannemann fiberglass front fenders with the 4" bulge along with the bedsides.
motor wise i am running a rebuilt 2.3l 4 banger in it and will be putting a turbo on it.
suspension is mostly undecided i am probably going to do soft 2" coils in the front or possibly airshocks
for the rear i could use my extra 63" chevy springs and move the brackets to get the ride height i want. or my buddy has a few sets of 60's chevy trailing arms i can have and run airshocks with those.

if anybody has any suggestions or better ideas let em fly
here is how it sits right now waiting to be built


http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c296/shibby307/ranger-1.jpg

Build it! Lots and lots of pics, I'd love to see this:beer:

I am thinking about building a prerunner ranger myself sometime soon. Waiting on my Grandma to give me my grandpa's '87 ranger :D Check out therangerstation.com for other idea's.

Not sure if yours is 2 or 4 wheel drive, but its its a 2 wheel drive, for the rear lift, you can use stock ranger 4x4 rear blocks, u-bolts, and shocks to give you 2 in lift out back.

mcneilracinginc.com/index.htm has the cheapest glass fenders that I have found so far.

Can't wait to see some progress!!

thanks for the link that will save me about $300 for the bedsides. the truck is 4x4 though. so it will be seeing a slightly more expensive lift. i wish i had the money for cut and turned beams but i can keep on dreaming right?
im going to check out my buddies trailing arms next weekend to see how much work it is going to be to swap those on.

dont use the trailing arms. They cant articulate. Are you sure air shocks are a good idea on a prerunner? never seen that before.

dont use the trailing arms. They cant articulate. Are you sure air shocks are a good idea on a prerunner? never seen that before.

Either he thinks by-pass shocks are filled with air or he's refering to those old school shocks your grandpa had on the back of his pickup. Maybe he's just new. . .

Airshocks (even a 2.5) will not have enough spring rate for the front of that truck. You would be better off finding some taller coils at the junkyard (or buying a set of lift coils) and a good set of 2" (or larger) shocks. Focus on building some longer radius arms if you want to Fab something.

I'd look at an F-150 spring or a 4WD Ranger spring for starters. Also search a few of the prerunner sites to see if they have a suggestion for cheap coils.

thanks for the ideas. this is my first prerunner build just trying to get it figured out before i spend a bunch of money on shit i cant use.
ive always stuck to rocks and mud but there are quite a few dunes around here. and the ranger is 4x4 so it already has the taller coils. i will be building longer radius arms for it though.

Look into a bent beam kit for the front and long travel leaves for the rear. I used to have a 93 standard cab Ranger with a 5 speed and 2.3. I put an Autofab 16" travel bent beam kit and National leaves in the rear with a single 2.5" shock per wheel and DAMN did that truck work. It was so light and nimble with plenty of travel so I could throw it at anything and it soaked it up like a champ. It was so simple but it worked so damn well.

I would look into finding the traction beams from an exploder also. then you could also go dana 44 ttb knuckles out with a little work.

Here are some good links that might help you out if you are serious about this.

http://www.explorer4x4.com/zims.htm

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/4wd_Front_Axles.html

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums//archive/index.php/t-49168.html

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102180

Some very different views and some good tech. I like Zimmz write up alot.

Anyway, Good luck man and post up some pics of your build.

thanks for the links. i will be doing some work to it soon i just need to get my bronco going first and scrap my old ranger for a little bit of money to get started. i am still thinking about what to do on the rear for suspension
i have a spare set of ranger leaves and could possibly mix and match them, along with a set of 63" chev leaves and 78 f-150 leaves. and a set of 2 1/2" add a leaves does anybody have much experience with any of these in a ranger? the 63"s were in my old ranger mounted under the frame (way to much lift for a prerunner) but it had a ton of down travel i could jack it up a foot and a half before the tires would come off of the ground.

you could do a spring under to keep it low