Another Solid Axle Ranger Build

[Josh40601]

bump for ya 5brother

[88runnasr5]

Damn lots of time money and tears into this build, I like it alot.. Read all the way through awesome story.. You plan on keeping the truck and passing it onto a kid? Lol

[Josh40601]

Keeping it, yes. Passing it to children, hell mother fucking no. Its really starting to "come apart at the seams" so to speak. Its hard as hell to get into 1-3 gears, it shakes like hell going down the road. Its leaking coolant from somewhere, bearings are starting to howl, front axle is still fucked up, and the arms have positioned the steering knuckles in a very awkward position.

Right after winter, tear down begins.... If it lasts that long. Going to be a bad ass DD afterwards.

[Josh40601]

I said I was going to tear it apart...


Last day together


Bed gone


Pulling the cab


Cut everything I didn't want on there anymore off and cleaned the frame up.



Bought a 2001 2wd 4door parts truck, stripped it, then put the new can on the old frame


How it sits today.


*BGLT wheels are coming off.
*Some type of power plant other than the stock one will go in
*is going back to yellow
*rebuilding axles and suspension along with smoothing out the body


So pretty much doing a complete frame off restoration on a 94 ford Ranger. Told you guys I was crazy...

[FordX4-offroad]

Originally Posted by Josh40601

1 BGLT wheels are coming off.
2 Some type of power plant other than the stock one will go in
3 Told you guys I was crazy...

1 THANK GOD!

2 any ideas of what your thinking? something with decent mileage, or you don't really give two fawks.

3 we never doubted you

[5BrothersFabrication]

Cool, you can sell those rims back to the guy you got them from-

[Josh40601]

Lmao! fuck you Mike.

Power plant is exploder 5ho or 5.3LS. Just depending on which one I find at a better deal.

[zainyD]

Explorer 5.0, keep it all Ford.

[Josh40601]

:rolls eyes:

The 5.3 is a far better power plant than the explorer 5.0. Only reason that is on the table is they are almost a bolt in swap.

Just wish it could match the performance of the LS series engines. Just more bang for your buck kind of thing.

I mean, I'd go coyote 5.0, but I can't afford that s bitch

[crawlwalkcrawl0331]

this is going to be a good build. have fun ill be keeping an eye on this.


what tire/rim combo you thinking of running?

[Josh40601]

17x9 and the metric equivelant of a 35.

I haven't found a wheel that I "love" so I'm not sure. Lots of wheels I like, but nothing that's just what I want.

Tire wise will likely be Goodyear Duratracs. Good aggressive sidewall and a tight tread pattern for roads. It will see light trails, no real crawling (no more dents!), so extreme Offroad tires are not needed. Just something that looks good and rides good.

[cdawall]

Only issue with the duratraks is they wear quick. Everyone I know that has owned them about a year has about half tread left, which up here is around 15k miles.

[Jeepaholic86]

Originally Posted by FordX4-offroad

1 THANK GOD!

I've been getting this a lot lately when it comes to talking about ditching the rims

[Josh40601]

Spent a little time while taking a break on the SD on this. We had some left over chassis black, so dad painted the frame and axles to get everything looking better. Also found out the steering rod on the 94 frame is too short and has a different fitting than the 01. So now I am going to try the 01 first, if that doesn't work, I'll cut a little out of the 01 and weld it to the 94 shaft.

I know this is could lead to a weak link, so I am hoping you guys can give suggestions on how to properly do this while keeping it safe and worry free (and not overly expensive of course)

[Josh40601]

Originally Posted by cdawall

Only issue with the duratraks is they wear quick. Everyone I know that has owned them about a year has about half tread left, which up here is around 15k miles.

Shit man, I didn't even see this post.

Damn, so 30k out of an aggressive looking all terrain? That doesn't sound too awful bad, but I'm wondering what something like a km2 (which I know are super soft and prone to cupping) would get. Maybe I'll look into some coopers as well

[cdawall]

The stt's wear reasonably fast, but the s/t's are still agressive and are known to last 50kish.

[Josh40601]

What tires are you talking about?

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by Josh40601

What tires are you talking about?

Any of these

http://us.coopertire.com/Tires/Light...VERER-STT.aspx

http://us.coopertire.com/Tires/Light...VERER-S-T.aspx

Downside being they are limited size wise.

[Josh40601]

STT is a damn good looking tire. Right up my alley. And they carry it in a 35x17 that measures right at 34.76" which is right where i am wanting to be. But again, these still seem to be around the same wear as the Duratracks. But again, with a mud tire, i am not going to get the mileage of an All-terrain. I REALLY like the Toyo OCMT, but they are a little too pricey for me.

[5BrothersFabrication]

Won't ya do like ol Robby Bobby an' buy a set of them thar Thornbirds? Hear they hook twiced as good when thar bald!

[Josh40601]

If I was going to wheel the piss out of this thing again, that sounds like a hell of an ideer something tells me the fellers with badges would frown upon sparks going everywhere driving down the road with bolts in the tyres

[Josh40601]

I miss wheeling this thing

Going back through the pics, this truck was the shit. I can't wait until I can really start knocking out this build.

[5BrothersFabrication]

And you wanna go thru it and change things up...

[Josh40601]

Too late on that brother... I think it's Way past the changed up stage!

Going to tinker it with it today after work though. Hopefully get the fuel tank in, bed on, and work on laying out the wiring.

[Josh40601]

Just talked to the ol lady. Approval for D-Ranged version 5.0 has been received.

Plans:
1. Complete the interior swap and rebuild of the axles
2. V8/Auto
3. Debated bobbing the bed, but decided those trails should be left to Sgt Ex
4. New radius arms
5. Yellow and dark gray paint.

Only thing that sucks is I have 2 other projects I have to finish first, my C10 needs head gaskets, and my Super Duty needs a little TLC. I will be knocking out number 1 while working with those two though.