Trailmaster '98-'00 update... | Page 4 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

  • Register Today It's free!

Trailmaster '98-'00 update...

Ray, I can feel your anticipation all the way up here on the Penninsula.....
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Press Release

Ray, I just heard that Trailmaster declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
JUST KIDDING ! :D

(Sorry, couldn't resist :p)

Really, I am sure Rick will let us know as soon as any news occurs. This is no different to me than the other dozen false starts. Hang in there. Maybe it really will happen some day. If not, me and you can go shopping next year for some second-vehicle pre-'95's maybe?
 






He hasn't returned my call.
 






Tyson,
I might have to borrow your "Other Automatic" and give Chip a call, or show him Geralds "Texas Kleenix box".
I wanted to get all this stuff done before the Colorado Run, and things aren't going as smoothly as planned. My Atlas II transfercase won't be ready for 6 to 8 weeks. I will have to put the old style ARB locker in the back and the only thing I can put in the front diff is a trac-Lok. Not exactly what I wanted. Everything is waiting on this Damn lift. I can't get the tires and wheels until I have the lift so I know what the sawzall has to do. I can't order the quick disconnects because I don't know if the kit moves the sway bar mount or you get longer connecting rods. I don't want to put the gears in until I get the lift kit because I don't want to run 4.56 gears with 31" tires and I don't want to get the 35's and use the sawzall too much.
Everything is dependent on that lift. I would rather wait for the lift, because I don't want to go SOA, which is what the Ranger kit is, and the Superlift kit is $1k more, and I already spent $2500.00 just to get the tranny and engine fixed. It costed Tom Rios $3K to get his Atlas put in, so I figure that it will cost me the same, and I still haven't found anyone to redo or make both driveshafts. I'm ready to move and nothings is ready. Sorry just blowing off a little steam. I'll try and be a little more patient.
 






The guy with the free OME shocks and springs is complaining :rolleyes: oh boy... :D:
 






Does that mean the TrailMaster lift is like Viagra for Explorers then?

You'd think Rick would be grumbling too..
 






Ray, Ray..... now it's time for me to tell you to settle down, old friend. Take deep slow breaths. Go have a beer. It's frustrating, but as far as your other mods and lockers you'll be fine even if we can't get a front locker. It's common sense that a rear locker is much more efficacious than a front one, and at least we can still get a rear one and put an LSD up front.

You watched Rob Gofast go up Potato Salad Hill and I have seen him do a lot of other stuff too. He can climb obstacles better and more easily than a J**per friend we have with a built J**p locked front and rear. Rob has an EZ-Locker up front but is only LSD Trac-Loc in the rear. If we set up with a locker in back and LSD up front we should be able to do even better than Rob, who can outdo built Jeeps. It'll all work, ok?

D@#n, I do wish all this would hurry up too, though.

PS / a wise man once told me, "Happiness is not getting what you want. It's wanting what you've got."

You didn't want to hear that either, didja? :D

[Edited by GJarrett on 07-27-2000 at 07:54 AM]
 






Hey Ray, how come you don't want to go SOA? Just curious.
 






Bill,
I believe you get less axle wrap with SUA then SOA.
 






Suppose this lift kit did come out in the next few months....do you think they would sell the 4" arched spring pack seperately?
 






"My Other Automatic" is yours......
 






Now I remembered something about axle/spring wrap.

Traction Bars is what I've heard used to control it.

Has anyone here tried them?
 






Traction bar/anti-wrap

The newer V8 Explorers come stock with a bar to prevent axlewrap. I wonder if we could just bolt one on ours?

Gerald
 






I don't know how much you guys should worry about spring wrap. Rangers come stock with springs over axle AND a 2 1/2" block between them. Or do you think the Explorer's extra weight makes a difference?
 






Gerald your right. I was crawling around under my mom's 97 AWD V8 once and saw those and forgot about them till now. The only problem with those that I can see is that they are short and don't allow side to side flex if that makes sense.

Bill, I know that I probably get a little bit of axle wrap but its just because I have only three leafs. I know most rangers come with 4 and I think that makes a big differnce in that. That and my heavy right foot doesn't help much. :D I know James Duff makes a set of traction bars but they only make them for the Ranger and the Bronco II. They also look like they can get hung up on rocks a lot the way they stick down and out.

Ray I think you just should go all out and get the Ranger lift modify it and get yourself lifted. :) Otherwise you will be waiting forever. :) Course I say that now and knowing how fate works you would get the lift start installing it and the Explorer one would come out. Or you wait forever for it. :) Either way...
 












Axle wrap is the result of counter force on the axle that occurs when you apply torque to the wheels. When you push on the go pedal, your wheels apply torque to the ground, but an equal amount of force is applied in the opposite direction on the axle. On a spring-over, particularly with blocks between the springs and axle, the axle can actually twist in the opposite direction of the force on the wheels, causing all kinds of problems including driveshaft binding, and even broken spring perches (which I think Rick experienced once).

I think one of the reasons that Rangers don't have a problem normally with this is the stiffer springs they use (as Ryan alluded to) as well as not having as much power as some of the Explorers. Softer springs do allow the axle to twist more than stronger ones, and a spring under seems to give the axle less leverage on the main leaf than does a spring under, since on the spring under, the main (strongest) leaf is right against the axle.

Hope this helps.
 






Axle wrap is a problem on Rangers!!!

My 97 3L 4x4 has the factory rear blocks, and I had TERRIBLE axle wrap problems from the day I got it. Going up steep hills in 4Lo, it was a CHUPPA CHUPPA CHUPPA so bad the CD would skip!

Duff has two different axle control options for Rangers (kicker bar??) but they limit articulation. On my Barracuda, I put a suspension bushing on the subframe above the differential pumpkin (also called a poor-man's pinion ring snubber), but that obviously won't work on a truck.

What I did FIRST was replace the truly crappy factory shocks with RS9000's - that pretty much cured it on my truck.

Notice that Rangers have the shocks mounted on opposite sides of the axle - the right shock is in front of, the leftshock is behind the axle housings. This helps control wrap by using the geometry of the shocks, and that's also why my first stop was new shocks.

The combination of spring over and blocks makes for maximum hop potential. Rearched / new rear leafs are the best way to go for lifting. You WILL blow your diff if you let it go.

Hope this helps,
Brian in CA

PS This is also part of the argument for Jeepers and TLC people NOT to go spring-over.
 






Good point on the staggered shocks. I had forgotten about those.

I don't recall too much in the way of axle wrap problems with my 2 Rangers, but they were 2wd and didn't see any off road duty to speak of. Much different application from yours, obviously. I did have wheel hop problems on bumpy turns, but it think it was more related to up/down axle control than to torque wind-up. The tires would just lift off the road and land somewhere else. :)
 



Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
Elite Explorer members see no advertisements, no banner ads, no double underlined links,.
Add an avatar, upload photo attachments, and more!
.





Well?? Any word?
 






Back
Top