sasqautch hunter build

My name Ryan and i live in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. I have a 1991 eddie bauer, not i great shape but workable. I got the truck from my father and the lift from my brother, he removed it from a ranger that he parted out, and that got my project started. anyway here is my truck and some specs, i am constantly tinkering with it as I have money and time, i am machinist/waterjet operator so I make as much as possible. I will try to keep this up to date as much as possible, any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
specs

91 eddie bauer
4.0 high miles(around 170000 maybe)
automatic transmission
stock 3.55 gears

mods

front-5.5 inch bds lift
swaybar disconnects
rear-spring over
removed swaybar
3 inch body lift
35 inch pro comp all terrains


right after lift

minus running boards but sway bars still connected

 

[MrQ]

Nice deal man!!

 

[techieman33]

Cool, but you seriously need to get some lower gears in that thing asap. Those transmissions are junk under the best circumstances and it won't last long if you keep driving it as it sits now.

 

[ryan_0731]

thanks, the gears and lockers or at least some sort of a limited slip are my next big project(money wise). i will probably be putting tranny temp gauge in this week, just to keep an eye on whats going on, not that its going to help it alone but atleast give me a little idea of how hard I am pushing it. Not only useful now but even after i regear.

 

[trj360]

How well does the D35 TTB hold up with 35s?

 

[ryan_0731]

I havent had any Issues with the d35 yet, but i have only had the tires on there for about two months, tops. I am building this as a slow trail truck to crawl up hills over downed trees and what ever else I come across, well atleast try, its got a long way to go to be an trail animal. The ranger that the lift came out of was a standerd cab shortbox with a 4.0 and 5 speed, running 35inch boggers , or 13.50 sand paddles in the rear and desert tracks in th front, that front end was a d35 and never failed, and was severly abused, that truck had a lot of work done and run extremely well, for a 4.0 that is.

 

[trj360]

I havent had any Issues with the d35 yet, but i have only had the tires on there for about two months, tops. I am building this as a slow trail truck to crawl up hills over downed trees and what ever else I come across, well atleast try, its got a long way to go to be an trail animal. The ranger that the lift came out of was a standerd cab shortbox with a 4.0 and 5 speed, running 35inch boggers , or 13.50 sand paddles in the rear and desert tracks in th front, that front end was a d35 and never failed, and was severly abused, that truck had a lot of work done and run extremely well, for a 4.0 that is.

Thanks for the info. In the future I want another 1st gen with a 4-6" suspension lift and a little body lift to run 35s or 36s, mainly on the street.

 

[ryan_0731]

I would have preffered 33 inch tires but the pro comps were new and really cheap from a buddy, it felt a little tall and tippy at first but after wheeling it with the clearance with the 35s i wouldnt want it any different. also I wheel pretty easy so as not to brake anything and I usually have three kids and my wife with me so I don't need to toss anyone around inside either. it will probably see its first mud today, the other trucks I have built were for the mud, this one I said would never see mud, but you have to what its capable of. Or atleast thats my excuse lol.

 

[ryan_0731]

sway bar disconnect test

finnaly got a chance to try the sway bar disconnects, definately made a difference but im still not real happy with the front. looks like I need to do something with longer springs and make some radius arms

playing in a small wash out

had it at the shop building my new third row seat from scratch and decided to test it with the fork lift

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

nice x u got there

 

[ryan_0731]

thanks

 

[inh]

I like it man =] Find sasquatch yet?

 

[Cozmik]

Nice looking Ex, decent flex.

 

[ryan_0731]

Thanks for the comments, no i havent found him yet . i guess that means i just need to wheel er i mean look harder. lol

 

[Dannyboy]

sweet build on a budget and it's always fun to see a family out wheelin.

You'll definitely want that front sway bar off when wheeling but I think the flex is looking good. Did you get front brake hoses from the Ranger? If not, be carefuly, you'll likely break one at full droop. And I'm not sure how the BDS lift works, but make sure you have clearance on your front differential so it doesn't punch a hole in it. Just trying to save you from a couple of the many mistakes I have made over the years.



Good move on the tranny temp gauge, I wish I would have learned that right away.

 

[ryan_0731]

thanks, I extended the hard lines out an down from the original spot a lottle and rin the exteded lines so I think thats take care of for now any way, until I can get som travel like you have. a fabbed ffront end is in the plans eventually. its funny you mention the brackets hitting the diff because it did on the ranger and punched a big hole in the frontend, when we switched it to the ex we trimmed it a little and checed it and it had more clearance than on the ranger for some reason. I love your front end, did you build it or is it a kit?

 

[Dannyboy]

my front end is an autofab kit. you can see it on autofab.com, sits about 5-6" over stock height and has 16" of travel

I had that same issue on my last truck with Trailmaster brackets, then I switched to Skyjacker brackets before going solid axle, then back to stock axle on this truck LOL. I've done it all pretty much.

I would take out the coil and cylce the suspension up to see if you still should run a bump stop on that drivers side, i run a 4.5" tall bumpstop that compresses to about 2.5" at full compression just with the jack, that probably means it squeezes down even more under a load. Since I've installed that I didn't notice any loss of flex (well maybe a tiny bit but the tires were into the fenders at that point) and they act as a secondary suspension when the going gets rough.

 

[ryan_0731]

update

a little bit of an up date. i done a little painting, the chrome wheels had some rust on them so I wire wheeled them and gave the a couple coats of red. But then they didnt match the rest of the truck so my wife and I painted the bottom of the truck red and trimmed some rust. My parents were visiting me this weekend so we tried climbing a couple sand hills near my house