Poor Man’s RZR build

[410Fortune]

HOORAY!!! I love the dimple dye hood with the speaker grills!! Smart to dimple dye the speaker grills tooo

We had 22" of snow in 36 hours here = my favorite time of year!!
Still snowing here again....
Keep the pics coming I am loving this truck

 

[fordpickupman]

I used to love snow.
Now I can’t get much done because it seems like I’m constantly blowing snow this week and the week before I left.
I gotta quit whining.

 

[410Fortune]

you are not alone
I love the snow BUT I also know it as the "great equalizer"
We can get through just about any challenge, until you add snow
I have also been whining. I got our plow truck stuck, I mean STUCK yesterday, I have been shoveling snow for days and plowing to keep our main road open. Foolishly we tried to open the road between the house and the gate with the plow because we are trying to get a propane refill....foolish. The snow wins! The plow truck is again parked at the bottom and we are using tracked vehicles to commute like we usually do. 1986 F250 SCLB 4x4 with a 472 (bored 460) rebuilt drivetrain front to back on 4 chains with a boss V plow. This truck is a monster!!
So is North Idaho snow in Feb.....
I got the truck off in the ditch on our big hill and not able to recover....plow mount high centered on the ice front and rear tires just spinning in the air.
We dug it out for about 2 hours...3 dudes and hooked up the HF 12000 winch to the rear....success! Pulled it over onto the road enough to get traction and move forward.
Hooray! plow truck saved. over to my moms house to plow her drive, 20" of snow. Her UTV winch cable for the plow snapped 1/3 the way through.....
Next day wake up still snowing! My back pulled muscle of course...
Mom is good, we are good....TGIF!!!!!!
I'm going snowmobiling ASAP right after I catch up on all the work/chores I missed shoveling

Victory!!

 

[fordpickupman]

Well, my bride wanted an Explorer too, so we found her a ‘98 5.0 XLT. I’ve already done some fixing up on it.

 

[fordpickupman]

I haven’t had much time to tinker on any of my projects with dealing with the snow and trying to get some work done in the shop.
I did find time to cut some tube shackles for the ‘98 while my plasma table was cutting out letters for a business sign for a local flower shop that just opened.

 

[93XploderMS]

nice build, I built my for the same reason. I’m not spending 12k plus for a razor. I saw a pic of the PNW and was hoping you were in Oregon lol. I have a 97 5.0 an 4406 xfer with a 1993 TTB front suspension with 44 knuckles. They are fun rigs and not enough people willing to deal with the issues of learning the TTB suspension system.

 

[fordpickupman]

93XploderMS how difficult was it to swap in the scissors? I like how nice the TTB rides compared to the IFS. I think it would be awesome having the 5.0 and the scissors. Do you have a build thread?

 

[fordpickupman]

Small update.
I picked up an 8274 for a good price. So started building a front bumper for it. I built boxed frame horns out of 3/16” plate. They are welded on and bolted. I would have just bolted it on, but I hate it when the bumper tries to retreat when it’s being used.

 

[fordpickupman]

I have looked but cannot find the "serious explorations" stickers and plate frames that I am sure I have seen before. Are they still available?

 

[93XploderMS]

It’s looking good, how low is the winch going to sit?

 

[fordpickupman]

It’s looking good, how low is the winch going to sit?

The line will come out below the bumper tube. The winch will sit farely high to keep the approach angle as steep as possible. I wanted to keep the force of the line pull as close to the plane of the frames as possible so that there wasn’t a huge amount of leverage trying to rotate the bumper and frame rails down.

 

[Rick]

I have looked but cannot find the "serious explorations" stickers and plate frames that I am sure I have seen before. Are they still available?

Explorer Forum License Plate Frames !!!

and decals...

ExplorerForum decals are back!

 

[Spudhut]

Great thread - Subscribed!

 

[fordpickupman]

I'm on the hunt for some stouter coil springs. I would like to be over 350#/in, but under 425#/in. I need to weigh the front of this pig so I can plug the actual numbers into the spreadsheet to find the free length and such that I need to get the sag I think I want.
It appears that the new Super Duty coils are the same configuration of inner diameters as the TTB coils. I found that some of the factory stuff is in the rating range that I am looking for. It may open up the options of what I want.

 

[fordpickupman]

I scored some shop time tonight and mounted up the 8274 with the new DB electrical 6 hp motor. Now that it is in place I can make the filler plates as I have time.

 

[Rockwood]

Not to Hi Jack, but lovin that shortbed ford bumpside, tell a little more?

 

[fordpickupman]

It’s actually a long bed F250 with a Cummins

 

[fordpickupman]

This is my favorite vehicle we own. It does it’s fair share of work.

 

[Rockwood]

very nice! great swap! I had a 79 F350 many moons ago, built 390 4speed 205 60/60 locked at both ends on 42" swampers. Miss that old girl!

 

[410Fortune]

Love the fummins!! Is it a manual?
That winch is huge, way to tuck it in there