Body Drop.... Kinda.....

[CarFreak146]

Over the last Three days, I've started the process of removing the body lift to help lower the COG b/c this ***** is high! I took some picture of what it looks like now, along with the fender heights from the front ot the back, and I'll take more as I progress more. Thursday, I was able to get the four rearmost body bolts out (there's 10 total). I alos disconnected the tranny cooler lines b/c they will be in the way once the body's sittin on the frame again, so they'll have to be moved, and did some clearaning of the body where all the new Solid Axle brackets are located.

Pics::

Front Fender Height....TALL!

Rear Fender Height..... Tall too!

Today I got done lowerin the body, I ended up using a jack with a piece of 3' DOM I had layin around and a 4x4 to use to lower it. it looks a LOT better now (at least my opinion). Didn't have any problems lowerin it down either. Now, I'm just goin around and startin to Slowly put the new body bolts back in. I say slowly, b/c each one is a different length and I'm gonna have to make a lot of trips to the hardware store. also, I'm having problems on a couple of them with alignment issues, but if its decent tomorrow, hopefully I"ll be able to get everything buttoned back up so I can check one more thing off my To-Do list.

Pics::

New Front Fender Height... a little better....

New Rear Fender Height.... Still a little better....

That's all for tonight, I'm hatin this 5pm dark thing.
--Ryan

 

[gluvsave35]

booooooooooooooooooooooooo this man!!!! lift it dont drop it!!! u can never be to high!!!

no it looks good!!!
keep the pics comin

 

[CarFreak146]

booooooooooooooooooooooooo this man!!!! lift it dont drop it!!! u can never be to high!!!

no it looks good!!!
keep the pics comin

oh no, its the COG was WAY too high, I rolled the dang thing (that's why its chopped) flexin on a small hill...... pretty sad I know, but it was Way high.... that's why I'm takin off the 3" body lift, and I'm gonna actually step down to 36's I think..... maybe.... we'll see and go from there. I"ll get more pictures later. esp. if there's any requests......
--Ryan

 

[gluvsave35]

ooo wow i didnt no u rolled it !!!!!
well keep up the good work

 

[bikeboarder]

that thing is SICK maybe take a leaf out of the front to make it sit level. The front a lot more weight so maybe if it is lower your COG will be lower too.

 

[CarFreak146]

that thing is SICK maybe take a leaf out of the front to make it sit level. The front a lot more weight so maybe if it is lower your COG will be lower too.

Thanks for the compliment. I've thought about removing a front leaf, but I'm still tryin to talk myself into it..... cause I'm contemplating a 347 stroke swap

 

[Doug]

You're not kidding your truck is high, it looks like you could also remove those blocks that you have in the front hangars and run some smaller shackles to lower the front a good 2-3 inches. Do you have any wheel hop in the front? if you start removing leaves it's only going to make it worse.

 

[CarFreak146]

You're not kidding your truck is high, it looks like you could also remove those blocks that you have in the front hangars and run some smaller shackles to lower the front a good 2-3 inches. Do you have any wheel hop in the front? if you start removing leaves it's only going to make it worse.

yeah, this is the first axle swap I've done, so obviously I'm learnin from my mistakes..... everything you've mentioned doug is actually on the "to-do" list.... right now though, I'm just tryin to get the majority of the list done, before Feb. 07. I haven't wheeled and/or driven it since about 2.5 years ago..... so I'm not sure of front wheel hop yet. there's a lot of things that I'm gonna have to wait til I get wheelin for the first time to find out, that's also why I'm not gonna mess with anything else to lower it yet. I'm doin the body lift now b/c I'm gettin ready to do an exo so I didn't want the body height anymore.... after I get out and test, I'll probably be doin a LOT of tweakin.

 

[pughman]

what size body lift was it ? and you sale'n it ?

 

[bikeboarder]

Is that little yellow stool the only way you can get in that beast. that thing looks like it could give big foot a run for his $$$. what is the total lift now? 8"?

Over the last Three days, I've started the process of removing the body lift to help lower the COG b/c this ***** is high! I took some picture of what it looks like now, along with the fender heights from the front ot the back, and I'll take more as I progress more. Thursday, I was able to get the four rearmost body bolts out (there's 10 total). I alos disconnected the tranny cooler lines b/c they will be in the way once the body's sittin on the frame again, so they'll have to be moved, and did some clearaning of the body where all the new Solid Axle brackets are located.

Pics::

Front Fender Height....TALL!

Rear Fender Height..... Tall too!

Today I got done lowerin the body, I ended up using a jack with a piece of 3' DOM I had layin around and a 4x4 to use to lower it. it looks a LOT better now (at least my opinion). Didn't have any problems lowerin it down either. Now, I'm just goin around and startin to Slowly put the new body bolts back in. I say slowly, b/c each one is a different length and I'm gonna have to make a lot of trips to the hardware store. also, I'm having problems on a couple of them with alignment issues, but if its decent tomorrow, hopefully I"ll be able to get everything buttoned back up so I can check one more thing off my To-Do list.

Pics::

New Front Fender Height... a little better....

New Rear Fender Height.... Still a little better....

That's all for tonight, I'm hatin this 5pm dark thing.
--Ryan

 

[ExporeRanger]

so what amoutn of susprension "lift" would this setup simulate do you think?

 

[CarFreak146]

pughman, yes, I'm sellin it. $3o for everything minus hardware (bolts and nuts)

everyone else, its got about 10" of lift. and the stool was for sittin but works really well in gettin in and out. haha, most the time I just hop.

--Ryan

 

[4x4hauler]

how far did you more the axle forward? and why did you do that? do you have pics of when you rolled it? i love to see that

 

[CarFreak146]

how far did you more the axle forward? and why did you do that? do you have pics of when you rolled it? i love to see that

if I remmeer correctly, we moved it aobut 4" forward, and the purpose for this was for a better approach angle. I"m at about 80* approach angle right now (rough guess). I also chopped about 8" off the front of the frame to do this.

Bad picture of the rollover b/c of the sun.....

--Ryan

 

[4x4hauler]

wow man, i cant believe it rolled because of that

 

[CarFreak146]

well some of it was also the shackle flopped over. haha

I went out today to try and finish everything up..... and just as my luck always goes... I didn't get finished, but I'm closer I guess. When I set the body done, the holes weren't lining up, and I couldn't figure out how I was gonna fix this..... well, a buddy of mine gave me the idea of pullin the body forward with my F-250 (I wish I woulda got pics). So I hooked my winch onto the back of the 250, wrapped a strap around the back of the body of the Explorer, and winched her forward, After doin a little bit more clearancing, it worked Great..... well, not its dark (ugh) so I'm done til tomorrow after the xmas festivities are over with (dependin on what time they get done)

--Ryan

 

[91bluebeauty]

dang man that almost looks like a sport trac. Nice as hell though.