Carlovers Desert Beater Build | Page 35 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Carlovers Desert Beater Build

Well im starting to source parts and gather up some good stuff. I figured id start a thread just to show everyone that the ideas are. Should be a pretty fun setup when done. Everything will be being built by Brandon at BTF Fab.

The rear will be a 4 link with a panhard bar and cantilever coilovers. Shooting for around 20" of rear travel. Full size van 9", and should be around 3.5" wider per side than stock

Front will be a BTF front setup more than likely with a fully fabbed spindle with d44 hubs and uniball upper and lowers. Should pull around 16-17" of travel. Will be around 5" wider a side than stock.

It will be a fairly slow build due to finances. It will be built in stages obviously and should take around 12-16 months to be fully complete.
 



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It saw some dirt for the first time in 2 years.

loaded and ready
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blown heater hose was only issue of the day.
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Are you selling her?

Congratulations on getting it running
 


















...I don't think I've seen it since you were cutting the tubs for the rear..and its got paint..

Are you heading to Parker or the Mint400?
 












Nice update man, looks good in red. What's up with the ST next to you rig? A lot of us ST guys have been patiently waiting on updates about that beast.
 












Awesome, even though it doesn't seem to be the motor of choice for most prerunners, I don't think you'll be disappointed with the 5.0! I'm guessing 2WD? If it's AWD I'd trade transmissions with you.
 






The LS based motor would be the engine of choice if I didn't care about street/smog legal. I'm over having to trailer it everywhere, it never gets used because of that. The 5.0 is 50hp and 60tq over the 4.0 OHV, plus a good tune im sure itll be more than enough. Plus I don't want to start breaking stuff with too much power. Yeah its 2wd, which was actually kinda hard to find, there's a ton of AWD around here but very few 2wd.
 






The LS based motor would be the engine of choice if I didn't care about street/smog legal. I'm over having to trailer it everywhere, it never gets used because of that. The 5.0 is 50hp and 60tq over the 4.0 OHV, plus a good tune im sure itll be more than enough. Plus I don't want to start breaking stuff with too much power. Yeah its 2wd, which was actually kinda hard to find, there's a ton of AWD around here but very few 2wd.
If shipping/drive doesn't kill the deal, start looking east. In most of the south the V8 2wd's are everywhere... the awd are very hard to find.
 












I've been following this thread for years now haha. I just have a couple questions you might be able to answer. In the next couple months here I'll be starting to go back to work so that means I get to actually put some money into the ex! I have a buddy that has a set of btf uppers on his chevy 1500, and they kick ass. if I were to just get those uniball uppers would I have to crank my tbars or just leave it as is? Like you I'd like to build this thing, but as I'm in my last year of college funds aren't exactly flowing freely haha. I think what I'm trying to ask is how much difference would those a arms be than the moog ones I put on last year? Would the uniball upper even fit into the stock spindle? My explorer is by no means a race truck, but after I threw on some Monroe shocks on it last year I decided to jump it, and it did it beautifully. The rear with the Monroe coil over is just fine for me for now, but when I was down in ocotillo I felt like I tore my entire front end apart. I just want this thing to be solid, it's mainly a DD but I like to have fun every once in a while, just trying to figure out my best course to get this thing going.
 






I've been following this thread for years now haha. I just have a couple questions you might be able to answer. In the next couple months here I'll be starting to go back to work so that means I get to actually put some money into the ex! I have a buddy that has a set of btf uppers on his chevy 1500, and they kick ass. if I were to just get those uniball uppers would I have to crank my tbars or just leave it as is? Like you I'd like to build this thing, but as I'm in my last year of college funds aren't exactly flowing freely haha. I think what I'm trying to ask is how much difference would those a arms be than the moog ones I put on last year? Would the uniball upper even fit into the stock spindle? My explorer is by no means a race truck, but after I threw on some Monroe shocks on it last year I decided to jump it, and it did it beautifully. The rear with the Monroe coil over is just fine for me for now, but when I was down in ocotillo I felt like I tore my entire front end apart. I just want this thing to be solid, it's mainly a DD but I like to have fun every once in a while, just trying to figure out my best course to get this thing going.

He makes a pin for the uniball uppers so they will work with stock spindle. Get a set of lift spindles, uniball uppers, and put a good shock like a king, or fox in the front and it will work ok. I ran a setup like that for while and it did well.
 






He makes a pin for the uniball uppers so they will work with stock spindle. Get a set of lift spindles, uniball uppers, and put a good shock like a king, or fox in the front and it will work ok. I ran a setup like that for while and it did well.

Sounds good to me, I see that he has a kit for 1500 that comes with Spindles uppers and Dana 35 snouts which I know are usually the weak link, but it says it's a 6 inch lift, so that kinda confusing. Do you think that his are more solid than the fab tech ones? Pretty similar prices, but 6 inches is a big lift spindle vs the fab tech 3 inch
 


















Just saw all your stuff for sale on dezertrangers. Sad to see and even sadder I'm broke as **** haha
 









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