I'm at a loss.

[Keeper0311]

Cruising through the Dixon Bro's website drooling over the $3,500 long travel setup for the Explorer, I came across this cross-member that they're selling. Well I've spent the last hour searching through EF and TRS and Pirate4x4 and haven't come up with anything coming close to helping me understand what it's for, how it's used, you know useful information. Forgive me I'm still fairly new to off-roading, so please feel free to school me up.

 

[Stic-o]

It says in the description...

Crossmember bolts between the lower A-arm mounts to strengthen the chassis.

 

[Keeper0311]

Well yes...I was hoping for a bit more in depth response Steve. Lol

 

[Tbars4]

..Check out post #342 of this thread and read on..
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244912&page=18

 

[Keeper0311]

Thanks for the lead Ted, still not 100% understanding how exactly it works, but definitely enlightened me.

 

[mounty71]

Those rear lower mounts for the arms are just floating below the frame and have no front-to-back or side-to-side support. This crossmember keeps the mounts from wanting to collapse towards the center of the vehicle.

I evaluate everything based on desert trucks, so imagine hitting a large rock at high speed. The rock will want to push the tire/suspension back, which will put a lot of force on the arm's mounting points. Because the front of the lower arms is connected to a much sturdier cross member, the lower arm will want to pivot around that front crossmember and the rear mount will want to collapse towards the center of the vehicle.

Camburg has a variation of the same thing but it ties those rear mounts to the front crossmember, and also has a skidplate. I see the value in tying the back to the front, but the lower A arm is essentially helping do the same thing in my eyes. And the $400 price tag is pretty steep to me.

http://www.camburg.com/ford/ranger-edgesport-2wd/edge-subframe/


Be wary about buying one of these pre-fabbed crossmembers though, because it very well may not fit. My truck, my roommate's Ranger, and another friend's truck had all been offroad before installing similar (homemade) crossmembers. The third friend had bought a Dixon crossmember to install and it didn't fit on any of our 3 trucks. All of our mounts had already been bent from offroading, so all 3 of our homemade crossmembers had to be made at different lengths.

Here's mine: