Don90
Member
- Joined
- November 13, 2001
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Pullman, WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '86 Ranger STX
I know, asking for opinions on a forum is opening a can of worms, but I think I can draw from educated expertise from you guys.
Some back ground on me ... I've been around Ranger/ Explorers for well over ten years now, and have owned at least 10 RBV's. I've also been around RBV forums since the beginning. Heck, I remember when Fortune first started building his BII (looking good btw, I hope you chime in). Aside from my personal trucks that were stock, modded, 2wd, 4wd .. you name it, I am now and owner/driver of a 2006 Ranger fx4 offroad race truck.
We campaign the Ranger in the pure stock class, and this is where the explorer comes into play .... The biggest challenge in the stock classes is keeping the truck together for the entire race, and not getting stuck. These are challenges we battled all last season. Miraculously we pulled off 2nd place in our class. For next season, the idea was brought up to enter a second truck in the sportsman class (half entry fees), to support the race.
Fast forward to this weekend, I picked up a 1996 Explorer, with the v8 for dirt cheap. It's a decent running, driving truck .. but needs some love.
It's purpose will be an on track, race support vehicle. It will carry 4 crew, have tons of spare parts, tools, winches and be sacrificable if need be (can rob parts of it to keep the race truck going!)
Fortunately, if I enter it in the sportsmans class, I will not have the same restriction on suspension as the race truck, but I still want to keep the concept the same and not go too overboard (I have to spend cash on the real race truck too!).
So, my plan is, cage front to rear and a fuel cell (manditory to race). Get the drive train cleaned up and reliable. I am set on using 33" tires (race truck takeoffs) .For the rear suspension I'll run deaver leafs and 3" remote res. shock up through the floor.
For the front suspension, this is where your expertise comes in. I know there is long travel kits out there (dixons kit is beautiful), but in trying to keep similar to stock parts and stay afforable, that kit is out right now. I'd like to run coilovers, but I don't want to run much, if any lift. The RCD kit would be way too tall. Can RCD do a kit without lift brackets and still have the coilovers clear the upper a arms? Is there a tubular stock width upper a arm, similar to dixons, that can be used to clear coilovers? If coilovers will not work with stock height and width, I'll set it up like the race truck with torsions and dual 2.5" triple bypasses on each side. But ... I would love to get rid of the torsion bars, we have to replace them every race.
On top of that, I'll run glass front fenders, and whatever, if any, body lift to safely clear the 33's.
So, what are you thoughts on the concept, and front suspension issues?
Some back ground on me ... I've been around Ranger/ Explorers for well over ten years now, and have owned at least 10 RBV's. I've also been around RBV forums since the beginning. Heck, I remember when Fortune first started building his BII (looking good btw, I hope you chime in). Aside from my personal trucks that were stock, modded, 2wd, 4wd .. you name it, I am now and owner/driver of a 2006 Ranger fx4 offroad race truck.
We campaign the Ranger in the pure stock class, and this is where the explorer comes into play .... The biggest challenge in the stock classes is keeping the truck together for the entire race, and not getting stuck. These are challenges we battled all last season. Miraculously we pulled off 2nd place in our class. For next season, the idea was brought up to enter a second truck in the sportsman class (half entry fees), to support the race.
Fast forward to this weekend, I picked up a 1996 Explorer, with the v8 for dirt cheap. It's a decent running, driving truck .. but needs some love.
It's purpose will be an on track, race support vehicle. It will carry 4 crew, have tons of spare parts, tools, winches and be sacrificable if need be (can rob parts of it to keep the race truck going!)
Fortunately, if I enter it in the sportsmans class, I will not have the same restriction on suspension as the race truck, but I still want to keep the concept the same and not go too overboard (I have to spend cash on the real race truck too!).
So, my plan is, cage front to rear and a fuel cell (manditory to race). Get the drive train cleaned up and reliable. I am set on using 33" tires (race truck takeoffs) .For the rear suspension I'll run deaver leafs and 3" remote res. shock up through the floor.
For the front suspension, this is where your expertise comes in. I know there is long travel kits out there (dixons kit is beautiful), but in trying to keep similar to stock parts and stay afforable, that kit is out right now. I'd like to run coilovers, but I don't want to run much, if any lift. The RCD kit would be way too tall. Can RCD do a kit without lift brackets and still have the coilovers clear the upper a arms? Is there a tubular stock width upper a arm, similar to dixons, that can be used to clear coilovers? If coilovers will not work with stock height and width, I'll set it up like the race truck with torsions and dual 2.5" triple bypasses on each side. But ... I would love to get rid of the torsion bars, we have to replace them every race.
On top of that, I'll run glass front fenders, and whatever, if any, body lift to safely clear the 33's.
So, what are you thoughts on the concept, and front suspension issues?
