New to Serious Explorations

[drewbay641]

I just joined Serious Explorations. I am retired from Caterpillar after 35 years in IT. My car and truck hobby spans many decades covering sprint cars, stock cars, muscle cars to street rods. I am new to 4 wheel drive off roading, with a 1994 Ford Explorer Sport with a 7 inch lift running Skyjacker components, Eaton 4.56 lockers, and 31" TAs. I plan to replace the stock bumpers with tube bumpers, mount the spare off the rear tube, and add a wench up front. In the mean time, could use some advice on how to fix bump steer and wandering on the street. I want it to work off road, but easy and safe to drive on the street.

 

[RangerX]

Welcome!
With 7"s of lift and 4.56, why just 31"s?
Is some of that lift a body lift? Just wondering, as I've heard of 4" and 6" lifts...
Quite a few people have done a spare tire mount off a custom rear bumper, if you're wanting to see others' take on that.
Bump steer means your steering geometry is off. I suggest you start a thread about it in this section: http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=96

 

[Rick]

Welcome to the forum

I'm curious as to why such a big lift with the small tires. Are you planning on running something larger in the future?

For the TTB front end to work well your radius arm bushings need to be in good shape or the suspension geometry will fluctuate greatly.

The Dana 35 wheel bearings are notorious for loosening up. Check to see if you have excessive play in the wheel bearings.

7" is a lot for the stock steering system to handle without transmitting bump steer. The Superlift, Superrunner steering kit would help eliminate the problem.

A steering stabilizer shock can also help a bit with wander.

 

[drewbay641]

Hi Rick, Thanks for the info and suggestion. This is a custom 7 inch lift trying to get 35s under it. I was running used 33s, but scrubbed the remaining tread off due mostly to the front end alignment challenges. The rear axle is flipped under the rear springs with extended shackles, and the front uses Skyjacker's 6 inch lift kit with a 1 inch spring spacer. No body lift for now. I changed over to 31s as that was all that was readily available due to the heavy snow we had here in the mid-west. Thanks again, Adrian

 

[drewbay641]

Bill,

I was running used 33s, but we the tread was scrubbed off pretty quickly due to the poor front end alignment. With the bad snows we had here, I could only get 31s on short notice. Its pretty much a daily driver. The lift is custom with flipped rear axle, shackles, and a Skyjacker 6 inch up front. I built it with the intent to run 35s. There are no 4wd drive specialty tire or truck shops here so I have been buying used tires off ebay. Thanks for you reply, Adrian

 

[1Aauto]

Welcome to the site.

Tony:wavey: