RCD RANGER 4" coilover kit for "4x4" !!

[sirhk100]

Pick up a nice set of Deaver or National 62" race packs. Lengthen the rear shackle and move the pivot points. Leave them under also. Leafs loose all their support and performance when they go flat or into negative arch. That's waht cause your rearend to sag after a while. The race packs alleviate that. A set of race packs and a good set of Bilstiens would make your rear end to wonders!!! Your talking probably around $750 for a rearend that would flex with the best adn jump with the best, especially if you put on some reservoir shocks. That's what mine will be on eventually.

 

[soupbone]

question:

what do the remote resevoirs do? what advantage... looks interesting. Does this kit have them in the front? Worth it for the occasional off roader who wheels like once a month?


nevermind figured it out

 

[ErikShallbetter]

It's worth every penny, sign me up.

 

[DesertSpive]

These Bilsteins are the non-resevoir coil-overs. I am supposed to call my RCD guy this week or next week for an update. I'll post as soon as I find something out. Now that my truck is finally here, all I can think about is the lift. Hopefully it will be out sooner than later, heck, I'll even consider the t-bar lift. I just wanna get some qulaity RCD height.

--Sean

 

[sirhk100]

I talked to a marketing guy about the lift yesterday and he said they won't market the lift for the Explorers cause they don't wont to be involved in lifting the vehicles that roll when their tires blow. But unofficially both versions of the kits should fit with some obvious grinding and a few drilling locations. This is from a marketing guy though so I'm not too sure how technically right he is. I'll try to talk to one of the development guys tomorrow at lunch and post a reply on the RCD forum under the suspension area. BTW you don't want to know my prices on Bilstiens, and sorry, I can't hook you guys up unless I buy a Ex. then buy the lift and for some reason don't put it on. Then I get to figure out who deserves it for my price. So, like I said, sorry guys. I'll let you know more details I hear about them. I'm going to be the person involved in pushing the kits through production though so feel free to yell at me that they're taking too long but don't piss me off cause I'll make it even longer !!

 

[rpenner54]

Originally posted by BislamJoe
Just a thought - for the rearend, wouldn't it get better performance if you left it SUA and ran some nice arched leaves?

No the flatter and longer the spring the better flex you are going to get out of it. Although that may mean you might get more sag after a bit you will get better flex then if you have a spring under and have a really tight arch. That and the spring under is going to get un-arched really quick if you flex it up at all. Arch is bad....

 

[Rick]

Originally posted by sirhk100
I talked to a marketing guy about the lift yesterday and he said they won't market the lift for the Explorers cause they don't wont to be involved in lifting the vehicles that roll when their tires blow. But unofficially both versions of the kits should fit with some obvious grinding and a few drilling locations. This is from a marketing guy though so I'm not too sure how technically right he is.

My Explorer is lifted about 8" and sits on 35" tires. It has been in some EXTREME off camber situations and has always proved stable... (knock on wood).

The marketing guy might as well be from the "legal department". Anything can roll, from a Corvette to a Hummer if the driver screws up.

Have him look at the the Car and Driver report where they purposely blow the left rear tire at 70 mph and the Explorer tracks straight as an arrow! Better yet they did it with his hands off the wheel.

As far as leaf springs forany application requiring maximum flex you want a flat leaf spring so it can arch negative as well as positive without. A spring that has a lot of arch will go flat from going into negative arch too many times.

 

[sirhk100]

Yeah, I agree, pretty lame reason. My Explorer has always been crazy but that's cause my front end is/was trashed. Today dropped it off for an alignment and found that the drop down brackets were cracked. Bushings in the beams were shot, 2 ball joints were bad, etc.... Anyways, Monday I'll get it back and hopefully I'll be able to agree with you that they are stable vehicles. I actually can't wait to see yours in person. Looks sweet in the mag and pictures. Not the type of build up for what my intentions are but damn, it looks like it'll go over the biggest rocks around. Have you done the Johnson Valley trails?

 

[DesertSpive]

RCD Update 1-8-01

Hey guys, went down and spoke with RCD. Got some more up to date information. We are still looking at a late March/early April availability date for both kits. The bracketry is in production and they are waiting for Bilstein to finish up on the shock design. Wheel travel will only be increasing about .5", if any, over stock due to the CV joint limitations (final decsion on this has not been made yet). Steering will retain stock geometry, with no added wear to idler arm, tie rod ends, etc., and there will be no bump steer issues. Alignment spec will remain same as stock. Also, CVs should retain factory life span. CV spacers are not used, as on some SLA lifts. There are no drive shaft mods necessary. There will be drop down brackets on the t-bar lift, due to the angle that the T-bars have to enter the lower control arm. Hope this helps you guys out. Trying to keep everyone up to date.

--Sean

 

[Rick]

So this coil-over setup augments the torsion bars, but doesn't replace them?

 

[Jefe]

Originally posted by Rick
So this coil-over setup augments the torsion bars, but doesn't replace them?

I beleive they are making two versions of the lift. One with coil-overs, and one retaining the stock torsion bars.

 

[Jason_25]

Re: RCD Update 1-8-01

Originally posted by DesertSpive
Wheel travel will only be increasing about .5", if any, over stock due to the CV joint limitations

Uhh what? .5 inches of wheel travel increase?

 

[BislamJoe]

Like he said - because of the limitations of the stock CV joints. If you replaced them with a heavy-duty long travel unit, you can engineer it to get more.

 

[RFR2212]

Yah, but fer .5 in more in wheel travel... sounds like a whole $hit load of money for not much....
Pete

 

[BislamJoe]

You get more ground clearance when you eliminate the torsion bars, as well. Plus, this RCD kit will probably be better quality, and perform better than the Trailmaster.

 

[soupbone]

CVs

all IFS lifts seem to be like this no matter what kinna truck it is. short long arm IFS isnt the same as TTB IFS. the stock ford CVs will bind. The limitations are already engineered into stock 95+ trucks as they come from the factory. there is no way to mod or beef the front CV axles up or whatever cheaply.

For more travel and beef you would have to use porsche 930 inner CV joints instead of the weak low-angle ford CV joints. and when i think of the name porsche... big $$$ comes to mind.. $700 a pair. and then pay somebody to make adapters to bolt up to the diff. sucks...$$$

the rcd 5.5" torsion bar kit comming up should be a better kit(and value) than trailmaster or superlift. the 5.5"coilover version is like $900 more adn even better but value i dunno. prolly gives a much better controlled ride and the benefit of no torsion bars hanging down.

yea its alot of money...
all i can afford right now is that unmade front ARB for our ******* hybrid D35 IFS diffs

 

[DesertSpive]

Rick,

There are going to be two kits available. On the c/o kit, the torsion bars are completely removed and spring duty is relegated to the coil overs. Locating the LCA is now done by solid struts (similar to the 2WD kits) preventing rearward lateral movement. It also increases ground clearance by removing those low hanging t-bar mounts.

Also, for those of you thinking this kit offers nothing better than the Superlift or Trailmaster kits, then please remember that RCD is a 5.5" kit, not 4", comes with Bilsteins rather than POS "white" shocks, and uses cast iron spindels and not disaterous ball joint spacers. Plus it will be priced in line with the other t-bar kits. I don't think, in the type of wheeling that I do, I would see the $800 benefit of coil-overs. But the jury is still out on that... Tough choice.

--Sean

 

[Ray Lobato]

Sean,
I will have to say that the shocks on the Trailmaster kit are very good shocks. I just don't like the steering slide and the extenders for the upper control arm. The Superlift kit does use new steering knuckles which I'm sure the RCD kit will have also.
There is a benefit for the RCD coil over kit for me, as I wouldn't get caught up on the torsion bars in the rocks like I do now, but then there are only a few guys on this board with 95+ models that would go on the same trails that I would go on, like Gerald, Jefe, and a few others. Soupbone can tell you.

The coil over kit would be Ideal for me. It sure would make it easier for me to play with the BIG DAWGS.

 

[DesertSpive]

Yeah, Ray, I really hate Trailmaster's ball joint spacers, they scare me. But RCD will have cast iron spindles, similar to Superlift. And the one thing that would push me over the top to buy the coil over kit is the increased ground clearance. But I don't know if I can justify the price quite yet. Why couldn't the Ranger and EX t-bars be angled up like on a F-150?

--Sean

 

[Jefe]

Enough talking about it. . .I want it NOW. . .