V8 Solid Axle Ranger

[desert_steve]

Everyone pokes fun at them until they have one. Now i make fun of peasants who set up ground tents lol. Looks awesome dude. Lets plan a weekend trip sometime.

*fixed*

 

[Raceranger97]

Everyone pokes fun at them until they have one. Now i make fun of people who set up ground tents lol. Looks awesome dude. Lets plan a weekend trip sometime.

I wheel pretty much every weekend and your always welcome. Just don't do many Raptor friendly trails.

 

[Endless Trails]

Everyone pokes fun at them until they have one. Now i make fun of people who set up ground tents lol. Looks awesome dude. Lets plan a weekend trip sometime.

People out there setting up homeless encampments in the wild.

 

[Raceranger97]

Another weekend on the trail. Felt pretty tippy with the tent up there but never hit it on anything.

View attachment 41857

 

[Raceranger97]

Vibrated really bad once off the trail again. This will be the 4th time the driveline needs to be retubed or straightened. Really want to do a high pinion rear 3rd.

 

[Raceranger97]

Was bending the tie rod most trips, so I moved everything up a hole on the artec high steer set up. So much more clearance, not sure why I didn't do that before.

 

[Motiracer38]

That's a ton more clearance. Did you ever get the assist ram in there?

 

[Raceranger97]

That's a ton more clearance. Did you ever get the assist ram in there?

Not yet, mocked up some tabs and cycled it. But was worried if I bent the tie rod enough with it mounted it would hit the housing. Now that it's further out of the way I will revisit that. But so far I rarely feel like I'd benefit from it on the trail.

 

[Raceranger97]

Since I got this thing on the trail, it’s always ran a bit hot and has overheated a couple times. It’s been getting better with every little thing I’ve done but still borderline on hot days and I’ve wanted to move the trans cooler out from in front of the radiator for a while now. Well, the other day the exhaust rubbed a hole in the hardline going to the cooler and sprayed ATF everywhere. So it finally motivated me to move it to the back under the bed, hopefully now the trans and motor will run cooler. Also added an electric pusher fan up front which seamed to help a lot, especially when running the AC. I'll add one to the trans cooler if it doesn't cool enough as well.

 

[asjadkhan]

Killer project — that Ranger’s shaping up nice. The fabbed housings, D50 ends, and shared hub setup all make sense, especially for a cost-effective trail rig you can thrash without worry. Burnout test passed, smog’d and tagged, and now onto heavy axle work — this one’s going to be a weapon on the hard trails.

 

[Raceranger97]

The hope is that 40x12.5s will tuck into the fenders like the 39x13.5s with minimal cutting.

 

[Raceranger97]

Custom shackles from Max at Built industries. The cheapo ones were hitting the hanger pretty bad under compression.

 

[Raceranger97]

While replacing the shackles, I found the hangers to be cracked everywhere. Surprisingly these were in stock locally. Will likely fab some up later.

 

[Raceranger97]

Finally got a set of 40s for it. I hope the fenders survive. They are significantly narrower and it drives nicer.

 

[the bodj]

While replacing the shackles, I found the hangers to be cracked everywhere. Surprisingly these were in stock locally. Will likely fab some up later.

Looks like the top of the leaf spring is going to hit the shackle as it compresses?

 

[Raceranger97]

Looks like the top of the leaf spring is going to hit the shackle as it compresses?

They do a bit and will be clearanced. But I did some gnarly trails this weekend and checked it out at full bind and it didn’t seem bad.

 

[Raceranger97]

40s cleared. Pretty much ready for our upcoming Rubicon trip.

 

[Raceranger97]

Rubicon prep has me getting creative with space savings.

 

[the bodj]

Overland AF

 

[Raceranger97]

Overland AF

Will probably make me flop over lol