I was watching extreme 4x4 a little while ago and they are building an old suburban. They did something I have never seen or heard of. They took half of a transfercase and bolted it to a doubler and bolted that to another transfercase. Whats up with that ? Whats the point or advantage ? Double low range ?

 

i beleave its for low ranger gears. think of this you put it in the 1st low and just climb up a hill with out ever touching the gas what it does is create extream low end torque. I beleave this is it but correct me if I am wrong

 

no they didnt bolt two tarnsfer cases and a doubler.

a doubler IS a transfer case. a transfer case thats been cut and the it mates with the OE (or whatever xacase is there...) transfer case and tranny so that you get the low ratio from the stock Xcase, take another low range parts of another xcase and it makes an even lower ratio. it "doubles" the low range. you get a really low crawling ratio. rock crawling is all about gearing and the lower the better. thus the reason for a doubler.

Its kinda of hard just to explain. do a little more research on how transfer cases work and you can probably understand pretty easily. its a pretty simple concept...

 

Thats about what I thought. The half xcase is just a low range and that is either engaged or not and the you have use for the stock xcase like normal.

Not that I can see a use for it(at least for the wheeling I do) but can something like be done to our rangers ?

 

the doubler will have a neutral psoition so that you can use 4 hi and low like noremal and a low ranger position so that you can get an even lower ratio.

They used to make a doubler for our tcases and then they stopped and now anther dude is going to be making a doubler.

I know jey plans on getting one and I do as well, although i will be less likely to get one cause they arent cheap...

 

If the doubler was in neutral, no torque would transfer to the 2nd case. The doubler's have a "high" and "low" range.

"High" is just like in a regular t-case. 1:1 gear ratio. So the doulber, in high, acts as a solid shaft transfering power to the inputshaft on the 2nd t-case.

 

http://www.tandmoffroadproducts.com/description.htm

what does it say in the second line???

 

Who makes them for our trucks ? How much $$$ are we talking ?

 

I know, just pointing out your statement was misleading/confusing there hombre.

 

around 7-800.

 

"High" is 1:1.

 

There are some setups using two inline transfer cases as a "ghetto" crawl-box. I've seen them in the magazines. I don't think theres much room for anything like that on a Ranger unless you relocate the fuel tank.

 

So explain to me how the transmission turns the input to the doubler, and sends power to the xfer case in a 1:1 ratio, with only a low and neutral??

 

If the doubler is in neutral, it spins freely through. that means that its basically like a stock tcase setup...

not so hard.

 

where any thing is in neutral, there is no member of the gearset being held to transmit torque, so the gears spin freely and no torque is output.

High is 1:1, the doubler has to be in high for you to drive normal and for 4 hi. In neutral, like a manual t-case, would be for towing. Low range, obviously is the reduction.

 

I thought the doubler went between the t-case and the transmission? If that's the case, why do you need a body lift for it?

 

well kyle, if im not mistaken, its because theres ahump in the body that makes room for the bell housing/ tranny/ tcase. the doubler would extend this whole setup and the factory paneling wouldnt give it enough room...

 

ok, here's my question.
Why would you wanna put one of these on a truck? I've been around 4 wheeling all of my life, my first car was an 81 custom deluxe chevy with a "bulldog 4 speed" and i remember how low that thing got when you went into 4 lo. I don't ever recall a situation where i ever needed 4 lo come to think about it.
And I would put my ranger up against any day of the week. I've had that truck in some of the worst terrain you can find in the Appalachian mountain range along with the Carolina's, and the Smokey Mountains as well. Not once have i had to use 4 lo.
So why waste the time and money?

 

have you ever heard of granny gears?

If you chebbie was a manual that you probably have.

Its for crawling man, I cant explain to you unless you have actually really gona rock crawling. ill try though. when you get to a ledge or a shelf or whatever, and you push the gas and your truck struggles to move the tires you give it more gas right? Okay when you give it more gas, that usually means that your tires will spin. when tires spin, things break.

with a lower gear ratio, you dont need as much gas to get up obstacles and you wont spin tires as much. thus you wont as easily break something.

or how about when you floor it to get over an obstacle. you get over the obstacle and you have so much power pumping that you come flying out of it like a bat of of hell. what if there are trees aruond, or cliffs or rock ledges? BAM. the reduction can actually slow you down once you lets off the gas.

just a couple reasons, but if you say youve been around wheelin all your life and you cant understand the point of a doubler then either you wheel like my mom, or you dont do any rocks...

 

so who makes them for our trucks ?

I think I get it, the doubler is either 1:1 or 2:1 before power gets to the stock T-case. So I guess you could have the doubler in 2:1 and the stock t-case in 2wd and you would have a 2wd low range ? Why you would want to do that I am not sure but it sounds cool. Doubler in 2:1 and tcase in 4x4 hi is the same as 4x4 low. Doubler in 2:1 and tcase in 4x4 low = super low 4x4. Do I have the above right ?

Ok so if you put one in our trucks you now have a longer tcase do you need a shorter driveshaft ?

 

as i said, i grew up in rock crawlin country...just look up jellico tennessee...i'm 10 minutes from there, so yeah i know about granny gears...and when i mentioned a "bulldog" 4 speed, well if you know anything about granny gears you would have caught that...bulldog 4-speed is chevy's tranny that has been built since at least the 40's for extremely low gearing.

 

Longer driveshaft in the front, shorter in the rear. You will also need work on the crossmember, and the gas tank may need to be relocated, depending on how big the doubler is.

Ben, to even NEED that sort of thing, you really would have to be doing serious rock crawling type of offroading. And if you're doing that, you'd probably want to figure out better underbody protection as well.

What have you done or regularly do where the time and expense of a doubler would help you?

 

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. 2Lo would kick some serious *** when handling a boat on a trailer at the ramp. Not to mention it'd be great for pulling stumps! We used to have a neighbor of ours that would put his truck in low-range and then hop out to load hay bails as he walked along next to the truck..

Of course you could have the same effect w/ manually lockable (or unlockable) front hubs too.
Yep, I think you have it about right. Although I believe the BW1354 transfer case offers a 2.48:1 reduction ratio, not 2:1.. but close enough.
...And you still can't see the value of having an even lower low-range on the Ranger?

For me this isn't necessary. 4Lo has proven to be plenty low enough for my needs. But I can certianly undertstand the apeal. Hell, the factory Jeep Rubi is shipping w/ a 4:1 reduction t-case. For comparison, the Ranger's is something like 2.48:1.

 

I see the benefit of lower gearing for sure -- I just think it would be easier and cheaper for him to put the proper differential gears in for the tire size he's gone to. That in and of itself would probably solve most of his problems, real or perceived. Although not a trivial expense to regear, it's a lot cheaper than what he's thinking of and it will save a lot of stress on his u-joints, driveshafts, and transfer case.

Lower gearing before the transfer case is all well and good -- but putting something lower in the diff has benefits all the way down the line.

I wonder does anyone make lower low range sets for the Borg-Warner t-cases most of us have?

 

Oh, no argument. I wouldn't think this is a work-around for a poor gear/tire combo. But then that's not the point of such a doubler either. The point is to give you a lower low-range while still keeping a somewhat normal drive ratio for street use.

Although like I said, I don't see it being all that useful for 99% of us.. The stock 2.48:1 reduction is pretty handy as it is.