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Finally started the suspension upgrade on my '04 4.0L RWD Edge. Started out simple with some new rear shocks. Tossed on some Rancho RS5000x on the rear to replace what I believe to be original motorcraft shocks. Im sitting at 180K miles, and these things were pretty nasty. When i compressed it by hand, it sounded like a 4 year old blowing bubbles in chocolate milk. Thats pretty bad, in my opinion. With the new Rancho shocks, the rear end doesn't bounce around as much on speed bumps, and I haven't taken the truck out to some pot hole filled streets of San Diego yet to see how the road quality feels.
Overall, took about 15 minutes a side to do the swap, so easy enough to do after work today. This weekend, I'll be heading to the junk yard to find a bronco or ranger rear sway bar to put on. Hopefully, the yards down here have at least one with the rear bar.
I'm currently waiting for my Fox coilovers to come in and get tuned from Down South motorsports, then I'll be doing the coilover conversion from Shawn's hard work. That one is getting a bit flashy, as I'll be powdercoating the brackets to match the eibach springs.
A few pictures from today. More to follow as I make the upgrades! Original Motorcraft Motorcraft vs. Rancho New hotness thrown on Eibach coil springs. Shawn's brackets will be powdercoated to match.
Last edited by HawaiiRanger04; 07-03-2018 at 03:14 PM.
Reason: Changing title to project log.
So, I'm still waiting for my coil shocks to get here from DSM. They didn't have any in stock, so I'm waiting for Fox to send them out. While I wait, I didn't want to swap my control arms, inner/outer tie rods today, so I decided to build a storage box for the back on the cab. I've got the two door super cab, so it's really easy for stuff to end up piled in back or end up under the seat. Hopefully, this will help me keep organized for the items that live in the truck (straps, fire extinguisher, IFAK, surf wax, blah blah).
I based the box on the design by VH5150 in his How-To post a few years back (the search button does wonders!!!!)
So, a YUGE thanks to @VH5150 for having built something that was just what I needed.
Started by removing my seats to have easier access and taped down the physical space the box will take.
I took this picture prior to finishing the taping, so I'm missing some tape markings
Once I had the dimensions, I started the fun part. It's 50" across, 18" deep, and 8" high. The transmission cutout is 2" high, 10" wide.
Finding center line of the cab was... difficult. One moment I've got it, the next I'm 1/2" off.
1/2" dado joints will hold the 1/2 birch plywood floor to the sides and the front.
Getting it square so I can measure and cut for the floor boards.
Not too bad
All four bulkheads are square to the face
Full dry fit. The center shelf will hold a fire extinguisher and my med kit, and will be left open. I haven't built the lids yet, I'll build those once I have the frame completed and all glued up. I'll do the glue up next weekend, as this week is going to be busy at work, and with Comic-Con in town, I dont want to be working on the truck/have the garage open with all the crazy randoms walking by.
Well, I finished the construction aspect of the box today. This week, I'll sand it down, seal it, and get some carpet to cover it. I'll probably bolt down some climbing tubing to act as a handle, and use fender washers to keep it from fraying apart. I ended up removing the cargo hatches from the sides, and I was able to use the hinges from those on the lids, and even with 3/8" plywood, I'm still able to get about 75% lift on the lid, which is more than plenty to get access to the box.
Alright, this thread is well beyond a suspension upgrade, someone should update the title to Colin got bored one night and read ALL of the project logs since 2007.... DSM called this week and said Fox is making the coil shock and I'll hopefully have it before the weekend. I've got everything to do the coil-over conversion, so looking forward to the tweaking that it going to need. On another note, I ended up installing sound deadening mat today. My goal is to get at least all the rear area done this weekend before I run out of deadening material. I've ordered more and hopefully it gets here tomorrow early enough that I wont have my truck back together. I'm going to install Component speakers in the front and some mid range speakers in the rear once I'm done with the sound deadening.
I sealed the box yesterday and today was the 2nd coat, so hopefully tomorrow I can start with the carpet and get that into the truck when I'm done with the sound deadening. I didn't use a square when I was marking the holes to drill for the fire extinguisher, so its slightly crooked, which irritates the **** out of me. I might move it to the other side and drill those holes once I have the carpet installed on it.
When I pulled the passenger side kick panel, I found this relay unplugged, and there isn't anything that it looks like it plugs into. Is that hole just to mount it to the side? or is that supposed to plug in somewhere? I have no idea.
Last edited by HawaiiRanger04; 08-11-2018 at 07:50 PM.
Degreased the frame around the arm mounts, cleaned off the old paint New arm and tie rods. A few coats of chassis paint on the frame and mounts as well
Picked up my Fox 2.0 Coil-overs from DSMS. They re-valved them for mostly street driving, and I'll be installing them next week. I noticed that the washer for the upper bracket doesn't fit. It sits on the welds, and it about 1/8" off of the top piece of the bracket. I'll probably just grind off the sides a bit until it sits flush. It is like that for both brackets.I'll be running Eibach 600lbs springs.
I'm looking forward to getting these on, and getting the front end all dialed in!
So, correction to my previous post, I'm running 650lb springs, not 600lb.
Anyways, got my coilover conversion finished up and I'm back on the road. Holy smokes, talk about an improvement. Road feel is so much smoother, hitting speed bumps no longer jolts the truck up and down and side to side. I'm amazed at how much quieter the ride is, not from road noise, but suspension noise. The old ball joints and tie rods were all shithoused and blown out. When I would hit a speed bump, everything would creak like the whole frame was about to fall apart. I hit some speed bumps today at 25 mph, and while the truck went up and down, it was basically silent and the movement wasn't nearly as bouncy as it used to be.
The only thing I'm worried about right now is the driver side upper bracket's 1/2" bolt and spacer. I have that sucker cranked as tight as I could get it (with a big *** breaker bar) but I think I ran out of threads. I'm completely compressed on the lock washer, but I can still spin the whole bolt relatively easily. I'm going to monitor it over the next couple of days, and if I need to, I'll go get a 1/2" shorter bolt to swap in there. The passenger side didn't have that issue, so I think it has to do with the thickness of the driver side coil bucket being just slightly thinner, allowing the nut to sit lower on the bolt. I'll keep an eye on it, but hopefully that lock washer is engaged enough to keep the nut on...
I'm at work now, but pictures to follow when I get home.
So, question for anyone who sees this: I found a 2011 Ranger Sport that was in a front end collision, front passenger side got smashed pretty good, and I noticed the rear axle has disc brakes. I'm waiting for a reply on the axle code, but if its an 8.8 with better than 3.73 open gearing, I'm probably going to pick it up and swap it in. So, here is the question, is there a difference in the drive shaft mounting in the 2011 from the 2004 Edge? i.e. longer/shorter shaft, same size mounting, different depth diff housing, or would that be a direct swap? I haven't seen anything that would lead me to believe its a different housing shape, so I'm expecting it to be a direct swap.
I might also pull the rear sliding window and swap my solid window out. Decisions... Decisions.
Time to update the plans - talked to the yard that has the wrecked ranger, and they want 300 for the axle, $75 for the rear sliding window, $75 for the tow hitch, and I lost interest in their stuff at that point. Guess I'm back to the u-pull yard this weekend in search of a better axle. I'm going to look into the cost of having new bearings, seals, gears and a locker thrown into my current axle first, before I pull that trigger though. I'm installing new Rockford Fosgate speakers this weekend, and I'm on the hunt for an alpine amp as well for the inside. I'm also finally getting around to wrapping the box in carpet finally. Its been a busy few weeks with the suspension and other non-truck related things. I'm going to get some updated pictures this weekend once I finish the speaker install and get the box tucked in.
So, I did a thing today.... and bough a single channel amp and a 10" sub. Picked up an RF P3D2 subb, powered by an RF R750D1 amp. I'm going to mod the box to have the passenger side compartment a sealed compartment and I'll mount the sub facing up and the amp next to it. I installed my Rockford Fosgate T16s in the doors and mounted the tweeters in front of the door controls. Going with some 6x8s in the rear soon and I'll amp those as well. My tweeters are mounted on the angled base, so they protrude out a bit. I didn't want to commit to the flush mount just yet.
Alright, catching up on pictures from the last couple of weeks.
Finished my coilovers, finished the Rockford Fosgate T165s/T-1S install on the front doors.
The finished install of the Coilover. Turned out pretty well, I just need to install limit straps, which will be mounted to the side of the control arm and the frame. the front side. I'm sitting at full droop on the jack here, and this was taken before I finished setting the height. As she sits today. I'm pretty happy with the ride on 650# springs. Might bump to 700 or 750, but for now, I'm happy.
Change of plans on: Storage box. Making it a sub enclosure on the passenger side while keeping the driver side storage (vehicle recovery equipment). This is my current project to finish by next week.
Future plans for Nov/Dec: Find a god damn shell at isn't $1000. Seriously, I'll make a road trip anywhere south of Colorado and west of New Mexico at this point. Then do my camper build in the back. I'll probably use three 2x6's for the main frame of it, allowing for half-bed drawers, and then some top entry storage on less frequently needed hardware. I'll also have storage on the front of the wheel wells, the rear will be more of a utility area; electrical panel on the side, wired to a low load inverter and a battery. I'm looking into various ways to charge the batter (dont want to install a small solar panel, but with some removable mounts, that might end up being what I do.
So, disclosure on what led me to start doing these upgrades. I'm in the USMC Reserves, and I'm being mobilized to deploy back to Afghanistan. I've always wanted to build my truck into something sweet (2WD was a bad idea in the long run) but when this came up a few months ago, I decided I wanted to get my truck to what I've wanted for a long time. When I get back, the girlfriend and I are going to take a few months and travel, and we want a pimp *** setup. That led me to come back here this spring and start pulling ideas from all you clever people. I figured I should disclose that so you guys kind of understand where all this is coming from.
Alright, its been about a month or so that I've had the 650# spings on and overall, I haven't had to adjust the springs since I set my ride height when I finished the install. However, I had to put so much preload on the springs, that I'm pretty sure I'm hitting coil bind on speed bumps. Now, these are 10" 650# springs, so I'm wondering if I need to bump up to 700 or 750 since I'll be adding more weight to the rear once I add the shell and platform in the back and I'll probably get a bumper and winch for the front, so there is a bit more weight I'll need to plan for. Normal street driving is smooth as silk (as silky as a ranger can get I guess) right now, but its an empty truck for a few more weeks.
Well, a few minor updates from the last couple of weeks. I've been doing some pre-deployment training and haven't been able to work on the truck much. I got my audio system in the living room waiting to be dropped in, and the storage box is ready to be modded for the 10" sub. I had my motorcraft alternator **** itself on me last week, so I spent a few days carpooling until I could get the time to pull it, get to AutoZone and drop a new one in. Only took about an hour total, and it was covered under warranty, so I'm happy about that.
I picked up a camper shell this weekend, I've only been searching for 5 months... It was only $300 and will need some work, but it beats what the yards were selling them for by a long shot. It has a front boot which I'm going to replace with 1/8" plexiglass. The rear lift window seal was bad, and the frame is bent, so I removed that and I'll reseal it in a week or two. A big shout out to RonD for his help on the brake light wiring yesterday, which turned out to be pretty easy once he pointed me to the proper wire. Im going to finish the shell then finish my audio system and that will probably be the end until I get back from my deployment.
Well, here are some pictures of where I'm at now. Sub is now mounted on the box, and I'll wrap it this week then get my wiring run for the amps and start shaking my windows off the truck.
The new camper shell Got my box modded for the RF sub. This sucker is big This is gonna be pimp
Alright, so I finished my sub box this weekend. Here are some pictures. My first time carpeting, but I think it came out pretty damn good. The inside compartments are a bit hacked, but since the lid will cover it, and there will be enough stuff inside, i won't be able to see it. I took about 4 hours to carpet the whole thing. Nice and slow. I might go pull some staples out in a day or two after I'm sure the hour has cured, but since I can't see them, i might leave them in as insurance incase there is a spot where glue didn't bond well.
This was my first time carpeting a box, so overall I'm happy with the outcome. A bit of overspray on the side, but it will be blocked by the rear frame. Joys of the 2-door supercab! The driver side profile. Im stoked on how well it came out on the outside. The sub is mounted on the inside, so I had to cut the hole as i wrapped. Overall, it looks good, and it will be so dark on the back area, it wont be seen unless the seats are forward and the light is on.
Finished my Sub and speaker install over the weekend. 1/0 wire back to a distro block then 4AWG to the amps, 14 AWG speaker wire to the speakers. I have some interference that I'm still working on, but overall, it's a huge improvement over the stock speakers
Mounted my crossovers in the doors Had to enlarge the rear speaker hole to fit the 6x8s Ran my RCA cables theough the pillars Both amps are mounted in the recessed compartments behind the seats.
I know it isn't truck related, but here is my life update from the last 6 months. About half way through my deployment to Afghanistan. I should be back working on my truck in January or February, if everything goes right.
Training Georgian Soldiers how to air assault off helicopters The boys and I (right) prior to a mission Posting security prior to an exfil My buddy Joey and I (right) post exfil
Although I'm a few months from this project, here is what I plan on making when I get home. The bumper will be made from 2×6×.250" steel tube. It will be pretty heavy, maybe 100 lbs, but I'm not too worried about it. I'll have an integrated 2×2 hitch built in. I'm planning on using 1/2" plate to mount to the frame and that will be welded through the bumper, front and rear. The tire will be offset from center, and will sit a little higher than depicted here, probably closer to flush with the top of the bumper. My scale is a little messed up since I'm not sure how wide I want it compared to the stock bumper, which has the small curve around the edges of the bed.
I'm basing it off of ultraHDs bumper, although I think his is 4" vs 6", but I'm not sure. I'm obviously going to flex from this as I build it, so I may end up using 2×4 tube steel in the end. I'm planning on the wheel mounting surface being vertical, but I may put it at an angle to match the camper shell window but that is more aesthetic than practical. I'll plate the ends, but for now, I dont plan on mounting a 2nd spindle on the drivers side.
Finally made it back to California! My truck welcomed me home with a failure in the fuel pump. Turns out the relay had failed, so that was easy enough to figure out. I'll be doing some maintenance over the next month making sure the engine is healthy and hasn't developed any major problems while I was gone. My truck sat for about 11 months and was only driven a few times, so I am a little worried about some of the seals and gaskets drying out and cracking as I start driving again.
Once I'm done with some maintenance, I'm going to get my new wheels wrapped with some AT tires. I'm up on either Falken Wildpeak AT3W or the Hankook Dynapro AT2 (RF-11). Comparable price, looks like similar tread characteristics, and both are moderately new designs by their respective brand. I've searched the forums for dynapro, but havent found anything in the new AT2s. I'm looking to get 265/75/16 116T, not the LT265/75s since those have a higher ply count and will likely be too hard for my truck.
I'm also still planning to do my rear leafs with explorer springs to get rid of the blocks and bring my rear end back up with the camper shell. I'm still thinking about upgrading to an explorer axle with 4.10s vs my current 28 spline 3.55 rear end. I've got plenty of time to work on it in Jan when I go on terminal leave and get back to San diego.
07-03-2018
