Here are some updates.









Picture from today with mock up shock...



I will update soon when I have more.

 

so your only going to have like 1-2 inches of up travel?? whys that?

 

looks good man! he is doing some clean work! i like it. well you know minus the leaf springs

 

mr zach. what do you think about the amount of up travel, arent those shocks limiting it alot??

 

depends, not sure how much uptravel they want. i mean you can run with that but it will likely bottom out.

also when they install the pitman arm and drag link i dont know how much room they will actually have between the drag link and leaf spring. ??


plus he said it ws just mock up

 

Does it look like a low suspension or is it just the pics?

 

I have a flat pitman arm from Sky. There will not be a lot of uptravel. I'm not sure on the numbers yet. This truck will not be a rock monster. I wanted as low COG as I could with this swap. It will run mild trails and my goal was a bad *** tough hunting and exploration truck. I do a lot of exploring of old town sites and mines plus a good amount of hunting and a lot of scouting for those hunts. I'm running 35" BFG All Terrains, Locked front and rear with a winch front and rear. A few inches uptravel will be fine with me for now as it is my DD. I'm sure in the futire I will be messing with the suspension. If I want to go higher in the front I could always get 4404 2" lift Waggy springs. Matt ran old worn stock Waggy springs without any problems and had soem decent flex too. He also ran shackle in front just as my build is.

Here is the pitman arm.



Bumper Shots. Not completed, but general idea. I'm going to be running Ridgid Industries Leds. They are on his Sheriff's buggy and ridiculously bright and durable. Winch plates not installed yet, but will be on top in front of the grill.



Hitch will be used in conjunction with a ****** block for a double line pull.



Check out these videos of these lights. My old KC's would be long gone....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZPDQ...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B5DL...eature=related

 

It can't be any worse than stock IFS uptravel!

 

thats for sure mang!!! its starting to come together now. whats there left to do on it?? any predictions on when it will be drivable????

 

• Rear Spring Plates
• Install rear shackles
• Bump Stops
• Bolt in shocks
• Install Pitman Arm and make draglink
• legal mud flaps

Then onto shop #2 which is more of a mechanic 4x4 shop

• brakes
• regear rear axle to match front 5.13s
• Custom drive shaft
• extended breather tubes

I think that is mostly everything.

Using these shocks and there you can see my new Optima.



New Winch. Cheap, but I used my old one 7-8 times and never had one issue.

 

Coming together nicely. Love the new bumper!

 

that first list is honestly ONE good hard day of work!!! why dont they just get on it and finish it up?? weld on the plates=1hour.. bolt in shackles=30 mins steering will be a little harder. but shocks just throw em in!! your so close mang

 

damn. you got some money haha.

but in all seriousness....it makes me want to say screw saving up for another rig and just have mine built up as nicely as yours is....i mean the whole thing is just pure quality..and gorgeous...

 

looks good cant wait to see it hit the dirt

 

Why not set the winch down lower? Up on top of the bumper will look funky, and you won't be able to see the "Ford" Emblem.. I had a ton of people say "nice toyota"....fawkers.



as for up travel. I think the complete lack of up travel, making the ball joints take a ton of the abuse instead of the suspension... was the cause to the balljoint breaking so be careful.

 

well if someone makes the mistake of calling it a Ranger they are ****n dumb. They look nothing alike. But I agree putting it into the bumper lower and closer the frame itself would be much stronger and look better.

 

I was trying to figure out a fancy way of saying it but came up with nothing.. it is stronger yes.

I guess they said it cause you never see built rangers

 

mmm! i like the bumper ring!

 

The way the crossmember is already built this works out best. I'm not using this winch to hang off of cliffs or waterfalls like buggys and Jeeps do out here. It will be strong enough for what I do. It would look cleaner, but I like function and I don't want the winch hanging down low. I want to keep the hitch too to use it for double line pulls. The tube work is all .120 wall and with those strong welds it shouldn't be a problem. I will post some pictures of where I got my ideas from when I get home.

 

this happened to me once at the home depot except a guy yelled it to me... dam ra-tards!

 

It is looking pretty sweet, I like the bumper so far.

 

I was never a fan of the hoops from the bumper extending above the head lights. However after seeing a few nice ones and realizing that it is more practical to mount my LED light bars as high as possible for maximum effectiveness. Here are some of where the ideas came from....














With that here are some more recent bumper pictures. I'm not totally excited about it but I think it will grow on me more. The top hoops are designed for my lights. The center hoop will hold the 6" LED, each side will have a 4" LED. It is kind of an expedition style bumper mixed with a high clearance tube bumper.







4" LEDs Rigid Industries - LED and HID lights
6" LEDs Rigid Industries - LED and HID lights

 

Looks similar to my old bumper, but with a 2" receiver instead of a winch case.


I think it looks pretty good. It looks like it sticks out pretty far up top, but not bad. Maybe it's just the angle too. Should look nice with paint.
I have heard that those LED lights rock too!

 

I was at the shop deciding on the angle. I choose to have it angling forward kind of like a stinger but not. I would have liked the side bars (ones that go around headlights and attach at center) to be angled down more so they meet the center "stinger bar" more towards the middle or a little above. Problem is that my lights are going to be hanging down right after that little mini bend on each side. This way they are away from the headlights.

 

Looks good. I did not realize that you had a build thread. I need to spend some time reading it from the beginning when I have a bit more time. Your truck has come a long way in the last year or so. We still need to meet up some time and do a AZ back country exploration trip.