Mark's idea of a rad ranger is a little different than the desert boys. This ranger is getting a custom back half and single triangulated 4 link, but for different reasons than I'm used to. This black beauty is getting a little more "down to earth" with air ride on all 4 corners. Shes gonna be low and slow... that is until Mark swaps in the old Shelby V8 he recently picked up.
Up front is custom A arms, built by Air Bag It in Phoenix AZ, that will correct the camber when the 18" wheel is stuffed into the fender well.
The rear will be completely stripped and the frame rails will be cut. First order of business after the rear section is stripped down is build a cross member that will hold the forward mounts of the 4 link. My thoughts when designing this are, strength and style. These trucks aren't built for baja so i feel a touch of style is necessary in the design process.
Here's what i came up with:
Now that the forward mounts are sorted its time to mock up the new Ford 8" rear axle with its fresh disc brake conversion. Ill start with stripping paint, rust and removing the leaf spring perches. This will give me a blank canvas to get the link mounts tacked in place. Time to cycle the new 4link!
Cycles great, pinion angle is very steady through the travel. Time burn the link mounts in and get this axle painted.
Krylon satin black, in case you were wondering.
Now that everything is welded and the axle is painted, its time to get it bolted back together to start figuring out how and where the Air bags will be mounted. There is a few things to think about when mounting the air bags... Location on the lower arm is pretty important, everything is a trade off. If the bag is located toward the forward mount of the arm the ratio will be more extreme and will have a greater effect on ride height when raising or lowering the vehicle. Which is pretty cool but it will also effect the bag in that it will be a lot more leverage and create a soft or "spongy" ride. The other problem to overcome is real estate. It is a tight package back there between the links and frame rails. Oh and of course i want it to look good! Here is what i came up with using a little C.A.D. (cardboard aided design)
Pretty stoked on how that one came out, time to make a mirror image on the other side. After that is done i need to consider strength. the C channel frame rail is not nearly rigid enough to support the weight of the truck the way it sits. So I designed a strut bar that boxes the two bag towers in above the upper links. I used two 1.5" .090 wall tubes separated enough to easily access the mounting hardware on top of the bag as well as the air fitting. Here is some photos of what i am talking about. I plan on plating in between the tubes with some 1/8th inch plate steel with some dimple dies for rigidity and some style points.
Ive got a ton more work to do to this rad ranger... until the next one, thanks for stopping by!