New and Old

[Beef_Stew]

Here's my old 2006. Still miss it and I'm going to add another old one to go with my 19 soon hopefully

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[HenryMac]

I've got one of the original Ranger's.... circa 1927

 

[Stephen Abbene]

My ‘88 next to my ‘19

 

[FULLSCALE]

My 2019 Ranger and My SCCA Racetruck test mule (not rear wheel camber...got a back story on that...)

So what’s the story?

 

[P. A. Schilke]

So what’s the story?

Hi Adam,

Okay, Here is the back story on the cambered rear axle. While illegal for SCCA Racing, one of the things we investigated was cambering the rear axle. We decided to start way over what was allowed and see if there was any significant reduction in laptime, so Livernois cut the axle tube close to the diff housing, bent the axle tube to 4° negative on both sides and welded up the axle tube. I was excited to try this out on the handling course with the goal to see how much lap time reduction we got...if significant, then we would keep reducing the camber and assessing the affect We had many spare axles with which to work.. Maybe a ½° might be of value and possibly undetectable as it was in spec of the axle assembly.

One evening we hit the track and I was behind the wheel. Now mind you, we were serious and I had on my drivers suit, gloves and helmet as this is a race vehicle and we are "playing with fire". How prophetic... I started slowly and warmed up the vehicle, brakes and tires. The put my foot into it... cranked off about 20 laps and pulled in. Looking at the lap times we saw an improvement but not huge. So my other team member Rob S. got in and he cranked off about 15 laps. Same result...slight improvement, but not much. I got behind the wheel again and was on about 5 laps in when something happened in the rear and I shot off the track at about 95 mph in the second turn. The left rear of the truck dropped in a shower of sparks. What??? so here I am bounding through the grass that was recently mowed finally coming to a stop way off the handling track. Whew, the the grass that collected under the truck caught fire and I had to pull the fire system lanyard and bail out the drivers window onto the ground and roll over onto my stomach and get up and run away. The fire suppression system worked and the fire was out. My heart rate must have been over the top. What had happened was that the left axle, brake drum and wheel left the truck. By the time the crew got to me they were laughing..not so funny for me, but, hey, the truck and I were okay. Sheesh!

Back at Livernois the next day, I got a message from my secretary that Livernoise had found the problem. The axle shaft is held into the axle by a huge C clip in the differential and it seemed the mechanic putting the axle back together forgot the C clip. So we repaired the damage, rebuilt the axle and tried again, this time ensuring the C clip was installed. Same results with the axle and wheel tire leaving the vehicle, but fortunately at a lower speed and better place on the track.

What happened was that the C clip was loaded severely by the camber angle of the axle shaft and ground itself to powder on the side gear. So the take away, was to move on to other aspects of development of the handling. Forget cambered rear axles... Not every thing you try during development results in success. This was an Epic Fail! But if you do not try, then you do not know..and we now knew to invest our time in other arenas of racetruck development

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[FULLSCALE]

Hi Adam,

Okay, Here is the back story on the cambered rear axle. While illegal for SCCA Racing, one of the things we investigated was cambering the rear axle. We decided to start way over what was allowed and see if there was any significant reduction in laptime, so Livernois cut the axle tube close to the diff housing, bent the axle tube to 4° negative on both sides and welded up the axle tube. I was excited to try this out on the handling course with the goal to see how much lap time reduction we got...if significant, then we would keep reducing the camber and assessing the affect We had many spare axles with which to work.. Maybe a ½° might be of value and possibly undetectable as it was in spec of the axle assembly.

One evening we hit the track and I was behind the wheel. Now mind you, we were serious and I had on my drivers suit, gloves and helmet as this is a race vehicle and we are "playing with fire". How prophetic... I started slowly and warmed up the vehicle, brakes and tires. The put my foot into it... cranked off about 20 laps and pulled in. Looking at the lap times we saw an improvement but not huge. So my other team member Rob S. got in and he cranked off about 15 laps. Same result...slight improvement, but not much. I got behind the wheel again and was on about 5 laps in when something happened in the rear and I shot off the track at about 95 mph in the second turn. The left rear of the truck dropped in a shower of sparks. What??? so here I am bounding through the grass that was recently mowed finally coming to a stop way off the handling track. Whew, the the grass that collected under the truck caught fire and I had to pull the fire system lanyard and bail out the drivers window onto the ground and roll over onto my stomach and get up and run away. The fire suppression system worked and the fire was out. My heart rate must have been over the top. What had happened was that the left axle, brake drum and wheel left the truck. By the time the crew got to me they were laughing..not so funny for me, but, hey, the truck and I were okay. Sheesh!

Back at Livernois the next day, I got a message from my secretary that Livernoise had found the problem. The axle shaft is held into the axle by a huge C clip in the differential and it seemed the mechanic putting the axle back together forgot the C clip. So we repaired the damage, rebuilt the axle and tried again, this time ensuring the C clip was installed. Same results with the axle and wheel tire leaving the vehicle, but fortunately at a lower speed and better place on the track.

What happened was that the C clip was loaded severely by the camber angle of the axle shaft and ground itself to powder on the side gear. So the take away, was to move on to other aspects of development of the handling. Forget cambered rear axles... Not every thing you try during development results in success. This was an Epic Fail! But if you do not try, then you do not know..and we now knew to invest our time in other arenas of racetruck development

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

Thanks for the backstory! I’d never heard of doing such a thing, I figured an axle would have to be in pretty much perfect alignment to even slide the shaft back into the housing.

 

[Stevie Gee]

In SpringValley/SanDiego...today.
Mine is in the background.

 

[ch47dmechanic]

My first new vehicle. 2000 Ranger XLT.

 

[WaseLand]

In SpringValley/SanDiego...today.
Mine is in the background.

Oh how I miss SD. get some taco shop for me hahaha.

 

[srgredranger]

My first new vehicle. 2000 Ranger XLT.

Did you buy that ranger in Oklahoma? BillingslyFord is my dealer here

 

[chasvs]

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Thanks for the backstory! I’d never heard of doing such a thing, I figured an axle would have to be in pretty much perfect alignment to even slide the shaft back into the housing.

Hi Adam,

You have to barrel the axle splines that fit into the side gears. If we had enough reduction in lap times, we would have just added a bit of work for the team to replace the axle shafts and all the diff parts after each race. Livernois would have had to barre; about 60 axle shafts and we just order ring and pinion sets, new side gears...associated bearings, but not enough gain to go to the time and expense...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[ch47dmechanic]

Did you buy that ranger in Oklahoma? BillingslyFord is my dealer here

I sure did. I was stationed at Fort Sill for four years back in the late 90's to early 2000's.

 

[srgredranger]

I sure did. I was stationed at Fort Sill for four years back in the late 90's to early 2000's.

By the way Thank You for your service, my dad was also at Ft Sill two times before retirement

 

[foulmouf]

Here’s my most recent other Ranger, but I sold it in 2012. It was my third Ranger, a 2007 FX4 Level II with 4” Superlift kit and 15x10” Nomad wheels with 33” Duratracs. I really miss this truck! I had the opportunity to buy it back a few months ago but it was ROUGH. It went through a few owners after me and I don’t think any of them took care of it like I did!

That was a good looking truck.

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