Another lowered Ranger!

[Hizdudeness]

Finally did it today. I bought the whole Belltech kit over a year ago including control arms. I did the whole swap today on the ground, but I was a tech in a past life. I had my cordless impact which made it go quick. My Ranger is an FX2 so I could get the locker. Unfortunately it utilizes higher ride height springs so the effective lowering is less than usual, but my tire change (295/35/18 Toyo Proxes) made up the difference. I lowered Fr 2.75" R 4" but I will be changing to 5" rear as a rake of 1.4" still exists. The kit went on smoothly save for missing bolts that I had to procure. Just waiting on my Airdesign flares to come in now.

I wont be acquiring regular ride height rated springs as I am a mountainbiker and I live in the mountains so I need to retain some semblance of ground clearance.

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[Blmpkn]

In for an explanation about the extra ride height leafs..

I was under the assumption US rangers had one part number for the regular models and one for the tremor.

Share those secrets..

 

[Hizdudeness]

Well I didnt get part#s off the leaf, but when I pulled both struts I had an oh shit moment when I saw they were different part #s. I cross referenced them with Ford and came up with:

2 wheel L/H Drive High Ride, Super Single Cab RAP, Chassis Cab RAP-Crew Cab

The part # was different when I searched a Lariat 2wd crew cab non FX2. Im only assuming the rear is also a higher ride height as stock I still had a ridiculous amount of rake. The back was so high that even at 6'0" I had some difficulty putting my mtb on the tailgate pad. For reference its full carbon everything so it wasnt the weight bothering me. It was the height.

 

[MY23RANGER]

Looks good nice wheel choice

 

[Hizdudeness]

Well I didnt get part#s off the leaf, but when I pulled both struts I had an oh shit moment when I saw they were different part #s. I cross referenced them with Ford and came up with:

2 wheel L/H Drive High Ride, Super Single Cab RAP, Chassis Cab RAP-Crew Cab

The part # was different when I searched a Lariat 2wd crew cab non FX2. Im only assuming the rear is also a higher ride height as stock I still had a ridiculous amount of rake. The back was so high that even at 6'0" I had some difficulty putting my mtb on the tailgate pad. For reference its full carbon everything so it wasnt the weight bothering me. It was the height.

edit: I am in no way or shape a fan of lifted 2wd trucks. 2 vehicles ago I had a 2wd Rubicon Recon on 35s. It was insane. That got the trails and climbing bug out for awhile. I wanted a sport truck this go around. I've had over 80 vehicles titled to me so far. I get bored quick, but I'm slowing down as I get older.

 

[BettaRanga]

Looks really nice. How’s the ride feel?

 

[NoTacos]

Would love to see a complete side shot to see what it looks like squatted down. I can’t really get a sense of that in the 3/4 view.

 

[Rinn69]

Would love to see a complete side shot to see what it looks like squatted down. I can’t really get a sense of that in the 3/4 view.

Ditto....the dark color and the background make it look like you posted the pre-lowered pics. The 1.4" rake difference looks like 6".....TWSS

 

[Hizdudeness]

ill try to take pics another day and repost. I was beat and just snapped a few quick pics and oh here is the tire comparison. Sorrys its an extremely brief movie The old tire/rim was pressed against the new one, but it looks all messed up perspective wise. The new tire is 25.8" ground to top of tire. The old tire was 30.2" ground to top. This made my effective rear ratio 4.27. Yes it is noticeable. I would say going higher would even be of benefit. I think at 70 I was at 2200-2300 rpm in 10th gear, which is more accessible now. Previously I rarely used 10th as highest the speed limit where I drive is 65. GSP don't mess around so I rarely speed anymore.

 

[D Fresh]

All US Ranger springs front and rear are the same, 2wd, 4wd, FX-2, FX-4, doesn't matter.

 

[Mirage775]

It's nice to see another lowered Black Crew Cab Looks like you're trying to clone my truck

I have about a 3" drop up front and a 5" rear drop, but my wheel/tire combo is a bit different from yours, as I don't have as much of a gap between my fender lip and top of tire. Also, mine is just a 2wd, not an FX2.

What part of Georgia are you in?

If you haven't seen it, here's a decent pic:

 

[Hizdudeness]

I'm in Blairsville. Haha , not trying to clone your truck. The one in the pic below though Which I think you and I both are trying to clone. My file date for the pic is 12/3/2019. I have just been busy with projects around the house. I was actually one of the first buyers for the belltech kit it has been sitting for well over a year. I dont know how long actually but my receipt for the control arms is from 13 months ago. I know I bought it well after the kit as it wasn't even being made when I bought it. I actually have had a dp and intercooler sitting for months also. I really like the current exhaust tone. My truck only has 5k miles on it still so I dont drive her a lot. Covid was a nightmare and I did the travel ER/ICU nursing thing. TBH I would love to run E85 just not a fan of the 2 hour drive to get it. I grew up in the car industry but left after the crash in 08. I started racing at an early age go karts then mx and finally got into drag racing.

Tbh I am still very disappointed in this truck. It makes ok power, but the package weight is way too great. Its take off from a stop is just gutless. Ive only owned one vehicle slower that was my Rubicon. It handles like a truck form the 90s, the brakes kinda suck...I'm comparing it to my 02 Lightning. That truck was amazing. Funny thing to replace it now it would cost well over the value of my ranger. I sold it for like 20k in 2016 Now to find a clean single owner under 50k mile example. I just don't know. My first ride was a Nova with 4.11 gears and 3k stall. It only ran 13s on street tires but I thought it was the quickest thing ever.

My Ranger has been on a diet but it still is way too heavy. Next weight loss mod is Lithium battery. I feel like anything over 3k lbs is just too much. I Need to reweigh again, but I'm aiming for a bit under 4k with me in it. I've grown to accustomed to all this techno crap. This is the first vehicle that I haven't removed the cruise control in. I have a serious problem with modifying things. I'm slowing down as the wife is tired of my shit. Every time I get done with the project I sell it out of boredom. I like the challenge. Planning the upgrades, overcoming obstacles. I always do everything save for the machine work. Even paint. Some of which is great others meh, depends on the booth temp and humidity and how much I hated paint work that day. Since I do all my work I usually trade up or pocket cash. Shortest I have ever kept a car was 3 days. This Ranger is honestly ironically my longest. I think its because its like this nut that I want to crack and I just cant get it to do what I want.

So Im going to find a rear end I like and build a jig and 4 link it. Im thinking Mustang for sure as I have built several and I dont have to research anything and heck even have parts laying around to do one. Before I do that this thing has to make some real power. The wide sticky tires just killed any wheel spin I could induce you know I mean judiciously as in trying to go fast; not spin tires.

When I was real serious I did a 92 Mustang removed everything unnecessary-manual rack, no ac, no heater core, no sound deadening, removed rear seats, light weight seat(s), gutted dash no speakers, removed all emissions, deloomed the wiring harness and body harness to remove everything not needed, I didnt do go plexiglass and it had a 6 pt cage. I welded in the racers edge kit on the rear subframe. It was my quickest car I built at the time and at that time it was quick AF. Whole thing myself. Strim vortech with victor jr heads. When I raced fun fords weekends I was in the street renegade class. My best time was 10.2 @ 134 that was at Moroso in south Fl. At the time It was one of the faster stangs in its class. It was in a few mags. I did the SE US but never won much money. It was fun but ultimately I had to get out as the class got out of control real quick. I took the car and went crazy lightweight it as I no longer had to meet tech. Scariest car I ever drove. I got into cutting bolt heads and replacing sheetmetal and removing bonding material. Jesus it sounds like a drug problem. I was in my early 20s and did not have the kind of money to compete once low 9s started hitting. Also when my buddy Jason died in Orlando it kinda took the wind out of my sails. I got out right as everyone started going twin turbo.

As far as I know Im the first person in the world that I know of to put an rb26 into a 300zx tt Only took this one pic its on my fb from 2009 but The car was already long gone. I did it in 07 and sold it after the auto industry went tits up. Everyone started claiming afterwards that they were first but they no one did it until after I answered some questions on a forum and let all the secrets out. I should have opened a shop and kept my mouth shut. I havent seen one with ac besides mine though It had a gt35r on it, stock 5spd 300zx mated to the rb. I did the wiring myself and used the eraliest ghetto as tuningI was a tech for Nissan and Subaru early on so ive done several crazy things with sr20s, I did 3 rotary engines(I will NEVER EVER do another), 4 Honda builds, 9 mustangs, 3 Camaros. I love the way rotaries sound, but Jesus those things are like literally burning money to move. If you know rotaries I did 2 rb13 and an na 3 rotor from a cosmo. There is a guy now that has perfected a 4 rotor. I would bet he is has over 100k in the engine project alone. I feel like Modern American muscle cars are dead AF to me. They make the power; but to sacrifice that cam sound for improved drivability and emissions hurts me.


My last two current car build goals are one a lotus elise stripped and powered by a turbo bike engine. The final one is probably gonna have to be some sort of electric powered madness as the dyno juice wont be here forever. /Sadpanda

OK now that I wrote a book I have to apologize for that bleeding wall of text.

TLDR: BS car crap, blah blah, my whole damn life story FFS, Ranger still feels kinda weaksauce

 

[Mirage775]

I'm in Blairsville. Haha , not trying to clone your truck. The one in the pic below though Which I think you and I both are trying to clone. My file date for the pic is 12/3/2019. I have just been busy with projects around the house. I was actually one of the first buyers for the belltech kit it has been sitting for well over a year. I dont know how long actually but my receipt for the control arms is from 13 months ago. I know I bought it well after the kit as it wasn't even being made when I bought it. I actually have had a dp and intercooler sitting for months also. I really like the current exhaust tone. My truck only has 5k miles on it still so I dont drive her a lot. Covid was a nightmare and I did the travel ER/ICU nursing thing. TBH I would love to run E85 just not a fan of the 2 hour drive to get it. I grew up in the car industry but left after the crash in 08. I started racing at an early age go karts then mx and finally got into drag racing.

Tbh I am still very disappointed in this truck. It makes ok power, but the package weight is way too great. Its take off from a stop is just gutless. Ive only owned one vehicle slower that was my Rubicon. It handles like a truck form the 90s, the brakes kinda suck...I'm comparing it to my 02 Lightning. That truck was amazing. Funny thing to replace it now it would cost well over the value of my ranger. I sold it for like 20k in 2016 Now to find a clean single owner under 50k mile example. I just don't know. My first ride was a Nova with 4.11 gears and 3k stall. It only ran 13s on street tires but I thought it was the quickest thing ever.

My Ranger has been on a diet but it still is way too heavy. Next weight loss mod is Lithium battery. I feel like anything over 3k lbs is just too much. I Need to reweigh again, but I'm aiming for a bit under 4k with me in it. I've grown to accustomed to all this techno crap. This is the first vehicle that I haven't removed the cruise control in. I have a serious problem with modifying things. I'm slowing down as the wife is tired of my shit. Every time I get done with the project I sell it out of boredom. I like the challenge. Planning the upgrades, overcoming obstacles. I always do everything save for the machine work. Even paint. Some of which is great others meh, depends on the booth temp and humidity and how much I hated paint work that day. Since I do all my work I usually trade up or pocket cash. Shortest I have ever kept a car was 3 days. This Ranger is honestly ironically my longest. I think its because its like this nut that I want to crack and I just cant get it to do what I want.

So Im going to find a rear end I like and build a jig and 4 link it. Im thinking Mustang for sure as I have built several and I dont have to research anything and heck even have parts laying around to do one. Before I do that this thing has to make some real power. The wide sticky tires just killed any wheel spin I could induce you know I mean judiciously as in trying to go fast; not spin tires.

When I was real serious I did a 92 Mustang removed everything unnecessary-manual rack, no ac, no heater core, no sound deadening, removed rear seats, light weight seat(s), gutted dash no speakers, removed all emissions, deloomed the wiring harness and body harness to remove everything not needed, I didnt do go plexiglass and it had a 6 pt cage. I welded in the racers edge kit on the rear subframe. It was my quickest car I built at the time and at that time it was quick AF. Whole thing myself. Strim vortech with victor jr heads. When I raced fun fords weekends I was in the street renegade class. My best time was 10.2 @ 134 that was at Moroso in south Fl. At the time It was one of the faster stangs in its class. It was in a few mags. I did the SE US but never won much money. It was fun but ultimately I had to get out as the class got out of control real quick. I took the car and went crazy lightweight it as I no longer had to meet tech. Scariest car I ever drove. I got into cutting bolt heads and replacing sheetmetal and removing bonding material. Jesus it sounds like a drug problem. I was in my early 20s and did not have the kind of money to compete once low 9s started hitting. Also when my buddy Jason died in Orlando it kinda took the wind out of my sails. I got out right as everyone started going twin turbo.

As far as I know Im the first person in the world that I know of to put an rb26 into a 300zx tt Only took this one pic its on my fb from 2009 but The car was already long gone. I did it in 07 and sold it after the auto industry went tits up. Everyone started claiming afterwards that they were first but they no one did it until after I answered some questions on a forum and let all the secrets out. I should have opened a shop and kept my mouth shut. I havent seen one with ac besides mine though It had a gt35r on it, stock 5spd 300zx mated to the rb. I did the wiring myself and used the eraliest ghetto as tuningI was a tech for Nissan and Subaru early on so ive done several crazy things with sr20s, I did 3 rotary engines(I will NEVER EVER do another), 4 Honda builds, 9 mustangs, 3 Camaros. I love the way rotaries sound, but Jesus those things are like literally burning money to move. If you know rotaries I did 2 rb13 and an na 3 rotor from a cosmo. There is a guy now that has perfected a 4 rotor. I would bet he is has over 100k in the engine project alone. I feel like Modern American muscle cars are dead AF to me. They make the power; but to sacrifice that cam sound for improved drivability and emissions hurts me.


My last two current car build goals are one a lotus elise stripped and powered by a turbo bike engine. The final one is probably gonna have to be some sort of electric powered madness as the dyno juice wont be here forever. /Sadpanda

OK now that I wrote a book I have to apologize for that bleeding wall of text.

TLDR: BS car crap, blah blah, my whole damn life story FFS, Ranger still feels kinda weaksauce

I'm about 3.5 hours directly West of you

My truck is 95% cloned to the SCT SEMA truck, other than it being a Lariat and having the coilover rear suspension. I've done almost every engine bolt on, with the exception of the bigger turbo, which I don't think it's worth the price, for the small bump in power and the aftermarket downpipe.

I suggest you do some of these upgrades and get a tune from Unleashed. I haven't hit the dyno yet, but Torrie said it should have almost 300 whp and almost 400 ft lbs @ the wheel? I think mine scoots along quite well.

I've had a ton of cars/trucks over the last 25+ years, after I started driving. I cannot type as much as you did, since I'm on-call tonight, I have to get to bed.

 

[Hizdudeness]

Oh I already have all that mate. I have an afe intake on it the enclosed box one. My exhaust is the afe dump before the pass rear tie.(you can see that in the pic) I got the muffled one not the resonated one. I have the gb bit bov the dual cans, no power gains in most of this stuff honestly. Mid-deep tone, Zero drone slight popping. Imo one of the best sounding exhaust for these things Ive heard. Which Is why I havent put on the DP. Mine is catless. I may buy another one catted and no I dont want to sell my catless one! I bought it as I rarely drive the thing and I don't have emissions testing here. I haven't put on the intercooler as frankly the logs I've perused dont show a need temp wise I have an in fact several tunes from Torrie. I will get a couple more once I address the e85 issue. It feels stronger for sure, but its gonna take a lot more than this to get a ranger into the 12s. This feel like a high 13 second ride. Which is maybe a smidge faster than a toyota camry (not exactly something I would want to brag about) 12 sec 1/4 is my baseline for acceptable performance. I have not had a normally aspirated powered vehicle in quite some years. I have also never owned an unmodified vehicle. Ever; not a single econobox or grocery getter. I'm trying to get the wife to ok an additional shed/small shop area with a transfer station setup for fueling so i can get a lot of e85 and store it/use it. Its a 92 mile round trip to e85 for me. I also enjoy living in the sticks and dont like riding into the Atlanta area particularly.

As far as how much power you make? I don't know but every vehicle is different. Gas quality altitude, temp humidity how you drive the vehicle all the time. I can tell you this as good as Torrie is at making canned tunes, im sure he could do better on your ride with it on his dyno. Unless you have done many datslogs and back and forths you wont get close to that level of accuracy from a canned tune. I dont buy into the x # of mods equates to power. I worked at a shop that tuned imports for 4 years. Most of the stuff is garbage, very minimal gains for the money. Many dyno results are rigged. I saw many many times where a part being changed reduced power or narrowed the hp above curve for a tiny net increase that would equate to the vehicle going slower in the quarter mile. Also there is a lot of variance same car same engine same day. A mod saying it gives 10 hp, well 10hp is not an unheard of variance on the same vehicle with nothing changing. Is it ideal? no, does it happen? yes The tunes are a decent bit of power but tbh the rest short of fuel and retuning is kinda meh. The bigger turbo can do more, but then we need more rear gear a cam and more rpms. Meaning less and less streetable. Then you are pushing for more rpm. The more you go that route the less low end tq you are going to have. With a trans brake and slicks you can bypass the problems our little truck suffers. I think before I get too crazy I will try a gear swap. I haven't confirmed but I have read that the elocker differentials aren't welded. My point is this thing doesnt compare to a Lightning. Very light mods to get to a 12, at least it was for me. full exhaust cat back no cats and headers, a crank pulley a tune and an intake.

The problem is not making power, is the fact that without having access to it from the line with this weight the truck is just slow. The drag race race is really decided in the first 60ft. Almost all of you acceleration is done way before you even the hit the 1/8 mile. I used to always aim for cutting a 1.6 or below 60 ft. I haven't ran this at the track, but there is no way in hell people are getting under 2.3 or maybe 2.2 or 2.1 tops. That's over a half a second lost right at the get go. WIth the right weight loss and additional power and traction fixes I do think on e85 the ranger could pull a mid-high 12 pass. A 12 sec quarter mile would be ~8 sec 1/8 mile car. To take the 12 sec ride to 11 by purely power it would need a massive influx. Im talking at least 500hp at the wheels, strictly on the basis of this ride being our ranger. So looking at time it looks like the oh wow the second half is the best, but when you look at trap speed the 8 sec 1/8 mile is going ~ high 80 something or so. The 12 sec 1/4 is going ~1teens in mph. Not even over 40 mph gained in the last 1/8 and you start at 80 something mph

For comparison the focus rs, much lighter, awd, more power, ability to apply high power from a dead stop. Yes its a 2.3 eb, but the packaging is just night and day difference. If only it was feasible to swap in the drivetrain. Its not, packaging constraints vehicle track width axles lengths transvers mounted engine, Tuning changes for diff control/tq bias on and a one off non tested application. The transmission/rear would not hold up to the uptick in weight load.

The reason the tunes are so good on these trucks is because Ford didnt want the little brother truck beating up on the f150. Im sure part of it is number crunching warranty, but I bet more went into gas mileage /emissions tbh. Once you get the tune there isnt loads more to be had. The ranger could not come close to touching the golden boy. The f150 has a very high profit margin. They also sell it in droves. They are selling the heck out of mavericks, but that truck isnt making them near money transactionally. Honestly if ford released an ST maverick awd ecoboost either 2.0 or hopefully 2.3 my ranger would be sold. The maverick would straight up smoke the Ranger. Yeah its small and not really a truck, but im not towing anything. I just need to be able to carry whatever house crap I need to do next from home depot.

edited ffs i cant type

 

[RANGER_MARC]

Finally did it today. I bought the whole Belltech kit over a year ago including control arms. I did the whole swap today on the ground, but I was a tech in a past life. I had my cordless impact which made it go quick. My Ranger is an FX2 so I could get the locker. Unfortunately it utilizes higher ride height springs so the effective lowering is less than usual, but my tire change (295/35/18 Toyo Proxes) made up the difference. I lowered Fr 2.75" R 4" but I will be changing to 5" rear as a rake of 1.4" still exists. The kit went on smoothly save for missing bolts that I had to procure. Just waiting on my Airdesign flares to come in now.

I wont be acquiring regular ride height rated springs as I am a mountainbiker and I live in the mountains so I need to retain some semblance of ground clearance.

To each his own... (The black wheels on the black truck look cool, though!)

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