Anybody planning to lower their 2019 Ranger?

[Loweredon33s]

Question for all the Ranger folks who did the 2" inch Belltech drop of the front without their contriol arm replacements. Since I dont have aluminum knuckles and Belltech does not support iron knuckles, How far out is your front alignment ( or how close to spec) can you get your front alignment?

My truck is lowered 2.5 ish
I have about -2 degrees of camber. I could have probably gotten it closer to -1.75 or so but I would have lost what little caster angle I had. If you are only looking for a 2” drop I would expect that you could get near -1.5 to -1.75 degrees while still having enough caster. My tires get rotated every 6-9k and last a reasonable amount of time with my current alignment but I would like to trade some camber for caster with a set of correctly made upper control arms.

Question for all the Ranger folks who did the 2" inch Belltech drop of the front without their contriol arm replacements. Since I dont have aluminum knuckles and Belltech does not support iron knuckles, How far out is your front alignment ( or how close to spec) can you get your front alignment?

Mine is lowered 2.5” ish. I managed to get around -2 degrees of camber and like 3 degrees of caster with stock arms. The ball joint angle is terrible though.
I could have gotten a little less camber but I didn’t want to sacrifice what little caster I had.
If you’re planning on only 2” drop I would think you could get around -1.5 to -2 degrees camber.
I rotate my tires every 6-9k and they wear decent. It handles great even in the rain. I still plan on installing proper control arms, I’d like to be closer to -1 to -1.5 degrees camber and as much caster as I can get equally.

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[RedRanger2020]

still looking at control arm solutions for lowering my steel knuckled 2020 Ranger. Has anyone had any luck with SPC adjustable control; arms? or are they more for adjustment of raised Rangers.

 

[Loweredon33s]

still looking at control arm solutions for lowering my steel knuckled 2020 Ranger. Has anyone had any luck with SPC adjustable control; arms? or are they more for adjustment of raised Rangers.

I welded threaded collars into mine to accept Mopar screw in ball joints, they fit steel knuckles perfectly and are cheap as shit. You just have to weld and fabricate a little ?
Mine now fit pretty well. I’m low enough that they slap the sheet metal above but otherwise they are great.

 

[RedRanger2020]

I welded threaded collars into mine to accept Mopar screw in ball joints, they fit steel knuckles perfectly and are cheap as shit. You just have to weld and fabricate a little ?
Mine now fit pretty well. I’m low enough that they slap the sheet metal above but otherwise they are great.

Thanks you for the pictures. Looks like you found the fix for Belltech arms. Unfortunately, outside my current skill level. I am more at 2 wrenches level and that looks to be 4.

 

[Loweredon33s]

Thanks you for the pictures. Looks like you found the fix for Belltech arms. Unfortunately, outside my current skill level. I am more at 2 wrenches level and that looks to be 4.

It’s my area of expertise fortunately.
as bad as these hit the body I would say that the SPC ones would be worse. They also do nothing to correct the ball joint angle which is super bad as is.

 

[RedRanger2020]

I did get my Ranger

lowered 2/5. My alignment shop was not able to get the truck with-in factory spec alignment. My camber is at -1.9” and my caster is at +4.8”. I was able to contact the Belltech Brand Manager and all she would commit was that they have plans on developing the UCA with the correct ball joint for the steel knuckles.

 

[19Bluecrew]

I did get my Ranger

lowered 2/5. My alignment shop was not able to get the truck with-in factory spec alignment. My camber is at -1.9” and my caster is at +4.8”. I was able to contact the Belltech Brand Manager and all she would commit was that they have plans on developing the UCA with the correct ball joint for the steel knuckles.

Good luck with Belltech. Their customer service is terrible. I can't speak for other brands or models of truck, but they do not care about Ranger owners.

 

[Loweredon33s]

I did get my Ranger

lowered 2/5. My alignment shop was not able to get the truck with-in factory spec alignment. My camber is at -1.9” and my caster is at +4.8”. I was able to contact the Belltech Brand Manager and all she would commit was that they have plans on developing the UCA with the correct ball joint for the steel knuckles.

That looks pretty good. I have had over-2 degrees of camber for a while and still managed to keep my tires wearing evenly. I now have-1 degree with the Belltech arms modified to fit but they are so noisy when they hit the fender liners on bumps! I almost want to put my stock arms back on.

 

[Doc]

I did get my Ranger

lowered 2/5. My alignment shop was not able to get the truck with-in factory spec alignment. My camber is at -1.9” and my caster is at +4.8”. I was able to contact the Belltech Brand Manager and all she would commit was that they have plans on developing the UCA with the correct ball joint for the steel knuckles.

Very Good !

 

[Doc]

My truck is lowered 2.5 ish
I have about -2 degrees of camber. I could have probably gotten it closer to -1.75 or so but I would have lost what little caster angle I had. If you are only looking for a 2” drop I would expect that you could get near -1.5 to -1.75 degrees while still having enough caster. My tires get rotated every 6-9k and last a reasonable amount of time with my current alignment but I would like to trade some camber for caster with a set of correctly made upper control arms.

Mine is lowered 2.5” ish. I managed to get around -2 degrees of camber and like 3 degrees of caster with stock arms. The ball joint angle is terrible though.
I could have gotten a little less camber but I didn’t want to sacrifice what little caster I had.
If you’re planning on only 2” drop I would think you could get around -1.5 to -2 degrees camber.
I rotate my tires every 6-9k and they wear decent. It handles great even in the rain. I still plan on installing proper control arms, I’d like to be closer to -1 to -1.5 degrees camber and as much caster as I can get equally.

Perfect fitment !

 

[Loweredon33s]

Perfect fitment !

Thank you

 

[Loweredon33s]

Perfect fitment !

It’s now at 3/6 drop and -1 degrees camber with the Belltech arms and the stock shackles back in it.

 

[Blue Power Ranger]

It’s now at 3/6 drop and -1 degrees camber with the Belltech arms and the stock shackles back in it.

Do you have 20" wheels on that?

 

[Loweredon33s]

Do you have 20" wheels on that?

18x9
285/60/18

 

[CJohnStanchina]

It’s my area of expertise fortunately.
as bad as these hit the body I would say that the SPC ones would be worse. They also do nothing to correct the ball joint angle which is super bad as is.

Well, friend, I could sure use some of that expertise of yours. I had the Belltech kit installed to achieve a 2/4 drop back in November of '21. At that time, I don't recall anyone on this thread mentioning not being able to achieve an alignment that wasn't within factory spec. Fast forward to this past March when I had a rotate & balance done (about 10k miles after the lowering & alignment) and imagine my surprise when I was informed that my front tires showed significant wear on the inside edge of each tire. Because the shop that did the Belltech install subbed the alignment out, I have no idea of what degree of caster/camber they were able to achieve.

In any event, while appearance is important to me, the primary reason I had the lowering done was to make ingress/egress easier (I'm a paraplegic). So, what I'm looking for now is an out-of-the-box solution for this alignment issue. Any ideas or am I just out of luck? Thanks a bunch in advance for your insight.

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