My Golden Setup. Amazing ride and towing with no rubbing

[Randy2400h]

I’ve been running this setup, minus the new RTR wheels for a couple years now and I can’t say enough great things about it. I absolutely zero rub even when articulating through terrain. I load up this thing for camping trips and pull a 19’ motorcycle trailer with it. The ride around town is night and day better over stock. The suspension floats over bumps and all the rear end harshness is GONE. It tows and stays level even with 800lbs on the tongue. Between my suspension mods and my towing performance mods, I’m going to have a hard time ever separating from this truck; it does everything so well now. I can’t understate the improvement by replacing the junk OEM 2-leaf springs with the OME 10-leaf springs.

Wheels/Tires:
•285-65R18 Falken Wildpeak AT3
•RTR Evo6 18”x9” with 0mm offset.
•RTR fender flares to perfectly match the poke.
•Front Air dams removed

Front:
•ICON tubular Upper Controls Arms
•Ford Perf Fox 2.0 coilovers (2in lift)
•ReadyLift high clearance intrusion beams (crash bars)

Rear:
•Old Man Emu 1.7” Medium Leaf Springs (adds about 1.5” actual lift) (Part# S3M-OME45MMLEAFKIT)
•Bilstein 5160 Remote Reservoir shocks

Towing Upgrades:
•Mountune USA performance intercooler (completely saved my gas mileage while towing, remarkably over 35%)
•Custom Tune from Unleashed Tuning (guy named Tori), I had a 5-star tune that was garbage.
• B&M aluminum high capacity transmission pan (keeps my fluid temps from overheating even when towing at 75+ mph)
•AFE Power High Capacity Rear Diff cover
•Tom Woods 1-piece custom drive shaft

Other unrelated mods:
•Gibson Catback Perf Exhaust
•K&N panel filter
•GFB Blowoff Valve
•Mishimoto Catch Can
•Shrockworks Rock Slider bars
•Diamondback HD bedcover
•RTR led grill
•BajaDesigns fog lamp replacement

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[Randy2400h]

I meant to mention the tire size puts me just shy of 33” (32.7”) in height and 11.2” in width. Wildpeak tire noise and road comfort is far above average for an all terrain tire and the snow rating shows in deep snow or slippery conditions.

 

[RangerPNW]

Nice looking rig! Stance is about perfect! Good to know about the medium load OME springs, might have to add those to my list as my rear suspension isn't the happiest since throwing a canopy on.

There's no weird suspension behavior running Fox's in the front and the Bilstein's in the rear?

 

[Brett Fields]

I loved my Fox 2.0's until I trashed them with a winch and the Ford Performance bumper. 6112's on there now.

 

[Dereku]

I loved my Fox 2.0's until I trashed them with a winch and the Ford Performance bumper. 6112's on there now.

This story needs to be told.

Nice setup OP.

 

[MXGOLF]

Yes great looking Ranger. Nice work. Me likey.

 

[Frenchy]

I'm kind of surprised you did not go with 265/70-18. Though that size is a little shorter, it's not quite as wide and would help with the MPG a little bit due to not having to use as much rubber on the ground to move

 

[Brett Fields]

This story needs to be told.

Nice setup OP.

Not much story to tell. They're designed for a stock Ranger. The extra weight just overstressed them. They were ok for a little while but just stopped doing the job after a while.

Edit: For those who have them, if you do the bumper & winch, change the springs. Don't give it any thought. The 550 lb springs are just too light. The 6112s are a 2.5" tube with a 600 lb spring. The 2.0 Fox may need a 650lb spring.

 

[Dereku]

Not much story to tell. They're designed for a stock Ranger. The extra weight just overstressed them. They were ok for a little while but just stopped doing the job after a while.

Edit: For those who have them, if you do the bumper & winch, change the springs. Don't give it any thought. The 550 lb springs are just too light. The 6112s are a 2.5" tube with a 600 lb spring. The 2.0 Fox may need a 650lb spring.

Makes complete sense. Not sure why I pictured you hooking the winch to The shaft.

 

[AutoJonez]

Thanks for sharing, sounds like a setup I might be interested in. How much of the suspension work did you do yourself vs have a shop do?

I want those RTR fender flares so bad, too bad they stopped making them. How long ago did you get yours?

 

[Randy2400h]

I'm kind of surprised you did not go with 265/70-18. Though that size is a little shorter, it's not quite as wide and would help with the MPG a little bit due to not having to use as much rubber on the ground to move

Initially installed 275-65R18 tireswhen the truck was new in 2019 and I put in a leveling kit (it was 2-piece spacer kit from BDS and it rode terribly). I had surprisingly great MPGs with those tires for several years. Believe it or not, my MPG weren’t noticeably affected going up to 285-6518 tires; maybe because I upgraded the intercooler at the same time. The upgraded intercooler saves a gargantuan amount of fuel while towing and it does have some positive effects around town as well. Back to the tires, this thing rides so smooth, the adaptive cruise control warns me to put my hands on the steering wheels because it drives so straight with no steering input!

 

[Randy2400h]

Thanks for sharing, sounds like a setup I might be interested in. How much of the suspension work did you do yourself vs have a shop do?

I want those RTR fender flares so bad, too bad they stopped making them. How long ago did you get yours?

I did all the work myself to the truck. I bought those fender flares about 18 months ago. That’s unfortunate that they’re not sold online anymore. It might be worth calling RTR and seeing if they randomly still have a fender flare kit to sell you.

 

[brroberts]

I just changed rear shocks and tow all the time with no rubbing either

 

[Randy2400h]

There's no weird suspension behavior running Fox's in the front and the Bilstein's in the rear?

Nothing weird, they work well together. The Fox 2.0 rear shocks only allow 1.5” of lift and I think the Bilstein 2.5 shocks are good for 3” of lift. So there’s several reports of guys putting on these same OldManEMU leaf springs, which are 1.75” lift (closer to 1.5” in reality) and then having the Fox 2.0 shocks pop on them. Also I use a motorcycle hitch carrier with a 450lb motorcycle loaded, it puts a lot of dynamic load on the hitch and the remote reservoir shocks are up for the challenge of quieting down any bouncing on the hitch going down a bumpy stretch of road.

 

[34TL34D]

I’ve been running this setup, minus the new RTR wheels for a couple years now and I can’t say enough great things about it. I absolutely zero rub even when articulating through terrain. I load up this thing for camping trips and pull a 19’ motorcycle trailer with it. The ride around town is night and day better over stock. The suspension floats over bumps and all the rear end harshness is GONE. It tows and stays level even with 800lbs on the tongue. Between my suspension mods and my towing performance mods, I’m going to have a hard time ever separating from this truck; it does everything so well now. I can’t understate the improvement by replacing the junk OEM 2-leaf springs with the OME 10-leaf springs.

Wheels/Tires:
•285-65R18 Falken Wildpeak AT3
•RTR Evo6 18”x9” with 0mm offset.
•RTR fender flares to perfectly match the poke.
•Front Air dams removed

Front:
•ICON tubular Upper Controls Arms
•Ford Perf Fox 2.0 coilovers (2in lift)
•ReadyLift high clearance intrusion beams (crash bars)

Rear:
•Old Man Emu 1.7” Medium Leaf Springs (adds about 1.5” actual lift) (Part# S3M-OME45MMLEAFKIT)
•Bilstein 5160 Remote Reservoir shocks

Towing Upgrades:
•Mountune USA performance intercooler (completely saved my gas mileage while towing, remarkably over 35%)
•Custom Tune from Unleashed Tuning (guy named Tori), I had a 5-star tune that was garbage.
• B&M aluminum high capacity transmission pan (keeps my fluid temps from overheating even when towing at 75+ mph)
•AFE Power High Capacity Rear Diff cover
•Tom Woods 1-piece custom drive shaft

Other unrelated mods:
•Gibson Catback Perf Exhaust
•K&N panel filter
•GFB Blowoff Valve
•Mishimoto Catch Can
•Shrockworks Rock Slider bars
•Diamondback HD bedcover
•RTR led grill
•BajaDesigns fog lamp replacement

i just paid off my 23 xlt sport. I thought I was good to go! I did add a tow control unit. I never thought I’d spend $500 on a little knob. most of this stuff is Greek to me. I just googled the intercooler; how did you decide that you needed that? I came looking for tire recommendations for towing. Now I’m wondering if I’ll ever be set up properly for what I plan to do with my little pickup.

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