Daily Doubler Build - 96 Ranger

[Bray D]

I've resisted this transition, but the time has come. For those that are unfamiliar, I'll try to give this thread a proper jump start.

This is the first (and only) truck I have ever owned; picked it up just before my 16th birthday back in 2003. It was my DD until I started getting too much attention from the local authorities and I 'retired' it in 2014. It's still plated and gets driven often, it's just not my only vehicle anymore.

This rig has taken me all over the country, including the PNW with Petersen's on Ultimate Adventure 2012. It was still my only vehicle back then - I drove it to work the day that we left for the trip and it resumed DD duties immediately after. Since then I've driven it across the country many times wheeling, camping, and exploring.

Current build configuration: 4.0 OHV, m5od with 3.0 gearing, BW1350/1354 doubler, narrowed '79 HP D44 (4.56's, spool, chromos, Chevy outers, high steer), 31 spline 8.8 (4.56's, OX, Dutchman shafts), radius arms with 12" Fox 2.0 coilovers up front, Chevy 63's with Fox 2.0 smoothies in the rear. 37's on TR beadlocks.

I grew up on TRS, but I've mostly abandoned that thread. If you guys want to dig it up, it's under the name 'daily doubler build' and well over 100 pages long. When I decided to share on the almighty PBB, I summarized most of that thread in the first handful of posts.

Here's the link to the slowly dying thread on Pirate (currently up to date): Daily Doubler Build - 96 Ranger

I'll do a similar summation to kick off this thread, reserving the following 5 posts to try to capture as much of the build as possible up to this point. Since it feels strange to start a build thread without a pic, here's a recent one just for kicks. We'll get to current-day wheeling pics in the posts that follow.

It feels good to be back. 🍻

 

[Bray D]

We may as well start at the beginning. I picked it up as a bone stock 96 Ranger - 3.0, m5od, bw1354, d35 front, 7.5 rear.

The first build iteration was a 5.5" Superlift kit and 33" Kumho M/T's on 15" steelies.

Started tinkering with fabwork and made some extended radius arms

Somewhere around here I swapped in the 31 spline 8.8 with 4.56's and a limited slip. No pics unfortunately.

Then I pulled the front end apart to do all of the typical D35 mods. Geared, locked with an Aussie lunchbox, ground the shafts for full circle clips, etc.

The tires were starting to show some wear, so I borrowed a buddy's groover and went to town. Not sure it helped all that much, but I wasn't doing much technical crawling at this stage either.

Built some sliders out of SCH80 pipe.

And tube doors (SCH40 pipe)

And that's about the extent of the build before things got more serious with the doubler. At this point I had been to a handful of offroad parks and wanted to play in the rocks. The 5 speed made it grossly apparent that I needed more gear reduction.

 

[Bray D]

I ended up snagging a used D.D. Machine 1350 crawl box from another PBB member, so I bolted that to the front of my existing 1354 case and stuffed it in the truck. The additional length of the doubler requires a fuel tank relocation though. I sourced an OEM auxiliary tank from a gen 1 Ranger. I ditched the midship tank and put this one behind the rear axle. I used the gen 1 factory crossmember and everything (found from a guy on TRS). I fabbed up the tank straps, hence the chunky tabs protruding from the rear crossmember.

Chopped my fuel pump / sender down to fit inside the new shallow tank.

Then I swapped in a pair of Chevy 63's with Belltech 6400 shackles.

Threw my brother's 33 x 14 (14.50?) SSR's on for a mud bog. That was awesome.

Proof that the OG Pink trail at the Badlands was doable on bald 33's back in the day.

And a shot at the top of the ledge near the pond.

This is how it looked at the end of the TTB days.

I drove it like that for a good while, but knew that a SAS was on the horizon. I was in community college at this point, so I collected parts and built the D44 over the winter with plans to swap it in during spring break. This is the winter of '08/'09.

I started by chopping 6" off of the passenger side. Welded the housing back together and bolted on some Chevy flat top knuckles. Built it with 4.56's, Aussie locker, chromos, 760x joints, RuffStuff diff cover, Branik high steer, 5 on 5.5 Ford hubs and Warn premium lockouts. What makes this axle unique is that it uses OEM length shafts throughout, but they're all from different models. It has a full size Ford short side inner, EB length long side inner, and Chevy outers.

As I waited for spring break to roll around, I pulled the doubler again and clocked it one hole on the adapter plate. That raised the front output a bit and gave me some more clearance for a crossmember that was going to come later.

edit: I decided to spend the 5 bucks to get access to my old photobucket account and HO. LEE. CHIT. I hit a gold mine. Downloaded all of those pics so I have them available on my local storage. I'll upload whatever I use to my personal domain so they won't get lost again.

This is going to be a shit show for a while until I get all of this updated. Enjoy the ride

 

[Bray D]

SPRING BREAK HAS ARRIVED. It's party time.

Started at the rear and swapped in a pair of 5 on 5.5 Dutchman shafts.

Re-drilled the rotors to match, swapped on the new 35's, and flipped the truck around to start on the front end. Note the Lincoln tombsone - I built this entire truck with a stick welder.

Radius arm crossmember that was mentioned previously. It tucks between my crawl box and my transfer case beautifully. Resulting radius arm length is nearly 48" from the joint eye to the center of the axle.

Typical radius arm D44 swap from this point forward. Full size coil buckets with integrated panhard mount. F250 shock towers. 1.50 x .120wt DOM 1 ton steering. I know the shocks are upside down. Had to grind my lower tabs to clear the shock bodies but was too anxious to get it done.

First time on the dirt.

This is when things really started to take off. I started hitting the local parks quite a bit, learning my way around the truck, and picking up custom bodywork from the trees along the way. Mud was still a welcomed change of pace on occasion, though I started getting away from it more and more.

Cliffs when it was still super clean.

Mud, for shame.

Badlands on the rocks.

Flooding the cab at the Cliffs. I thought the drive home would air it out - not the case. Had to strip the whole interior and put everything on fans. It smelled like death in there the following week.

Around this time the oil pump went out of the 3.0. Rather than replacing the pump, I decided to do a 4.0 swap. Picked up a rolled Explorer, plucked the 4.0 out of it, dropped it in the Ranger, then did a burnout with that new 4.POWAH. This is 2010.

I drove the truck with the 4.0 for a while then ramped back up my wheeling as it proved its reliability. You've seen the other parks 100 times, so here's Turkey Bay at Land Between the Lakes, KY.

Finally built a winch bumper in the summer of 2011. The L/S rear diff got replaced with a welded carrier around this time as well. DD'ing the truck with a welded rear ate through tires pretty quick, but that gets remedied a bit later.

Checked out the Hi Lift event at Redbird later that summer.

Built a traction bar in Jan 2012.

And submitted my application to the UA in Feb 2012.

 

[Bray D]

This post is dedicated to Ultimate Adventure. I grew up reading Petersen's and watching all of the UA's. When I started wheeling the truck my dream was to participate, and I'm one of the lucky few that can say that their dream came true. This will cover the events leading up to, and during, Ultimate Adventure 2012.

It was time to get serious about updating the rig in case I got the call for UA. I ended up bending my SCH80 sliders so bad that I couldn't get my full size doors back on, so I pulled the sliders off and was rolling without them for a while. I ended up going to 37" KM2's on Trail Ready's during that time.

Then I chopped my rockers a little and built the new sliders. I'm a boss at stick welding at this point.

Then I hit the Badlands in late April. I sent a handful of pics from this trip to Pewe so he could see the rig with the new digs. I still didn't know if I was selected yet.

I got the call in May. I WAS IN. With the trip happening over the 4th of July, I had around 1 month to get everything prepped and ready. It was crunch time, and I essentially rebuilt the entire truck in that month. The truck would be fresh and I would be prepared for anything. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I will leave no room for regrets.

I had been wheeling this entire time with no spares. I'd keep a box of lockouts with me or whatnot, but I didn't have any axle shafts, no driveshafts, etc. Luckily that never bit me, but I needed spares for UA. My approach was to replaced all of the existing hardware and keep what was currently in the truck as spares. That way I knew all of the new parts fit and worked properly, the truck would be 100% fresh, and I knew the spares would work well also.

I started at the front. The Aussie got replaced with a spool, new chromos, and I refreshed the hubs/bearings/brakes. Rear axle got new shafts and fresh brakes as well. I built a cab cage, then loaded everything up in the bed as neatly as possible. I ordered a new Tom Woods driveline that I had shipped to the start location. All of the logistics to get the parts ordered/shipped and get the work done was absolutely insane. I was living life at full throttle.

Stripped down for the rebuild.

Stripped the interior and pulled the dash so I could run the cage behind it.

I got everything together and loaded up around midnight the night before we left. Worked a full 8hr day, then hit the road west around 6p that evening. This is a pic from work that day, shot by our Marketing guy. It's the most built and most fresh the truck had ever been.

This is copied and pasted from the PBB thread, so this overview was captured in real time back in 2012.

"The Ultimate Adventure was everything I had hoped it would be. The guys were awesome to hang out with, the wheeling was challenging, and the scenery was beautiful. The UA was held in the Pacific Northwest this year. That means we had a 2000 mile road trip just to get to the START. Once we arrived, we traveled over 1200 miles during the week of the UA, then drove another 1700 back home. We clocked just under 5000 miles for the entire trip.

We rocked my half doors the whole time. Changed my oil in a gas station parking lot after 3k miles, and the spherical bearing in my rear driveshaft double cardan dried up around mile 700 on our way home. Swapped in my Tom Woods spare and we were on our way. Other than that, no mechanical issues what-so-ever during the entire trip.

I've been driving the truck every day since we got back. Even got it stuck a few times this past weekend playing out on the river. It's back to DD duties. Life is back to normal. I even have a trip planned to wheel Kentucky in 2 weeks. No plans to change anything on the rig. It works."

Back to the 2022 thread, I'll post a few pics from each day of wheeling.

Cline Buttes - Redmond, OR

Elbe Hills - Ashford, WA

Mud Flats and Sand Dunes - Moses Lake, WA

Upper Compressor Creek - Mullan, ID

That's pretty much a wrap for the trip. I learned a lot that week - about the truck, about myself, and about what I really enjoy in life. It changed my outlook on adventure. I proved to myself that I can drive this thing across the country and be confident that I'll make it home. I was no longer constrained to the Midwest. It was time to start dreaming big.

 

[Bray D]

After UA I just drove and wheeled the piss out of the truck. No major changes, just maintained and replaced things as necessary. Notable upgrades include an OX in the rear, a fresh bed/bedcage, PRP seats, and a GM P pump in preparation for hydro assist. In an effort to keep this fairly short, I'll touch on each of the bigger wheeling trips and the build progress. There was a bunch of local wheeling interspersed in here as well. Flat Nasty, SMORR, Wishbone Ranch, Badlands, etc. You'll see a few sets of tires in these pics - I burned through the KM2's and went to MTRK's, then to Cooper STT's, and it's currently on Maxxis Razr's. All 37x12.50R17.

Moab in 2013 was a huge trip. A buddy from work jumped in the passenger seat and we headed across the country solo for a week of wheeling, mountain biking, hiking, and climbing. We were ambitious and wanted to do it all. This is one of the best trips I've ever been on. Ultimate freedom - we left early in the morning each day and arrived at camp after dark almost every night. We'd plan the following day over the campfire, then wake up and execute. It was awesome. This was the week following EJS (we caught Big Saturday, then stayed for the following week).

We ran all of the classic Moab trail - GBR trio, Moab Rim, Pritchett, Hell's Revenge, etc.

Later that year I took my now wife down to Florida and came back up through Arkansas and MO, wheeling at Byrd's Adventure Center and Flat Nasty on the way home.

2014 took us back to Moab, but this time with a handful of friends. This was the last trip with the truck as my DD. I took it 'off the road' later this Summer. Not sure if the cop shop hired a new Johnny Fife or what, but he kept harassing me about bumper heights, fender coverage, etc etc. Measured it multiple times, had me bring it to their garage to measure it in a controlled environment and everything. Finally got a ticket out of the deal. I drive through that town every day and I wasn't changing the truck, so I broke down and got a little gas-getter. I just take my chances when I cruise through there on wheeling trips these days. Hell, he may be retired by now, haha.

Stayed local in 2015. Here's a couple pics from Washita in Farmington, MO.

2016 took us back to Moab.

2017 was a joint trip. Hit all of the mountain passes around Ouray, CO first, then continued on to Moab. Ended up blowing the seal out of my steering box and had to replace it in the O'reilly parking lot in Moab. Taxing trip overall, but still awesome.

Now we're to 2018. The bed was getting to the point that it was tough to keep tail lights in it. I finally sourced a rust free bed that was the same color down in Oklahoma. Drove down there to pick it up and built some protection after I swapped it onto the truck.

The cage uses the bed mounting bolts to secure it and it has replaceable rub rails. The tool box, jerry can, and tire are all hard mounted to the bed cage. Finally upgraded to MIG!

I threw some PRP Daily Drivers in it along with a Tuffy center console.

I started getting more serious about bikes in 2018 and tried to mix in more bike/truck trips. One of those was planned for New Mexico. I loaded up the bike and headed west with the first stop being near Taos, NM. The plan was to ride there, then head south near Santa Fe, ABQ, Las Cruces, etc. Unfortunately the clutch started making me nervous just before arriving in Taos, so I decided to play it safe and stay off of any trails. Forest fires pushed us out of NM for the second half of the trip anyways, and we decided to head northwest to Durango, CO for more time on the bikes.

The clutch completely shit the bed as I was leaving Durango for home. I drove 900 miles straight from Pueblo, CO back home with no clutch - ghost shifting the entire way. I'd throw it into neutral as I was approaching intersections, then shut it down and start it in gear to get going again. It would lurch so hard it would bark the 37's. That was a trip.

All of this went down before I had time to paint the bed cage. Rolled out with raw steel for that trip.

2019 was pretty calm, but I still hit a couple local parks. This is Windrock for DMANbluesfreak's bachelor party.

That's pretty much the end of that run for the truck. Priorities were shifting and life was coming at me real quick. I started a fab shop, had a major injury, and marriage / parenthood were on the horizon. I'll throw my most recent PBB update in the few posts that follow and that'll bring us properly up to date.

 

[ChrisRWG]

Yes!!!! I remember closely following you and this build back on TRS as that is where I started as well. Glad to see you back dude 😎

 

[Pony_Driver]

Looks good so far, get to wrenching on it.

 

['84 Bronco II]

Glad to see you make it over here! I really dug your ranger back in the day. How are you liking the Maxxis RAZRs?

 

[Bray D]

Thanks guys, I'm looking forward to getting the history of the rig documented here so I can move forward with the more recent stuff. This is a huge trip down memory lane.

Glad to see you make it over here! I really dug your ranger back in the day. How are you liking the Maxxis RAZRs?

So far so good, but I'm hesitant to give a thorough review yet. The way things have shook out the past couple years I've only wheeled in the winter months. I want to get a couple solid trips under my belt in warmer weather to see if they hook a bit better when they're warm.

I will say they're louder on the road than any other 37 I've run (KM2's, MTRK's, and Cooper STT's). It could be that I'm just getting old too

 

[arse_sidewards]

This is one of my favorite RBV builds. It's basically the more off-roady version of what I'm aiming for with my Ranger. I really like that you've retained a useful bed. Seems like every lazy idiot throws big shock hoops in the middle of it at which point they should have just bought an SUV.

Downloaded all of those pics so I have them available on my local storage. I'll upload whatever I use to my personal domain so they won't get lost again.

Buy a star and make them Austin's problem.

 

[06h3]

Such an awesome build. I applaud you for keeping it simple after all these years. Most end up cutting 90% of the body off, 1 tons, 40s, etc.

It’s cool that it has worked well and has been in maintenance/leave it alone mode

 

[Macneil87]

I’m going to watch this on here. Thanks to your PBB post, I found this forum too haha. I said it there but I’ll say it again. Sweet little truck.

Your radius arms are ridiculously long, wow! I think mine will be 34” ish from eye to eye and I thought that was long for a shopping cart lol. Mine are mounted where the stock trans cross member was.

How’s your doubler holding up still? I found an old 1350 case 5 hours away from me that I’ve been thinking of picking up to make my own.

 

[Bray D]

On the afternoon of the last day of a bike trip in Sept 2019, I got bucked on a big jump line and landed on my face. Broke both of my wrists - catastrophic distal radius fracture on the left side. Typical carpal damage on the right side. They wrapped me up in Colorado and sent me on my way. I drove just over 1000 miles to get home solo. Surgery, therapy, rehab, etc took months. I was back on the bike in ~6 months and back to 'normal' after a year. It didn't settle into the state it's in now for about 2 years though, and I still have limited range of motion. What a trip.

Got married in August of 2020. We got pregnant a few months later and had our 1lb 8oz son 14months premature in June 2021. 3 months in the NICU with our little man, but he made it through that without any major issues. He's home now, happy and healthy. He's had a hectic schedule meeting with specialists and such his first few months at home, but things are normalizing and we're finally back to a pretty solid routine; back in the shop almost daily, building some cool stuff and giving the truck the love it deserves after all of the neglect.

Not much happened until late 2020. I spent a good deal of time (and money) getting the shop whipped into shape. Finally finished most of the interior, insulated the ceiling, and had proper lighting / outlets installed. With a comfortable workspace, I was able to tear into the truck.

I was getting a ton of transmission chatter in first gear as well as idling in neutral. I decided to pick up a rebuild kit and see if I could rebuild it myself. Turns out it's pretty simple; straightforward mechanic work. The only semi-tricky part is shimming for shaft end play, but if you're comfortable using a dial indicator you're good to go. We'll see how long it lasts 😆

The bearings were smoked. Put it back together with fresh bearings / synchros.

While I had everything out, I figured I would try to remedy the leaky shifter shaft on the doubler. Pulled it apart to see if there's anything I could do via machining to fit a lip seal or improve the sealing surfaces. Not much real estate to do anything, so I opt'd for an X ring (opposed to an O ring) on the shaft. It's been dry as a bone ever since!

Got everything back in the truck and ran over to Redbird for a slippery day in the woods with DMANbluesfreak and Mike the snow man.

Everything worked as expected. Good shakedown for the drivetrain I suppose.

Upon return, my wife surprised me with the positive pregnancy test (see story above). My GMRS radio also showed up shortly after, so I got that installed. I now have both CB and GMRS in the rig.

 

[Bray D]

The shop was hoppin' in early 2021. Built a massive side by side on portals and 44's for a customer, which made me start to think about the next iteration of the Ranger. I decided it was time to freshen up the suspension. Accutune is a kickass company to work with - they tuned a pair of 12" Fox 2.0 coilovers for me and sent them my way. They're only 2.0's, but I still splurged on the remote res DSC option. I'm glad I did.

I tore the truck down in the Spring of 2021, got busy with customer projects, then our son showed up super early. Didn't get back into the shop until after he was home, so this brings us up to September 2021. Finally back in the shop and driven to get some shit done, I started by stripping both sides of the frame and plating everything.

Passenger side

Driver side

Next up was the shock hoops. Pretty typical arrangement here. I was able to lay them right against the frame which made for a super beefy attachment. I'm really happy with how all of this turned out.

Removeable hoop brace

Panhard bracket

I chopped out my engine crossmember completely to squeeze some more compression out of it. I came back with a tube that runs from the panhard bracket to the passenger side frame. Tight at full bump, but everything clears.

Bumps

I'm running static bumps to keep costs down for now, but I located the cans such that I can just swap in air bumps in the future if I want to go full send.

 

[Bray D]

Had to reshape my fluid reservoir quite a bit to clear the hose fitting coming off of the CO.

Bump pads are built. CO's installed.

Final install with collars on the bump shafts and fresh PRP limit straps.

With all of that done, I drove it for a while, double checked all of my fasteners, fluids, etc, pulled the doors off, and went wheelin'! I met up with DMAN and crew yet again for the toy drive at the Badlands.

 

[Bray D]

The coilovers revealed a new world to me. The truck has never felt so good. That said, a day offroad was enough to highlight the pitfalls of the rear end. It was time to address that.

Accutune pulls through again and builds me a set of 2.0 smoothies to complement the Chevy 63's out back. I decided to swap out the OEM mounts at the same time, which was a good call as they were nearly gone.

Unfortunately the area of frame behind them was also getting religious, so I had to patch up that holiness.

Final rear shock install (pretty much - reservoirs ended up in a different location to prevent contact at full bump).

Then I went wheelin' again! This was a solo trip on New Year's Eve. The weather was perfect (mid 50's and overcast) and I wanted some time to myself so I could really tinker with the new suspension. These rear shocks have LSC adjusters as well, so I have plenty of knobs to turn to keep me occupied.

The truck did well and would handle most everything under 30mph or so, which is perfectly fine by me. The rear still felt a bit soft, so I'll likely pull the shocks apart and stiffen the valving a bit. I still need a high pressure nitrogen setup though. I could send them back for a retune, but I'd rather spend my money on equipment rather than shipping. I foresee rebuilding all 4 corners annually to keep it fresh anyways. May as well get the stuff do to it right in-house.

That pretty much brings us up to current day. The truck is tucked away in the heated shop waiting for the next adventure (or modification). I have a big trip planned over memorial day weekend (Texas) and I'd like to address some pretty significant issues before that happens, so it'll be getting more attention soon.

 

[Bray D]

Fuck you. 4/4

Stop hawking my shit!

 

[arse_sidewards]

Stop hawking my shit!

Deleted, but I took a screenshot.

 

[Bray D]

This is one of my favorite RBV builds. It's basically the more off-roady version of what I'm aiming for with my Ranger. I really like that you've retained a useful bed. Seems like every lazy idiot throws big shock hoops in the middle of it at which point they should have just bought an SUV.

I thought I'd be able to maintain a useful bed too, but the reality is it's permanently loaded with wheeling junk. I do like the storage though. I've been trying to keep myself from cutting up the bed for coilovers, but I'm not saying it won't happen in the future.

Such an awesome build. I applaud you for keeping it simple after all these years. Most end up cutting 90% of the body off, 1 tons, 40s, etc.

It’s cool that it has worked well and has been in maintenance/leave it alone mode

Thanks man. I think staying conservative with the build was one of the best things I did. It kept me from going too far down the wrong path, and I got to thoroughly enjoy it during each build iteration.

I’m going to watch this on here. Thanks to your PBB post, I found this forum too haha. I said it there but I’ll say it again. Sweet little truck.

Your radius arms are ridiculously long, wow! I think mine will be 34” ish from eye to eye and I thought that was long for a shopping cart lol. Mine are mounted where the stock trans cross member was.

How’s your doubler holding up still? I found an old 1350 case 5 hours away from me that I’ve been thinking of picking up to make my own.

Much appreciated Mac. Yeah man, they're long as hell. I've bent them for sure, but I recently bent them back straight and I'm still rocking the same arms that I had when I first did the build. Going to the trans crossmember would be nice, but I'm still rocking a hacked up version of the OEM crossmember. That should be on my list to clean up one of these days.

The doubler is still doing awesome. I've had it apart no less than a dozen times for inspection, and every time the fluid is bright red and clean. I've broken a t-case behind it, but nothing that kept me from getting home (mystery failure - didn't even know it was broke until I opened it up). The case that's in it now is a rebuild from two broken cases to make one, threw a new chain in it, and rocked out.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Unfortunately the area of frame behind them was also getting religious, so I had to patch up that holiness

That area is a stress riser shitshow for some reason. They all crack around/below the mount as soon as they get even the slightest rust.

 

[Bray D]

That area is a stress riser shitshow for some reason. They all crack around/below the mount as soon as they get even the slightest rust.

Both sides were in pretty bad shape, but the old shocks were so clapped out I doubt the mounts saw much loading anyways. That may be a different story with the new shocks. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Macneil87]

Both sides were in pretty bad shape, but the old shocks were so clapped out I doubt the mounts saw much loading anyways. That may be a different story with the new shocks. I'll keep an eye on it.

What length of shocks are they out back? I have bell tech shackles with stock rear hanger, front moved up for 63’s as well. I have a set of Toyota rear shocks from a land cruiser (work sweetness) but I do believe they’re only 10”.

 

[Kage]

Wow, sounds like a lot has happened in the past few years! Welcome to the new place!

 

[Bray D]

What length of shocks are they out back? I have bell tech shackles with stock rear hanger, front moved up for 63’s as well. I have a set of Toyota rear shocks from a land cruiser (work sweetness) but I do believe they’re only 10”.

If you're running the stock blocks, we likely have the same setup. I have stock hangers front and rear as well. Unbastardized 3 leaf 63's with the overload and 6400 shackles.

The CO's up front and these 2.0's in the rear are both 12" travel. The resi shocks have a shorter body so they package nicely.

Wow, sounds like a lot has happened in the past few years! Welcome to the new place!

It's been a wild ride! I'm stoked to have the truck back together and this build thread up to date. Feels like the good ol' days.

 

[Macneil87]

Sweet. Thanks man! I am swapping in half ton dodge axles. The rear is done with a spring over on a Chrysler 9.25. Working on the front and hoping I can keep it as low as the rear. Running 35s as well.

 

[Bray D]

Sweet. Thanks man! I am swapping in half ton dodge axles. The rear is done with a spring over on a Chrysler 9.25. Working on the front and hoping I can keep it as low as the rear. Running 35s as well.

I'm not familiar with the frame differences on a '98, but I'm sure you can keep it pretty low. Just keep cutting until it fits

I used this today so I thought I'd touch on it in here. I cut up a snow plow back in 2014 and welded some tabs onto the front of my radius arm caps. I pin the plow to my caps and lift/lower with my winch line. Works awesome plowing the house and shop drive. I get to use it a couple times a year if I'm lucky.

Added perk of the coilovers - I stuck a pipe jack under the front bumper and lifted it an inch or so from ride height then spun my slider stops down until they made contact. 120ppi springs to 300ppi in 10 minutes (running 200/300 springs). Super easy and it carries the plow like a boss.

Pic from 2014

Pics from today

 

[rockota]

Very cool build

 

[DMANbluesfreak]

Bray, I think you have the MOST VERSATILE rig (that's also capable in the rocks) ever. That plow mount is badass.

 

[Bray D]

Bray, I think you have the MOST VERSATILE rig (that's also capable in the rocks) ever. That plow mount is badass.

It's fun thinking of new ways to use it. Playing 'plow truck' is one of my favorites!