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TTB Tech Tips?

Toreadorranger

Toreadorranger

Atomic Test Lab Rat
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
874
Messages
1,068
Loc
CT
I didn't find a thread based around TTB. With the truck I just picked up, Im planning to keep the D44. Normally I would pull it and throw a solid up front so I am in new territory here with the ttb. I'm open to anything to improve the front end basic or not.

I'm looking at 4" drop brackets for the truck, Ive read in the past that half of them out there are shit and bend or cause issues. I also remember reading that EB coils are useful for getting the front to flex a bit.

I'm essentially starting from scratch on this thing. Where is 4x4junkie? I need him to teach me all the TTB propaganda. :flipoff2:
 
Buy what ever kit you want. Then cross structure the drop brackets to the motor crossmember.

Poly pivot bushings.

Get all the weight on the front end THEN get the camber adjusted. Winch/bumper/motor.
 
Toreadorranger said:
I didn't find a thread based around TTB. With the truck I just picked up, Im planning to keep the D44. Normally I would pull it and throw a solid up front so I am in new territory here with the ttb. I'm open to anything to improve the front end basic or not.

I'm looking at 4" drop brackets for the truck, Ive read in the past that half of them out there are shit and bend or cause issues. I also remember reading that EB coils are useful for getting the front to flex a bit.

I'm essentially starting from scratch on this thing. Where is 4x4junkie? I need him to teach me all the TTB propaganda. :flipoff2:
Click to expand...

is this a strictly budget build or are you planning on spending some money? what is the purpose of these thing?
 
mobil1syn said:
is this a strictly budget build or are you planning on spending some money? what is the purpose of these thing?
Click to expand...

Budget is low. This is for the Free F150 I just picked up. There is a large possibility I end up with a body lift, but I'm still looking for options even if I leave it stock height suspension wise. I assume there is still performance to be gained out of the front end even if it stays stock height.

Purpose is going to be winter beater / home depot hauler, with New England wheeling mixed in.
 
I'm well versed with the Rangers, I know for them Skyjacker had the best brackets.

Extend the radius arms for sure. TTB springs want a higher spring rate than solid axle due to the leaver effect the TTB beam has, so running softer 78-79 FSB coils will make it feel super soft. Good or bad depending on what you're looking to do. Luckily spring rates are usually published for all these coils, so you can get a relative idea. Theres a decent thread on the old site with a list of coil spring rates.

For the axle themselves, full circle c clips on the u joints are a great upgrade, as is eliminating the c clip in the diff by using a spring and shaft collar on the slip joint in the passenger axle shaft.
 
Toreadorranger said:
Budget is low. This is for the Free F150 I just picked up. There is a large possibility I end up with a body lift, but I'm still looking for options even if I leave it stock height suspension wise. I assume there is still performance to be gained out of the front end even if it stays stock height.

Purpose is going to be winter beater / home depot hauler, with New England wheeling mixed in.
Click to expand...

scab a ford shock mount in front of the coil bucket, plate the beams, get a 2.0 or 2.5 tuneable shock in there, make an extended radius arms, cut fenders to fit.
 
You can fudge more lift with less drop bracket if you have a good alignment shop. You get more ground clearance and I like the ride quality a little better. So you can get away with a 2 inch difference between your lift springs and your drop brackets. This is made possible by the upper ball joint camber adjusters.

2” lift springs + no drop brackets = 3” lift
4” lift springs + 2” drop brackets = 5” lift
6” lift springs + 4” drop brackets = 7” lift

I’ve done this with several trucks and Broncos with no negative results to complain about. I always did a drop pitman arm the same amount of inches as the drop brackets. Get it aligned and party on. I put over 100K miles on a truck with 4” springs 2” drop brackets and pitman arm. 10/10 would do again.
 
Cut and turn the beams, leave the stock brackets but weld them in.
Cut for bigger tires.
If you want more travel, longer radius arms, then you need to grind out the center u joint yoke, grind out the window on the passenger side beam and plate it.
After that you need to deal with steering.
 
TTB and TIB has still quietly come light years ahead in strength and technology over the years. You just wouldn’t know it if you only go on rock crawler forums. Giant, Marked Motorsports, Threat motorsports, Southwest Motorsports, etc have some stuff figured out that makes a TTB/TIB party off-road.
 
JR4X is right, theres lots of good TTB kits out there these days, if you want to spend the $$$.


If youre on the cheap, you can use SD TIB arms as extended arms for your TTB.

Add a drainplug to the TTB for oil changes, dropping the 3rd member sucks.

Do the D50 stub shaft upgrade; it doesnt just get you a bigger ujoint in the middle, it also means you can ditch that c-clip retaining the inner stub, because dropping the 3rd sucks.

You can get into 4.10s cheap by swapping in a D50 TTB 3rd member, lots of them in the junkyards and most of em have 4.10s.

You can upgrade to bigger calipers off of a T-bird, but IIRC you have to change the brake lines.

You can convert it to 8lug using parts off of a K20.

There are bigger TRES you can run, IIRC it was ambulance prep van. I can find the #s later if interested.

If you lift it keep your tierods as flat as possible either by using a drop pitman arm, or flipping the TREs on top of the knuckles, or both. Your tires will thank you.
 
JR4X said:
TTB and TIB has still quietly come light years ahead in strength and technology over the years. You just wouldn’t know it if you only go on rock crawler forums. Giant, Marked Motorsports, Threat motorsports, Southwest Motorsports, etc have some stuff figured out that makes a TTB/TIB party off-road.
Click to expand...
desolate, richer racing, chofab as well

again Toreadorranger it solely depends on how much effort we are putting into this thing. 35" tires will fit if you trim the front bumper in stock form. unsure on the rear, but i suspect their will be some minor rubbing. i ran stock gearing, 35s on my bronco and it was slow but not overly miserable. when i went to 4.56 i didnt really notice much of a difference. rubbed the radius arms at full lock.
 
Toreadorranger said:
Budget is low. This is for the Free F150 I just picked up.
Purpose is going to be winter beater / home depot hauler, with New England wheeling mixed in.
Click to expand...
Sounds like this thread went big budget quick.

No drop brackets, extend radius arms, cut shock mount out of coil bucket, add 90s F-250 shock mount and weld to cut coil bucket for reinforcement. Cycle the mess, see what clears/doesn't. Likely need/want to rework bumps, axle shafts might be fine with limit straps. Moog 2 piece camber caster bushings seem to be best to max camber adjustment.

79 SFA springs, 4" or 6" lift spec, might need slight trim to get camber in spec
 
I would not do a drop bracket. I would look into doing a cut and turn setup on the beams to correct the camber. Basically with a longer coil you will have positive camber so you can cut the bottom ball joint ear out and weld it back in with a spacer to correct camber. Threat Motorsports offers a billet lower Ball Joint ear that you cut out the stock one and weld in the new one to fix the camber.
 
posford said:
Sounds like this thread went big budget quick.

No drop brackets, extend radius arms, cut shock mount out of coil bucket, add 90s F-250 shock mount and weld to cut coil bucket for reinforcement. Cycle the mess, see what clears/doesn't. Likely need/want to rework bumps, axle shafts might be fine with limit straps. Moog 2 piece camber caster bushings seem to be best to max camber adjustment.

79 SFA springs, 4" or 6" lift spec, might need slight trim to get camber in spec
Click to expand...
I didn’t see the post you quoted before I replied. For a free truck I’d do the 3/4 2wd springs up front, 1” taller block for the rear with new u-bolts an alignment and send it. That’s 3” lift and would at most be a few hundred bucks. Brand new moog F-250 front coils for $100 bucks, 3” of lift and the correct spring rate for the TTB. I can’t remember what shocks I used but found an also direct bolt in cheap set of shocks.

www.ebay.com

Fits 1980-1996 Ford F250 Coil Spring Set Front Moog 95763DN 1994 1993 1991 1990 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Fits 1980-1996 Ford F250 Coil Spring Set Front Moog 95763DN 1994 1993 1991 1990 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
Wild Horses 3.5 early bronco coils, homemade extended radius arms and all that other junk I said.
Easy.
 

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A cut and turn is way more effort than I want to get into right now. specially for a free beater.

posford said:
Sounds like this thread went big budget quick.

No drop brackets, extend radius arms, cut shock mount out of coil bucket, add 90s F-250 shock mount and weld to cut coil bucket for reinforcement. Cycle the mess, see what clears/doesn't. Likely need/want to rework bumps, axle shafts might be fine with limit straps. Moog 2 piece camber caster bushings seem to be best to max camber adjustment.

79 SFA springs, 4" or 6" lift spec, might need slight trim to get camber in spec
Click to expand...

I think this is looking like a solid start. the truck currently has extended stock arms, they definitely need some work as they look a little on the weak side due to length and construction, but are saveable I think. I think I have a spare set of F250 shock mounts around as well. This should get me off to a solid start to see how the height comes out, and I can trim from there.

JR4X said:
I didn’t see the post you quoted before I replied. For a free truck I’d do the 3/4 2wd springs up front, 1” taller block for the rear with new u-bolts an alignment and send it. That’s 3” lift and would at most be a few hundred bucks. Brand new moog F-250 front coils for $100 bucks, 3” of lift and the correct spring rate for the TTB. I can’t remember what shocks I used but found an also direct bolt in cheap set of shocks.

www.ebay.com

Fits 1980-1996 Ford F250 Coil Spring Set Front Moog 95763DN 1994 1993 1991 1990 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Fits 1980-1996 Ford F250 Coil Spring Set Front Moog 95763DN 1994 1993 1991 1990 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
Click to expand...

Looks like Moog 824 and 844 springs are a popular swap. I may experiment with some springs from the local yard and see what I can come up with.

vetteboy79 said:
vetteboy has left the chat

:laughing:

Just watching from the sidelines to see what's going on here :)
Click to expand...

I'm more than happy to take your expensive ideas and do them ghetto and cheap. :flipoff2:
 
welndmn said:
Cut and turn the beams, leave the stock brackets but weld them in.
Cut for bigger tires.
If you want more travel, longer radius arms, then you need to grind out the center u joint yoke, grind out the window on the passenger side beam and plate it.
After that you need to deal with steering.
Click to expand...
This ^^^^^^ Minus the welding the brackets on part.
Fuck drop down brackets. 4" coils, move the bottom BJ out 1/2", some 12" shocks and party on. This will get you 16" of travel. Some longer radius arms to move everything forward a little and it will tuck 35's as long as you don't go full offset on the rims.
 
Toreadorranger said:
A cut and turn is way more effort than I want to get into right now. specially for a free beater.
Click to expand...
Toreadorranger said:
Looks like Moog 824 and 844 springs are a popular swap. I may experiment with some springs from the local yard and see what I can come up with.
Click to expand...

I only posted those because that’s what I could find on eBay. I’ve only done it with junkyard 3/4 ton springs myself. I’ve been lucky twice and found 351 trucks to get springs out of. 460/IDI trucks have a stiffer spring rate and I hear they are to stiff for any articulations.

With those springs you don’t need drop brackets, drop pitman arm, or brake lines. Just shocks springs and new camber adjusters.
 
Toreadorranger said:
I'm more than happy to take your expensive ideas and do them ghetto and cheap. :flipoff2:
Click to expand...

I think one of my front unit bearings costs more than you'll have into this thing overall at the end of the day 😕

203255529_10102450496831749_5157739072416998607_n.jpg


That being said...one thing I can agree with here, I'm still using the factory mounting points on the Explorer frame, just beefed up a little. I do prefer that over drop brackets. With 12" shocks I'm at that 16-17" of wheel travel point which is plenty of fun. My recurring maintenance item is the bolts holding the radius arms to the beams, even with red loctite and Nordlock washers those still come loose frequently. I do have heims and uniballs at the frame ends though which may be a contributing factor, but I'll be looking to address that once our race season is over in October.

Overall it's definitely a fun platform and it does phenomenally crawling in the rocks...from behind the wheel you'd never even know there was anything weird going on up there. I need to do more shock tuning for the rougher fast stuff/nuisance rocks but on most dirt and even going down the road it feels great.

RCVs certainly help with the confidence level of gettin' on it in the rocks, but yeah...$$....
 
Your truck has 3.05/3.08 gears. Plan on re-gearing it.

Drop brackets will alter your steering geometry much more than a cut and turn will and you will approach the point of "this bump steer is terrible I need to build a swing set" much faster. If you can cut and turn you should do that.

If you go 35s make sure you fully cycle them with the spring out. They have been known to kill the HVAC box or wiring harness area depending on rim offset.

You should strongly consider in-boarding the radius arms when you plate them. This will get you less fore/aft movement in the wheel well as the tire cycles greatly reducing harshness (tire moves forward on compression with the OEM setup.

Your radius arm extensions are 3/8 wall DOM so if you pull out the threaded rods that the OEM style bushings go on you have plenty of meat to drill/tap for something easier to mount.

For rear shocks you will want to copy the Autofab bronco shock mount. That design is more or less the standard and it's very good bang for your buck.

The OEM coils have decent spring rates so slap a pair of aluminum spacers you bought off eBay under them to buy some time.
mobil1syn said:
scab a ford shock mount in front of the coil bucket, plate the beams, get a 2.0 or 2.5 tuneable shock in there, make an extended radius arms, cut fenders to fit.
Click to expand...
There is very little space in front of the bucket without getting into the steering. The traditional way to do F250 shock towers on a stock-ish truck is to cut the shock mount out of the back of the bucket and weld it in. OP is going to want to buy new coil buckets for this.
 
arse_sidewards said:
There is very little space in front of the bucket without getting into the steering. The traditional way to do F250 shock towers on a stock-ish truck is to cut the shock mount out of the back of the bucket and weld it in. OP is going to want to buy new coil buckets for this.
Click to expand...
you just need to space the lower shock mount over the steering like most of the popular shops do.
 
Cut n turn with the right springs and extended radius arms work phenomenally well for cheap. I might have $500 in the front suspension of my Explorer. Getting the toe-in dialed in is a bit more time consuming when the tie rods aren’t flat and you have soft springs.
besides, with the cut n turn you gain clearance under the diff.
 
Adjusting Toe on beam trucks isn't that hard really. If they are toe'd in they will lift front end when driving forward, or Toe'd out will pull front end down, or opposite in reverse. I beam front ends I have always done where it raises up a slight bit when forward and sucks down a tiny bit when in reverse. Then after confirming it usually is a tiny bit toe'd in which I prefer
 
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