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TTB Van????

DMG

Red Skull Member
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
495
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2,379
I have an 08 E350 van built as a stealth camper. I would like 4wd. I don’t want much lift. I am fine running 265s or 285s. I want it to ride and handle well. It won’t run the Hammer trails but it will see steep snowy and muddy roads and some trails. I need 4wd just to get home in winter, sometimes. I put midtravel stuff on my Tundra and now F150 so I am spoiled by good shocks and 9-10 inches of travel up front, more in the rear.

The Agile off-road TTB conversion seemed to get good reviews but they do t do it anymore due to parts sources drying up. I don’t want to pay $10k+ anyway.


How do I do a TTB swap with the D50 8 lug stuff? The van already has beams on it but I bet there is a lot more to it than hanging beams. Anyone in Pennsylvania an expert on this stuff? Anyone have an Agile swapped van I can look at?
 
This is the current pic. It weighs almost 6,000 pounds as is.



20220811_110614.jpg
 
I Have always wondered if you could adapt a ttb 50/d44 to a van. Use a ttb 50 beams, and d44 axle buckets and radius arms. The 2wd vans are already ttb in a way with radius arms
 
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First the wheel bolt patterns would be different because they don't have TTB that new do they?

So you are going to do a coil spring TTB? Not leaf spring correct?

I think it would be awesome. Can't be too hard.
 
It's a good swap, you get up travel with reasonable ride height

TTB and 2wd beams are staggered opposite, so you'll need to fab the pivot points in


It would be worth going to the old site and poking around in the expo van section, somebody in there was trying to figure out how to get a front abs signal, and the owner or lead guy dropped a clue on how to do it, without spoonfeeding

I'm guessing somewhere along the lines a 97 f250 got front abs, or you machine the hub and put a tone ring on it
 
I would go to a junkyard and buy a front frame clip off an f250, weld it to the table, build a jig, or, cut down the front cross member until you've got just the pivot points to weld to your cross member, then beef up
 
Projectjunkie said:
I would go to a junkyard and buy a front frame clip off an f250, weld it to the table, build a jig, or, cut down the front cross member until you've got just the pivot points to weld to your cross member, then beef up
Click to expand...
I was thinking about buying brackets and mocking up frame rails.
 
DMG said:
I was thinking about buying brackets and mocking up frame rails.
Click to expand...
I'd get all ocd doubting my measurements, it's why I opted for a chunk of factory:laughing:

Anyways, welding all that shit into the bottom of a van sucks ass, since you need to pull the tranny anyways, and IIRC you own a full on shop, I'd consider pulling the body then the power train. So much nicer from above:smokin:
 
I hope you build this.

I have a '00 E350 7.3L PSD with the U-Joint 4x4 conversion (99-04 D60 and leaf springs), 4" lift and 37s. It drives better than stock, and tows my Jeep great, but it really needs more up travel to be fun off-road, and I don't want any more ride height. It's been dead reliable, and only took a weekend in my driveway with minimal tools, so I really can't complain.

If I were to build another one, it would be an '08+ V10 with TTB on 33s or 35s. The 7.3L is cool when you're hauling ass up big grades, but it's so loud all the time. More up travel would be cool for being able to cruise faster down dirt roads.

IIRC, the D50 TTB are shorter than the D44, so there's some performance reasons to go D50 over D44. I very well could be wrong, and if I am, someone should correct me.

My buddy that's building a TTB dentside decided the best way for him was to graft on a whole Bronco/F150 front frame, but he's building a pre-runner. The Baja350 - A Dentside Story
 
Jeffh555 said:
IIRC, the D50 TTB are shorter than the D44, so there's some performance reasons to go D50 over D44. I very well could be wrong, and if I am, someone should correct me.
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Correct, the D50 has shorter beams, especially the driver beam. So either cut and extend them, or cut & modify the D44 beams to accept the D50 knuckles & outers. I honestly dont know which would be less work. However, its pretty easy to swap the D44 TTB to 8-lug using squarebody chevy parts, if you can find them.
 
Projectjunkie said:
I'd get all ocd doubting my measurements, it's why I opted for a chunk of factory:laughing:

Anyways, welding all that shit into the bottom of a van sucks ass, since you need to pull the tranny anyways, and IIRC you own a full on shop, I'd consider pulling the body then the power train. So much nicer from above:smokin:
Click to expand...
I don’t want to tie up the space a body off job would require. Otherwise, you are right.
 
If I could get my hands on an Agile OR TTB van for an hour with a measuring tape, angle gauge and camera it would go a lot faster. Is anyone from Agile on here?
 
Call Solo Motorsports.

I bet with their beams, arms, and pivot brackets, you could easily weld it onto your stock frame and have a setup way better than front-halving an OBS frame onto your frame.

One example among many parts that they sell:

solomotorsports.com

Dana 50 Cut N' Turned TTB / Stock Width - Solo Motorsports

The Dana 50 Cut N Turned TTBs work with 1992-1997 4wd Ford F250/F-350. This will eliminate the leaf springs and is replaced with coil springs
solomotorsports.com solomotorsports.com

There are still a few other vendors who sell D50 TTB arms so you can search around. I just remembered Solo because I was recently researching an OBS Bronco setup for a neighbor.

I'm sure you can adapt hubs or unit bearings one way or another to match your bolt pattern.
 
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Also, they made a ton of d44 8 lug ttb f250s, they call it the 3800lb front end instead of the 4600lb for the d50, small lockouts, easy to spot

Maybe the hot ticket is a coil d44 setup and the 250 outers is it makes it easy, not that the radius arm mounts are a big part of this project....


You will probably will want to sort out the abs though
 
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All e-series vans are 8x6.5

My biggest concern would be frame width regarding arms. You can still the whole axle for cheap when someone 'upgrades' their <97 F-series.
 
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I'm in for you to figure this out so I can copy it on my next van. But Superduty D60s are too easy to the point you just accept the limitations (I've got quigley van suspension I'm trying to sort out right now.)

Van frame rails are spaced futher apart than the pickups by a few inches.
 
You will need to bolt in new pivot brackets that have the correct spacing for the D50.

I would highly encourage you to measure your current pivot bolt spacing. It may turn out that the vans have D44 spacing in which case just grab a D44 and convert it to 8-lug using 80s K20 spindles, hubs, etc.

The van track is slightly wider so steering will get weird. Frankly you can probably just use the van stuff without bump steer being much worse than "typical OEM TTB" levels.

If you want to spend the money getting a shaft re-splined you can just make your own pivot brackets, set the beams exactly where they want to be to copy the stock van track width, use your van steering and then install a longer pass side inner to compensate for the extra couple inches of width.

Projectjunkie said:
Also, they made a ton of d44 8 lug ttb f250s,
Click to expand...
None of that stuff swaps onto a D44. It's basically just a D50 TTB with a different knuckle, spindle and hub.

reptillikus said:
However, its pretty easy to swap the D44 TTB to 8-lug using squarebody chevy parts, if you can find them.
Click to expand...
You can also 8-lug a TTB ranger using that conversion since the D44 knuckle/hub/spindle conversion makes the D35 (or even the D28 pretending to be a D35) beam accept a TTB D44 knuckle and the 8-lug conversion is only from the spindle out. :lmao:
 
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I am going to do some measuring on the van then find a couple of TTB trucks to measure.
 
Im gearing up to rip the TTB out of a truck in the next day or two. If you need pics or measurements of something, let me know!
 
I can't remember the exact, but the Van frame is about 1" wider than the truck.
I'd just cut out the whole engine crossmember from a 4x4, widen it, and rock and roll.
If you have RSC or front ABS, you will be losing that unless you get a hard to find 1994? - 1996 one with 4 wheel ABS.
 
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reptillikus said:
Im gearing up to rip the TTB out of a truck in the next day or two. If you need pics or measurements of something, let me know!
Click to expand...
If you would measure it and take a few pics that would be awesome. What year and model?
 
DMG said:
I have an 08 E350 van built as a stealth camper. I would like 4wd. I don’t want much lift. I am fine running 265s or 285s. I want it to ride and handle well. It won’t run the Hammer trails but it will see steep snowy and muddy roads and some trails. I need 4wd just to get home in winter, sometimes. I put midtravel stuff on my Tundra and now F150 so I am spoiled by good shocks and 9-10 inches of travel up front, more in the rear.

The Agile off-road TTB conversion seemed to get good reviews but they do t do it anymore due to parts sources drying up. I don’t want to pay $10k+ anyway.


How do I do a TTB swap with the D50 8 lug stuff? The van already has beams on it but I bet there is a lot more to it than hanging beams. Anyone in Pennsylvania an expert on this stuff? Anyone have an Agile swapped van I can look at?
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity;
Why did you decide on a TTB set up instead of a stupid-simple leaf spring set up?

I'm cursing my Bronco TTB everyday until the day comes for a SAS.:laughing:🙁
1662497977900.jpeg
 
I’ll be following. My wife has a 2003 E350 Cutaway converted to an RV.

Don’t want a tall ride height, massive travel, etc.

Just want 4x4 to get up a muddy hill when camping.
 
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