2WD Sledpuller 95 F250?

[TheTowingCowboy]

Well I was told of this site about a guy at a sled pull I was at. I love sled pulls, and I love my diesel. I own a 1995 F250 PSD, its, as you would guess just a plain 2WD automatic. I just wondering if its a out there kind of dream trying to make it into a sled puller. I mean I would like to get a cummins 4x4 to make into a sled pull machine, but if making my current truck into a sled pull machine, is reasonable, I would like to do so. I mean I can't see how its not reasonable. But anyways, you guys seem to do alt of fab work and such, so all advice on making a street legal 2WD pull truck would be appreciated.

[kino_fab]

The hardest thing about making a puller is getting the gearing right to be competitive. a 2wd is harder because you have no transfer case for a secondary gear reduction. If you know anything about Final Gear ratio's, somewhere between a 13.2-14.0 final is ideal. Grimm Jeeper (http://www.grimmjeeper.com) is a great wesite for figuring final drive ratio's easily. Fab up some traction bars. Make them hookup on the frame about mid cab or a little forward of that. Weight placement is also a big key aswell. Most of your weight will be in the back, but you do need to find a balance to keep the front end from coming up too high. Also you will need a good amount of Hp. A good sturdy drivetrain is also needed. 2wd's do have quite a bit of stress on the drivetrain. Of course every truck is different, and with the different type of sleds and tracks, you can not make a perfect truck just by reading forum posts. It takes alot of trial and error to get things just right.

[TheTowingCowboy]

Well I knwo can't make a perfect truck. But final drive, we talking the final drive in the transmission or the rear end gear? Cause people get me lost. But I assume a good transmission is in order.. But I will go to th Grimm Jeepers website (Sound familar) but is there any reading material on this subject you guys could link me to? Thanks alot Kino, really appreciate it. But making my truck into a streetable yet competitive truck is very possible?

[kino_fab]

I'm guessing your tanny is a 4R100. After thinking about it I belive yours would be better off with a 12.5 final since the Power Strokes are a little limited on RPM. Final ratio is the tranny gear you pull in multiplied by the rearend ratio. GrimmJeeper has a list of tranny's that auto fills the ratio's for you. Going by a 4R100, you would need a 4.56 gear and just stay in 1st gear. That is with a TC lock up swith aswell.

[kino_fab]

There is an article on http://www.baselinesuspensions.com that is called how to launch a drag car. It talks about the placement of the suspension components based on initial weight of the vehicle, ride hieght, center of gravity, ect.... It is very very useful on building a puller. Although things like Anti Squat, shock and spring rates and travel have nothing to do with pulling, the rest of the stuff can help you setup a good suspension.

[Fireman450]

It can be done. The first thing I will say it not to get discouraged. It is a big game of trial and error. I have been fighting with mine all year. A good suspention set up and get your gearing right will help. Also you can play with your tire sizes to make smaller adjustments. And a good A/T tire will do just fine. The main thing is though is to just go out and HAVE FUN!!! :rockwoot:
Good Luck!

Lynn

[TheTowingCowboy]

Hey guys thanks, your making me smile like a kid in a candy store. I will look up my tranny again, and go there and try it. But I assume I need to Build the engine up to an amazing amount of HP, then get a tranny with the right gearing. I assume a better rearend (Something a little more heavy duty), get the good gears in that rear end, long ladder bars, and a bunch of tires. Sounds like fun. Thank you a millions times over Kino for the link. Now here is another question. I mainly hang with the street legal guys, and they got rules, and its pretty much there running stock engines with just upgrades, can I do the same and compete with them or will I need to go a little bit wilder? There mainl fuel and tuner boxes, and turbo upgrades (Up to 66). There also running the needed stff, like better fuel system, etc. But I just wondering if its possible for me to compete with the same style of upgrades. Yeha I need alot od info so I know how to pan this out correctly.

[TheTowingCowboy]

Well my truck has a E4OD (Same as 4R100, just older model) Well I went to grimm jeeper and my problem is that... I don;t have a transfer case so it won't give me any information on speeds and stuff, its all N/A so could one of you guys explain how to use that claculator for 2WD, so I can understand better? Thanks a million guys for your help. Now I will also make this clear again lol just in case. I want to be competative, but I also want to be fully street legal, and easily driveable on street, so yeah, just keep that in mind.

:thankyou2:

[Fireman450]

Just take a look and see what transfer case came out in your model truck, Select it from your drop down arrow, (Even though you dont have one) And hit calculate. You will use the ratios from the High Range Side.

You can aslo be competitive with a street legal truck just like everyone else. The difference between you and them will be things like your weight placement. Yours being in the bed...
Adam (malibu795) hopefully will chime in here in a little while. His duramax is still his DD and is competitive. We also had a 2wd Duramax down this way that has pulled with us a few times and has held his own.

Lynn

[TheTowingCowboy]

alrighty, never thought about that. And thanks guys, I hope he does chime in. I want to be competative yet keep the truck as my DD, and my work truck. Can't wait to hear from him.. Hope I do, and thanks guys for being positive.

[kino_fab]

Or you could just type in 1.0 in both transfer case ratio's. 4.56 gears will be your best bet to go with, but it will kill your fuel milage a bit and top speed on the high way won't be as high. Just run it in first gear and lock the torque converter about 50-75ft out. the main things to help the 7.3 fords are injectors, HPOP, and turbo. Then you can get into electronics. Beans Diesel and Swamps diesel seem to be the 7.3 guys. They can help you out.

[TheTowingCowboy]

Well I fell in love with bean's stuff, the stealth HPOP and some big injectors. But can someone give me an idea when I should replace my head bolts with studs? Cause I am tempted to go Stealth HPOP, AIRDOG SUPERDOG system, B code injectors and a nice turbo. So for that should I install studs? Or could I get away with my stock setup? I also going to install a intercooler and methenal injection, but this so far is what I have planned for the engine, so does it sound okay? as for the geraing... 4.56's... uhh... noo...... lol not going to... may do something like 4.30 ish but not 4.56.. unless I change my mind otherwise lol. But you guys have been a help, and kino I thank you a million for that suspension link that was helpful.

[kino_fab]

No problem. I don't know much about the headstuds and head gasket longativity. Contact Bean or maybe House on here will help ya on that one. Your welcome on everytihng else.

[2wpuller]

Give the stealth man a call he is a hell of a nice guy only live like 20mile's from me he would be able to give you all the info you need to hold that poewrstroke together.lynn and Bragg and Adam have been come a long way this summer a big thumb's up to you boy's.I hope our does us proud at Indy sept 19.and on sept 6th close to home.parts are roleing in.

Glad to have another 2wd aboard welcome TheTowingCowboy

Dale

[TheTowingCowboy]

Well can you give me a number? Heck a toll free one would be great cause I live all the way in ohio. But I know most diesel guys are super friendly. And glad to be aboard.

[malibu795]

im here........

mine i currentlyt a DD
i currently swap all 4 tires at the pull

things i woudl start out with/recomend.
-strong hitch... most place will allow us to run 30" vs 26" the 4wds run (main forum(sled pulling has a hitch thread)
-suspsion blocks.. 90% of hte org require adjustable blocks.. theres a thread about different ideas for blocks...
-makeing weight.. i woudl start out wiht all your weight at the tail gate.. sand bags can be had for ~3.50 a 50lb bag.. or water... weighs 8.3lb a gallon.
-getting the nose down.. theres couple ways... dedicate i would pull the front springs and rest on the compression stops.. DD small tires up front big tires out back... example i run 245/75/16(30") up front with 35x1250 out back.. i auto maticly has 2.5" of forward rake
- in WS class X" suspsion travel is required. aka rear has to compress 1-2" pending rules... heres the catch... for my truck.. the center or the rear wheel well is 40.5" empty ride hieght.. when i put 1100-1200lb on the tail gate ride hieght drops 2.5".. thuse effectively taking any rake that was there and taking it out... another thing .75" of verticle travel equats to 1" of hitch travel on my truck...
example
empty ride hieght is 40.5"
loaded ride height is 38"
with out changeing my hitch hieght.. it will lower ~3.25"..
this means that hte verticle bar that hold the hitch has to be stronger to take the leverage..
example at empty ride hieght and the hitch set at 30" the center of the clevis is 8" above the top side of the reciever.. loaded the hitch is just over 11" above the receiver... thus creating more leverage on reciever and hitch usually bending them if not strong enough.
i recently installed air bags on the rear.. this allow me to raise the truck back up to empty ride heigth.. and lowering the 30" mark on my hitch.. thus decreasing the leverage on hitch and giving my the rake back in the whole truck...
some class allow for solid suspenions.. in this case i woudl jack the back of the truck up till desired hieght and set the blocks lower the truck onto the suspsion blocks.

i currently run 3.73s with 35" tires as a DD setup. little on the long side looking at dropping to 4.10s.. possible droping to 33" pullign tires..

got it? :hehe::Cheer:

[TheTowingCowboy]

I love you *Praises you like a greek god*

[malibu795]

I love you *Praises you like a greek god*

shesh... dont hump my leg now....... :hehe:

[TheTowingCowboy]

Sorry for the double post but I am lsot about the 30" hitch, can you explain the hitch thing to me, like whats 30 inches? The amount of frame mounting area? As for tires I figured the same myself, just take 'pulling' tires with me, and use my regular tires and some extra weight in the bed.

EDIT: HOLY **** ADAM YOU LIVE IN OHIO? WHERE YOU LIVE? I LIVE SOUTHERN OHIO, MEIGS AREA! wow I sound like a damn horny chick looking for a guy.... still.

[malibu795]

hitch heigth is the distance from the ground to either top of, or center of hooking point.

tires i started out just swapign smaller tires out int he front..

member here loaned me a pair of STS off his puller... might hook 1 or 2 more times this season.. then they go back to him.. at ~300+ a tire.. i dont have hte $$ to buy dedicated tires right now.

as for the horny chick comment... would have to agree........