D50 TTB w/ prerunner aspirations...

[oldschoolPSD]

Ok guys, bear with me as I have been into the liquor cabinet tonight...



Ok so I got to sell the Jeep so I can buy me a house, and I need an off road toy. I've basically narrowed it down to anything full size ford '92-'97. Now this is where it get complicated...

So I know there are a couple companies running diesel Baja trucks. Banks/Donahue and K.O.R.E. come to mind.

There is a '95 F-250 PSD 4x4 Extended cab short bed down the street for sale. Low miles but the bedsides are beat and the paint is nasty.

Now heres where the "anti-SAS" comes into play...


I want to buy up that F-250 and make a prerunner style truck out of it. I mean resivoir shocks, coil springs, radius arms, bulged fenders... the whole 9

Is it feasable to build a cut and bent D50 TTB that will hold up to jumping a truck that has over 3k on the front axle? Has anyone done this or seen it done? Where would I even start? I want to run about 4 inches of lift with hopefully 20 inches of wheel travel, similar to this bronco setup:

I assume that if KORE is selling chase truck kits for Dodges then a TTB could be plated/reinforced to be just as strong as a Dodge axle...

I know theres a lot of knowledgeable people on this site, sombody has to know some D50 tricks

 

[emerica454]

Thats a neat setup, never seen someone make an independent front out of a solid axle

 

[oldschoolPSD]

Ford did them that way on every f-150 and f-250 from 1980-1997 and f-350s from 1980-1986.

thats a factory setup, just modified a bit

 

[emerica454]

i guess i really am a noob huh, i actually saw one on a bronco today. Doh!

 

[Pat T.]

It would probably be cheaper to build a trussed D60 and run coil overs with a 3 link or 4 link. I have too much money into my stock D50 and it still drives bad. Can you even get 20" of travel from a D50 setup? You would probably get more predictable steering off road from a solid axle set up too. Guess it depends on how much you're willing to spend.

 

[Burner]

Those twin-I beam (what ever Ford called them) are not good. I think you'd be better off with a straight axel than that IMHO.

 

[oldschoolPSD]

I've helped build a D44 TTB setup for desert racing, on a hald ton they are very close to 14 inches of travel stock. While the D50 TTB is about an inch shorter than the D44, I don't see why a coil spring/radius arm setup couldn't acheive 20 inches of travel.

TTB offers superior high-speed stability because there is no side to side movement whatsoever, while offering much more travel than an true independent suspention. There are some people out there who swap Twin Traction Beam and Twin I Beam suspentions under toyotas and newer rangers because it is a superior desert racing design.

I don't plan to actually race it at all, just haul some ass and tug the quads home from the dunes


Edit: I'll post up pics of the build after I get all my parts together