Lowered t-bar Ranger

[Clem]

First off, I am not a fan of lowered anything, especially a truck of any size that should ride high all the time.
I were just scoping out the posts for newbies, of which I am one this forum.
SoCal Chick stated that she was trying to sell her Ranger cause she couldn't get it low enough cause of the t-bars. This brought to mind a local Hispanic fellow who had a 2000ish Ranger that just about set on the ground.
After seeing this Ranger a few times, I ask around and found the fellow lived a few miles south of me, so I rounded up my granddaughters boyfriend, Ruben, and went hunting, found the truck in a Safeway parking lot with a crowd of people around it and a large dent in the side. OUCH! Some moron had hit it.
Anyway, this Ranger still had the t-bars and I couldn't see everything, but it had drop spindles on it with air bags on the t-bars in place of the adjuster bolts. The t-bar adjuster arms had been replaced with one that was about 6 or 8 inches long and a flat plate on the end of each, with a short airbag sitting on top of the plate and another plate up underneath mounted to the frame. The adjuster arms ran toward the center of the truck, then bent up about 90*, with a plate that looked to be attached to the inside of the frame rail, with a bag between.
The rear was also bagged with what I call a 3 link suspension, and a sway bar, to keep everything in line.
It had an electric pump mounted somewhere on the truck, when he turned the key on, it would rise about 2 inches, when the air was bled off, it set with the sheet metal within a half inch of the asphalt, this was so it could be driven if the air pump died or other possible problems.
I don't know if this came as a kit or the fellow had built parts for it.
Anyway someone who knows or wants to lower a t-bar truck has the option if they want to do some figuring or can find the kit if that is what was used.
I really hope some of the description made sense to some, with out pics it seems difficult to explain. I might be able to make a sketch and post it if anyone be interested.

Ray

[STL]

I would say with out a doubt that was not a kit.

There is a guy in New York that dropped his torsion bar truck, and everything was fabricated and it has taken him 2+ years to complete. If there was a kit more people would do it

I know his is not as low as u described the one u saw

[surfer03133]

i dont see why you couldnt lower a tbar truck. it is an involved build though, like you said just drop spindles can get you low, than custom tbars will get you even lower, and airbags to keep it right. easier said than done though and every build will be 100% custom, which is why not so many people do it.

[Clem]

I have no idea how much time was involved in the one I saw, but from a fabrication view, a lot of time was spent figuring out how to do it and getting everything just right.
I wish I had been able to get a better look at the workings and some pictures.

Ray

[Clem]

Drew this up this morning while I was waiting for the rain to stop, so I could go work on other things.
This is a sketch of what the Hispanic fellow had on his t-bar Ranger, I have been informed that only certain models of the 2x4 Rangers have t-bars, Edge I believe.
As the truck was sitting down when I saw it and I was trying to see past the motor and other stuff in the way, I couldn’t get a real good look at which side the air bag was on the lever. It also seems there would have to be some type of adjuster or a stop to keep it from sitting all the way down when there was no air in the bags
When it is drawn up, it looks simple, just figuring out the geometry of where things go and what they need to push against to make the truck rise when the air is applied.
Hope this gives someone an idea of what this fellow had in his truck.

Ray

[chainfire]

Neat idea, very complex though. I wonder why he went to all that trouble to keep the torsion setup? It would have been sooo much easier to fab up a set of A-arms.

You need to get some pics of this lol

[smakes]

Originally Posted by chainfire

Neat idea, very complex though. I wonder why he went to all that trouble to keep the torsion setup? It would have been sooo much easier to fab up a set of A-arms.

You need to get some pics of this lol

wouldve been easier to just do a coilover conversion

[trucks423]

Originally Posted by STL

There is a guy in New York that dropped his torsion bar truck, and everything was fabricated and it has taken him 2+ years to complete. If there was a kit more people would do it

im pretty sure thats D's truck.

[chainfire]

Yea it is.

[Clem]

I haven't seen the truck in 4 or 5 months.
The last time I saw it there was considerable damage to the passenger side, so who knows.
I do agree about just changing the entire front end to coil and doing something that way.

Ray