I was thinking about that after I got home from a grocery run in a mini car I collected. I have a herd of Festiva's - small boxlike hatchback front wheel drive cars - and I found myself thinking: "This is what my Ranger would be like if it was front wheel drive"

It's nose heavy as the Ayetollah Khomeini, but fairly light overall. Lots of room in the back, and has decent power. So, like a pickup truck the backend tends to get loose when I play with it - but it isn't rear wheel drive.

I've started to wonder what a front drive Ranger could do...

Freaking weird idea like most of mine, but yeah. I wonder if a front wheel drive Ranger would be a fun option?

Has anyone ever dropped the rear driveshaft in a 4X4 Ranger and driven it like that?

I know, I know - it's a messed up sounding idea. But does the t-case have an option for front drive?


Bad enough, you might think, that people make lowriders out of them, but an FWD Lowrider Ranger would become a DRIFT TRUCK

I should have posted a poll with this asking if you thought the idea was:
1) Stupid
2) Pretty cool
3) Sacriligeous
4) Worth looking into
5) Proof that I have been drinking out of bottles with no labels on them...


But I am actually serious


My reasoning here is that without a load in the back, most of the weight of the truck is over the front axles so that there is a traction advantage in many circumstances, especially in snow.

In FACT (as a matter of fact) I was toying with the idea of transplanting a Taurus engine and transaxle into my spare chassis


What do you really think, once you get over the total UGLINESS of the entire notion? I mean - it IS the absolute opposite of conventional truck thinking.

 

I have no use for Front Wheel Drive. None.
Given that the laws of physics are for the moment inviolate, FWD is just dumb when going forward.
That said, a lot of people bought the beancounters 40 year old justification for FWD.

Just my aught two.

 

Ha ha ha - you didn't see what I did on the roads around here today

But I respect your right to that opinion

 

LOL, you should have seen what I did in FWD (as in Four Wheel Drive) for the past few weeks; or in AWD on pack Ice when the 2WD FWD was sitting and spinning.

Like you say Respect.

 

Wolfie, it needs a rolling spyder gear, otherwise it makes the truck jump up and down, and jerk when you go around corners

There is a Ford van that uses a transfer case, and front drive,No rear drive, to keep the floor height down for bus use etc.
I think Marmon Herrington makes the kit that makes it user friendly

 

i have run both a 70's dodge and a 69 F-350 on front driveshaft and t-case in 4 hi. the dodge blew the rear rear and the driveshaft was removed. ran it like that for 2 years and close to 10,000 miles before the clutch went and it was junked.
the 69 had a 427 side oiler mid rise engine in it and would spit the rear driveshaft you tried to launch too hard. it also had 4.88 gears in the dana 60's
we would collect all the driveshafts we could find on junk yard trips because it would twist the rear shaft like a pretzel at least once every two or three months. .
the best thing that ever happened to that truck was when the 427 cracked a head and we swapped a built 390 into it.
then we would only have to put a new rear shaft in it once a year or so.

 

But what does a Ranger act like with only the front wheels pulling?

 

probably just like a regular truck. it took a bit to get used to front drive instead of rear, but it was not bad at all.
never used it in the snow though, by the time winter came around i had already bought the 86 4X4 and put the plow on it.

 

IFS or TTB?

 

Think I'll let a few more opinions come in and throw in the towel on this. But I still wonder about it

 

All the little rangers were TTB

 

IF all the 'little" Rangers are the same size, which they basically are, for the most part; then there was IFS and TTB.

Neither will work well as a FWD set up unless the front geometry is corrected for use in a FWD application and the TTB will be particularly bad in this respect.

 

The last truck I limped in on just the front diff drove like crap!
The rampage and rabbit trucks drove like cars. Not much as a truck, no payload capacity. ....