Mustang Cobra Independent Rear Suspension Makes this Ranger Track Ready
If you want to make your Ranger a racer, the Mustang Cobra’s independent rear suspension can help it be a serious corner carver.
We always love a build that goes a bit outside of the box. Kevin Tetz and Ryan Shand from PowerNation are doing exactly that with a Ranger made for road course racing. OK, it’s actually a Mazda B2500, but it is still essentially a Ranger.
Their plan for this truck is to put a V8 with a blower up front, and independent rear suspension out back. That IRS setup is the focus of this video. But trying to put an independent rear suspension in a live axle truck isn’t a straight forward process. Shand explains the initial approach saying, “the first step in installing our IRS subframe is going to be to remove all the shock mounts and leaf spring hangers and brackets that are going to be in the way.”
While Shand is working on the chassis, Tetz is sorting the IRS. “The upper and lower control arm bushings are made out of rubber. Although they offer a smooth and vibration-free ride, they’re mushy and contribute to wheel hop,” Tetz explains. This is why a set of harder compound bushings were chosen from Maximum Motorsports’s IRS handling package.
For installing the subframe, Shand describes the procedure. “Before we disassembled the stock truck we measured where the rear axle centerline was of the leaf-spring solid-axle setup. Then we also determined the centerline of the IRS and matched things up,” Shand explains. Their plan is to have a bolt-in and removable subframe with the IRS accomplished through fabricated brackets. Shand explains how a narrower mounting setup is beneficial. He says, “the benefits of having these brackets at the frame or even inboard of the frames is that it allows us to remove the flex-prone factory subframe hangs.”
Of course, the rear end would be upgraded before it went in. In addition to the new hardware, some of the original equipment would be painted and cleaned up. Steel parts were given a new coating of black, and aluminum was powder-blasted and given a protective coating.
Now, mounting of the shocks and the springs is still to be determined and there’s some loose ends to tie up on the Ranger, but we’ll be keeping track of this unique build as it comes together. Especially when it comes to the supercharged V8 that’ll be sending power to that independent rear suspension.
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