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Long time lurker in the shadows... peaking in.... I have always loved the ford square body trucks.. and their power trains. They were all the rage in the 90's when I was in high school.... so I wanted to put together a hunting and fishing rig... and something for an all purpose farm truck.
Its a 95 short bed with the inline 6.....4x4...with a manual tranny with overdrive... . I love that engine by the way and have been told its pretty bomb proof if you keep oil and water in it.
My question is... what basic 4x4 upgrades would make it better for my needs. I have had it out to my normal hunting spots and drove across muddy farm fields that I would not normally go through and the truck did great....
Now that deer season is over here I want to start on things I can do to make it a better rig. Thank you in advance.
I drive it on the road to get to hunting and fishing locations.... I would prefer stock tires..... and stock height......I can do anything on the truck I want to do mechanical wise....I don't want to drop 10k in a 4k dollar truck.....hope that helps.
Well, first move is to look on the door sticker to see what the factory size tires are/should be. Then see what the door sticker says the axle ratio is. A limited slip or locker is a good start, but if you have to install one it's best to optimize gear ratios while you are at it.
Here is what you should look for to find out gears
If you're not doing hardcore wheeling or running big tires I don't see the point in going to a full case locker, unless you're changing gear ratio. A drop in locker (aka lunchbox locker), like an Aussie locker, lock-rite, lokka, etc would work fine if you need the traction. They're cheaper to buy and save you gear setup as you simply replace the spider gears instead of the entire differential carrier. If you need to regear anyway then sure, go full case. They are stronger.
Application specific tires make a massive difference as well. Even if they're the short 29" tall size, good tread helps a lot. An aggressive all terrain or mild mud terrain would be my pick for a hunting truck. That said, going to a 33x10.5 tire on my truck made it much more off road capable. That was primarily because of rocks hitting the axles constantly with the little tires. I'm now on 32x9.5 tires and they're better on the highway, with a little performance drop off road but still pretty good.
A decent 12V air compressor is a great item to carry too. Dropping the tire pressure [20psi is a good start] off road for demanding routes can be the difference between cruising through or getting stuck and breaking parts. The traction improvement and additional flotation is huge. The compressor makes it so you can air back up before driving pavement back home.
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