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Long Travel Front Suspension - Photo 65359066

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  • The Dixon Bros Racing long-travel front suspension was transferred from the wrecked Ranger. Matt selected dual ADS shocks because ADS is a local company in Tucson, Arizona, and because ADS offers excellent quality and equally impressive customer service. The Dixon Bros. lower control arms came with coilover mounts only, so Smitty fabricated and installed custom mounting tabs for the bypass shocks. The lower spring seats on the coilover shocks are custom creations, too. Hank Norush machined them from billet aluminum, and they clear the tie rods at every steering angle. Wheel travel measures 14 inches, complete with functional four-wheel drive.
The Dixon Bros Racing long-travel front suspension was transferred from the wrecked Ranger. Matt selected dual ADS shocks because ADS is a local company in Tucson, Arizona, and because ADS offers excellent quality and equally impressive customer service. The Dixon Bros. lower control arms came with coilover mounts only, so Smitty fabricated and installed custom mounting tabs for the bypass shocks. The lower spring seats on the coilover shocks are custom creations, too. Hank Norush machined them from billet aluminum, and they clear the tie rods at every steering angle. Wheel travel measures 14 inches, complete with functional four-wheel drive.
Somehow, Matt was able to move before the T-Rex took a bite. The Dixon Bros Racing long-travel front suspension was transferred from the wrecked Ranger. Matt selected dual ADS shocks because ADS is a local company in Tucson, Arizona, and because ADS offers excellent quality and equally impressive customer service. The Dixon Bros. lower control arms came with coilover mounts only, so Smitty fabricated and installed custom mounting tabs for the bypass shocks. The lower spring seats on the coilover shocks are custom creations, too. Hank Norush machined them from billet aluminum, and they clear the tie rods at every steering angle. Wheel travel measures 14 inches, complete with functional four-wheel drive. Slingin’ some sand at Ocotillo Wells. The stock 4.0 SOHC V-6 does a respectable job of motivating the Explorer. The rollcage extends all the way to the rear hatch, and pierces through the firewall to tie in with the engine cage. The ’cage ties in with the frame, as all good ’cages should. One point seven-five-inch tubing was selected, as it’s stronger than 1 1/2 inches and less obtrusive compared to 2-inch tubing. The front row holds a pair of Mastercraft Baja RS recliners, and the second row is slated to receive either another pair of Mastercraft bucket seats or a Mastercraft bench. There’s plenty of rear wheel travel on tap: 18 inches to be exact. The Giant Motorsports 64-inch “link killer” leaf spring kit was designed for installation on a Ranger frame. It took careful measuring and creativity to successfully transfer it to the Explorer. Creating an engine cage in a crowded engine bay was no easy feat, but Smitty’s tube bending skills were up to the task. The crossbrace is removable should the engine ever need to be pulled. In addition to increasing the Explorer’s structural integrity, the engine cage provides an upper mount for the 2.5-inch diameter ADS coilover and bypass shocks. The frame had to be extended in order to install the Giant shackle hangers in the correct location. A square-tube crossmember was added to reinforce the structure and to provide a mounting surface for a yet-to-be-added rear bumper.
The rear fiberglass is from Fiberwerx and mounts to both the door and the rear quarter panel. Flare width is a generous 7 inches over stock. One more benefit to this fiberglass is the wheel opening is moved back 3 inches, allowing Explorer owners to move the rear axle back by the same amount. Since the wheel is moved away from the door opening, it’s possible to build in more bump travel without disturbing the door opening. If you think that’s not a stock Explorer rear axle, you’re correct. It’s taken from a 2003 Harley Davidson-edition F-150. It’s a robust item that boasts a 9.75-inch ring gear, a factory-installed limited-slip differential, and is wider than both a Ranger and an Explorer rear axle. As an added bonus, the tone ring signal is compatible with the Explorer’s ECM computer. Look closely and you’ll see where Smitty notched the frame above the rear axle to gain bump travel. The front bumper is another Smitty creation, and ties into the engine cage as well as the A-arm crossmember and front frame horns. The front fenders are from Baker Motorsports, built by Glassworks Unlimited. This Baja Rack was originally on Matt’s daily driver ’00 4Runner and was adapted to the Explorer. Matt considered building the 4Runner, but he would have had to start over from scratch. Building the Explorer with parts salvaged from the Ranger saved quite a bit of cash. The rear shocks are ADS 2.5-inch-diameter, 16-inch-stroke, three-tube bypass units. The upper mounts tie into the rollcage, and Smitty created custom enclosures to keep dust and weather out of the Explorer’s interior. The Dixon Bros Racing long-travel front suspension was transferred from the wrecked Ranger. Matt selected dual ADS shocks because ADS is a local company in Tucson, Arizona, and because ADS offers excellent quality and equally impressive customer service. The Dixon Bros. lower control arms came with coilover mounts only, so Smitty fabricated and installed custom mounting tabs for the bypass shocks. The lower spring seats on the coilover shocks are custom creations, too. Hank Norush machined them from billet aluminum, and they clear the tie rods at every steering angle. Wheel travel measures 14 inches, complete with functional four-wheel drive.
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