I own a 99 ford ranger std cab shortbed truck that I mud in and wheel. it has been down some trails but nothing too serious as it on ly has 31'' tires on it with a flowmaster exhaust and k&n filter. I looked into suspension lifts for it and the only lift offered for my year that I can find is made by RCD suspensions which is great except that it is almost 3000 dollars for the kit alone. I am an 18 year old student and funds are limited. any ideas on how to get this truck ready for some more serious wheeling? I am also considering just selling it and buying an XJ but I love fords.  

Unfortunately, your truck falls into the 'more expensive to lift' category because of the IFS frontend on it. If you had a '97 or older Ranger (TTB frontend), you'd have a lot more options available.

Depending on how serious you are looking to go (and how competent of a fabricator you are), a solid axle swap on that truck might make sense. It can be done for about the same cost as the "cheaper" IFS lifts (a bit under the $2000 for the Superlift kit), but would get you much more wheel articulation and strength.
Popular axles to use on that truck are Dana 44s from Jeep Wagoneers, Early Ford Bronco D44s, and the D30 from a Jeep Cherokee.

Check out www.therangerstation.com You'll find a ton of info about your Ranger on that site.  

I really appreciate your help. I had an 88 ranger and sold it before i found out how much fun wheelin really is and I have kicked myself for sellin that truck over and over casue parts are cheaper and relatively inexpensive. would the fabrication for a SAS be extreme or relatively manageable? I have not fabricated very much beyond building farm tools.  

Honestly if you want to wheel that badly, you would be money ahead of the game to sell it and get something better suited for this.  

I have looked into that as well and I am wondering if the 97 and older rangers are god platforms to build off of?  

You want solid axles front and rear for best options and easiest lifts. Rangers with TTB front axles are not a much better choice than you have now. I would look for a 94 or earlier Jeep YJ with leaf spring in all corners. They are sturdy and easy to lift and simply doing a spring over conversion on them and give you about 5 inches of lift.  

I have looked alot at early 90's xj's. They seem to have alot of reasonably priced aftermarket support and are pretty cheap to buy. are they a good platform? I have read and heard that they have a tendency to break. alot. ha are there upgrades that should be done right away to keep from having alot of breakage?  

Those older YJ's and CJ's were pretty tuff. It is the newer ones I would worry about. What typically breaks is axle shafts when you run too big a tire for axle. Replacement lockers are particularly hard on axles. In late 90, Chrysler switch to a cheaper version of Dana 35, the 35 C with is slightly weaker than regular 35. With up to 33's and no lockers, the stock axles will do fine. With lockers it is a bit iffy and 35 and more is asking for trouble if you plan to play hard. Nice thing about 94 and earlier YJ's is that it is easy to upgrade axle if you want to. XJ's (Cherokee's) usually used a Chrysler 8.25 in rear which is a bit stronger than 35 and can be swapped in easily in rear. A Ford explorer 8.8 rear axle for late 90's to early 00's is also basically a bolt in and is quite sturdy. You might also consider a XJ Cherokee as well as they are very sturdy too and a lot of after market support for them because little changed on them from 84 to 2001 and they still are sought after. Chrysler made a big mistake when they replaced that model with Liberty as XJ was simple and sturdy. My wife drives a 2000 XJ with a 4 cyl and 5 sp that we bought new. (we looked a long time to find one with a 4 cyl and it was last year they were built with 4cyl too)  It has close to 100K of urban driving mileage on it now and has been very trouble free and has never failed to start and run well and pretty decent on gas too averaging around 20 mpg (give or take) driving it to work and errands in urban/city driving with no highway. It has done over 26 on highway a few times and easily does low 20's on extended urban drives even using A/C. During cooler weather and no A/C use it does a few MPG better. It is not a race car but it does a fine job.  

If you really want to stick with your ford, get a body lift for around $150 or so. You could then get some wheels and 33 inch tires. All this for less the a grand. If I was in your situation, thats what I would do. If you gear it, you will love how well it all works.  

mudworshiper99:
I have looked into that as well and I am wondering if the 97 and older rangers are god platforms to build off of?

The '93-'97s are excellent platforms to build from, some just don't know it. They're capable of going just about anywhere anything else goes, solid axles or not.

However there is no denying the convenience of going to the parts store and buying pretty much anything your heart desires for a Jeep, and then bolting it into place. I guess it would depend on how much fabricating you're willing to do as to whether the Ranger or a Jeep is for you (being you were considering an axle swap on your current truck, it sounds like a bit of fabbing might not be a problem for you). I'd be different and stick with the Ranger (be it yours SAS'ed, or an older one) since everyone else and their mother-in-law has a Jeep on the trail. It's cool to see something different once in a while  

i have seen you write on many ford questions or forums if you prefer and obviously you dislike fords so how 'bout you stop telling everyone to sell there fords and buy this or buy that.  

sorry i was writing to Snoman  

I have a 90 xj an i love it. Lately I have been thinking about tryin to cut the Body rails ("frame rails") off and put the body onto an older ford frame, like a 70 through 75 f150, of course it would be a lot of work but oh well, it would be a lot stronger. XJ's arent known for their "frame" strength seeing as they are unibodies, which sucks cause i love to beat the crap out of it.  

I am worried the ranger is about to take a fatal dump on me. sounds like im getting lifter noise but not sure. also have a grind in front end from take off at low speed and a constant sound at high speed so I am trying to get it sold off before it takes the fall on its face. I already put a new motor in once and it wasnt fun. so I am going to start really looking for an xj or something I can lift easily and wheel. My wheeling isnt very extreme so I am thinking the XJ will be able to handle anything I can throw at it seeing as how I try not to catch too much air while wheeling =)