Another Rebirth For The 3b

Here comes the hate mail!



It’s a Dana 50 TTB from a ‘96 F250. Open diff, 3.54 gears, high pinion. These things get a bad rap because Ford counteracted the flex capabilities by bolting them to leaf springs, but they’re very stout. Set up correctly with coils, they’ll flex as well as a solid axle rig, but handle high-speed trail trash twice as well.

One thing that appeals to me about these, they only have four points of contact/pivot. Even a simple leaf spring setup has six. Also, 30 spline outers with massive D60 locking hubs.
I’m excited to get fabbing on this.

 

Hell yeah!!

 

Diabolical!

 

Soon to be ITLKSEZ in the 3b:

 

In a word, yes.

 

How big of an issue is the ever changing camber?

 

None. It’ll rarely (if ever) see pavement.

 

Its just the same as any 4wd IFS Gm truck. Only much stronger and much more suspension travel.

 

Now that I have more time, in more than one word…

It’s basically a hybrid between a solid axle and a true IFS.

A live (solid) axle is completely unsprung weight, and the weight of the vehicle is suspended on the housing. When you hit a bump, all of the axle moves, and that unsprung weight is a lot of mass to control. Great for wheel travel and strength, bad for control at high speed.

True IFS, like Chevy trucks have been using up front since ‘88, have very little unsprung weight in comparison, since the housing and tube are bolted to the frame and only the A-arms and hubs articulate. Good for control at speed, bad for strength and wheel travel.

The Ford TTB combines the strength and articulation of a solid axle with less unsprung weight and more control. The drawbacks of this design are how the camber of the tires swings like a pendulum around the pivot points, and the stock steering setup doesn’t hold a consistent toe through its range. These aspects gave it a poor reputation over the years for increased tire wear, but for an off-road rig, who cares.

It’s a unique and strong setup for $100, and perfect for what I have planned for it.

 

can I say wide track
it's the bigger brother to the one in my ranger
now I am curious . what transmission /transfer case

 

Yeah, there *might* be a little rubber under the fenders.

Volvo B5254s 5-cyl, auto transaxle with welded spiders, Ford NP205 t-case. I’d love to find a high pinion D50 or D60 front axle to build a rear out of, but it’s way out of my budget right now.

CR should be around 90:1

 

The increased tire wear on a Ford TTB is completely bunk. Unless you never rotate your tires. And yes, it's an order of magnitude stronger than any unequal length A-Arm setup, *almost* on par with most solid front axles. It's not the most precision IFS in the world, but to be honest, I prefer it over any of the other setups, for anything that's going to ever actually go off-road.

 

If you were closer I know where a hp d50 is.

 

Ship it.

 

That setup would be pretty miserable with leaf springs up front. Do they offer any kind of offset balljoints to set your initial camber at ride height? I know your not afraid to cut and chop.....
I would imagine that allot of the bad rap came from owners of lifted trucks. GM IFS trucks really suffer from bad tire wear if "budget" lift jobs are done.
A buddy of mine had one of these in HS that was very clean and bone stock. I remember it drove pretty nice the few times I shuttled him home from parties.

 

The Leaf Spring setups on the F250's and 350's with the D44 and D50 TTB's isn't as bad as some folks would make it out to be, I've had a few of them, and they ride just fine, they just don't articulate worth a darn.

 

I'll see what I can do.

 

I was totally kidding. Don’t ship it!