Ranger Mods

Thanks to the guys that were interested, in my project, it's been a few months now, since the conversion.
There were quite a few knockers and skeptics, with this project, and I suppose fair enough.
But I firmly believe there is NO reason for ANY vehicle to have drum brakes any more, even the cheapest car on the road has 4 discs now, The rapter has rear discs, and has less tow capacity than my PX2, so I cannot see any excuse for drums any more.
I'm sure that will fire up the knockers.
Now after having the rear discs on for 2 months, I am VERY happy with the result, admittedly it was a fiddly job, and not cheap, but I am am a car enthusiast, and want the best, even though it has taken almost 3 years to get the car up to what I think it should have been from new,
SO in short, if you tow a lot, or want better performance, and stopping, it is certainly worth doing.
But if you just bang around and use the vehicle as a school bus, don't bother.

I believe the PX4 will have rear discs.

Good outcome, well done.

I'll stick with the "school bus" - the standard brakes for me are more than adequate, but then being an old fart I rarely if ever exceed 100 kph on any highway and for the moment other than my neighbors 6 x 4 box trailer to go to the tip I don't tow.
The Freightliner B Double I occasionally drive as a stand by-driver, with anything up to 50 tonnes on board has discs on the front axle of the prime mover but all the other axles, including the trailer(s) have air operated drum brakes. Seriously I don't know of any trailer that has discs.
In the 1980's I worked for Davies & Metcalfe and was the Senior engineer in the conversion of the British Rail model VFT to the NSW Specification XPT - the only train of its time to have disc brakes but railway train are designed to slow the train set down gradually - not stop suddenly so that's a totally different kettle of fish.
By the way the Ford Ranger Performance conversion specialists - Herrod, or is it Tickford already do a rear disc brake conversion for - I believe - around $2500. Hopefully yours worked out a lot cheaper.

BPW Have disc brake for b doubles, I have worked on plenty. Up until 2 years ago at least they were more trouble than drums.

But I believe rangers should have 4wdisc.

[quote=Bala1 post_id=14818 time=1598817016 user_id=968]
BPW Have disc brake for b doubles, I have worked on plenty. Up until 2 years ago at least they were more trouble than drums.

But I believe rangers should have 4wdisc.

On their trailers or just on the prime mover ?? I've never bothered to look too closely at the Freightliner I get to drive when the regular is sick or on leave but are the front discs pneumatic or hydraulic ? certainly the two trailers and prime mover rear axles are drums and pneumatic -- anyway as for Rangers having 4 wheel discs my old 300Tdi Discovery (1997) had discs and coil springs all round, the twin shoe drum "Parking brake" operated on the rear tail shaft immediately behind the gearbox and couldn't hold the Disco on a steepish slope so I think the existing Ranger set-up is far better. Without looking into it too much I'd guess setting up trailers with discs would be a nightmare with adjusting weight bias valves to limit the maximum braking with an empty rig.

I have always found the Ranger brakes quite adequate.
Tow braking is no problem, the caravan brakes are excellent, the Ranger doesn't need any.

Full air disc on truck trailers.

Drum linings wear fast if going through water and mud so you lose braked pedal. I have pedal to floor on first day of multiday trips with rear drum landcruiser. 4wdisc you sometimes get rocks stuck in the caliper but not often. unless you wear the pads to metal you have good brakes.

More of an off road issue.

Bala1 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:44 am 4wdisc you sometimes get rocks stuck in the caliper but not often.

This has been a semi-common occurrence for me. Unfortunately the fix is to jack up the ute, remove the wheel and poke the offending rock out with a stick or multitool blade. Very annoying when it occurs every few km.

Getting rocks stuck in the front caliper happened to me a lot on landcruisers and patrols in PNG but they were going through a lot of deep slushy mud.

It has been a very rare otherwise in the off road travels I have done but if you get a sudden strange noise in a wheel its a good place to look.

Volvo trucks have all wheel disc, KW still had all drum. The discs on the trailers worked well just had a lot of failures, and didnt last as long as drums. They were getting better but they bought in self adjusters on drum for the trailers so that was saving a lot of time and they seemed to be working well. I have been out of it for a couple of years now.

[quote=Bala1 post_id=14826 time=1598924720 user_id=968]
Getting rocks stuck in the front caliper happened to me a lot on landcruisers and patrols in PNG but they were going through a lot of deep slushy mud.

In the 20 plus years we had our 300Tdi 1987 Disco ( 4 wheel disc brakes ) and traveled well over 685,000 kms, I never once had anything caught between the disc and the pads, have you or did you remove the tin cover plates ? I left mine on for that very reason.

Okay, you must be very unlucky in that case, or I'm very lucky