Weird thought

Ford SportTrac Forum

Help Support Ford SportTrac Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Dreman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2004
Messages
2,152
Reaction score
13
Location
Spring, TX
Ok, here is a weird thought. With all of the thoughts about engine swaps and suspension upgrades, has anyone considered just swapping the Sport Trac body onto a 2004-2010 F150 frame? That way you automatically get the heavier suspension, v8 engine, and wider track. The short bed single cab has the same wheelbase as the 2001-2005 Sport Trac.
 
Intresting thought. Maybe you could find info on the mounting points. Then fab what is needed.

Let us know when you finnish....:banana:
 
My first concern would be the width of the F-150 frame. I have to believe it would be considerably wider than that of the ST. Getting the steering gear connected might be interesting as well.

Because the 1st gen Sport Trac shares it's frame and chassis with the Ranger Super Cab there should already be a fair amount of suspension upgrades available. Doing a V8 swap from an Explorer sounds a lot easier.
 
Well, there are two main reasons I thought of this. One, since the Gen 1 Sport Trac really can't accommodate the 4.6 or 5.4, this might be a way to accomplish it. Two, I looked at a suspension upgrade that widened the front track, and wondered what the best way to widen the rear track to match would be. I assumed a wider axle from a wider truck, then thought about moving the springs out for better control, then wondered why stop there? Why not just widen everything? And that's where the frame swap idea came from.
 
Probably cheaper and easier to just swap engines than the body.... Most of the larger V8 engine fitment problems with the Sport Trac is due to the smallish engine bay. If you swapped the chassis with an F150, you would still have the small Sport Trac engine bay, and now complicated by getting the body to fit the F150 chassis.



...Rich
 
And at what point is it just better to go ahead and drive an F150 anyway? Just thinking out loud...you never know what might come out!
 
If you want the 4.6L why not get a Gen 2 ST? There are not many suspension options but that hasn't stopped me from driving mine off-road and the on-road handling is far better than that of the 1st Gen in my opinion.



The reason I have not traded mine for an F-150 is because I don't need or want something that big as my daily driver. Maybe you do.



Personally, I'm waiting to see what Ford does in the next couple of years. Rumor has it they plan to build and sell the Ranger here again although they have not officially confirmed any of that yet. Probably won't be available with a V8 but some of their EcoBoost stuff is pretty impressive and it will probably have a diesel option as well.
 
What is the optimum wheelbase to width ratio, anyway? I was talking with the Ford rep when the Raptor came out, and he said the width of the truck was optimized for the extended cab wheelbase, and they would have to widen it still further for a crew cab version. And now we have a crew cab version of the Raptor that is the same width as the extended cab version. It's all a compromise to fit opposing parameters, anyway.



I already like the size of my Sport Trac. I think I will just leave it the way it is.
 
Oh, and blksn8k? The main thing here was a wider track so I could do a lift without increasing the rollover chances. That's what started this whole thought process, and I just ran with it. The Gen 2 is difficult to lift much without hitting the frame. And I already have a Gen 1.
 
Top