2000 Mercury Mountaineer Build

[mounty71]

I've been a lingering member here for a while but have rarely posted, but I'm getting more interested in the self-sufficient types of vehicles and longer distance type of trips, so I thought I may as well start a thread documenting my modifications from here on out.

I got it stock in '03 when I was in high school, when all I ever wanted was to have a cool looking lifted truck. Over the years I became friends with offroaders and started taking mine off road with them, and I started to expand my mechanical knowledge and tried my hand at little fabrication projects, and that's when the obsession really began and the modifications started to evolve. Here is what I'm working with:

It's a 2WD Mountaineer (identical to the Explorer) with the 5.0 V8. I pieced together a 4.5"-over long travel kit with 1" upper and lower uniballs with the upper arms pivoting on 7/8" heims, 3" Pro Comp lift spindles, full heim steering, and 2.5x8" Swayaway coil overs and 2.0x2" King hydro bumpstops. The rear consists of a full-size Bronco 8.8 with the stock Mountaineer disc brakes, 4.56 gears, Eaton L/S, and Blue Torch Fab truss/diff cover combo. Suspension consists of custom-made Deaver leafs and 12" shackles with relocated pivots in the frame, and 2.5x12" Swayaways mounted outside of the frame rails. The interior is pretty much stock for now, except for the Icom race radio, iPhone Ram Mount I use for GPS off road, and a couple of fire extinguishers. Hopefully soon I'll be getting the front seats reupholstered with more comfortable fabric instead of the fake leather it came with. And an iPad to replace the iPhone.

Immediate projects include finishing up the spare tire/gas can carrier I built on the back, replacing the 2 7" HIDs with a 30" 3-mode LED bar, building rock sliders, permanently mounting the race radio antenna in the roof, and fixing the A/C after not having it functional for 3 years.

This thing is incredibly fun off road and already pretty capable with just 12" of suspension travel front and rear, but I've always wished it were 4WD and I also dream of even more suspension travel, so hopefully by beginning of next summer I will be ripping the entire front end off in favor of the D35 TTB. Extended length is still undecided, but it will have D44 outers for strength, and again be suspended by coil overs with possibly a secondary shock. The 12" rear shocks will become the front coilovers, and in their place will be 2.5x18" Swayaway bottom mount reservoir shocks. I already have a BW4406 manual transfer case and front and rear driveshafts awaiting this conversion, and a friend will be donating the beams, but I still need to get an AWD transmission.

 

[mounty71]

Almost all of the fabrication work has been done by me and my buddy at Stanley Fabrication in Belmont, CA.

Here's a shot of the front suspension nearing completion:

Shock hoop support:

Rear axle:

Rear shock hoops:

Shackles in their new home on the frame:

 

[UltraHDGames]

Wow this thing is a beast!

 

[ExplorerTom]

Welcome!

 

[ihatemybike]

Now that's an impressive Mountaineer!

 

[Root Moose]

What a great rig!

 

[kojackJKU]

two thumbs up! awesome.

 

[Madmaxwell87]

That's an awesome mountaineer. I have been following your build on other forums so it's great to see it here and nice to see another SF Bay Area explorer. Explorers are rarer on this site and I'm not sure why. I went with a 93 to get the non OHC 4.0L and the TTB. It's going to be a mild dd/exploring rig for a while but would love to give it a more desert flare like yours (coilovers, deavers, and extended radius arms for mild travel but still reasonable height and 4x4). That gives you the best of both worlds- 4x4 for trails and snow and long travel for the desert and dunes.

 

[mounty71]

Thanks for the compliments.

Madmaxwell, you must be on Explorer Forum then since that's the only other place I have a thread. You're right about Explorers being rare for offroad trucks, and even more rare for the type of driving I mostly do. Your plan you mentioned would do wonders and would make your Explorer almost unstoppable with a good set of 2.0 shocks. When you get to that point let me know, we've worked on a few 1st gens at the shop and would love to help get another built Expo on the road.

 

[toyick]

Nice write up Matt.

 

[Madmaxwell87]

Madmaxwell, you must be on Explorer Forum then since that's the only other place I have a thread. You're right about Explorers being rare for offroad trucks, and even more rare for the type of driving I mostly do. Your plan you mentioned would do wonders and would make your Explorer almost unstoppable with a good set of 2.0 shocks. When you get to that point let me know, we've worked on a few 1st gens at the shop and would love to help get another built Expo on the road.

I thought I had seen this thing on dezertrangers but it must be a green one that looks similar. My rig would be a long term project but when it gets there I'll definitely reach out.

Two questions-
-Is the roof rack something special or just the mountaineer version? I like the slope the side rails have.
-Why go TTB when you have a nice a-arm setup? Is it harder to put the ifs diff in than put a whole new suspension in? And why D35 with 44 outers instead of the full D44 setup? Width or is it just easier to mount the beam pivots on an explorer frame?

 

[mounty71]

Ya I'm on DR and post pics once in a while but no thread. The roof rack is stock, this particular design is only from 98-01 I believe.

And a few reasons for TTB. Originally I was going to just bolt in a stock front diff which would be pretty straightforward, but I don't trust the strength of the stock hubs, and the only manual hubs available aftermarket are supposedly even weaker. Also I would lose the ground clearance that the 3" lift spindles give me, and stock height is just too low. With beams it will be much easier to get the ride height I want. I want the D35 pumpkin because it is lightweight aluminum vs. heavy cast steel, but the real strength increase comes with the outer stub shaft of the D44. Beam pivots will need to be custom regardless. And I've just always loved the TTB concept.

 

[ExplorerTom]

Looking forward to the build. Not many people bolt on a TTB. Might be the only 2nd gen (although technically a 1st gen Mountaineer) with a TTB.

Your rear suspension: it has a lot of travel, but how good is it at carrying extra weight? This style of travel tends to pack on the lbs.

 

[mounty71]

There's one other Mountaineer but with Dana 44 TTB, but he replaced his entire front frame with a Bronco frame from about the A pillar forward.

When I had these springs made I told Deaver that down the road I would have a spare tire and gas can hanging off the back, plus what I usually carry with me, which is currently at least 100 lbs+ of tools, fluids, parts, gear, cooler, etc. The springs can handle the weight just fine and I've spent some time valving the shocks to work how I want them to. Honestly the weight helps in that it softens the ride a little over small choppy stuff.

 

[mounty71]

Well the LED bar idea was short-lived. I chose one from ebay, received it and quickly realized it wasn't what I thought I had ordered, but I mounted it anyway.



Never got it actually wired, just tested it on a battery and decided it wasn't what I wanted, so it's going to a friend and I went the Hella 4000 route instead.






Took a few hours Wednesday night to build this bolt-on mount for it, and I'm super happy with my decision to go this route. Can't beat the look of the big round lights! 55watt 5000k HID conversion ballasts are on their way, along with a Blue Sea 6-circuit fuse block, and my friend will be redoing the wiring for all of my accessories. My one concern is inhibiting airflow to the radiator and trans coolers now, but I'll cross that bridge if it becomes a problem.