here is my 91.
previous owner is a buddy of mine, he was building this as a tow rig for his pre-runner and to be a chase/camp vehicle. he bent the beams himself and built the shock towers. its sitting around 4" of lift, the radius arms are still stock so that is on the fix list (gonna be fully boxed, with a johnny joint at the frame). he didn't get around to lifting the rear before i got it either, plan is to use a add-a-leaf to level it out a little. it drives a little weird with ~3* negative camber and 0* of caster, but still gets down the road just fine. much better road manners than a stock van (better suspension dampers, more up travel). when i get the new arms finished, it should cycle around 12" of wheel travel.
to be perfectly honest, i'm not sold on a 4wd conversion but if i lived somewhere that snowed i would probably think differently. its a pretty big ride and mileage tradeoff to me. i previously built a 1 ton fullsize bronco and while the D60 solid axle was nice for strength and crawling, the ride and performance in the rough was no where near what it was with the I-beam setup. this van continues to surprise me off the pavement, great traction (good weight balance compared to a pickup/suv) and absorbs everything at a very reasonable speed (for a near 4 ton vehicle). i think with a good limited slip it would get me everywhere i could possibly want to take it. the ford i beam setup is a stout setup that gets very good suspension travel with a little bit of tweaking (longer shocks, better springs). vans actually use the longest beams and arms which results in great manners.
thats my lengthy take, i wouldn't hesitate to throw some longer coils in there and get it out of the weeds. its actually kinda funny how much clearance vans actually have when lifted.
