Farmer I have not finished putting my truck together so I can't tell you how easy it is to shift. I am going off of my dads experience when he drove oil field trucks etc, I would think that the new ranger unit is going to be better as far as shifting, but the spicer/brownie was used in gobs of trucks over the years so I would think that they weren't unreasonable to shift. The way I understand it is it can be used very similar to a 2 speed rear. There are some in cab videos on youtube of guys driving them. If you want to hot rod them, it takes some coordination and focus.
There are quite a few models they made, I was only interested in ones with the OD. The easiest way to tell them apart is the model number on the tag. I think you can get on google and search pics of each model too and get familiar with them visually. I found this guys site awhile back and it is very useful;
http://6066gmcclub.com/gmcguy/SM420.htmlmiddle of the page is the chart for the auxillary trans. To decode the model number is much like the spicer regular transmissions, the first number is the torque spec x's 10, so my 7041 is rated to 700 ft lb, teh 4 is 4 speed and I honestly don't remember what the 1 is for, might be on that page I linked to.
As for making one work, one thing to consider is to make adapters to put the brownie on the back of your 4x4 465 and then hang your 205 off of it. Might be harder to do that than with drive shafts, depends on your abilities and tools at hand. I know my 7041 is physically big, it is essentially a full size 4 speed box with the shifter reworked to come out in a different spot.
Here is a page where a guy marries the aux to a BW trans;
http://www.werewoof.com/beast/drivetrain/drivetrain.htmThe truck it is going in is 2 wheel drive and I have plenty of room and wheelbase to put it most anywhere. Running a t case complicates things alot.
If the ranger unit is a bolt together kit and just involves pushing the trans and tcase back, doing driveshaft and shifter work, it sounds like it would be easier for sure. I am a stubborn cheapskate and I have a full compliment of machine shop equipment, so I would take a different route than most.
