Ranger 8.8 cut or not?

You'll need to cut it. Otherwise it will be way offset from the driveshaft tunnel, probably pre-maturely wear the u-joints as well.

I'm not sure why you want a ranger one. The explorer ones are better (31 spline vs 28 spline) and have rear disk brakes instead of drums.

My friend has a ranger and it was quite hard to find one with a limited slip for us to swap in. Most explorers I have seen from 95-01 have limited slip.