I DO!!!!!!

But this will have to do for now...

What I want is THIS truck a 4x4 -- now we're on to something. That's what I may do in 2 years when it's paid off.

 

damn that looks good. do you have a locker in the rear or an l/s? what does mucho el pero mean? nah, nevermind!

 

ha ha! I have a locker AND a limited slip: the Auburn ECTED electrically controlled locker. When de-energized it's a limited slip, feed current to it, it locks up.

Loosely translated, my Latin motto means: "mod or die"

 

I want that...lol...your truck is freakin awesome. bd

 

35's look great on there! I'd definately do a little trimming if it's needed to keep the 35's...

 

haha john do a sas on that beast..... it wouldnt be that hard at all... and with all the stuff that you seem to "come across " it miight not be too expensive..... well looks good... gonna be tough to flex tho.... i wanna see you go thought that same ditch with those badboys on there... that should be interesting.... lol awsome sir..

 

How many miles did you get out of your cooper john...

I loved mine...

 

looks really good, I may have to go 35s next instead of 33s....hmmm

 

wow John...very cool...i cant wait till my truck is bigger...

 

that's a BEAST!

 

looks great... bd bd bd

 

John I know how to do some fiberglass work!!!! If you need anything let me know. I will be home in 2.5 weeks.

 

Wow John, you're truck really looks aswesome!

 

Well, the front will rub guys. I got it to tonight. The rear WILL NOT. I flexed it fulliy and it clears fine. I'll do it again tomorrow and take pictures when I can. I just did a quick one today.

They do rub on the fender flare in front on the rear part of the front flare during "flex". I don't know if I'm going to try to "warp" the flare a bit (there's actually about 1/2" to 3/4" inche of "empty" space between the inside lip of the flare and the fender lip) or cut it back or what. If I just pull out the rear bottom trim "pin" that holds it on, drill a new hole in the flare, push it towards the rear, and re-pin it. We'll see. That still might not be enough.

Before you all run out and get 35's, lol, I emphasize that this is an EXPERIMENT, and one that may have consequences in terms of body modification or whatever. Stay tuned and I'll let you know whatever happens, good or bad. I intend to run these until either I can't reasonably do so, or until the fall when I replace them.

However, I'm leaning towards comitting to doing what it takes to run them, rather than just seeing if they work or not. That is: I want to MAKE them work. Since the rear is a basically a non-issue with what I've done, the front becomes the focus.

 

Ah! Let's talk when you get back! May not come to anything, but you never know.

 

well john thank you for being the tester for us lol.... i think if you trim them up a bit i think it should work...

 

I actually have an idea if you have to cut em. How far past the fenders do they stick out. Cuz I know around us you gotta beunder the flares to pass inspection or do you just have your stockers for that? But your truck looks so sweet.

 

That might be a good idea: put my Coopers back on my stock rims (15x7 and higher backspacing) and send them through inspection. Hmmmm...

I was thinking about just "extending" the exisiting flares somehow. I already modified one to make it mount further back. Doesn't fit as tight to the body now but it still looks better than taking the flare off. I'll do the other one tomorrow. It involves drilling two holes back a bit for two of the mounting studs -- the one all the way down under the truck at the back of the front flare (really a trim button) and the bottom-most "clip" piece inside the flare at the back. You also have to trim the flare a little bit to curve around the bottom properly. Doing that moved the back edge of the flare onto the fender lip, giving me about 3/4" more clearance there. We'll see how that works.

 

John get some bushwacker flares or some fiberglass prerunner fenders man

 

how much lift have you gotten and how did you do it? this may make me reconsider going bigger with my truck. ive given up on the idea for a bit.

 

You have a beast there, John. And I was only thinking of 31s on mine. You rock! Keep us up to date on what you gotta do to make 'em work. You should definitely keep 'em on if at all possible.
-- B

 

looks great john, im really liking that skid plate!

 

Man I know you went through alot of work with the rear axel to get there but it looks like it was really worth it.

Looks really good. (I am so jealous)

 

Thanks again, all.

Well, little update: put the traction bars on last night and what a difference. My opinion is that if you regear and go for bigger tires the bars are a must. I have the thicker spring pack, but they were still wrapping as "stuttering" on traction BAD back there. Now, with the Duff bars back on, full power takeoff is MUCH smoother, and so is powered cornering.

The truck still corners well -- but it feels less stable. I have always pushed my truck hard but I'm going to be cornering a little less aggressively now, lol. I think with the big lift blocks in the back, that's inevitable.

Earlier, someone asked about the Coopers. I got 30K out of them so far, and could probably get another 10K. BUT: I wore the crap out of them by not correcting the INEVITABLE negative camber a torsion bar crank causes. I have a cam kit (just came in the mail) and will be installing it soon so that is not an issue in the future. Although I rotated them pretty faithfully, they were getting whacked on the front of the truck. If you were to keep the camber correct, 50k would probably be easy on those tires.

As far as lift, let me summarize what was done to the truck:

Rear:
- 2" longer shackles contribute 1 inch of lift.
- 4 leaf plus overload "custom" springs (2 ranger packs combined) give about another inch.
- 2" stock 4x2 Edge block, plus a 2" welded on extension, give 2" more. Special welding procedures on cast blocks required.
- A little, maybe a 1/4", comes from the thicker axle tube.

Front:
- 2" torsion bar crank.
- 3" Doetsch lift spindles.

Last night I "warped" the back of the flare a bit and got about 3/4" to an inch more clearance. I drilled new holes in the fender for the rearmost flare mounts a bit back from the originals and forced the back inside of the flare to fit tight against the fender. It now gaps a bit near the fender on the outside, but it's looks better than no flare.

Anyway, I'll be doing more testing sometime today if I have time. I'll disconnect the front sway bar so I can get the front to flex more and I'll see how it does when somewhat more stuffed. I may relax the t-bars to allow the front to settle to see clearance when the wheel flexes up. Don't know if I'll get to that today or not though.