You guys will like this one...

I had the truck out this weekend, zipping around the Mojave desert, doing about 40-50 bobbing and weaving down this trail when all of a sudden... BAM! Steering wheel jerks out of my hand, truck pulls left, I get it back on the trail and stopped. Get out expecting to see a flat tire or dead wheel only to find my passenger side wheel toed way out. Turns out there was a rock that seemed like it was the size of a Volkswagen (when in reality it was about the size of a basketball, maybe a little bigger) off to the side of the trail that I just flat missed and I nailed it square on with the tire. After some looking we finally noticed that I had bent the spindle, bad.

Once we figured that out and made sure everything else was still good I adjusted the toe back in and put another 200 miles off road on it... hahaha.

After four years I've finally broken a hard part in the suspension, that should be a great testament to the strength of the Dixon kit.

Oh well, I've got spares.

Good Knuckle


Bent Knuckle

 

Nice! Thats one tough kit ya got there.

 

when you bend a spindle like that does it mess up the ball joint?

 

I would have figured the ball joint would have broken before the knuckle, especially the way I hit the rock, but I guess this too goes to prove just how strong the MOOG ball joints I'm running are. We checked them for damage/slop and all appears well. I'll know more when I get the suspension apart.

 

I'm very glad to hear that! I have a pair of moog lower ball joints and moog tie rod ends i'm installing tomorrow.

sucks about the spindle!

 

So you actually bent a factory Ford part and not part of the actual DBR kit right?

 

Yup, a 10 year old factory ford knuckle

 

nicely done.

 

Not too shabby, seems like Ford finally designed something proper on our trucks lol.

But it doesnt look too bad...a little buffing compound and a polishing wheel, and that nick will buff right out

 

wow i want the dbr kit so bad!

 

dang, you always manage to tear something up!

 

wow nice that could have been ugly

 

Beefy suspension.

 

Thats awesome, luckily it just bent and didn't break. Probably would have been a lot more damage.

 

I try my hardest

 

Those are the best breaks.. The one's that you can still drive home on. and not have to fix on the trail...

And that really does say something about the DBR kit. probably one of the few stock components left in the system. hell yeah..

 

I think you have some camber issues

 

Funny thing... driving on the highway with the bend knuckle and 20 psi in the tires the truck drove straighter than it has in a long time... lol

 

Ouch, you might want to check the frame for cracks and stresses, must have been a big rock to tweak your spindle like that.

 

Frames fine, mounts are fine. The only damage was the knuckle. Everything up there is braced and gusseted pretty well. A friend took a picture of the rock, but now can't find his camera... but when he does I'll be sure to add that to this thread.

 

I need the rock alignment plan!!