My upper isnt perfectly parallel with the lower if thats what your looking for. I did this to get it to clear the inside of the frame rail, y-pipe ect.

Im on my 3rd panhard set up becuase of clearence issues. My current set up clears fine but bump steers pretty bad cause of the angle its at.

The links may be longer than that... Im not totaly sure. The tube might be cut to 36 plus the length of the inserts / joints.

 

So the upper should be parallel to the lower? Same length as well? If so then that gives me enough information that I probably do not need a picture. About 6 or 7 inches of separation on the links do you think?

 

Yea thats a place to start. From my experience front link geomety is not as sensitive as the rear. 4 link calculators and such are great to have but when linking a truck that was never ment to have a straight axle on it alot of your suspension hard points are dictated by stock frame shape, exhaust, trans mounts ect. Sometime perfect geomety isnt always feasible.

I have had less than perfect geometry for a long time (in the front) but the truck has always driven fine on the road. I have made multiple changes that should have made things better / worse but i have never felt a difference... on road or off.

I am headed home this weekend and if you remind me wed night or thursday morning i might be able to sneek over and snap some pics of the front suspension.

 

Will do, thanks Chris.

I understand that making things perfect is hard to do on our trucks, might as well start from scratch.

Maybe I am just shooting for perfection which I never will achieve.

 

Zach I'm sure you've come across this article, but if not, it really helped me understand 4-link/3-link geometry.

http://www.4wheeloffroad.com/techart...t_2/index.html

I also came upon this on Pirate regarding coilovers; its been very informative for me:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...lovers/Part_1/

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billav...lovers/Part_2/


As for the above..

I believe your links should be setup as close to parallel as possible as viewed from the profile. Your upper should be ~75% the length of your lowers, with the seperation at the axle ~25% the diameter of the tire you're running.


Okay, hi-jack done.

 

Yes sir, I have read all of those articles and have them bookmarked. If you notice they dont mention having the upper and lower parallel.

 

You are correct. And that's why I said I believe (not I know ).

Also, according to the article, the frame end of the uppers should NOT be positioned near the same point as the lowers (as viewed from the profile), due to their ~25% shorter length. This seems to be a common 'mistake' I see around on alot of rigs. Again though, only basing off my understanding of what I've read.

 

Ok. So what does a 3rd link provide you over say a Radius Arm setup with a Panhard?

 

From my understanding a 3 link will keep a correct pinion and caster angles throughout travel, radius arm style changes a lot within the travel. I know mine you can literally see the caster change by jumping up and down on the bumper. I would like to eliminate this.


Oh that is how I read it too, the article is a great article.

 

your truck is a badass among badasses

 

Got the new wheels and tires mounted this weekend. I wanted to go 40's but i stumbled across a set of 37x12.5 Maxxis Trepador Comp's. The wheels are from 17x10 Allieds.

Amazing how a wheel and tire package can totaly change the look of a truck.

Old Pic...



New Pics...

 

WOW! That did really change the look of it! Looks great.

Some different offset to those wheels by the looks of it!

 

Love the new wheels!!!

 

Treps treps treps treps treps treps!!!!!


amazing. I'm going to come steal the truck now. kthxbye

 

Yep... the new wheels have a 3in backspace so the truck got about 1-1.25 in wider.

Between the deep back space, the wheel spacer and the wheels/tires weighing 135+ lb a peice... i see many wheel bearings and ball joints in my future.

O well...

 

Looks good Chris. Glad to see the Ranger is still alive and kicking.

 

I'm surprised you wanted to go 40s! Dont you have a 302 in the works too? 40s and a 302 with a D44 and 8.8 might have been a little much?

 

thats pretty cool looking

 

Yea it was kind of a pipe dream... I think with a 302 I am going to be pushing the limit of the D44 with these 37's.

The 302 probably wont happen until the fall. I'm currently in the market for a house and dont have a great place to work on it... so thats putting a damper on my engine plans.

 

I have a feeling I'll be the same with the 5.4, but whats the fun if your not pushing the limits.

I hear ya on the house thing. I should be looking more seriously myself.

 

damn they look nice. looks BEEF

 

Wow I am super impressed. those tires make it look 1000X times better. So much more aggressive.

That exo-cage-ish, rollbar-ish, thing look like a good idea. Might have to steal some ideas when I build mine up at the end of summer.

 

A good way to help with side-hilling is to have the top of the shocks mounted further inboard on the truck, so that on up-travel on that side the the shock body and axle tube don't go past 90* In relation to each other. This keeps the axle constantly moving to a 1:1 ratio with the shock. When it goes past 90, there is a point when the axle is just pivoting on the shock, and once past 90 the shock actually tries to push the axle the other direction, causing more lean.

Hope that makes sense.

You might not have room to move them in or you might not want to mess with it, just thought i'd throw that out there as an alternative to a sway bar...for now.

Truck looks good. Nice work.

 

I really like the look of the new wheels and tires.