front clip

 

front clip tear down

 

Spent a little time tonight with Photoshop (which I admit I suck at) but this is roughly the look I am going after, albeit not so low and using dually front and rear wheels tucked under a standard but tubbed bed.

 

Here is what we are starting with: The Hank!!

 

Wow those pics are big?!?

 

So here is where I lose some of you on this project...... The Dana 60 is probably not going to be tough enough and my original plan was to buy a late model Sterling unit with disc brakes. I am going to have to narrow the rear end to tuck the dual rear wheels and after a few calls to Strange and Mosher, the availability and cost of narrowed axles for thr Sterling was very cost prohibitive. Both advised me the stongest and most cost effective rear would be the ***GASP**** GM 14 bolt. It is a 4:10 rear from a 1998 GMC 3500 single rear wheel truck with the slide off drums.

Here it is, and I will never speak of it again..................

 

So, hubs, caliper mounting brackets, dust sheilds, spindles, caliper brackets, radius arms, and shock mounts are back from bead blasting. Pretty amazing how new they look, almost like they are pained silver.

Hubs, caliper mounting brackets, and dust sheilds are off to the powder coater.

Spindles waiting on kingpin rebuild kit to come with the drop I beams.

All new Wagner brake parts and Timken bearings, races, and seals are here.

What a NIGHTMARE trying to get two calipers that were built from a core that wasn't absolute ***** and pitted to high heaven. Finally got two that are presentable and they and the Caliper brackets will be disasembled next week and sent to the powder coater for a coat of Ford Racing blue used on the late model Cobra Mustang valve covers. Should look hot!!

 

So the drop I beams from AIM or Chassis Tech or Airbagit whatever name they are using this week came in. The pieces look surprisingly good considering the horrible reputation that they have. They are the only people that make F-350 drop beams so I didn't have much choice. So the beams look satisfactory but the tie rod end relocators are completely wrong. I knew it was going to be an issue when they guy taking my order just blew me off with " I'm not sure how they address the tie rods being on top of the spindle but the engineers back there have all that figured out.... Trust me". Shoulda known better. So after multiple emails and phone calls it was determined that you can't drop a tie rod that bolts in through the top of the spindle and a radius arm c notch is the way to go. I'll have to see when it is mocked up. I like the idea of having my tie rods attached directly to the spindle but am concerned about the angle all the steering linkages will be at.

 

So after a little brainstorming last night I came up with a humdinger of a solution to my steering issue. What if I bought the tierod end relocators from DJM and just used Hank's original steering system. It bolts in from the bottom and if I am using the drop down bracket it doesn't matter which way the tie rod went into the spindle originally. It just bolts onto it using the hole that the tie rod went into.

So what I need to determine is if the tapered bolt on the end of the tie rod for an f100 (which is the only model DJM offers a kit for) is the same as my f250.... Disc or drum may even be different... I have discs right now. Anyone out there that can advise me? Any other thoughts or ideas??

 

So with little to no help from the peanut gallery..... I have determined that the F 100 and F 250 tie rod ends are identical on a 1970 bumpside. So it looks like I will be ordering the DJM tie rod end relocator and not hacking my radius arms after all.

On an unrelated note: I now have what I believe are 1978 f250 tie rod drop down brackets from AIM and radius arm c-notches from AIM for sale on the cheap!!

 

Sooooo with the front end essentially planned out and just waiting on parts and powdercoating, it's time to tackle the rear suspension.... Four link with airbags for ultimate adjustability and towing capacity. What I need to determine is parallel or triangulated four link?? I plan on running dual rear wheels with a tight tolerance between tire and wheel well which has me leaning towards a triangulated four link, but all the heavy duty kits I see are all parallel with a panhard bar? Is it because it is better for heavy duty or just because it is easier to package and sell as a bolt on kit? If I do go parallel how much side to side movement would you get from a 28" panhard bar? Comments? Thoughts?

 

Go triangulated. I seen a show on extreme 4x4's where they took a 5 tn military truck and cut it down to a 4x4. They ran a triangulated 4 bar. My guess is the parallel is because it is a simple bolt in vs. a more difficult install. The parallel will shift side to side based on travel. In other words you would have to layout the suspension at ride height and then run it up and then down to the end of suspension travel. You will run a radius utilizing the frame mount point as center. This will tell you how much side to side travel you will have. Ideally you would want the panhard level at ride height. That way the movement would be minimal up and down.

 

Thanks for your input! I am really leaning towards a triangulated four link. I have never done one before so it sounds like a bit of a challenge. I just looked a suisidedoors.com and they sell builder kits for either parallel or triangualted that are equally heavy duty. 1/4" thick walled dom tubing and heavy duty rod ends.

I'm gonna pull out a protractor and do some calculating tonight on the side to side movement with a panhard bar. I just wonder of there is a handy dandy website that I can plug my data into and get that information calculated for me?

How much suspension travel does an on road 2wd truck need? 4" maybe? I'm guessing but I think I read that somewhere....

 

I had looked and looked and never really found a good pic of the AIM, Chassis Tech, Airbagit.com, whatever you call them today, drop I-beams. The only one I saw was some rinky dink stock photo pic on their website of a generic i-beam. Plenty of DJM's.....So I thought some people may like to see what they look like. Here you go!!

We will start with the tie rod end drop down brackets that attach at two points. (and were wrong for my application so PM me if you want to buy them)

 

And the I-Beams themselves.....