I just saw this post. Thanks for the kind words Your truck looks pretty badazz too!

 

I got the pics of the spotlights finally.




Lemme know if you need anymore pics. Hope that helps. I'll be taking these off one of these days, they'll get beat to sheit after I get out to the desert. They don't work, plus they'll be in the way of the cage.

Keith

 

so I haven't had a chance to check for sure, but just looking at the truck looks like there is a little positive camber. That might explain why I was able to tuck these huge tires without a 'lift'.

The driver side is definitely lower than the passenger side. It rubbed the fenders a little and started to pull the lip down a little making it rub more and more so I rolled the lip. It rubs a lot less and the tire no longer grabs the fender.

I'll have to wait til middle of week or next weekend to check camber, when I do I'll post up pics.

 

So here's some pics of this weekends progress:

This is how I temporarily held on the taillights after cutting off the flatbed

I cut off 8" of the frame, the truck now fits in the garage, barely LOL


Playing with the plasma cutter

The lights fit in this crossmember like they were made to.

 

I also fixed the stiff as a board feature the truck obtained with the loss of the 1100 lb flatbed. The way it was I could jump on the back of the truck and the tire flex was the only suspension flex. The springs would move a bit. It was really hard to drive, hurt my back you know? Here's how it looked before:

Removed U bolts and dropped the rear end one side at a time so the pinion wouldn't twist outta shape and make me have to wrestle it back into shape.

I kept the top two and bottom two leafs if I remember correctly:


Here's how it now looks:


The pics don't do it justice, looks like a low rider with off road tires LOL. When I set up the front end next year it'll have a little more lift, but not much, I wanna keep the center of gravity as low as possible while finding the best compromise of up travel as well. For now here's how it sits now:

Lowered truck about 6 inches, I should've measured before and after. The ride still really sucks with these flat leaves and very little wheel travel, (like 5-7 inches max)


So next weekend I'll try to tie up more loose ends. I'm just glad to fit the truck in the garage now. I have 5 days off over the new years weekend, the truck goes under the knife for some minor surgery (unless I have some customer projects)

Keith

 

While I didn't run 35s and I didn't jump it, I could bomb down dirt roads and smoke the cattle guards with the stock suspension and 33s just fine. I would say that just a couple inches of lift with good damping and you would be fine.

On a side note, maybe you should fix the jeep. It looks like it could be on the road faster. What's it need, just a rear end?

 

That is the major challenge of the beam trucks! Good luck with it.



ANd a paint job - that one is a little "loud"

 

Ok call me a newb, I have to ask why you are running your rear u bolts that way?
I know you ditched some over loads/leafs and the rear block, why flip the u bolt set up?

Other than maybe your old u bolts were not threaded enough to reinstall as it was?

 

LOL, it took me a couple minutes to figure out what you meant at first I was thinking to myself, "I think he is responding to another thread in my thread by accident, I don't have a Jeep" Then on the way to work I just started bustin up laughing when I realized you meant my daughters Princess Cruiser LOL. That's her old car, here's some video:
dirtydeedsindustries.com kaylie drift - YouTube
DirtyDeedsIndustries.com Kaylie drifting 24V - YouTube

I bought her a new car with the intention of putting a chain driven scooter motor on this one, just have too many projects

 

I've never set up a beam truck. I had a 93 i beam van with basically Ranger I beams. Just putting a longer shock nearly doubled the travel. Had 14"!!! Now that's not 'clean' travel by any means, i beam travel is already dirty travel, but having different length beams and yada yada, it still mobbed.

I just need to tear into that front end, It's my goal to have it done, extended beams and double swinger steering before April 2012.


LOL Pink and purple wouldn't work on the crewcab? Haha

 

With over 5100 posts I wouldn't call you a newbie You have a very valid question. Your answer hits the nail on the head. There simply wasn't enough thread on the existing u bolts. I too think that it's a little sketch the way it is. The backing plate was never designed to be run on the axle tube. The u bolts that I'm currently running were on my Tundra on an old spring over set up that I sold a long time ago. The Tundra uses a completely different backing plate that wraps around the axle tube.

I put very little miles on the truck and will check u bolt tightness with an impact probably every weekend for the next few weekends just to make sure. I will convert to 4 link sometime down the line so I hate to drop any money on u bolts unless it stops me from driving the truck altogether.

If I run into a really good deal on Leaf springs I'll do it just until I get time to 4 link it, but the deal better be so good when it's time to sell the spring I'll make some money on the deal. Otherwise there is no benefit to changing it. It rides like crap the way it is, but it's sooo much better than it was. Stay tuned, over the next few weekends I'll post up some pretty good pics of actual fabrication, not just of cutting up a perfectly good truck like I have been LOL

 

Love the drifting videos!

I kind of lurk on prerunner forums, and was wondering why you don't just use leaves? Guys seem to be getting respectable travel from them. Is it just not enough for what you have in mind?

 

That's exactly what I thought when I set up the rear end on my Tundra. It should be able to pull 17" of travel, easy. And it did, if you didn't care about the driveshaft shoving through the carrier bearing and into the transmission! The fix to that was a slip in the driveshaft, but with the offset in the engine there was enough of a compound angle that I couldn't stop u joints from vibrating, stock doesn't vibrate because of the cushy carrier bearing.

Morale of the story: when maximizing wheel travel with leaf springs there is a ton of driveshaft plunge. So if I 4 link this truck I can pull 30" of travel with little to no plunge if I do it right. And if I center the engine that I chose, there WILL be no compound angle to worry about.

Also when linked I can run progressive rate Coilovers which are way more cush for the family. And the list of benefits goes on and on

 

My favorite part of this thread is the pink jeep drifting. Nice truck too BTW and Im subscribed.

Crew FTW!!!

 

Thanks for the kind words. Stay tuned, got a 3 day weekend coming up, then 2 days of work and then a 5 day weekend. Truck will be in the garage overnight for the first time since I bought it