ok, i have heard from many different people that you cant flip the i beams on a 2wd truck to get lift, is this possible? if so, can someone explain, very interested in this.

 

I watched an old episode of junkyard wars and a team did that on an old 65' or 66'. I think you just run everything upside down and backwards. It should ad 4'' or so. I think. Is this not the way to do an old school pre-runner? Like they did in the old Parnelli jones Baja years? I may be wrong, there must be someone out there that knows.

 

Don't do it just get the system AutoFab has its easyer and safer with less that can go wrong

 

i think i might try it, considering that kit is about 1500 bucks

 

I think it will reverse the caster and tear the steering wheel out of your hands.

 

why? is there anything that would help??

 

NOT the way the did it. If I remember right the 65/66 trucks were a SOLID beam front end. Not independent I-beams like our trucks. I could possibly see this working as they MIGHT be able to flip it upside down and then put what was the dirve side on the passenger side to correct the caster issues. Still I think camber would be way off...
Anyways - our beams have a specific shape and bend to clear the cross member, etc. I don't think it would be physically possible to get them to fit back in the truck flipped, and even if you could get them to fit you would have MAJOR camber issues, and some pretty drastic caster issues as well. Aside from that making the steering work would be a trick even Houdini would have a hard time pulling off.

If you have more time than money and can live without the truck for a while feel free to take the i-beams off your truck and look at what will happen when you flip them. I think you could save yourself some time and frustration by sitting in front/under and just LOOKING at the beams. This should tell you that flipping them won't work.
Well - I shouldn't say "won't", but making them work that way would take 5x the effort and cash of doing it right the Autofab way.

Oh and by the way - the way John at autofab does the beams is the way the old baja racers did them - IF - they did them. Many of those old trucks didn't have too many actual suspension changes. They might put in a beefier spring, definitely some better shocks and then the just went for it

Mmmmm - baja 1000 - November 20-23 2008. I certainly hope I can hit this one. It's been 3 years since I've been able to go

 

1965 was the 1st year for the twins

 

yea, there is a guy that has done this to 2 of his 67-72 fords, and he drives them fine, and one for pulls, he flipped them over and put them on the opposite sides. i might talk to him and see how he did it and post the info back on here.

 

Get him to post pics - I wanna see this

 

ill see what i can do

 

for anyone that doesnt believe that you can flip those old fron ends, just look at youtube. type in the search "perry mud boggs". you will see at least 50. i wont lie though. there will be camber issues, but it depends on you're spring height. by the way. if you watch the videos. i'm from perry...

 

The problem with the movies is you can't really see the suspension up close on these things. I'm sure the camber/caster are WAAAAY out of whack, which might not be an issue if these things are ONLY driven in the dirt/mud. You are sliding around so much in that stuff that the effects of suspension geometry kind of go out the window I guess.

The I-beams on these trucks have pretty crappy suspension geometry to begin with (major camber change through travel, and lots of bumpsteer due to design). Mess with some of this stuff without knowing about suspension geometry and it gets even worse - SCARRY wosre. I'll just say I'm glad most of these things are on the other side of the country. I wouldn't trust driving on the freeway next to much of the fabrication I've seen coming out of the backwoods...

 

hold on there, we rednecks arnt the only ones making scarry changes on our trucks. you might wanna eyeball that pre-runner taco thats driving next to you. for all you know he could have a 2" suspension lift and a 5" body lift made up of square tube and stock bolts.

 

Don't take offense - I am as redneck as anybody here. I AM a fab snob though. I agree there are some scarry things driving around here. Although typically they are not near as bad as other places. We're "too cool" out here to do body lifts, so we just do custom a-arm front ends that are 15" wider per side and have bumpsteer through the roof - haha.

Even with the few trucks like that out here I'd dare to wager common fab practices are "cleaner" here. At least from what I've seen in pictures from over there.

Oh - and if people want a look at my fab you can check out the ranger in my gallery or my thread on my diesel swap down in the motor swaps forum.