Just got back from the alignment shop, here are the results:



It looks much better now that both are set. They put an adjustable cam on each side.

It has 265's on it now, what do you guys think? 275's ?

wait, now that I look at it, is the camber left side still a little out? time to make a call

EDIT: spoke with the tech, apparently he couldn't get it any closer for fear of something rubbing.

but we are talking about basically being .1 degrees out of spec, and according to the tech, it will get closer as
the springs settle into the blocks

 

I'm running 285's on mine, and I love 'em. They fill up the wheel wells very nicely, but there is absolutely no rubbing from lock-to-lock wheel positions, even at very slow turning speeds.

 

Do you have any pictures of your truck from the side?

 

No, not yet. I need to go ahead and get my before pics for the comparison with the leveling kit, though.

What I do have is a couple of pics of the 285's and 265's on our Excursion. The pics were not taken for comparing the tires, but I believe you can still see the diference... subtle, but real. If you look closely at teh gap between the front of the rear tire and the wheel opening, you can see how the space is smaller with the 285's. Oh... the Excursion is 2WD with stock suspension, too.

The top pic and the first tire pic in the left center of the attached PDF file are both of the 285 Bridgestone Revos.

The bottom pic and the right center tire pic are of the 265 Uniroyals on the same vehicle.

 

That looks better -- thanks for posting up another pic. I have 265s on mine too, and they'll be staying for a while. I just put GoodYear SilentArmors on. $900 in tires -- they better last a while.

Next set will probably be 285s, especially if I do the leveling kit. It's interesting that you're the first one to mention the slop. Others have put that kit in and didn't mention it. Hmmm....

 

After looking at fatbobs installation instructions online, the images are clearer, and a few things are evident: http://www.fatbobsgarage.com/instructions/20200.pdf

I realized that the suspension on the example is just a bit different than the way mine is.

I wondered what the flat side on the spacer was, but in the pics in the instructions you can see that it is made that way to clear the sway bar mount.

Mine turns down instead of up, no flat side necessary for an 01:




Also take a look at fig.4, the raised area on the coil pad is clearly much larger than mine, this would account for the slop that i felt.

It probably also explains why i needed a spacer to bring the washer down to contact the spring.

Something I hadn't considered, would be to replace the bolt in the ibeam with a longer one, and add a steel / aluminum sleeve to pick up the slop inside the spacer.
I might in fact change this one day when I have nothing better do do.

All in all not a bad kit, but there is certainly room for improvement.

 

I still carry a 285/75-16 as my spare Joe. You're welcome to come over and bolt it up if you want to clearance check it.

 

Joe (tojoski), the concept of replacing the beam bolt is exactly my primary goal in trying to put together a better kit. However... getting that bolt as an equal length replacement item is easy when going to Ford, but getting it in a 1" longer length is nearly impossible unless you want to purchase LARGE quantities, and I haven't even been able to locate more than one or two bolt manufacturers in the US that have them in the right diameter and lengths. I'm still searching, though. The thing you have to be very careful about is the bolt grade. The original bolts are at least Grade 8, IIRC, so the ones you're looking for need to be one of the following specs:

SAE J429, Grade 8 or Grade 8.1
ASTM A354, Grade BD
ASTM A490 (no class or grade notation)
ISO R898, Class 10.9

Each of the above bolt grades has the following strength characteristics:
alloy materials, quenched, several of the grades are tempered, and the following strength ratings:
-120,000 psi for Proof Load
-130,000 psi for Min Yield Strength
-150,000 psi for Min Tensile Stength

If you find a place where you can get something like 10 of them, let me know.


Joe (Izzy351), I'll be opening up my '02 to see how it compares with tojoski's arrangement and fit in the next couple weeks... just waiting to find out if I'm going to be able to include new shocks in the effort and if so, take advanatge of this months "3 for 4" deal at Shockwarehouse.

 

I am running 285's on mine and have no clearance or rubbing issues either.

Mine also has this slop with the leveling kit now that it has "settled in".

I need to take the stock spacer / washer and ground the oblong part off it and put it under the plastic spacer like you did Joe.

 

OK... great news. I finally located a good supply source for using a single bolt instead of the stud extender. They're not cheap, and I have to order a min of 1 box that has 25 bolts in it ($210 delivered to me for a 40-lb box of 25 Grade 8 bolts). Even if I cannot get a kit going for the spacer as a complete set, I'll be happy to arrange the bolt purchase and redistribution, but I need a couple weeks to make sure that the bolt I've found will properly mate up with the OEM configuration.

EDIT: I meant to mention this earlier, too. Fat Bob's Garage was a sponsor last year, but they did not renew because they said it did not generate much business for them. However, when I spoke with them over the phone, they said they would be willing to offer FTE members a 5% discount (off store prices, not ebay prices)..

 

I dunno, Pete. I think I'd rather have a "4 for the price of 3" deal.

Factor in a little bit for packaging, and then shipping them out to people, and it's about $20 bucks for two. If they work better and are safer than the extenders, I'm down for that.

Keep us updated brother.

And thanks for doing all the legwork.

Stewart

 

Thanks, Stewart. I'm certainly hoping to do the shocks, too, but it depends on cash flow for the month. I'm also trying to let my filter covers carry my monthly truck payment, but I honestly don't see that happening this month because I need to also do the driver side ball joints just to finish that effort that got started last spring with the passenger side units.

All that said, I might just tell the wife that due to the extremely good price on the shocks and the need to do the BJ's, our budget will just have to carry the payment again (like it already has been for the last 30 months).

On the shipping, it looks like the bolts are a tad over 1 lb each, which is not too bad, but the length makes the package large enough to push the shipping up to about $10 per pair the best I can tell from the online calculators... have to research that more carefully to verify, though.

 

Oh! How long are those bad boys?

I guess I was a tad off on my estimate!

Stewart

 

The stock bolts are listed by Ford as being 9.9". With the two-inch spacer, that places the new bolt length to something between 11.5-12.0 inches, so we would have to get the 12" bolt option because the "acceptable manufacturing tolerance" for bolt length is "Length plus 0 inches" to "Length minus 0.25 inches".

Otherwise, if we need 11.5 inches and purchase 11.5 inch bolts, some of them may come as short as 11.25 inches and be too short, but if we bump up to the 12 inch bolts, we're covered.

 

Pete the post office had flat rate boxes. If it fits in the box no matter how heavy it's one price no matter where it goes. I have sent some very heavy stuff in those boxes.