RCLT HD 2.75" - Travel Numbers and Notes

I’ve been pestering him on here about solid axles after what we talked about yesterday

 

I just finished going through my list of solid axle parts.

 

Praise be. I need to piggy back on someone else’s build that knows more than I do

 

I guess part of this process is chasing weak links. After watching Nate's video I am thinking the sub frame needs to be cut off and replaced with proper boxed cross member.

 

You look at your truck wrong and it's been breaking lately!

But honestly watching yours hold together for stretches before cataclysmically imploding at others is what really solidified how I feel about the big tire IFS crawler stuff. Throw enough race parts and fab at it and you can make it work, but at a point it just makes way more sense to shift the money and effort to SA. My quick math says that it's about $7-10k for a blinged out, non LT IFS setup or $10k+ for an LT setup with all the options checked and no wheels or tires. That same $10k gets you everything short of tires and wheels to put a nice SA in the front of a truck.

I'd also include that I'm not knocking the IFS guys, I think the tech in the area is super cool especially for go fast applications and if I lived on the left coast, I'd probably have a LT truck on bypasses that could go 100 through the desert instead of my rock donkey. But for a dedicated serious crawler, SA is just tough to beat since it requires a fraction of the maintenance and is super reliable.

 

This is the key point here, for a dedicated crawler. SA is the best option for a dedicated crawler. IFS is great for those who dont trailer, who drive to and from the trails, and make the occasional run to home depot.

 

I was focused more on the slow speed, 37" tire, crawler usage as opposed to dual purpose trucks that go play in the desert or dunes.

There's quite a few guys with swapped trucks still using them as trucks with no trailer to the trails but to each their own. Mine is 100% drivable by anyone with zero special instruction and sees plenty of road miles as a summer DD. I'm pretty sure @slander has hauled more plywood and drywall in his than most half ton trucks in my neighborhood. Hell, his truck worked great on the trail and I loved it with skinny 33's and IFS too, so I don't want this to be misconstrued into a IFS vs SA thing. I'm just pointing out the limitations of IFS when you take it too far out of what it was made to do.

 

I'm not disagreeing with this but @slander drove 16 hours round trip to wheel this past weekend and nwitaco regularly drives 7 hours to wheel with me. Also most of the time they do a bolt check then drive to the park. They definitely lack the comfort of ifs though.

 

This past weekend I am a firm believer that long travel is overkill for the south east trails. @allmotorrex being skinny definitely helped him this past weekend.

 

One of those has a bobbed bed and the other has no bed? They arent really trucks anymore, you are getting close to truggy status there.

 

Stock bed on my truck. Mine will do 80+, cruise works, ac blasts cold and has power seats. Still on leafs.

 

Pre-reinforced coil buckets mine came loose twice. Post reinforcement hasn’t come loose once and it’s more time reinforced than without.

 

The truggies I wheel with have tube beds because they destroyed their beds on trees and didn't feel like continuing doing that. But both will pull a trailer to home depot if they need to.

 

I'm actually going to back half the truck and put the factory bed back on LOL!!

 

You win with the long bed. Thread killer here. Conversation done. BRB, gonna SAS now.

 

Chop the frame off where it bends in, saves time.

I was just correcting the bed length/truggy record, build a truck however one wants!

 

Good to know we are having the same experience. I think it's fun to lift the truck and put on big tires, but NOT doing the boring and tedious reinforcements costs in the long run.

 

I agree. My truck has just over 40k miles and I admit I got caught up in the Marlin hype about their kit. During the 9 month wait for them to ship I had collected all the parts to finish the build. It wasnt until deep into things we realized it needed more than they claimed, but I was deeply invested at that point and to be honest, the truck performs so well and handles so well that I have no real complaints, except for the time and cost.

 

@allmotorrex is gonna have to get a stock pile of besides with you spotting him haha

 

The body is expendable with my spotting LOL!! If we need to sacrifice some dents and paint to make it through, so be it!!