Long Travel BS Thread

I never burped or blew an inner. That said, I didn’t ever go lower than 8 psi and regularly ran at 10 psi. Where I was wheeling on the east coast, dropping that extra few psi never made a difference in traction but did make a smidge of difference in ground clearance. For me the peace of mind was just knowing I would never blow a bead vs running really low pressure.

 

Maybe just don't
bruh like half the problems that get posted in this thread come from dudes running closer to like 6000 lbs with a frame and remaining suspension/drivetrain/steering parts that are designed for a 4500 lb truck

 

How are a couple spares, batteries, and a jack 1500 lbs - what tires you think we’re running? Haha

 

I havent blown an inner but burp below 10psi when getting super flexed on the pointy rocks, doubted the rim almost bottoms out on stuff at that pressure/situation

 

You can post this up in the overland section lol
Balancing the weight is a science and part of the process

 

Weight has to be balanced. Trucks are light in the back, gotta add weight so they don't bounce.

 

i mean yea i exaggerated a lil but i still don't think i've seen a weight below 5000 posted here
also bumpers, shocks like 6x the size of stock

 

yea i get it but there is also decent weight to be saved in the front and can be done for free like removing stuff and drilling holes in things. Never really gets mentioned here and i think it should
Have you relocated your battery yet to get that weight off the front fender? Or looked into a lighter one? That's -50 ish lbs in the front +50 in the rear. That's as much as adding an extra spare right there. With minimal weight added to the truck overall

 

It’s not so much that the front is heavy and the rear needs to be heavier - weight behind the axle makes it easier to shock tune.

To make them go faster race trucks try to just use thinner chromoly and begin with a more well laid out structure with 60+ gallons of fuel and spares as far back as they can make it.

Starting with a 10 gauge c channel and partially boxed frame you don’t have much choice other than boxing, plating, and making better cross members to handle the extra abuse and weight in places like core support, motor mounts and under the bed in particular.

It’s a lot better to start from a stripped cab and frame if you really want to make a Tacoma / Silverado / Ranger / etc. well built but minimize the unneeded weight but that’s gonna take a lot longer having the truck down ( from personal experience).

 

Yea there isn't a whole lot of options if a strong balanced truck is the goal, but i still think there's ways to do it that end up with a better truck overall if a bit of thought is put into it. Like in this case i think the it's a bit backwards to add unnecessary weight as the first option. If someone has already done all the little things and still has an unbalanced truck then okay, there isn't much of a choice. But if the guy still has the stock battery in stock location, stock front crossmember, an off the shelf plate bumper, hasn't removed unnecessary stuff, drilled holes here n there ...theres better options and half of em are cheap or even free if ya don't mind spending some time on it

 

I live in snow country so I don't think a bed mounted battery would be smart

 

They make weatherproof battery boxes too

 

I am not the smartest lol

 

Unnecessary would be something that isn't structural or helping the truck to stay planted. Off the bat you need to box in the C channel portions of the frame and even plate portions of the boxed frame that handle the most twisting or bending forces.

I'm not sure what would be able to have holes drilled in it that is too strong and heavy that would reduce a significant amount of weight. Holes in the frame will be stress concentrations that will become likely spots where bending or cracking will start. Even top tier builds that have a frame will either plate the whole thing or add internal gusseting which makes it heavier.

https://youtu.be/Iss49oFZZfY?t=191

If you had an independent rear suspension rear weight wouldn't need a ton of weight over the rear as you can see a lot of sxs's can stay relatively light, but even IRS race vehicles like a lot of weight over the rear end.



As with all performance oriented vehicles, keeping a low COG is still important. Keeping additional weight low as possible is important. I don't want to lose my bed, but a lot of guys make spaces to drop their spares through the bed or ditch it completely to reconfigure things more intentionally in terms of spares. I'm able to mount batteries under the bed and lay two 35's flat in the bed front to back. The bed cage bolts to the frame through the bed which adds structural rigidity.

The overland dudes bolting all the extra weight on the roof or a bed rack is the antithesis of this and it must be like driving a coat rack based on what I experience when I remove my 2nd gen's camper shell and can feel the difference in the body roll from only a simple shell.

Reducing unsprung weight is accomplishes the things you're referring to - reducing drive train load, overall weight, and still aids shock tuning. For really light weight mini trucks, this can even mean running a sxs tire.

https://youtu.be/biNHhu9134g?t=1074

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw_1JlzNcrH/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu4cKmRLm_6/

 

To emphasize how much these frames are noodles, look at the c channel on my truck after I chopped it in half and removed the crossmember. The link pivots are loose on the frame, so ignore those but I put the red box as reference what is close to square.

C channel mostly twisted inboard. I started working on attempting to square them up yesterday.

 

Could put it in one of the cubbys behind the rear seats or an agm or lithium battery wouldn't need to be completely sealed. Just a skid or something under it

 

lol i'm not saying to avoid plating the frame. That would be necessary weight imo if you're pushing the truck that hard. And yall are moving the goal posts or just misunderstanding me. That's way different from things like adding blocks of steel like snosk8 posted, or sandbags, or adding an extra spare, or filling spares with water. I'm just saying there's other ways to balance a truck besides adding completely unnecessary weight to an already underpowered truck with some weak spots.

It's no wonder so many good fabricators stopped posting here through the years. Yall are acting like i'm ignorant on fabrication and writing a lil thesis about separate topics because i suggested an alternative option that could also meet the same goal

 

So I don't think I'm understanding what you want to make holes in first of all. Care to pinpoint what you're going to make any reduction in weight in? I'm thinking the only thing thick enough to make a difference in would be non-hole-making-friendly components such as engine, spindles, or control arms.

Race trucks place their weight in the back with 2 37, 39, or 40 inch spares on true beadlocks, fuel cell (480+ lbs) at the very rear along with tube structures holding them all behind the rear axle. How is it that we are going to match that amount with a 20 gallon tank amidships?

If not adding another spare or relocating anything behind the axle, how will you change what the leaf springs or coilovers react to when mediating between the sprung and unsprung weight? @snowsk8air2 is a good fabricator, not only that but he spent a lot of time with top shock tuning guys in the industry with his truck.

As for power, unless you're racing it's not a real issue to be underpowered and have travel to get into as adding upgrades to the powertrain become an option.

 

battery has been done. The sandbag is temporary like I previously stated. You keep making suggestions to nobody’s problems.

 

I will add Justin Lofton has been testing Method forged bead grip wheels on his trophy truck. Yes he may be running 40psi or so but the side loads on trophy truck tire and wheel are huge.