Long Travel BS Thread

I've always wondered why nobody really builds more than one or two pieces at a time off the truck. Even on 6 figure luxury prerunners they put nearly every part on the truck one piece at a time despite having everything drawn up in cad. Meanwhile in road racing ford came up with replacing the front suspension assembly as one piece back in the 60s. Next reiteration of my suspension i'm just gonna build it all on a jig in the garage

 

It honestly only makes sense to do it this way. A new engine is going to involve a new engine cage as is. So why not capitalize and build a whole new front section on a stand. Suspension and all while I still enjoy the truck. Then literally 4 cuts dumps the whole front section off.

 

Working on a new bumper design while the truck is at the paint shop this week. Anyone have photos of their engine cage tying into the upper portion/hoop on the front bumper?
Did you go over the radiator, around the radiator, did you lower the radiator, etc.... assuming most people go through the grill, but I'm not opposed to notching the front of the hood and coming over the grill if better design calls for it.

 

Something similar to what @WormSquirts seems to be doing. However, he cut the truck apart first instead.

 

Similar ish I suppose. I won’t be pushing the engine back. And the frame section I build will all be a boxed structure. Goal is to not get into the firewall at all.

 

Yeah fair enough, it will be a little tighter in the footwells for him that's for sure. It is nice to have cab space . If you are not pushing the engine back will you lift it at all or aim to keep it in the same position as factory ?

 

Honestly depends greatly on what it will or won’t allow for 4x4. I will not sacrifice center of gravity to keep 4x4 at this point. However it would be cool to retain if achievable without too much sacrifice.

 

the weather has been amazing in Oco.

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBaI26_tfhU/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

I definitely didn't do everything right with my swap, but I did have to sacrifice a lot to keep 4WD. Like oil pan choice, radiator placement, condenser placement, engine height, engine/trans angle. It's all "acceptable" but all of it put together makes me have some regrets. Hopefully in the next couple days it won't be my problem anymore.

 

When welding sua spring perches on where is a good point to measure from to make sure they are even on both sides? Should there they exactly even distances from that measuring point?

 

I measure from the axle end. The spring perch is 5 3/8" away on each side. Axle is completely centered.

 

It would be interesting to see how close this would be to working. Bronco/f150 fabricated front frame section – ohhchofab

 

Welp she’s back on the streets. So far feels good. Even my alignment has the steering wheel straight and no pull.

 

a bit wider than our frames I feel. But could be wrong. Really anything is possible with enough screwing around though. I entertained his beams for a while but want to stay on the control arm train. I have it stuck in my head to do 2.5x12 CO and 3.5x12 bypass. But in order to utilize that much shock the whole front geometry needs a revamp.

 

Thanks that’s what I figured.

 

https://www.instagram.com/vptracing/ grafted the frond end of Bronco onto his Tacoma. Cut the front of the Taco off just before the firewall and then glued the Bronco on there. So maybe that would work from Ohh Cho Fab.

 

thats what i like about the ls everything sit lower with no ohc so lower weight to begin with. my crank is actually fairly close to where the factory crank height was but the top of my engine is like 10 inches lower, i still plan to raise and push mine back a tiny bit eventually but funds for the truck are seriously lacking at this time...

 

I’ve been on this train of “it can’t be an LS” just because of how they are swapped into everything. But the more I sit and dimension things out the more I realize I don’t think it can be beat for packaging. They are dimensionally smaller than the 4.0 in height and width and only a hair longer front to rear.

The width is the biggest deal as it will allow me to bring in the upper frame rails and really maximize control arm length. But then comes the issue of a front diff.

 

sometimes there's a reason everyone does the same thing - for LS swaps, it's cheap, compact, reliable, and readily available.
pass through hole is probably too small to be useful but the trailblazer/envoy oilpans pass a shaft through it.
Can always make a similar pan.