Slodgetto's Green Dragon 4x4 Conversion Build

Sorry, man.

There's been a lot of traffic out at the Puerco on Sundays recently....

 

Truck looks great man.
btw I have a half gallon of king shock oil if you want it. Pm me if you want it.

 

Dude! You rock. I'll let ya know tomorrow...

 

Alright man. I'm sure we can meet in Socorro or work something out again.

 

no worries dude. thats interesting, i wonder why

 

For sure, man

 

Looking good!!
How much travel is unused in the shocks at full droop? Is pointing the leaf packs inboard at the front going to change handling/drive-ability?

 

At full droop (not during articulation) there's about 3" unused. But the angle of the shackle is such that it can be used if the leaves break in that much... (I think they will after a year or two of har dwheeling) so I'm guessing the next owner may see full usage of the shocks.

I don't think so... but we shall see. lol

 

do you have a tundra axle on your truck?

 

No he doesn't. Looks like it cause he dovetailed the bed tho haha

 

This. VVV Stock, Taco, e-locker axle...

 

My attempt at moving the leafspring perches in a bit...

I went way to far... The leafsprings are dove-tailed beyond belief.. Had to use the hi-lift to bolt the shackles back on!!

Gonna drill holes in btween the current two... should be just about right to stop the binding shackles

 

wow..haha thats a lot

why are you trying to do that btw??

 

Yeah.... Not sure what I was thinking there... lol It's waay too much.

Reason I'm doin it is because during articulation, the drooping spring is forcing the shackle to the outside, which is binding, which prevents full droop... I think I need to dovetail the springs maybe an inch or two total, so the drooping spring will allow the shackle to swing towards the inside. (Not the 4-6" I did last night! )

 

Feel free to make fun of me. lol It will be fixed tonight...

 

seems legit

 

It's gay

 

Silas, I don't think dovetailing your springs is going to work the way you think. There's a reason that it's pretty important for leaf springs to be parrallel with each other. I think you're going to creat more binding and create a serious stress point at the front spring hanger. Not to mention you will trash the front spring bushing in short order because it is putting stress on the bushing at an angle.

Looking at your pictures it looks like part of your problem is that the Creeper Joints are not deflecting like they should. They aren't twisting much at all from the pics during normal flexing. The only time I see the joints twist like they should is when you are forcing it like with the pic using the hilift.

This whole idea started probably 15 years ago with the AOR guys in Grand Junction when they created their Orbit Eye springs. It put the uniball joint in the eye of the spring rather than in the shackle hanger. That setup seemed to flex more naturally than with the joints in the hanger. The problem is that it requires a custom spring to fit the joints.

A friend of mine has a really built minitruck running double Orbit Eyes. Has the joints in the shackle hanger and in the spring eye. It definitely works, but can have a little bit of sketchy road manners on the highway. It's not bad but can feel a little wiggly in the back.

Personally I think dovetailing the springs is the wrong approach and will create more issues than you expect.

The amount of binding you are looknig to eliminate is pretty minimal. I mean seriously, how much more dropp do you think you're going to get? Maybe an inch? Is it worth all this effort for 1"? If it were me I'd look to see if there were some replacement rubber bushings you could put in the spring eyes. If you have poly bushings right now, the rubber will let the pins flex more and might get you a little more flex. You'll chew through rubber bushings faster but that are cheap.

I haven't looked closely but maybe look at opening up your spring clamps a little too so the leaves can fan just a little more.

 

Yeah.... I think your right.

I actually think I figured it out, last night though... It appears that I goofed up on the mounts during my swap. The front hangers are slightly closer together than the leafspring perches on the axle, which means the springs were actually pointing slightly outwards.

Soo... I do still need to move the center pin holes more towards the center, but I actually won't be dovetailing them. I will actually be bringing them parrarel to eachother. (Maybe a sliight dovetail.) They might look like they're a bit dovetailed since the rear shackles hangers are also slightly further apart from eachother than the fronts, but I honestly think it will be fine with the creper joints. The amount of twisting will be very small...

And good tip on the bushings... I actually got stock rubber bushings for that reason. The double orbit eye set-up sounds almost perfect. It would eliminate the binding issue I'm fighting where the spring meets the shackle...

It's hard to tell be that picture, but I believe the reason the creeper joint isn't allowing the shackle to deflect is becasue the leafspring is too far outboard. I think it will deflect just fine if I bring ithem slightly inboard... And yeah, the clamps were closed too far, I opened them up more after that trip. I'd be happy with at least 3 more inches of droop. We'll see if that happens...

 

4 linked rear for more flex?