Gear Head's Silver 2000 TRD Build

hey brah. where did you end up getting those dowel style shock tabs from? I may or may not have acquired some shocks that have that style of eye


edit, just kidding found some at low range

 

Oh sorry it took so long. I've been working a ton of overtime lately. I actually just took a spring perch, cut it in half, slid some bolts in and tack welded them on the back. Ghetto but it worked haha. Going to redo them soon though. They hang too low and my up and down numbers will be different with the creeper joints, 6" shackles, and no overload

 

no biggie. not in a rush at the moment. I was just searching the internet and found em on low range.

so i plan on running the same thing you are, minus the creepers. ill be interested to see what the difference is with and with out em.

 

Honestly it probably wont be a huge difference. The biggest thing is that mine will move a little free-er and my spring bushings will last a lot longer. I fully drooped the passenger tire the other day and I was like when I saw how the bolts were twisted up in the spring bushing

 

ya. not excited to have that happen.

im stuck on this one. I think I should get em, not sure though

 

How long you willing to wait? You can wait for me to get mine done and I can let you know the ups and downs. I move in at the end of March and am planning on ordering a bunch of things sometime in April.

The other thing is, as much as you're modifying the truck, why not just go ahead and get the most performance out of it?

 

eh, i should be thinking about starting the swap in april with moab fast approaching.

i thought i had enough cash, but now these mods are looking like they will be digging into the moab funds lol. which is my only concren

 

Must be nice living close to Moab I hope to make it there before I die

And 63's, creepers, and new spring hangers is under $200 easy. $50 for 63's, ~$100 for the creepers, ~$25 for the 1/4" flat stock for the hangers and 1.5" square tube for the creepers

 

close to moab is relative.

its still an 11 hour drive.

but if you like rock crawling...not much else compares



i did this break down in my thread...it comes a bit over your 200 dollar estimate lol

Front Hangers-30
Creeper Joints-89
U bolt flip kit-55
6" shackles-28
2 18mm bolts and nuts-20
4 9/16th bolts w/washers & nuts-15
Bushings-16
shock tabs-34

total comes to 287



im assuming these come welded and ready to go...

 

Ah I forgot about the ubolt flip and the new bolts for the shackles. I made a lot of my stuff so it was either free or cost next to nothing. I got my u bolts and top plates from a local trailer supply place for like $20, re used the 63 bushings since they looked good, shock tabs were free, metal to box frame and the tube for the upper crossmember/shock mount was $15, 1/4" plate for the front hangers was like $25, didn't need new bolts since I'm using stock shackles.

Try to find some reviews on those low range creeper joints. I have heard they are not all equal and that the trail gear ones suck. I plan on going with the ballistic fab joints

http://www.ballisticfabrication.com/263-Heavy-Duty-Ballistic-Joint_p_1226.html

 

Interesting. Honestly can't imagine the are that bad. More so i want some welded ready to go

 

I would strongly suggest NOT using creeper joints (or something similar) on the front springs for a SAS. I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about or if you're just thinking for the rear setup. If you use them on the front you'll have some scary behavior on the road.

From my experience the creeper joints really don't allow much more travel. The only benefits slightly less spring fatigue and prolonged bushing life since you eliminate some of the twisting. If you're changing your spring hangers anyway, then it makes sense to spend the money and time to do creeper joints. But for almost $300 for the stuff you listed above Mark, to me its not worth that. You could run the truck for years with poly bushings and replace them 5 times and still be cheaper and have almost exactly the same performance.

 

Oh no worries haha. We're basically copying Silas' rear suspension setup (minus the 14" shocks!). And I mentioned the same thing a couple posts up about not helping travel much, mainly bushing life so we're on the same page there. Most of the $300 worth of stuff he has listed is for the 63 swap but I definitely understand what you're saying about the poly bushings.

 

Ya we were talking about creepers for the rear. And exactly as he sad below, it is mostly to alive the stress on the bushings when it twists. I just wasn't sure how long it takes to mess up the bushings doing that. In reality I'll be keeping this setup till I'm done with school, so like 2ish years down the road. So I want to do it right. If I do end up having to move the hangers anyway do you think it makes sense to get em?

I talked to Silas about it lol, I'm really not trying to copy him...but I ended up getting some 14" shocks for a good deal.... So ya I'm gonna have some stupid shock angle too

 

You really only have to move the front spring hangers. You can leave the rear shackle hangers in the stock location if you want. I have a good shackle angle with a 3 pack + overload. I'm going to move my rears forward so when I do longer 6" shackles I can maintain a good angle.

63's and stock shackles, stock shackle hangers in the stock location


And 14 inchers! Damn haha. What brand?

 

I have 6" shackles now as think it's fine. I suppose I could just keep the factory hangers where they are at.

And just bilstein 5125s. 2 lightly used and one new one for 150 (and not shipping). Can't beat that lol

 

Nice, but 3? Haha why did he have 3? I only have 12's I still don't think I'll use all 12" of travel though when I'm done. You could always run the stock hangers and come back and add creepers later. But it would be nice to be able to do it all in one go.. Don't forget that if you go with no overload you'll have to get some bumpstops too so you don't trash your high dollar leaf springs!

 

True. It's not too bad to swap the hangers.
I plan on taking out the overload, so I'll extend the bumps

And he had 4 cuz they sent him the wrong size and they sent him 2 shocks after that instead of one

 

Hey dude when you put your 63s in the stock shackle did you just put the shackle bolt through the metal sleeve in the bushing and call it good? I'm trying to figure out what I need because I want to replace the bushings, but on my 6" day star shackles it's a grease able bolt and bushings, and the day star shackle bolt is bigger than the factory bolt. Also the factory bushings in now don't look like te poly bushings in my taco leafs. So I'm trying to figure out how to to make it all work. I would like to replace the Chevy bushings with some identical to the factory ones in now, but I would need a sleeve the same size as the bolt in the shackles now I would think. Using a smaller bolt would of course cause it to just flop around

If that makes any sense

 

Damn that blows. Yeah the stock lower shackle bolt fit perfectly through the sleeve in the 63's with no slop and the rubber bushings in the leaves didn't look terrible so I ran with it. If you could find a sleeve the right size for your daystar shackle bolts couldn't you just drill out the new bushings a little bigger, press the sleeve in and be good to go?