Sluggo: The 4 banger build

Material for the shock relocation



It starts Thursday night!!

 

Custom rear suspension pics!

Chevy 64" leaf pack with TG Creeper Joints, 6" shackles, and triangulated 14" Bilstein 5125 shocks and an 8" extended steel braided brake line.

Parts:

Front hangers (Ruff Stuff)
6" Shackle Plates (Ruff Stuff)
Chevy 2wd half ton 3 leaf pack with over load removed (used)
New poly bushings
New 9/16th bolts, nuts and washers
TG Creeper joints
Toyota axle shock relocation tabs (low range)
Steel braided brake line (all pro)
Custom fabbed shock cross bar

Ill get a u bolt flip kit in there eventually




Sorry for the BGR pics, my i phone camera is messed up and it was all I had to take pics with


Removing the bed. Not that bad. My buddy and I were able to get it off on our own however it was a bit awkward because he is shorter than I and could not lift the bed high enough to walk it off.



Late Night dinner and drinks as we work through the night. May or may not have done a beer bong or two.


The pile of parts to be installed.


Cutting off the front hanger. I tried to remove the bolts but they were seized in the bushing. Good thing it was all coming off anyway, so i just took the cut off wheel and chopped it off at once.


Dropped a bob down the frame and marked where the center pin had to be to keep the axle centered. We got it basically spot on, with the bed on the axle is centered in the wheel well.


Front hangers about to go on.


Welding it on. Suck it Monte.



Mocking up the axle shock tabs.





And the frame plate for shock cross member.



Some welds.



Shock cross bar.





Cross bar welded in on top of the frame and to the frame plate. It just clears the bed, perfect.


The steel braided brake line installed here







After I put the truck back together I got home and realized my shackle angle was flat as a pancake
The truck was utterly useless. So they got chopped off again and welded back on. The ride height angle was much better and droop didn't really change. Such a relief to not bottom out coming into my driveway.

When they were flat, the front hanger eye and the creeper eye were 58.5" apart. When I relocated them back I moved them an inch, to 59.5" apart and it made all of the difference.





So much better.





And some droop. Since I relocated the creeper joint the drooped angle is closer to 90 than this one, but im still one notch from the top with the tires starting to lift.

Pretty darn pleased with it! I cant wait to get this pig out and wheel it.


When drooped like that from the hitch I have 11.5/12" of shock exposed...So it would be pushing it if I did have 12" shocks. I have to take it off road and measure where the bump stops need to go so I don't over compress the shocks as well. The height of the top of the bed rail back by the tail light is 55" also to note.

 

Also got a new addition, this will be my bed light/extra reverse light.

 

Nice man.

Still think 14s are too long. You have no up travel and aren't using the full droop of the 14s..just me tho.

Hope it works good man!

 

Any more droop than I have and I would be over extending the shocks. When the springs soften or its articulating its possible to have the axle droop some more, which would be darn close to if not over using all 12" of shock. I think the 14s are good. I have up travel still. Like I said I have to get out and stuff it and measure to see how much I have before i have to put a bump stop in.

 

Agreed, looking good. (Although, it was geometrically impossible for you to bottom out the springs when they were at 58.5"......... they definitely looked more flat than mine... :/)

I agree that 12s (only slightly triangulated) are more reasonable for an all around truck, however..... with 35s or 37s, you can't use that much up-travel anyway unless you cut out a ton out of the back wheel wells.

With only about 2.25" cut from the rear wheel wells and my 37s, I would have had more than an inch of unused shaft with a 12" shock before the tires ate the bedsides. So, if you don't want to cut more than that out of the fenders (like I didn't) and on a crawler built for down-travel on articulation, you can make the most of 14" shock with the big tars.

But then again.... the upper mounts for my 14"ers pushed up the bed a bit, so 12"ers would actually sit a bit lower if mounted with no bed modification..... so 33s and 35s, I'd say 12"ers are probably best, but 14"s could work... especially if you don't want to cut too much into the fenders. (Just thinking out loud)

 

I knew you had pushed your 14s up a lot Silas..Plus i wouldn't be surprised if your foxes bodies were a tad shorter.

it only looks like he would have a few inches of up travel before hitting the shock..but who knows.

He will find out haha

 

Hum they were possibly shorter. Either way, he'll have to use some big ol bump stops..... A few inches up travel is all I had. A lot of solid axles rigs only run 2" uptravel anyway... no issues if the correct bumpstops are used

 

true true...you guys and your damn crawlers..haha

at this rate Mark..you won't be able to keep up with me on trails anymore ...well..long as they don't have huge boulders to slow me down too much..haha

 

when I say bottom out, i mean that the springs hit the creeper joints going over bumps

I was going to buy 12" shocks, but i got a deal for 3 of em and decided I was going to try and make it work

im not sure if his are THAT much higher. my shocks are in the middle of the tube, and half the tube sits on top of the frame rail. So the shock eyes are basically at frame rail height, and the lower mounts sit around on the bottom of the axle.

Didnt I know that going into this though? I should still be able to come on the expo trips, considering i still have half ton leafs holding the weight, but I just wont be able to haul dick with you I dont think. Thats why im not super on board with doing those SAME wyoming trails again. Ill go on an expo trip with yall for sure! But if im doing that, like I said i want to go somewhere different



ride height shock position

 

droop brah

 

Shoulda cleaned and repainted that axle while you had it out.

 

Finally

i laughed so damn hard hard when I scrolled through and saw that

I didnt have time to finish the truck right. when the hell did i have time to clean that stupid thing

one day I will pull it out and get it cleaned and painted. maybe when the stupid bike runs

 

Did you ever notice my user title? haha

 

Oh of course!

At least it wasn't green

 

It's been that since I got back from Boise. haha

 

lol dude I love the names you give your vehicles