*Check your spindle gussets for cracks with B/S talk

I think that is what @jberry813 is running

 

Cool..,not sure if I will rub my resi though lol

 

The gussets won't change the wheel clearance from the frame and body

 

I know lol...I know that my tire tapped the resi before I got a alignment...put my 33s back on till I can cut more

 

That's a good idea with the sand. Lime also works very well to cool slowly.

 

Now I gotta go check my gussets for cracks?

Screw you guys!

I hate this website!

 

Have you even fixed your tie rod end boot yet?

 

No.
Screw you too

 

My TC non sway bar ones cracked in the same spot. equal on both sides. welded them back up and last trip (500miles off road through the Mojave) they're cracked again just above my new weld. each time about a 1/32". no jumping but some fast super rough roads.
i had been looking for better gussets and will def be getting the truck shop ones for my next set of knuckles.

 

What would I be looking at for a set of these?

 

So I commented in this thread early on. Fast forward about a month. I was of the impression that leaving them stock might be the move. Well then I bent a spindle on my trip... Ended up having to do an alignment in a shell parking lot to get my wheel in a semi correct location for my 600 mile drive home.

$260 shipped for a new spindle and it's installed, getting an alignment Wednesday.

The trails I was on were more choppy, some bumps but nothing too crazy. I think what got me was a wash out from flash flooding, about 18" wide trench I hit going fast. Didn't feel like anything too bad, and didn't really notice the bad alignment until the next day.

I put the new spindle on the truck to get things going and I am trying to decide what to do moving forward. On one hand I like some of the more robust options that have been posted here by SD truck shop or @glorifiedwelder TC modified version. On the other hand I still feel like there are some heat treat issues at hand here... I could make new custom spindles but thats a lot of work and money for stock width suspension. Probably find some down time and gusset my spindles and then go from there... Kind of a crap shoot.

 

Okay I've read through this thread and others like it and I see a lot of differing opinions on what the spindle material actually is. Has anyone ever had something like positive material identification done to one one of these? I'm not just trying to determine if they are cast or forged, but determine what type of steel they actually are.

What about the TC gussets, anyone know what they are? I'm guessing 1018?

The reason I ask is that I work in an industry where I often have to indentify materials and then determine a weld repair plan. I'm about to install a set of spindle gussets of my own and had just planned to weld them up myself. Now I'm kind of tempted to figure out just what these are made of and then talk it over with some weld engineers.

 

Would like to hear more about what you find.

 

Curious as to what you find out. Please let us know.

 

Okay, I checked with a friend and he's going to do an OES analysis on one of my spare spindles.

 

Sweet.

 

Check with @HBMurphy. He/his friend spent many months tracking down the exact formula from Toyota, in a quest to learn the exact tempering recipe. Word has it non-disclosures were signed about the tempering process (THAT is where any improvements in strength lie!), but I don't know if that includes the precise metallurgy recipe.

 

Heat treating yes. ...and I am sworn to secrecy.

I have used a few different gussets. The ones I use and I have seen being used in very special circumstances are the TC ones that allow you to retain the anti-sway bar. There are a few changes you could make to those that would make them even stronger but I have yet to see one bend. I am also impressed with the ones I saw out of the Truck Stop. I have yet to see them in person or use them but from a cursory look and understanding of physics - they may be a very strong contender.

Just remember this: The factory design is built only to be strong enough for the typical use of our trucks. They are a circuit breaker and are designed with some level of built in weakness. In a crash or what we like to call, "Wheeling," the spindle should deform before ripping off a rack, tilting the coil buckets inward, etc. One example of this is the tie rod ends. I kinda think it was funny when a certain off road company designed beefy tie rods with hiem joints that were not double shear. I found them funny for two reasons, they were designed in a way that I don't think you could ever keep a front end alignment (no double shear where it was needed) and because installation would just remove another very good 'fuse' from the front of the truck. I am pretty sure they have all since retired.

Back to the heat treating, you could try different Rockwell hardnesses to try to find the right 'mix' but your time, money and effort would be better spent burning on a set of the TC ones that allow the anti-sway bar to be used. Not because you are going to use a sway bar but because of physics - That design is far superior to the other ones out there. I know that they say to use a spacer. I go back and forth from a set of the fake TRD 'beadlocks' and a set of aftermarket wheels that have been converted to beadlocks. I have no interference problem but if I know I will need to put chains on, I put a 1.25 spacer so that I have the required clearance.

Best wishes.

 

Is the non away bar gussets with added steering gusset just as strong? Have some with the non sway bar gussets and not sure I wanna go through having to cut them off...