The Frankenstein Build! LT/Expo/Trail rig..and BS

Sorry man,.thats terrible. I don't want to imagine doing that even..

 

It wasn't sudden and we knew it was coming but we were hoping that he and my son could have one more holiday season together.

Will probably be moving in his house - the one who's address you already have - soon which means that we will have a huge shop to use full time. Let me get some crap sorted and then we can start working on a schedule again.

 

Sounds good man. I can wait on the sticker bomb till then too man. Hope it all works out

 

Subbed been really digging deep in your build thread cause I got a 97 and your build is my goal monte



in a couple months I will be picking up the MCM long travel already talked to matt about it and will be meeting up. stock bumpers will be gone soon also. if you dont want this on your thread go ahead and delete it haha just thought i would stop in and say hello! Thanks for all the awesome write ups and ideas

 

Nice truck and a good start but if you want to be like frank, you need more lights.

 

hahaha im putting a 42 on the windshield then im done haha

 

Awesome man! Glad to inspire! You'll love the MCM kit too man. Was stoked from my last trip getting to really strech out the legs. Truck looks good! Watch those cv angles too.

Glad to be of help. I never mind people posting in here. Post anything and ask questions if needed.

Build looks good so far man. Keep on wrenching

 

Thanks man.
Boots slip off or what?

 

With too much front lift you makes he cv boots rub. The fins touch and as you drive they wear grooves into themselves then bam. Blown boot and grease everywhere.

Plus you have no down travel and that makes for a shit ride.

 

No down travel??????

 

Yea,

So the further your lift an ifs suspension the less down travel you have. It's a pretty simple concept, your suspension cycles up and down, duh haha when you put lift coils on the truck all that those did was change where the suspension rests when your not using it. As in not moving up and down.

But to get the lift you're forcing the suspension down. The suspension has a limit. I believe stock is 7" or so.

So let's say on stock coils that where sagging a bit you had 2" of up travel and 5" of down travel. That means if you hit a bump in the road, the wheel can only travel 2" up before the bump stop hits the frame giving you the super stiff jarring Impact we all hate. But if you hit a pot hole the wheel can drop 5" so it's smooth.....untill the rebound and you have no dampening and the coils can't cope anymore and you smack the bump stop again cause it's old suspension


So you buy lift coils. It raises the truck a lot. Let's say 3" over stock so since your old coils where shot you gained 3.5" overall. That means you now have 5.5" of up travel. Yay! But...only 1.5" of down travel..

Ideally you want close to equal each. Plus with ball joints and cv axles you don't want the boots rubbing or the actual joints binding.

On our rigs about 2" of lift, 2.5" at the most, is best. The joints are happy, cvs are happy, and your in a good range of the suspension travel.

That's why I swapped coils on my LT kit. I had like 1-2" of down travel with the 18" 700lb coils. Was useless. Now I have almost 7" up and down(with the lt kit I have 14" of travel vs the stock 7") And my joints and cvs are happy. Plus it rides better.

Make sense?

 

Yeah I get all that I was just asking the kit has no down travel but I was already thinking cause I saw you had some pretty stiff coils and I could see how tall it was I was thinking in the lines of a 600 lb coil maybe 650. You scared me thinking the kit has all up travel with the coils it comes with haha. I'll talk to Matt and see what coil compression weight he believes is best and I will put down that I will have a played bumper from Cbi up front so that's extra weight but I know I want half and half or maybe a little in between that. I want it pretty squishy but just so soft I bottom out on a good G out lol. What was the hardest part in the install? Are there any cons yet on the kit?

 

Monte so how much lift do you have on the front witht the LT compared to stock?

 

Oh ha! no sorry didn't mean that..

Yea 600lbs should be enough. Im gonna switch to 600lb 18'' i think. I have 700lb 16'' and they work great for go fast since i don't have any bumps. They absorb just fine but don't allow bottoming out as easy i think. but dont' flex on the super slow stuff as good as id like. But then again, may just need broke in more. Idk.

hardest part of install..hmm..id say the UCA and pressing out the stock ball joint and pressing in the new uniball adapter is the worst part. Not even that bad really if you get the right tools for it. Its a pretty easy install overall.

Right now, i am at the EXACT same height measured from the skids as i was with eibach coils. Maybe a touch more.. So id guess about 3''? idk..maybe more then that actually...but not much. something like that. My CV angles are awesome. I do think i have a bit more down travel as it sits right now than up travel. Which is fine with me.

 

Hey Monte I wanted to ask how you are liking your MCM kit? I looked at your wright up and the kit looks well built. You have put some decent miles on it and wanted to know how it is. Anything you would change or add to it after driving it for a while? How about the slower rock crawling if you have done a bit of that? Thanks

 

Simple,

I LOVE IT!

Seriously. Been flawless. Works well in every situation. When i took it crawling, i thought the wide would be an issue, but its really not. In some ways it was helpful actually because it allowed me to just drive over the rocks instead of squeeze between them..

But by far the best is just hauling ass down roads..SOOO fun! I love it.

I can't wait to add gussets, engine brace, bumps and secondaries and really get the suspension all tuned in how i like. But out of the box as is right now. Its amazing. Highly recommend! LCAs are BEEF!

 

And less lockers!

Aw dammit I Can't make that joke anymore

 

Haha I was on the same page but just installed a e locker in the rear so I got one haha

 

FUCK YES YOU CAN'T

\

and this means i can now talk shit about lockers now..


ahem..







E lockers suck