Body Flex. Good or Bad?

[2INSANE]

I went up to the gravel pits with my 83 Gmc 3/4 ton truck with 6" lift and 33" tires. My brother came along and brought his Stock Samurai. He was having problems on the frame twister obstacles and I rolled up past him and he took a pic of my body flex.

It surprised me a lot to see that much twisting on the truck. I was kinda concerned but also excited I was able to surpass my bros Samurai. Haha!

So my questions are:

1. With this much body and frame flex, is it bad or good?

2. What failures can I expect?

3. Where should I stiffen up the frame?

 

[RIPPEDK5]

That much flex means your your frame may break if it hasnt already.

looks to me like your frame is twisting before your springs are flexing. either your springs are super stiff or you have a problem.

look between your cab and bed for any cracks or weak spots. The frame should flex some, but no more then half of what you've got going on.

Possibly adding a tube type cross member could improve the strength with plating at the flexing point.

thats what i think you should do..

probably. carefully flex the truck like that again and make note where the flex starts and ends. then plate/ reinforce that point.

 

[2INSANE]

That much flex means your your frame may break if it hasnt already.

looks to me like your frame is twisting before your springs are flexing. either your springs are super stiff or you have a problem.

look between your cab and bed for any cracks or weak spots. The frame should flex some, but no more then half of what you've got going on.

Possibly adding a tube type cross member could improve the strength with plating at the flexing point.

thats what i think you should do..

probably. carefully flex the truck like that again and make note where the flex starts and ends. then plate/ reinforce that point.

The springs are very stiff. It's an all spring 6" tuff country lift. No blocks. Even b4 I lifted it, the stock suspension had just as bad body flex.

So far, no cracks that I can see.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[yellowK20]

Its normal don't worry about it, the worst thing that will happen is you might break a few spot welds on the bed the frames are designed to flex a bit from the factory .

 

[yellowK20]

The only place I would really be concerned about is the steering box area, make sure you have a brace there and/or the weld in kit from ORD or make your own

 

[onetonbb74]

Yeah, its normal, Ive wheeled a couple longbeds...Both of them had flex so bad the cab had scrape marks from the bed all the way to the window on both sides. The sheetmetal starts cracking over time.

 

[2INSANE]

I wonder how much flex I would get with the same set up as my blazer

 

[yellowK20]

I have 56" fronts and 53" rears on my "yellowk20" and it will ramp in the high 900's on a 30 degree ramp

 

[2INSANE]

I have 56" fronts and 53" rears on my "yellowk20" and it will ramp in the high 900's on a 30 degree ramp

Pics?

 

[cybrfire]

Last longbed I wheeled, tore/cracked the frame between the box and bed.

 

[warrpath4x4]

a guy i used to know back in oregon got his truck stuck in the mud with his frame twisted like that, sat there for 30 minutes till they could get someone else there to pull him out. his frame was bent after that and ended up having to find a new frame. sitting in his driveway on flat ground it looked like he was flexing.

 

[63chevyll]

Those frames are flexy..

Bend very easy. Had I friend once hydro plane
With his lifted crew cab long bed, and he spun out and the bed bounced off the cab, then was straight.

 

[boz42]

I think the only way to fix the frame flex is to cage it front to back. If done properly you can eliminate the vast magority of it. One of the guys that rides with us had his frame break between the bed & cab on a trail ride. It was a shortbed. I would ride it, it takes a lot of abuse to break one in two.


As far as Blazers go. My 75 before a cage, just crossing a small ditch, you could not open the doors the frame flexed so bad. Come out of the ditch & they wuld open again. After the cage you can't flex it hard enought to effect the doors. Never had it on a ramp but I would bet it is comparable to YellowK20's.

 

[chulisohombre]

I'd be afraid of that breaking in the middle. At the least it would start to warp the body and break the spot welds on panels. The cab could start to fatigue as well. I'd check all the crossmembers and see if they are tight. Maybe somehow tie the ones in the center of the frame together to offset the twist a ill bit. Seems like driveline components wouldn't like that twist as much either and cause damage.