Front axle movement ...

[jms]

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[Jason4x4]

hmmm...

 

[StevoandaRedK5]

It's a viable idea in theory...it will depend on the strength of the crossmember and how it's mounted to the frame, like you already stated.

 

[Big Blzn]

Thinking off the top of my head: If the front springs are holding up, say 2500lbs of sprung weight (front half of truck less axle) wouldn't your crossmember have to be able to support atleast that much weight as that is what your front springs are doing and the crossmember would have to overcome what the springs are doing, holding up approx 2500 lbs. With no experience in the crossmember you speak of it just seems like a lot of weight it would have to hold. Not to mention the 'member would have a tremendous amount of pressure wanting to pull it forward to and not just downward.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

Well, I'm not sure the whole front weight would apply. I thought about it more along the lines of what it would take to decrease the ride height/compress the springs by e.g. 2". No idea what that would be, the truck moves a little when I'm up on the front bumper with my 200lbs, so maybe 800lbs? The crossmember is held up with 6 bolts to the frame and 4 to the motor mounts. Methinks static load shouldn't be an issue on those bolts (both pull/shear), but the dynamic load - e.g. in case of a bounce - would be higher, and probably more of a problem issue.

I may have to check with the buggy guys and see how they do that trick, and where they have they're ATV-style winches mounted for that purpose. I probably better check with ORD, too, since they made the crossmember...

I almost posted something similar, but he's pretty much right.

If the spring is compressed, say, 3" from the weight of the truck it will take an equivalent amount of force to keep the springs at that height if the front tires are off the ground.

I don't remember what front springs you're running but most K5's front lift springs are 300-500 lbs/in. So, let's call it 400 lbs/in x 3 in x 2 springs and the strap would have to hold 2400 lbs if the springs settle 3" under the weight of the truck (I don't know how much the springs might compress under the weight, just guessing).

You probably won't be pulling the front tires off the ground but you are talking about quite a bit of force there. Basically you would be looking at ~800 lbs. of force for every inch that you keep the front end from rising.

Steel is awfully strong and I know the ORD crossmember is pretty stout. I would bet it would be up to the task.


My question would be: why do you feel this is necessary? Leaves generally don't unload much on climbs. Nearly all of the people that run center limiting straps like this are running coils (which unload MUCH easier on climbs than leaves).