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Fullsize Pre-runner Thread!

the arms use heims or uniballs at the pivot points. the bend is where the shocks mount, by having the bend there it keeps the link straight vertically, what i mean is since the shock mounting point is below the end mounting points the force of the shock will keep the arm from twisting. those arms are made of plate chromoly usually somtimtes with a tube skeleton with plate over them.
 
kgblazerfive said:
If any body is seriously thinking of building a prerunner and want cheap and Chevy I would start with a 68-72 2wd cuz then you basically have the rear trailing arms to start with.
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the rear isnt an issue. you would have to change out all that stuff anyways to get some good travel. the front is the tough part.

hate to say it but the best truck to start out with for a prerunner at a very reasonable cost is a ford f150 or ranger with i beam suspension in front. the a-arm trucks are good too, but the parts are not cheap, and on the desert world as with many others you do get what you pay for.
 
zcarczar said:
They do it that way for strength, and also when you mount your shocks on the link like that you need to have the shock bolt below the centerline of the two link mounts if you arent running a bushing on the front or rear lower link mount. By building it that way it allows for the link to have high misalignment, and also have enough strength to be able to keep up with the abuse of the high speed desert stuff.

Oh yeah, here's another bad ass truck I see out at glamis all the time.
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if i remeber right hes running a bigblock, dana 60 with a 14b. i looked at it closely at olds hill one day several years ago, but cant recall what it had exactly. it was featured in offroad magazine a number of years ago too.
 
hmmm so a big block? He doesn't have any problem w/ weight or winding it out? I think those were the two major issues we discussed earlier in the thread w/ the BB's...

I'm still thinking a Caddy BB would be a beast for a full-size pre-runner... Plenty of power even in stock form on pump gas and its between a SB and BB chevy weight wise...
 
a big block chevy built properly has no problem with high rpms. weight isnt much of a factor, its WHERE that weight is in the truck that matters, thats why you see the 2 full size spares in prerunners, to try and balance the truck out. ill see if i can dig up the issue with that truck or find some online.
 
I've noticed they also push the engines back into the cab on the bigger rigs... so are they trying to get the COG right over the centerline of the truck (so for example on a standard cab short bed somewhere between the back of the cab and the front of the bed) or do they want weight a little forward or back of the center...
That probably doesn't make sense... I guess I'm just asking where they want the truck to "balance" in relation to how it handles a little air under the tires :)
 
Hmmm I wonder how much you'd have to ditch to set it back 10" or so... definately the firewall would need some chopping but I wonder if you'd need to ditch all the guts of the dash too...
 
The Caddy's aren't known for surviving high rpm's in a stock form but there's aftermarket fixes for that...and making more power.
 
Hmmm interesting... :)


"Yes airsprings have a exponital growth rate on the spring rate, but there is a solution. Basically you are trying to stretch the rubber and at pressure you can never fully compress an airspring. What needs to be done is to set up the spring similar to a shock and resevor setting. In the top of the spring you machine and tap it to fit a -20 or larger air line to an aux air tank atleast twice the volume of the spring. So in turn it will ride softer and you can compress the spring 100% allowing you to set up a system, where the shock will do most of the work. This setup has been tested and proven"

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OMG! :eek1:
I can't wait to get started on my build... :D



"I designed this set up for my truck some time ago and finally got it together and out to test. Although my wheel travel is way limited by the temporary shock set up i'm using for now, it works pretty good as is so far, and the "spring rate" seems to be "in the ball park". It is good to learn that I can adjust my bag spring rates with added air volume or by adding fluid to lessen air volume. I will be running 18" travel shocks when I can squeeze out the dough for them and it will cycle 30" of travel.(now i'm at 16") I'm using 8018 firestone triple bellow bags and running them to their maximum 30 degrees of angularity on the in board cross beam a arms at full droop at about a 2-1 ratio to the actual wheel travel. This design was a little more complicated than locating the bags directly on the control arms but the idea was to keep the bags up out of the rocks and to do something a little different with full function. I have never used air bags offroad before so we will have to see if it will stand the test of time and abuse, but that is what it has in store for it so we will see how it goes!"

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Only thing that scares me (you can see it in the 5th pic) is that there is only 1 "tie-rod" for lack of a better term, that connects the lower pivoting bag mount to the trailing arms... But he said he wasn't done so maybe he's added a second connecting rod...
 
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Somebody must have been a mechanical engineer. I want to air bag my truggy project. Was looking at doing something like this with inverted arms for ground clearance.
 
Yeah no kidding... but after studying those pics for a little while it definately looks "buildable" by someone that can work w/ tube and weld...

Plus I've been looking around and air-bags are pretty darn cheap...




'nother bagger...

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OK THIS IS IT... THE END ALL BE ALL... I don't even know what to say...:crazy:

"It started out as a lowered 2wd 73 dually. Then we decided to go 4wd and thats when we bit off way more than we antisipated. Countless hours later, we had a 205 t-case mated up to the tranny separating a D60 axle up front and the stock ginormous D70 dually axle in the rear under National leafs. It was a beast and it did pretty good in the dirt, but it was difficult to get alot of front travel being so tall with the short front drive shaft, plus we wanted to do a little something extra.
One thing led to another, and after a couple few more hours, it's caged and 3-linked front to rear along numerous other things. We switched up to a divorced 205 t-case to eliminate the need for a 2 piece rear shaft, and to get more length into the front shaft. It now cycles 25" travel front and rear with 0 bump steer. It takes a lot of motor (and gas) to move it, but it ain't lacking ponies, so as long as we can keep the tank full and the throttle buried, we'll be having good times."

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Hahaha and I was worried about my standard cab short bed k10 being too big! lol:haha:
 
But then again, keeping that COG low is sometimes an overlooked but necessary evil of the off-road world :)
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Thats more depressing than your favorite monkey dieing........

I would say I think they needed to get to know the truck a little better and got too carried away too soon. I realize that was an enormous truck and not the best base for a pre-runner. But I still think they could have had alot of fun if they hadnt gotten to exited.

Now you mention the COG, and granted you would think that it needs to be kept low. But I begged myself into a ride in a SUPER BAD ASS sand rail last year at utahs little sahara OHV park. That rail had to have at least 3 feet under the belly and was turning 38" paddle tires in the rear and I would guess the front tires had to be around 35" but I didnt look at their size. It was at least 7 ft tall to the top of the rail. It was BIG and FAST with a twin hair dryer setup on a LS7.

Although I do realize there is a HUGE differnce in a rail and a truck. It still amazed me how big and tall it was.

Now the real question is....Is there any close up shots of the tube undercarage after the roll? I thought I could see some booger welds in there, I wonder if they held.
 
He said everyone inside was wearing 5pt. harnesses and walked away... the truck is fine (had a full cage)... just has a little body damage now ;)


Yeah sand-rails are tall too but like you said thats a whole different ballgame...plus look at the overall weight in a rail. So just b/c its tall doesn't mean much b/c the engine/tranny/suspension/wheels & tires are all heavy pieces that are all down low... on a truck you have all that but you also have a HUGE body way up in the clouds...
 
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