"Hardcore" 89 (Black and Blue). IT RUNS, DRIVES, AND STOPS. BUILD ON HOLD

[MTBLAZER89]

Looks good, I ended up doing something similar my fenders,I need to bend the inner fender a bit still

I may have to what you did to the front leaves also, or link it

The inner is the hardest part trying to keep it functional. I am still trying to figure out what to do with the portion under the rad support where my tires rub.

I don't think many people run overloads in the front. I'd run the curved one just because it is less likely to hang up on things.

From a ljust ooks standpoint, a little lower in the front is better than lower in the rear

Really? I thought most people ran the overload. I been running the flat one for awhile now and it never hung on anything..it's pretty high.

I like the curved one as well, but I just don't want it to be too stiff.

 

[stan1688]

Ever take this on the road? I'm curious as to how it handles with the front shock mounted that way and if they ever bottom out.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Ever take this on the road? I'm curious as to how it handles with the front shock mounted that way and if they ever bottom out.

Yeah I used to drive it to work all the time, but I do drive it less with the new tires. II e to run the SSR's so they wore a little better.

No there is no issues with the shocks like that. It is just a taller mount located a little more vertical that the stock position. I have quite a bit of uptravel before I am anywhere near bottoming out.

A lot of guys run their shocks like this even without the 52's.

 

[stan1688]

Well the reason I asked was because I tried bolting up my shocks and towers this way today. I have the 15" travel BBCs with the built in bump stop and there wasn't much room before it would hit the bump stop, maybe and inch and a half. My guess is that my 52s don't give me quite as much lift as yours.

Also, I know you have them bolted up to the stock 60 shock mounts but did you have to tweek them at all? The ones on my 10 bolt didn't line up quite right with them.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

No I didn't do anything to the lower mounts. I am lowering my bumpstops during this project too. I'll get a measurement for you after I get it back together though. How low are your bumps?

 

[stan1688]

It measures 4 inches from the center of the shock eye to the end of the bump stop uncompressed obviously. Although on Poly's website, it looks like the bump stop compresses quite a bit.

From Poly's site:

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Oh I thought you meant the bump stops on the frame. You are talking about the built in stops?

 

[stan1688]

Yeah. I'll mock them up again tomorrow and take some pics and talk to you over PMs so I don't clutter up your build thread anymore.

Good progress. Keep it up.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Sounds good

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Bump for any more opinions on the 52's

 

[raymos]

if it were me, i would use the pack with the arched overload. i believe it would give your pack a higher spring rate, and help with the wrap you mentioned. as well as not get hung on obsicles as mentioned previously.

Disclamer: i dont have 52s in front (yet) and have no experiance with them this is my opinion.

 

[Stomis]

In my packs I run a standard 1/2 ton pack with 4 leaves. I dont run an overload but I did add in the second longest leaf from my 4in lift front pack to add in rate for drive ability. I've also got my zero rate in there.

I wouldnt go putting in that arched overload (if you can call it that) its gonna add a huge amount of rate. And the point of an overload is to not add any rate until the spring are gonna bottom out so they dont warp.

 

[raymos]

ya the more i think about it i think Stomis is right. that overload is designed to add support to a loaded cargo area and would probably add too much rate. i might try the "add-a-leaf" from a stock length lift spring (as Stomis did) if i ever get aroud to puting 52s in my truck.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

In my packs I run a standard 1/2 ton pack with 4 leaves. I dont run an overload but I did add in the second longest leaf from my 4in lift front pack to add in rate for drive ability. I've also got my zero rate in there.

I wouldnt go putting in that arched overload (if you can call it that) its gonna add a huge amount of rate. And the point of an overload is to not add any rate until the spring are gonna bottom out so they dont warp.

I see what you are saying. I am trying to add some rate and some lift to it, but I still want to maintain that flexibility too.

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Well after several people have PM'd me asking for pictures and measurements of my fender cuts I decided to lay it out like Yunit did for everybody.

Excuse my paint skills

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Haven't gotten much done, but i did get some new parts in this week.

New shackle bushing mounts from DIY Kick Ass product as usual.

Compared to stock mounts and hardware

All painted up and ready to go in!

Now i did discover the hole through the frame is not big enough Its 1 3/4" and needs to accept 2" tubing. I went and got a new hole saw bit, but it is proving very difficult to start a new cut

Also got a Swing away tire carrier spindle kit from DIY. Gonna start on that sometime after the front suspension overhaul.

Also got one side of my sliders capped and welded back up.

Back to work now and see if I can make some more progress

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Ok I finally pushed and got this thing out of the garage for a trip yesterday with some guys from work.

Few updates from my past few thread questions.

I went with the 52" pack with 5 leaves and the flat overloads. This netted me about 5" of lift. I measured from the top of the leaf pack to the bottom of the frame just forward of the spring plate. It measures 9.5" on my K5 compared to 10.75" on my CC with 6" springs. The extra leaf stiffened up the roll a bit, but didn't seem to compromise the travel off road at all and it actually felt more stable.


Finally trailered to the trail so I could air down the LTB's. I ran 7 rear and 8 front yesterday and it really improved the tires performance. I thought they worked great before, but now I am very impressed with them. I figure 5/6 or 4/5 will really squat them down. Great tire!


The new DIY shackle hangars are great and fixed the clunk/squeak I had from the stock plastic bushings that were there. I should have done this mod when I did the 52's. They seem to have alleviated some of the lateral movement seen with the 52's as well.



I don't have any pics, but I mounted the steering box with longer bolts and pinch nuts to prevent it from loosening. Mentioned in this thread here I removed the threads just to the point where the shank of a 7/16 bolt fits snug in the box then clamped it with lock nuts. No loosening after all day of wheeling




I also built some bump stops for the front. I thought I made them a little too long, but I didn't notice any negative effects off road, and it will help save my 52's

Here are my finished fender cuts with the tire mounted. I still need to trim under the rad support as it rubs there with the tires turned and stuffed.

All loaded up for wheeling. These were actually taken after the trip, but it was dark the night I loaded it

 

[howdiy]

What pitman arm are you running? Is it clocked so that it's perfectly straight backwards when eh wheel is centered?

Truck looks great, we need more action shots though

 

[MTBLAZER89]

It was a good trip. Went with some guys from work. My buddy in the orange Yota truggy, stock sami, couple 4" lifted TJ's, and a Ranger with 3" susp. Everybody except myself, the sami, and the Yota are their daily drivers so nothing to extreme. Mostly have pics of the other guys, but I will upload more when I get everybodys pics.

Parking lot airing down and making a plan.

Started off at the gatekeeper. It always gives open axle guys a hard time.

Jeeps making the way through.

While the second Jeep was going through there was yelling behind us. I turned around to see my buddies white Ranger roll off the road into the ditch. His little boy was strapped in properly in the front seat had pulled the truck out of gear. Safety note ** Use your parking brake** It was scary when it was happening. We all ran down to the truck. The little guy was fine and all he said was "I changed the gear" Tough little guy LOL. Thankfully the truck stopped on a log and nobody was hurt and nothing damaged, but it could have been much worse.

Recovering the Ranger

Ranger going though with some assistance. At this point we were worried about how he would do on the trails, but it turned out he did very well. Just had to use momentum in some spots

Up on top there is a small gravel pit with a rock pile to play on.

Some group shots

 

[MTBLAZER89]

Playing around on the Yota

Moving along.

We get to a small rockface on the expressway. Sami is the first one down. Got his right front in a hole, and couldn't get out of it..tried to get pics in progress, but here is the end result.

We just flipped it back on the wheels and everybody else made it through fine

Stopped waiting my turn.

Didn't get a ton of pics on the trail. Most spots are very tight and brushy so its hard to get out and run up to the front and take pics.

Coming out of the gate.