Well whatever happens it’s gona be cool.
CK5
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Project Snow Bear K20!
- Thread starter Vombrown
- Start date
Vombrown
Mountain Man
I think so too. I'm seriously trying to keep this build in the realm of "anyone can do it". I really want to see this swap take off like wildfire. I think it's extremely doable and even feasible on a budget rig. I personally have the ability to build anything I want. Fabrication isn't an obstacle and I'm trying to keep the cost to a reasonable number. I've been some really out there rigs in my 30 years in this pastime and lately I am more interested in building things that are functional for something other than crawling over rocks one day a month and sitting in the driveway. I want a fully capable rig that I can use everyday, at least that's the goal. New technology drivetrain that is rock solid in an old square body. What's not to like?
This has always been my goal as well. My crawler got used for a DD for quite a while. Not just an across town commute either. 30 miles down the interstate 4 days a week.
It spent some time on the trailer heading to the trails but that was because I knew there was a good chance I would break it or wreck it.
Vombrown
Mountain Man
This has always been my goal as well. My crawler got used for a DD for quite a while. Not just an across town commute either. 30 miles down the interstate 4 days a week.
I spent Half my life working on rigs all week just to break them on the weekend. I'm sort of tired of doing that. Let the kids and hardcore guys go tear up their rig for fun. I want a tough all purpose rig that will go anywhere I get ready to go. Down the street or down the state. Everything in Montana requires an hour drive. Just to get to anything. So if it won't do that in the worst of conditions it is absolutely worthless here. A nice rig helps but a capable driver is the key. Every year I see the jeep guys try to make it up my driveway in their locked up trucks with 35's. Mall crawler magnificent rigs with fresh paint, shiny winches and high lift jacks. Every season I have to go clear their broken vehicles off the road to get down my mountain. It must be some kind of demeaning for them that I roll up in a lightly built mostly stock truck and extract them.
Vombrown
Mountain Man
Parts are starting to roll in. All my ARP bolts and studs. PTO adapter for my winch, all sorts of little doodads and stuff. Lug nut for my moch up wheels and tires, SERIOUSLY BEEFY rear spring pads for my 3" wide springs.... Things are starting to get here not in the order that I need them but hey at least they are here. Tomorrow is supposed to be 37 and I need to get some stuff done around here after a week of sub zero temps. I'm going to make the most of it to hopefully include some work on the truck. Get the suspension/axles removed and the new ones at least rolled under and in place. Then the real fun begins. Get some hard measurements on the spacing.
One thing I believe I will do sooner than later is cut the frame off after the new spring hangers are installed. The plan is to shorten it as much as I can. Install a new steel crossmember there and bolt the winch in, passing through the rear crossmember. This heavy steel piece will become the basis for my rear bumper. Bobbing the rear lower angle of the tool bed to match. I'm not going to remove all of it, just angle it down towards the frame to relieve the departure angle. I won't be able to do muc more than that.
One thing I believe I will do sooner than later is cut the frame off after the new spring hangers are installed. The plan is to shorten it as much as I can. Install a new steel crossmember there and bolt the winch in, passing through the rear crossmember. This heavy steel piece will become the basis for my rear bumper. Bobbing the rear lower angle of the tool bed to match. I'm not going to remove all of it, just angle it down towards the frame to relieve the departure angle. I won't be able to do muc more than that.
Those raptor struts are gonna be stiff.
On a A arm VW I was helping with moving the lower shock mounting about 2" required us to upgrade the spring to a much heavier spring. On a trailing arm suspension your springs rates are at a much higher rate the further you move the shock up the arm.
The other thing is the mounts. Your axle is gonna swing both ways
side to side and front to back. Way more movement than that mount was designed to take.
But it might work . It is just springs and shocks .
I think making the mounts live is gonna be your biggest problem
On a A arm VW I was helping with moving the lower shock mounting about 2" required us to upgrade the spring to a much heavier spring. On a trailing arm suspension your springs rates are at a much higher rate the further you move the shock up the arm.
The other thing is the mounts. Your axle is gonna swing both ways
side to side and front to back. Way more movement than that mount was designed to take. But it might work . It is just springs and shocks .
I think making the mounts live is gonna be your biggest problem
Vombrown
Mountain Man
How much movement would you expect? I would expect side to side movement with articulation but front to back should be minimal without a ton of flex, which I am not planning to have.Those raptor struts are gonna be stiff.
On a A arm VW I was helping with moving the lower shock mounting about 2" required us to upgrade the spring to a much heavier spring. On a trailing arm suspension your springs rates are at a much higher rate the further you move the shock up the arm.
The other thing is the mounts. Your axle is gonna swing both ways
But it might work . It is just springs and shocks .
I think making the mounts live is gonna be your biggest problem
It's fairly easy to get side to side movement into the mount. The front to rear would be a problem. If the spring bucket was built with pivots on each side. Then the strut could pivot side to side. In the Raptor the shocks are mounted at about 10 degrees tilted inward. It would be possible for me to replicate that fairly closely with a mount. Also keep in mind the rear suspension on this truck will be a full one ton.
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Once you get a rough idea of your link lengths then you can estimate travel and deflection.
I realize it's not a long travel rig. But you gotta build it so it's reliable at the limits.
I realize it's not a long travel rig. But you gotta build it so it's reliable at the limits.
Those stock bushings in those struts take a beating in the stock F150s and do pretty good. That lower strut eye takes all the abuse because the bumpstop is in the top of the strut and all that bottoming out transfers down the strut to the lower eye and it also acts as the limit strap for droop since there is nothing else to limit it except balljoints and sway bars binding up.
Just go with airbags for your front suspension and it will all be ok.
Vombrown
Mountain Man
LOL... Naaaah.
I'm curious to see if you can make this work.
Vombrown
Mountain Man
I'm giving this a lot of thought and consideration right now. One way I am thinking of making them as long as possible. The other way is to make them essentially as short as possible, mounting them right under the front body mounts. For a truck that isn't going to see a lot of flex, the short arms would certainly be stronger.
Vombrown
Mountain Man
Hell.....Me too! Once I have it all figured out in my head, fabrication is the easy part honestly. Figuring out all the parameters and considerations is the hard part.
Right. I think with the struts, as has been said, the hard part is going to be finding an upper mount that is going to be feasible. Worst case if the Raptor stuff doesn't work out Bilstein makes a nice strut for that truck.
Vombrown
Mountain Man
I've been looking at all the options if I set the truck up to run this type setup. Does Bilstein make a mount for the top cap (3 bolts) that adapts it to a traditional type coil over? If so that is a very good backup plan should this not work out. Not that cutting out the mount and installing a new one would be hard. My issue is finding economically priced coil overs to use for moch up. These are the things that me and others discussed at length. Coil overs are expensive. It would be a severe challenge to anyone looking to do this swap. I am trying to side step that issue by trying the raptor coil overs. A set of f-150 coil overs could be swapped in for cheap. That is sort of what brought all of this up.
Vombrown
Mountain Man
On a side thought:
Measuring the center lines of the radius arms, I realized I might have misread my tape measure or wrote down my measurements wrong. The centerline of the radius arms measure 35 inches. Which is about the outside dimensions of the frame. Do you think it's going to make much of a difference if I build 1" of offset into the alower arm to correct for this? That is versus adding outriggers to the outside of the frame to get that extra inch per side? It would be very easy to do, just bouncing ideas off you guys.
Measuring the center lines of the radius arms, I realized I might have misread my tape measure or wrote down my measurements wrong. The centerline of the radius arms measure 35 inches. Which is about the outside dimensions of the frame. Do you think it's going to make much of a difference if I build 1" of offset into the alower arm to correct for this? That is versus adding outriggers to the outside of the frame to get that extra inch per side? It would be very easy to do, just bouncing ideas off you guys.
Are you using the radius arms?
If you are, you can have the attachment point on the frame narrower by an inch.
Try and keep the bushings at the axle from being flexed at ride height. It will make assembly far easier. Where they land is where they get mounted.
Procomp has an f150 coilover conversion upgrade for the 6" kit. You could buy that hardware pack and utilize a stock upper strut mount but put coilovers in it later.
Procomp has an f150 coilover conversion upgrade for the 6" kit. You could buy that hardware pack and utilize a stock upper strut mount but put coilovers in it later.
