ask scott ellinger from rockstomper. he's one of the few guys i know that made his own custom long arm setup...

 

yeah i would, why would i be scared? its not my fault that your kits look inferior in design compared to 99% of the kits out there. if your so confident on your stuff, why dont you post them up on the two biggest desert websites like race-dezert or dezertrangers where people know stuff about proper long travel setups and dont just see a cheap price? why dont i ever see you selling your stuff at any offroad events or the annual swapmeet? you seem to only advertise on this forum where not alot of people know much about LT.
your just pissed off that im the first person to speak up against your design but i can tell you im not alone in this which includes at least one professional fabricator on this site thats told me so in a PM. so until i see your setup in person or in video thrashing down barstow main at a good clip, i will continue to voice my opinion on this topic.

 

i was thinking of making chromo arms a while ago but i couldnt find any literature on prerunner suspension geometry. i know in cars geometry is everything(rollcenter, bumpsteer ect.) but i have no idea were to start on a truck.

 

you said it Robert M. Until you or someone who has had a first-hand bad experience with Blazeland or have seen it in person, how can you be a hater?

 

because its my opinion about the design. i would rather talk someone out of buying it then seeing a post of someone buying it, breaking, and rolling there truck just to save a few bucks. the reason i havent seen one in person is because i dont know anyone who would actually buy one.
i will say it again though, if i saw a video of the kit working offroad in some technical section of the desert or out on barstow main and not just a single first gear 15mph jump that a stock truck could take, (like what was posted in a different thread) i will continue to be a non believer.

 

Pretty sure I saw a dude with a 4" drop bracket, blazeland lt, and a supra diff mob through a massive drainage ditch in a video.

 

Id actually like to add to that last post.
If his setup is inferior, then the stock setup is inferior, the downey setup that plenty of people run is inferior, and drop bracket lifts are inferior.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with his setup.
All the major stress points are braced, everything is tig welded (much better penetration than mig or arc), and all points of failure have been accounted for and properly fixed.

It isn't billybobs homemade desert kit with some scrap plate and his flux core welder tack welding your suspension together. Its a guy who obviously knows how things work, challenging the idea of a 5000 dollar setup, with a product that does almost the exact same thing for a fraction of the price.

The dude even says he's taken his ORIGINAL setup that he made years ago through baja races, and has had no issues whatsoever. To me, that's a clear sign he's doing something right.

Now, for you to come through here and have absolutely no idea what's happening is just ridiculous. why don't you go tell everyone who drills shackle holes in their frames for an SAS that they're weakening their frames.
Or go tell the guys who cut the front half off their frame to make a high clearance frame from box tube that their frames are inferior. In fact, why don't you go out to boeing and get a job there as an aeronautical or mechanical engineer, because you seem to know everything about strengths and weaknesses of metals. when you do, come back and give us legitimate points regarding his suspension setup, that can provide us with real information regarding how "weak" his setup is.

Otherwise, go back to pirate and flame there.

 

nice haha ^^^

 

Robert I have invited you in past to meet up with me and some of my crew. You can call me anytime to get more details, my number is listed on the website. This invitation goes out to anyone else who is interested in wheeling with us. I have been to a few offroading events around So. Cal. this year, the most recent was KOH. I guess we just missed each other. Anyway, I will be in Ocotillo Wells this weekend. Keith and Albert should be there as well, they both run Blazeland.

As far as a a "shoot out" comparison with your TC rig, you have an advantage over me on the bigger whoops due to the fact that you have that F67 rear leaf setup and are caged front and rear with high end shocks. There is a small race track on the property we can do some hot laps around for time. It has some moderate size whoops and some small jumps. My Fordota is limited to 11" in the front and 10" in the rear but it has gobs of power with the 5.0 V8 and it hooks up the power very well because it has an e-locker with traction bars.

 

TIG provides better control, not better penetration by design. MIG penetrates just fine, and an Arc welder can penetrate some seriously thick steel as well. TIG is just refined, better control over the puddle, better looking welds do not translate to stronger welds.

The world seems to think that if it doesn't look like stacked nickels then the weld is garbage. That's just not the case.

There's nothing wrong with flux core wire. (and Arc welding for that matter- which uses flux coated rods) Flux core wire/Arc will do much better out in the field than a TIG simply because the flux doesn't blow away. Shielding gas (most commonly Argon/C02 mix for mild steel) blows away when used outdoors in windy conditions. In that aspect, MIG w/ fluxcore or Arc welding are king. What do you think the pipeliners use? Arc welding. It's fast. It's durable. And the flux doesn't care about wind.

All the flux or Argon is doing is shielding the weld from the atmosphere by creating it's own inert atmosphere around the weld puddle. Sure, Argon/c02, commonly referred to as C25 allows for a nicer looking weld with less spatter, but that doesn't make it any stronger than something that uses flux core or flux coated rods.

Edit: my point is, that if the welder knows what he/she is doing, any of those three will work just fine providing that the machine has amps/voltage on the welder go low/high enough to compensate for the gauge of the steel being welded.

 

shaeff, very good points! I am glad you wrote it so I don't have to explain. Blazeland componants are constructed with high quality "mild" steel plate, I have the templates designed in CADD and laser cut. Then the bends are applied on a brake. Another advantage to MIG is it is much faster than TIG. The Toyota factory arms are consructed of 11 GA (1/8) mild steel MIG welded by robots. To use TIG and cromoly to modify factory arms would be a waste and it would be slow. I make up for less strength of the "mild" compared to the "cromoly" by bumping up material thickness, overlapping, interlocking, adding internal ribbing, and a larger over-all dimension.

 

I would just like to point out that flux core, Arc and TIG are the only structurally rated welds. Mig must be specifically reviewed and tested to be an approved process for structural applications. Information straight from the AWS tester who also happens to run te welding program at the local community college. If a mig weld fails on the highway and someone us injured, you can be held liable for that failure in a court if law. Don't know if blaze has had his design approved or not, but if I were him I would cover my butt on that.

 

Also I saw a really sweet custom I-beams ford style long travel 3rd gen pickup that looked like it had a lot of travel clearing 35 Baka claws today. So there are plenty of sweet custom long travels around. They are certainly not cheap though

 

I was just pointing out, that billy-bob uses his harbor freight welder and TACKS his stuff together, as in hes not a good welder.
Nothing wrong with flux, i mean i'd weld a front hanger on my truck with my 110v flux welder.
If i had the cash and use for a blazeland kit, i'd buy it and feel safe when i drove my truck.

@SCToy, those ford I-beam setups are EXTREMELY flexy.
In fact, the TTB setup is one of the best IFS systems around.

 

You guys are killing me........ The Blazeland componants that require welding are contracted out to a professional welding outfit. This particular shop builds all sorts Off-road componants for a number of manufactures. It also builds high end componants for quite a few top racing teams. I really don't feel obligated to go into more detail on this subject. Besides Blazeland does not offer a warranty and all of my customers are required to sign a liability release to purchase my products. I am not trying to hoodwink anyone here, just letting you guys know that ultimately you are responsible for your own actions. I cannot control how hard you abuse your rig! I don't believe any Offroad componant Mfg. is doing anything different here, it is a pretty much a standard practice!

 

The arms are bullet proof the ride is sweet and the alignment is perfect. 100% for the blazeland kit. I know first hand

 

Hey BlazeN8, I don't think it would hurt to take it to the desert racing sites, just to get some opinions from other builders and racers, and possibly get your product out there. I've posted my truck on dezertrangers and some haven't even heard of the kit. For the price and travel that your design gives, I thought it was a good idea.

It's your choice.

I don't really understand what the argument here is though, either it's the blazeland kit hasn't proven it's worth yet to people who don't have it, or because with stock arms extended is automatically a design flaw.

I know it's not like it's a full fledged race kit, but for the price and travel gain, that's why I bought it.

 

Cr@ves,

Yeah I really don't understand the validity of critics who don't have first hand knowledge of my product. I suppose its becaus I came up with a different way of doing things certain closed minded people get nervous! So much for innovation and creativity. Doing business in the USA especially California is extreemly difficult. There are so many parasites trying to leech on to make a buck for themselves. Lawyers, State Tax, Federal Tax, City Zone laws, homeowner R&Rs, DOT, ASE, ASTM, EPA, you name it they are lurking about. It is also entertaining on how many calls and e-mails I get from people who built there own LT kit who run into problems and are wanting me to bail them out. In the end they spend more time and money than if they just bought an authentic kit.

Blazeland is mentioned on most the Forum sites if you spend some time and do some searching. Pirate 4x4, DezertRangers, Ultimate Yota, Race Desert, OffRoad, etc. I typically don't post and pimp Blazeland on the forums, I usually just respond to people who bring up questions. I don't like to spend hours reading all the various post on multiple sites looking so if you guys see something send me a link and I will check it out. For instance a customer sent me this link last night. http://toyotaoff-road.com/threads/31...l-Build/page22. Its a 22 page build thread so budget some time if you check it out.

 

Yeah, I can understand that lol

 

wow this has strayed from the OP.... Nate I think it's ridiculous what is being said about your kit. As someone who wheels on stock suspension, I would certainly trust the Blazeland kit to be just as strong, if not more strong. Sure I would love some TC parts and a full long travel rear end.... but we aren't all rolling in dough. I respect your work very much and think that there is no way you would end up in 4WD Toyota Owner if there were anything 'crappy' about your kit. I want one. 'nuf said.