Me?
I just get annoyed at people that need to correct every little thing. Its not like i was calling my fridge an oven. Steering rack.. relay rods.. close enough, they do the same damn thing. Also, why do people care if i wanna lift my truck up more? Who are you to judge me on my own vehicle?

 

the thing is- there is a part called the steering rack and our trucks don't have one. others call it 'rack and pinion' or similar. they operate differently than what we have thus the desire to clarify. guess it's possible that someone swapped a rack onto one of our trucks but then again the need to clarify.

anyhow, any luck finding a bracket lift?
for the record, I don't care if you want to lift your truck our not. it'd be a little hypocritical of me to suggest you don't since I have a 4" lift on mine.
I'm just trying to help.

 

Um, yes it is.

No they don't. The relay rod (or drag link) is just a rod that connects all the parts together. A steering rack is (usually) a worm gear drive unit with several moving parts contained in a housing. Perhaps if you called a steering box a rack you could say they did the same thing.


Because more lift = more problems and we have all witnessed it and wish to spare you the troubles. But you're right - it's YOUR truck and in the end, you should do with it what YOU want.

 

How does having a 4 inch lift or 5 inch lift cause problems?

 

Because the steering angles are too steep and the bracket itself puts a lever on parts of the frame not designed for those loads.

 

I'll repeat myself, bracket lifts weaken the front suspension, unless you reinforce it.

The rear brackets on our STOCK IFS are genetically weak (geneticaly..ie from the factory) which is why people who beat the piss out of stock IFS truss the rear brackets.

add a bracket lift you just made the leverage on the front brackets even worse. So lift in this case equal = negative performance gain. You sure do gain belly clearance but a good driver can avoid contacting the driveline/belly usually with hitting a line that is appropriate.

Low, slow and stable is the name of the game. Being up high is good for keeping your feet dry when you try to mash through the swamp =)

seriously tho, if you think people are picking on you here, you should move over to Pirate, LOL

 

The only 'lever' a well designed IFS lift kit puts on the frame is the extension of the lower control arm mounts. And the better kits compensate for that lever by triangulating the extensions back to the frame.

Conversion to SAS puts stress on parts of the frame not designed for it as well. ...I suppose this is where the "Toyota offered solid axles on vehicles outside of the US market and their frames are not noticibly different" argument will be presented... but why would there be a need to weld in parts that aren't there if the frame was designed for it?

Let us not forget that welding to or drilling through a vehicle's frame is technically illegal according to USDOT....

I've been certified to work on heavy trucks and that was one of the first things taught- if there's not a hole in the frame for it, meaning the engineers didn't anticipate it, don't mess with it. Cutting in to, welding on, or otherwise modifying a frame requires re-certification of the frame unless the work is performed by a certified facility authorized to perform said work at which time the facility performing the work takes full responsibility for, and assumes any liability resulting from the failure of said modifications.

On the other hand, well designed IFS lift kits bolt into existing points and the better kits triangulate forces to points designed to handle them without requiring welding, drilling or other modifications to the frame... and I suppose well designed SAS conversions don't require any modifications to the frame?

 

The stock IFS is weak... I'll give you that. OTOH, the better IFS lift kits include the truss you speak of, and the truss is available separately as well.

Comparing, even in the abstract, someone who wants to lift their truck with another person who wants a rock crawler is at best a stretch and at worse a biased attempt to convert someone over to something they may not need.

But in the true sense of fairness and capitalism, give the customer what they want. A satisfied customer is a repeat customer. Don't forget the power of suggestion though- let them know that what they want may not be what they need... but don't argue.

Yeah, I like to argue, and when I do, I'm most likely at least 50% correct.

 

but Toyota offered solid axles on vehicles outside of the US market and their frames are not noticibly different! lol, how exactly does the triangulation of the rear lca mounts work? Got any pics of how it's set up? Sounds like a feature only procomp offers...

 

i beg to differ...

 

Not all bracket lifts increase tie rod angles. My trailmaster 4" kit came with a new upper spindle extension that moved the tie rod mount on the spindle above the stock position. It actually decreased the tie rod angles, and I had to shorten the tie rods to get my toe in/out correct.

 

I plan on doing a SAS over the summer sometime, but the way i am, it probably wont get started until next year sometime, haha. For now though, i want to take the angles down a bit on the CV shafts, so I would like to find a cheap crossmember drop bracket. When its a little warmer here, im going to lift the gas tank up a bit.

Ill probably also do the drivetrain lift around spring time as well.

 

No, a better educated customer is a happy one.
A lot of people "want" something because Billy Bob told 'em that they need it and will be happy with it or they seen something that most 14yo's think look cool and would work great, when in reality it doesn't work as well as bull poop would.
Educate the customer and maybe preventing him/her from spending their hard earned money on something that may be pretty much worthless at best.



Fred

 

may be hard to see, but you can see the braces coming up from the LCA bracket (apparent due to the brace being lower than the front hub centerline)


and...



and... ?

 

A better educated customer? Didn't I say that?
You quoted me so I'm guessing you read it: "let them know that what they want may not be what they need..."
Nothing more to add.

 

Yeah, that would definitely help stiffen it up, but yet MORE stuff to get hung up on the rocks.

 

maybe true... but leaf springs hanging out behind the front wheel are just as likely to get hung up as the brace.
on the upside- the front drive shaft is fairly well protected by the braces too.