This is Dbcfr's truck, but since I have the pics, I'll post them up. He can jump in as he likes with details.

First- the front axle build. Specs are: Dirty 30's, TG ball stiffeners, Custom bracing and armor, MC diff cover armor, welded drain plug (will loosen bottom two diff bolts to drain oil), TG diff stud kit, E-locker 4.88 diff, Dirty 30's, and some other stuff that I don't recall right now.

The kit we went with started as a TG IFS Eliminator Kit, purchased from Wabfab. Some of the Trail Gear parts were found to be lacking in design or strength, and were replaced. I'll try to remember everything as I go.

















We chased the obscure British breather threads with 1/4 NPT and installed a barb for simplicity's sake. You can see where we had to clearance the housing to fit the E-locker diff.





Note the longer studs for the E-locker.


Steering stops

 

Time to call down the plasma demons.

Before (say "goodbye" IFS)




Parts are dropping like flies.






That frame is starting to look a bit better. We braced it up quite a bit later.




Steering box placement (took a bit of clearancing. Mine will take more, as I don't have a 3" body lift like Dbcfr does.





Front hanger from TG was weak. We wanted larger boxes that we could armor better.

Front hangers in their natural state:

Better:



Driver's side brace and steering box mount:




Axle hung:





Shackle angle sucks. Longer ones going on later. We're shooting for a lot of droop travel, and probably only about 2" of uptravel. We shall see.



So here is where we ran into a potentially nasty problem. Part of the E-locker motor assembly came pretty close to the passenger's side leaf spring. We pulled the aluminum actuator cover off, ground about half of the head of the 10mm retaining bolt down, ground down some of the actuator cover, and barely fit it in. It would have been easier to do out of the truck!






Here is the truck out of the shop, on its own power, next to my truck. He is sitting about 4" higher than my stock IFS is, but I'm on 33's and he still has his 31's on.


There is a lot of finish work to get done, but this is the "quick and dirty" version of the project.

 

Was this intentional? Looks like you welded your frame tubes too far forward

 

Partially. We wanted room for longer shackles to allow for more droop, and also figured on moving the springs and axle forward more than we ended up actually moving it. When we do mine, we will be doing things in a slightly different order so that we don't end up with that angle. For this one, longer shackles are in order. The SAS didn't lift the truck that much, and as the springs relax a bit, we should be able to put longer shackles on without much issue. As it is now, at full droop, the shackle is almost straight up and down. If we had put it any further back, it would probably start to bind up.

 

You're turning into a post whore MC with 2 build threads!

At least you're having fun!

:wabbit2:

 

And you are getting some free advertisement!

My thread was getting cluttered with all the pics and everything from doing two trucks, so I figured that I would try to tidy things up a little bit.

 

Boy that looks like good work!....what fun

 

subscribed

 

He does have a 3" body lift... technically speaking he'd be sitting higher than you if he still had IFS with 31s and a 3" BL even if you have 33s lol

 

That doesn't account for old T-bars or the tweaking thereof. There are a lot of variables that can determine total height. In any case, his is WAY taller than mine now. I'll try to get some pics today, but he added a leaf from a 51" Chevy set that I had to the rears, and put new 35s on. The top of the bed is about 5' off the ground. Not the tallest truck in the world, but it is certainly taller than it was before! We need to finish up the plating and fab work on the SAS so we can go play with it!

 

Ok,
now that I have taken care of a bent frame (in the back) and been able to put it on the ground the bottom of the frame is at 24.5" so I am just out of the low rider status. thats sitting on new 35"s @35psi with no spring settling which should be about 1" to 2" so it will not be all that tall...but with 63" and 12" shocks out back and rears up front with 14" shocks in front and a ton of droop I think it will be ok I would drive it and so would anyone else...
DB

 

Looks great! I'm thinking of SASing my truck, but I dont want it sky high... I want a 2-3" lift and still use 33" tires.

 

We need pictures!!!!!

 

Cougar, you can take all the pictures you want in about 2 weeks when we head up to Bald Mt to try it all out...for now I am to busy cutting and welding to play with a camera

Mak, I have done mine as low as you can go with out cutting away at the frame and still having 14" shocks up front my 35" are even with the head lights the front hanger edge is only 1" in front of that the frame to axle is 4" with a flat pitman arm if you can go lower without notching the frame I would love to see it...the only thing I could have done is take out the 3" body/drivetrain lift but that would make the oil pan just about touch the front axle and my gas tank would be hanging down like a big rock target....Its not as high as Jacob thinks it is plus it will settle another 1" or 2" then I may need to add a leaf...the tires make it look high

I did a 5" TG lift on a 84 truck last week on 35"s and that one looks like a monster truck...

 

Search toyospearo... he runs 33s under his and looks pretty factory.

 

All I can say is you need to give it a try and remember I am sitting on 35"s not 33"s and when you SAS a IFS truck the frame is in the way so you can only do so much with out hacking away at the frame my steering gear box is as far forward as you can go with out cutting away the body mount plus it is now flat with a flat pitman arm and by law your front tires can not be in front of your head lights.... I could have saved a 1/4" of up travel by not plating the frame but I wanted a unbreakable wheeler...my home trail is Dusy and that is where this truck will be spending most of its time...if you want it low LINK IT and start cutting away at the body... I will post Pictures once I get it done...

 

It's huge. At least twelve or fifteen feet tall. Seriously gigantic.

 

Hey, were not talking about the amount of work involved...by the way where have you been?.....

 

even with the frame in the way, cant you use different springs and shackles? to reduce lift?

 

Maybe im mistaken... you do have 31s on with a 3" BL... im sure if I did your same set up, with no BL i could easily run 33s