92 Pickup Extended Cab. 4" superlift. 33's. 4.88's.

I've decided on doing a SAS. 84-85 axle.

Should i go with the Marlin Kit or the Trail-Gear?

Why is Trail-Gear $500 chepaer?

Are there any other companies i need to know about?

Will i need to buy a seperate kit to do a complete rebuild of the axle.

How do i know how far back to drill the frame hole?

I have a 4" lift now, not nearly enough. I want probably 6-7 Inches of lift. Can these companies' swaps give me that?

Anything else i need to know about? special steering mods? oil pan interference? steering BOX mods?

Rear lift options? Marlin is expensive, but quality, i think.




other mods during this:
35's? 36's?
5.29
ARB rear

 

Lot's of different questions.... you are sure to get many different answers.


I've decided on doing a SAS. 84-85 axle.

Those are nice... will have full factory truss under axle on the DS.

Should i go with the Marlin Kit or the Trail-Gear?

I went with Marlin, but I think TG has the more complete kit with seals and knuckle rebuild parts.

Why is Trail-Gear $500 chepaer?

TG has some production tricks... let's just say they generally don't innovate on there own... not necessarily a bad thing, but does save some on the bottom line.

Are there any other companies i need to know about?

All Pro and Sky also make SAS kits

Will i need to buy a seperate kit to do a complete rebuild of the axle.

Depends on what company you go with. You would be wise though to get a full knuckle rebuild kit with seals and bearings

How do i know how far back to drill the frame hole?

Most SAS kits come with a jig that set the hole position. It's basically smack in the middle of the first body mount behind the front wheel

I have a 4" lift now, not nearly enough. I want probably 6-7 Inches of lift. Can these companies' swaps give me that?

I can not see the reason to go higher than 5". People can squeeze 38" tires or bigger with 5" or less. Your COG would be ridiculous and not very trail friendly with 6" or 7" of lift.

Anything else i need to know about? special steering mods? oil pan interference? steering BOX mods?

Most kits will come with a high steer conversion. Your IFS box will handle the steering duties. Might consider bracing the frame for the IFS box. Box will not have to be modified, but big tires might enjoy a hydro assist setup in the future for serious crawling.


Rear lift options? Marlin is expensive, but quality, i think.

There are many options. You will have to search and decide what you are looking for.

other mods during this:
35's? 36's?
5.29
ARB rear

5.29's for tires 35" or bigger. ARB is a good choice, may want to lock the front as well while you are in there. You'll need a long travel front driveshaft. I'd recommend welding ball gussets to the front axle for strength.

 

wow. you are awesome.

that should be all the questions for now, but if anybody else has anything please feel free to add.

 

Just curious how you came to this decision ...

 

just recently stepped up my "offroading game". never really did anything since i put my superlift on, then last weekend i did some somewhat hardcore offroading, and this happened.....

http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w...oadTrip014.jpg

and if thats not convincing enough, 36" IROKS will look very sexy underneath my truck.

 

I would recomend less lift, as Elvota said. With such narrow axles, putting on 7" of lift means you will have radically raised your COG without adding any width to the truck, which will make it extremely tippy.

for 35's, you can go with the 4" springs. 36's probably consider the 5", but probably could still go with the 4". Either way you may have to trim or bend in the pinch welds, but that is all of a two minute operation.

 

how is it possible to fit 35's with a 4" lift?

with the IFS, it took a MINIMUM of 4" to fit 33's. now the same lift amount is gonna fit 35's just cause i'm Solid Axle???

i want mine to look like this guy's..
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...2/eb0c218b.jpg

(Trail-Gear SAS kit front, Marlin rear 4" lift kit)

 

Lot's of your responses indicate you want your truck to look big, not necessarily perform well.

Which is it? Performance or show? Trails or malls?

You can fit 35 or 36" tires with a 4" lift, but as others have said you may need to modify your wheel opening slightly to clear at full stuff. You could even add a 1" body lift if you really needed it... maybe for 37's

A sky high rig may look great (all though opinions will vary), but off-road you'll be in worse shape than your present setup. If you want to do some research, you'll see that the best rigs out there are incredibly low yet are still pushing big tires.

 

yeah good point. well, i kinda want the best of both worlds, this is my daily and my rig.

 

It is possible. People do it all the time.

4" to fit 33's? Try again. I ran 33x12.50's with 1.5 inches of lift, no rubbing, stock BS wheels. I now run 33x9.50's with ZERO lift, and no rubbing, same wheels.

You asked for advice. Don't get pissed, people are just giving you opinions from experience. If you want a huge truck, that is fine, just understand that it will flop over more easily. If you are okay with that, can can adjust your driving accordingly, then throw 6" of lift at it. However, you can easily fit 35" tires on 4" of lift. It has been done a bunch, search around in the SAS section.

 

First, it's hard for me to put "hardcore wheeling" and "Kansas" in the same sentence LOL

Ummm - you broke 1 CV and now you're ready to throw a couple grand at your truck? Wish I had that kind of disposable income...

Are you locked f/r now? If not, you have a whole lot to learn before you will truly benefit from SAS.

Can't argue with you there!

(Note: I'm not trying to talk you out of the SAS - just providing some thinking points to help you justify the time and expense. You say this is your DD. What's your plan while the rig is down for the conversion?)

 

I just finished my SAS and I did it for a lot of reasons, one was I was tired of replacing those CV's. Anyway I had the 4" superlift kit on my rig before and I got the 4" spring kit from Trail Gear on it now and there is a huge difference in overall lift/height. I am running 35's with room to spare now. Don't forget the shackles also add in a few inches as well.

 

Either run Marlin's 4" or 5" kit. Keep it low for the best COG.
Run 2 back spaced wheels, I'll get the part number and post it later. Push the tires/wheels out, get some track width.

I'd look into gears and lockers while doing this. Don't go too big as the stock birfs can and will break.

 

I think he took the advice as flaming unfortunetly. Hopefully he comes back.

 

I have my parts but havent actually swapped yet. I've heard bad things about trail-gear but decided to with them anyway. I got all my parts including armor and a top truss for the axle and everything to rebuild it.

The downside to them is that the springs tend to settle in an inch. So if you want 4" lift in your springs go 5. I got the 4" springs which will be 3" once they settle in. 3" plus the hangar is 1" plus a 2" body puts me 6" over 36x12.5 on 3.25 backspaced wheels.