Well, I have no pictures at this time, but I wheeled it pretty hard this weekend and it made a huge difference....
Dropped the front 3" and the rear 2", need to go 3" and level it out more - even with the trailer attached, I have a rake.
The visibility from the new hood line is awesome on the trail! The only time I can see the hood is if I sit up in the chair
Lovin' it... Now the roll cage bar is in the way, so I might see about moving that to increase my viewing?
The right side of my rig had some bent 1/4" panels - teach me to go wheelin' before airing down! The tires rubbed and bent them to a 90* and pulled pen nuts out of the tub!
So I pulled all of that apart, pressed it all flat again (very happy with how that turned out! no heat and it's near perfect!) and then welded the panels/rocker guard to the tub. After welding it all up, I smoothed the edges and repainted maintaining the original line of the black/white at the rocker/corner guard. Very awesome how that turned out! I still need to do a little body work there with some filler and get those lines looking even more original. I also want to tie the bottom of the rocker guard into the tub and make it more solid.
Got the tube fenders done and painted them gloss black. Love the look against the white; so I may paint the rear corners gloss black as well?
The rig is even more stable when off camber than before. I had it on a 45* trying to power through getting it off the 45* and it felt very stable and I was very comfortable in doing it. The only thing that was making me uneasy was the fact I knew I was on a 45* doing this.
I did gain a bunch of new HP/TQ though... There is a hill near the house that I loose 5 mph going up in 4th gear at 55 mph. Now I don't loose anything, nor do I even need to add more peddle going up it and in 5th loose only 10 mph - all with the cruise and AC on...
While wheelin' I've never been able to wheel in 2wd, as I would run out of power very easily. So because of it I would always be in 4lo, even when I didn't need the 4wd. This weekend I was in 2wd making hill climbs in 1st and keeping my rpm/speed down. So I think with my head work, I've gained a lot of low RPM power that I did not have before. With the 2500-3500 rpms I really don't see much difference, but 1500-2500 I see a huge improvement over stock!
Typically I drive on the highway in 4th gear at 65 mph whil pulling the camp trailer. Doing so I got ~15 mpg this weekend. I drove roughly 850 miles this weekend (total, highway and trail) and used roughly 55 gallons - 15 mpg. On the way home, I drove a different way that even without the trailer had hills I would have difficulty in 4th getting up. With the trailer I was only in 4th gear on two hills, the rest of them I pulled in 5th with little to no speed loss and kept it around 1800-2200 rpms.
Now I'm sitting at 6'2" at the top of the A pillar. I'd have to measure the frame again, but I want to say it was 21" from the ground to the frame. I believe from the ground to the top of the rear bumper is 31" and 37" in the front? I have no tires rubbing, except where they did before - in the front of the rear fender opening.
I still need to finish up the links and mounts to get a flat belly. I'm toying with the idea of triangulation in the front - bring the lowers to the center and upers straight back. Now that it's sitting lower, I think I have enough room under the driveline to make it happen. If so, I can delete the trackbar and move the lower links inwards - which are the two items right now stopping it from going lower. The trackbar did hit the truss this weekend, so that does need to be addressed before I ruin/break a heim. But in all fairness, there were times we were doing 40 down forest service roads with kelly humps and such...
I need to pull the radiator out and modify it a bit. With the radiator support sitting so much lower, the steering had been binding and locking up on me. At one point this weekend it actually locked and I could not get it undone without some force. After searching around, I found the steering shaft lock nuts on the joints were coming in contact with the radiator. Simple fix with a cresent wrench and bending that tab. But I would like to pull it apart and do it right...
I need to adjust my anti rock, as the arms are sitting upwards at about a 40*. After working it hard this weekend (flexing it out), I can see where one arm did come into contact with the part of the tube fender that bolts to the radiator support.
I need to lower the rear another 1-2".
OH! When I was lowering the rear last week, I found a sheered bolt in the coil over!
For a long time I had this clunk in the rear that I could not figure out what it was. Everytime I'd hear it, I'd get out and look at the shock thinking it was bottoming out or? I never figured out what it was and eventually just thought maybe the shock mount was causing the frame to wrap and actually come into contact with the tub, so it was dissmissed. Well, that noise is now gone and there is a new grade 8 bolt back in it's place (yes, it was a 8 before - 1/2-13").
And I still need to build the grille hoop....
Anyway, next thing on my list to do is pull the intake/header off and shove that Pacesetter up their arses and put the Banks on. When I put it on, I'm goign to wrap the header in tape to keep the heat off the intake manifold and drop the air charge temps. No idea if it will work or not, but I have to take it off anyway, so I might as well try it.....
