Vehicle: 97 with ironman 2" lift & ironman 30mm front coil spacers and nitto trail grappler mt's(315/75/16).
When I got this rig last year I installed the ironman 2" kit and I was running toyo open country rt's in a 315/75/16. These tires only had about 30% tread left and hardly measured to 33" on the vehicle but I was still experiencing a rare rub on the drivers side when I would hit a good bump or dip at speed offroad.
The rig previously had a slee 6" and 37"s installed but it hadn't been driven for quite awhile and the PO had removed half the slee parts for one of his other 80's so she was sitting in suspension limbo. The PO gave me the ironman kit with the vehicle and it was missing the caster bushings, but the rig already had OME caster bushings. After getting her aligned the caster still needed to be addressed so I assumed the OME bushings were toast and I decided to try out the icon 4.6 caster bushings. At the time I thought I would be driving the truck across multiple states at the end of 2020 and using it as a daily while I finished school. This is why I went with the bushings and a 2" lift instead of bigger lift and a more permanent caster correction solution. The icon bushings were supposed to be a band aid and I figured it would be a good opportunity to test out a caster bushing that claimed to give 4.6 degrees.
Well plans changed and my clinical rotations for school got re-assigned from New Mexico to my home town. This saved me some money and changed my plans for the rig so I just kept driving it and got to new tire time. I went with the nitto trail grappler mt's in the same size as the toyo's (315/75/16) and they were a good 1.5" taller than the toyo's and heavier. My rubbing situation became much worse so I went ahead and installed the ironman 30mm spacers. This helped with the rubbing but didn't quite eliminate the issue and I could tell that I still needed more caster correction to make up for the heavier tire and 30mm spacer.
This brings me to @eimkeith and his weld in RAM drop brackets. I figured this is just what I needed. These brackets push the tire forward a bit which should completely eliminate my rubbing and the 2" drop should get my caster to 4 or 5 degrees, in my opinion this is the perfect caster setting for larger heavier tires.
Currently this rig is a daily but I still use it a lot for exploring, boonie bashing, fishing, and hunting. If everything goes as planned I will be upgrading this rig to 37"s in another year or so, this is another reason I went with the RAM brackets. When I go to 37"s my plan is to go with a 4" lift. I will keep the stock arms and swap the icon bushings back to oem. I will either use caster plates or trunion bearings to dial in the caster at that point.
The RAM brackets are great because they have pushed my axle forward and give me caster correction without moving the radius arms closer to my heavy duty steering components. Hopefully when the 37"s come I won't have rubbing issues with my arms and steering once I get her dialed in.
Sorry for the long winded intro but I figured a good background was in order to explain why I chose this product.
On to the install....
The brackets showed up saturday afternoon so I promptly got to work.
Step #1: Install the sticker. I always do stickers first. Success with this step helps boost my confidence for the trial ahead....
Step #2: Give the welding surfaces on the truck a quick run over with a grinder for clean welds. I also ran over the RAM brackets quickly with the grinder to help paint adhere.
Step#3: Tack them in position. I was super impressed with the fit of these mounts, they fit perfect and really made it easy to tack them up. No need for a third hand or a burnt hand from trying to hold the piece in just the right position while tacking, often times when fabbing and tacking stuff I feel the need to hold the piece just right and a big welding glove can make this difficult. I am only a 1
fabricator so this usually causes me to burn myself... But these mounts nestled right in place for the perfect fit and I was easily able to hold them in place with one GLOVED hand and tack them up.
When I got this rig last year I installed the ironman 2" kit and I was running toyo open country rt's in a 315/75/16. These tires only had about 30% tread left and hardly measured to 33" on the vehicle but I was still experiencing a rare rub on the drivers side when I would hit a good bump or dip at speed offroad.
The rig previously had a slee 6" and 37"s installed but it hadn't been driven for quite awhile and the PO had removed half the slee parts for one of his other 80's so she was sitting in suspension limbo. The PO gave me the ironman kit with the vehicle and it was missing the caster bushings, but the rig already had OME caster bushings. After getting her aligned the caster still needed to be addressed so I assumed the OME bushings were toast and I decided to try out the icon 4.6 caster bushings. At the time I thought I would be driving the truck across multiple states at the end of 2020 and using it as a daily while I finished school. This is why I went with the bushings and a 2" lift instead of bigger lift and a more permanent caster correction solution. The icon bushings were supposed to be a band aid and I figured it would be a good opportunity to test out a caster bushing that claimed to give 4.6 degrees.
Well plans changed and my clinical rotations for school got re-assigned from New Mexico to my home town. This saved me some money and changed my plans for the rig so I just kept driving it and got to new tire time. I went with the nitto trail grappler mt's in the same size as the toyo's (315/75/16) and they were a good 1.5" taller than the toyo's and heavier. My rubbing situation became much worse so I went ahead and installed the ironman 30mm spacers. This helped with the rubbing but didn't quite eliminate the issue and I could tell that I still needed more caster correction to make up for the heavier tire and 30mm spacer.
This brings me to @eimkeith and his weld in RAM drop brackets. I figured this is just what I needed. These brackets push the tire forward a bit which should completely eliminate my rubbing and the 2" drop should get my caster to 4 or 5 degrees, in my opinion this is the perfect caster setting for larger heavier tires.
Currently this rig is a daily but I still use it a lot for exploring, boonie bashing, fishing, and hunting. If everything goes as planned I will be upgrading this rig to 37"s in another year or so, this is another reason I went with the RAM brackets. When I go to 37"s my plan is to go with a 4" lift. I will keep the stock arms and swap the icon bushings back to oem. I will either use caster plates or trunion bearings to dial in the caster at that point.
The RAM brackets are great because they have pushed my axle forward and give me caster correction without moving the radius arms closer to my heavy duty steering components. Hopefully when the 37"s come I won't have rubbing issues with my arms and steering once I get her dialed in.
Sorry for the long winded intro but I figured a good background was in order to explain why I chose this product.
On to the install....
The brackets showed up saturday afternoon so I promptly got to work.
Step #1: Install the sticker. I always do stickers first. Success with this step helps boost my confidence for the trial ahead....
Step #2: Give the welding surfaces on the truck a quick run over with a grinder for clean welds. I also ran over the RAM brackets quickly with the grinder to help paint adhere.
Step#3: Tack them in position. I was super impressed with the fit of these mounts, they fit perfect and really made it easy to tack them up. No need for a third hand or a burnt hand from trying to hold the piece in just the right position while tacking, often times when fabbing and tacking stuff I feel the need to hold the piece just right and a big welding glove can make this difficult. I am only a 1
fabricator so this usually causes me to burn myself... But these mounts nestled right in place for the perfect fit and I was easily able to hold them in place with one GLOVED hand and tack them up.
