a different caster plate (1 Viewer)

[landtank]

Got some flex pics to post. I got the truck up on a hill to the point where one rear tire was off the ground.

 

[landtank]

And now at the bushings

 

[cruiserdan]

How much room did you end up with at the tie rod-to-leading arm interface?

 

[landtank]

The gap measures out at 12mm when heading straight and looked to be about the same turned to the locks. I tried to show that in one of the previous pics but it wasn't too clear from that angle.

 

[Beowulf]

Will the welded dowels on the other 2 sets lock in the 5* adjustment or could the holes be drilled to give 6* ?

-B-

 

[landtank]

Will the welded dowels on the other 2 sets lock in the 5* adjustment or could the holes be drilled to give 6* ?

-B-

The dowels lock the plates into place on the axle. The plates are just blanks at this point. It's the cardboard templates that get overlayed onto the plates that determine the amount of caster. Each template's pinholes are at different degrees. If you overlay the 6* template to center punch the plate then that plate is now setup for 6*.


I used the 5* template so I got 5* of correction, I could have just as easily used the 6* template and got 6* from the same plates.

Does this make sense? The first pic shows the template clamped onto a blank plate read fin center punching at 5*

 

[concretejungle]

Ahhhhh, now it's all starting to make sense. Now that i see the pic of the different degree of castor provided through the different templates. Nice.

 

[Rich]

I like the use of dowels to fill the factory holes in the mounting bracket. It appears to me that they eliminate the need for welding the plates to the brackets.

 

[concretejungle]

The best way I have found on a lift requiring 7 deg of castor is to remove the diff brackets from the housing, and run the arms over the top of the diff, to keep them parallel, making for better ofroad ability when climbing obstacles.

.

Could you show a picture of this?

 

[clownmidget]

flipped control arms

like this?

 

[concretejungle]

Yes, like that. That's really cool. I was hoping to see a couple of other pics at different angles. I have seen that pic once before.

Just for kicks and giggles, if one was to have a angle indicator sitting on top of the axle to measure the angle, then cut the brackets off and remount/weld them on top making sure that the angle of the axle is still accurate using the angle indicator, you should be good, no? All in theory.

 

[Tools R Us]

More pix, I like the high steer arm and the flipped/raised pitman arm, that setup would handle nice.

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modules/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=33613

The flip plate kit is $180 AU.

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modules/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20275

Another caster plate.

http://www.outerlimits4x4.com/PHP_Modules/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=57178

 

[landtank]

I don't get the flip thing at all. If the axle is in the same place and the rear frame mounts are the same, regarless of how you mechanically attach the two they will travel in the same arc. One thing flipping the arms will do is expose your driveshaft more to damage and remove any slider effect from having the arms down under.


Trying to get 5* from just pivoting on the rear bushing is going to require a lot of grinding on those arms to clear the tie rod.


I had a chance to do a 6 hour drive today to the syracuse NY area. I thought the truck handled good after the springs. The wind was gusting something fierce and when driving past the rest areas the flags out front were straight out. The truck tracked beautifully. Goes to show that seat of the pants ain't worth crap. Everyone should take the time to check there alignment and not just trust the suspension kits sold. The math doesn't always work out.

 

[sleeoffroad]

The truck tracked beautifully. Goes to show that seat of the pants ain't worth crap. Everyone should take the time to check there alignment and not just trust the suspension kits sold. The math doesn't always work out.

So what is your caster at now? Did you measure it? I do agree that there are a lot of people that compromise driveability by not fixing the caster.

I link the idea of not having the tie-rod rubbing issue, but from our point, you would be amazed what people would be able to mess up if you sold that kit to uninformed people.

Being on mud skews ones perspective that everyone should have the knowledge etc etc to do this properly. Sell to the rest of the market and it is a whole different world.

 

[landtank]

I haven't had a chance as the truck was only finished on Saturday afternoon. I'm planning on sending it in.

I got a chuckle from that rest of the world comment. I was running the install proceedure through my head and quickly realised that someone would think that flipping the template over for the opposite side's plate would be the right thing to do even though it wouldn't fit properly and have 4 new big holes in there axle bracket 10* out of phase.

I'd sooner wholesale these plates than go public with them.

 

[semlin]

Rick, I know this is a little late, but what do you think of this idea? Would it speed things up?

1. drill out the existing bracket holes to a much larger size hole big enough to encompass holes for any reasonable degree of caster correction (say 1.25"??) using a metal holesaw with an adjustable pilot like this one http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=52518&cat=1,180,42316&ap=1

2. Use your plate/template system but with much larger dowel plates to fit the 1.25" holes in the brackets. Drill out the actual bolt holes through the plate/dowel on a drill press.

3. mount the plates using the large dowel inserts as guide. Bolt it up. All Done.

The advantage seems to me to be no clamping of plates or fiddling and no fractions of dowels or difficult drill starting points because of overlap with the existing hole. You just make sure you have a decent holesaw and the right sized pilot and go.

 

[Tools R Us]

I don't get the flip thing at all. If the axle is in the same place and the rear frame mounts are the same, regarless of how you mechanically attach the two they will travel in the same arc....

Yes, and no, the same arc but using a different part of it. When you hit a bump the force on the wheel is up and back, into the truck at an angle determined by the design of the suspension system. On the stock truck the arms are about parallel with the ground, when the bump is encountered the wheel moves up and slightly back, most of the force is delivered to the spring. As the truck is lifted the arms are angled down getting closer to the force angle, more force is delivered to the frame by the arm, the wheel must travel forward to go up, binding the suspension. By flipping the arms on top it restores closer to stock geometry, solving one of the biggest geometry problems with the lift.

 

[concretejungle]

Yes, and no, the same arc but using a different part of it. When you hit a bump the force on the wheel is up and back, into the truck at an angle determined by the design of the suspension system. On the stock truck the arms are about parallel with the ground, when the bump is encountered the wheel moves up and slightly back, most of the force is delivered to the spring. As the truck is lifted the arms are angled down getting closer to the force angle, more force is delivered to the frame by the arm, the wheel must travel forward to go up, binding the suspension. By flipping the arms on top it restores closer to stock geometry, solving one of the biggest geometry problems with the lift.

Like the guiness commercial says . . . Brilliant!

 

[Tools R Us]

Another thread on arm flip.

http://www.4wdmonthly.com.au/forum/index.php?board=18;action=display;threadid=9110;start=0

 

[landtank]

Semlin, That won't really work because you would need to remove so much that the bracket would be too weak. Remember that as you move the new hole away from the original postion you would need to double that to still be centered on the original hole and still encompass the new hole. At 8* the hole would be something like 1.75" in diameter.

3,4 and 5 require that all plates be center punched and drilled making for an increase in error and difficulty,

Strangely enough it's the larger 6,7 and 8 positions that are the easiest, most accurate and least likely to make a mistake on. You basicaly center punch a right side plate and drill threw it. Clamping that plate to the right outer bracket you use it to drill that side. Place the same plate on the inner side and guiding the 1/8" x 12" bit through the outside of the bracket you drill the inner side. Repeat for the other bracket. Now that all the brackets are pilot drilled you use those holes to drill the remainder of the plates once they are clamped into place. So you center punch a single plate and replicate it throughout the rest resulting a higher amount of accuracy and less room for mistakes.

Once the knuckles were off and I got setup it took about 20 minutes a side to drill the new holes. Not too bad, of course some take three days to do an axle service which might factor into the equation.