Nope, you are not crazy....
I skipped most the replies, sorry. Had a few cold ones this evening.
40" tires and overland?
yes I think you are a bit off on that. I like the high roof, a lot. I like the 40's. I like the truck. However, 40's + overland is over the top. Sorry man, I am pushing the limits myself with overland in my current build and I think 40's + overland is over the top. 37's to me is the limit if you want to call it an overland truck. Don't want to argue the details of the word or whatever. Been to Panama and back, lived out of my truck the whole way, know what overland is.
You are headed the right direction if you want a "do-it-all" suspension and truck but 40's put it in the class of trailer queen. Been there done that. I say this because to build it right with gear for rock and pavement, power for anything, suspension to handle whatever and so forth and have it sit on 40's is extremely difficult to do and will cost ya' a ton of cash. By the pictures you get 40's and blah blah blah but you still have a long ass on the truck! So what are you gaining really?? If you want to make it super sweet in the rocks extend the wheelbase or better yet chop the body. 105-112"ish WB is what you want for rock crawling. If you want an off road weapon, bob it or extend the WB and get your approach & departure angles where they need to be to be a weapon. Dump a whole bunch of sheet metal, lighten the truck.
How wide do you plan on this being? Have you considered the rear suspension, axle width and suspension geometry. Will it all fit? The front of the frame rails are rather wide really, this can create a lot of dramas unless you go with a really wide axle. Same for the rear in terms of axle width, coilover mounting location and rub. Are you ready to chop the frame if needed to make this work?
The 60-series frame doesn't have a lot of arch where the axles sit under the chassis with a somewhat stock wheelbase. To fit 40's you have to lift or trim or both. If you lift to much, as you are aware it gets to tall. You can't trim all that much on a 4-door, or at least this one without screwing up the rear doors. So what to do? Move the axles and extend wheel base. One of the reasons you can fit 40's under a JK or TJ without a lot of effort is due to the frame design and suspension design. It is a whole different ball game in a 60-series Cruiser, especially when converting the suspension. Are you ready to do a cross bar in your engine bay? Are you willing to move the fuel tank to the bed and have clearance under the body for a linked suspension that flexes well? There is a whole s*** load of stuff on the table if you want to do 40's, and link it, ect ect ect.
If you want it overland, stick to 10-12" coil overs, limit tire size to 37's and don't get crazy with suspension. Realize you will lift a tire once in awhile or have to winch where you wouldn't if it was a trailer queen. Understand you have lot's of classic nice sheet metal and tons of body to destroy and wheel the truck as such. If you care more about running the the hardest rock trails over going to Baja for a month build the truck as such. There is no perfect truck and I just have to say 40's is pushing the limits for on road unless you do all kinds of things that cost all kinds of money. If you are set on 40's and the ability to do hard rock crawling, I strongly suggest building your truck into an overland vehicle, still doing the thing you want but drop it to 35-37" rubber. Then buy a $5000 4Runner or mini-truck and wheel the piss out of it on 40's in the rocks.
Yes the 3" vs the 2.5" has a larger surface for cooling, beyond this you are not gaining much. It also has a large spring on it. A 2.5" c/o has a 3" or so spring on it. Do you have any idea how this is going to fit in terms of axle width vs frame rail width? I am thinking it is not going to fit to well. You can set a c/o up however you want for weight, that is not a problem, just buy the right springs and or play with them until it is dialed in. However, your dramas with fitting this is going to be axle width, frame rail width, c/o width/spring width, axle swing under articulation and so forth. Wheel b/s is even going to come into play. I just don't think you are going to be doing this very easily, without spending some big bucks and with out having to cut a s*** load of sheet metal out of the body plus possibly modifying the frame. To do the same kinds of mods to my 2-door Nissan Patrol, I had to cut the rear wheel wells a shot load and then box them back in with new sheet. This reduced cargo space just to mention one thing that makes it not so overland. Not to mention 2ft was cut off the rear of the frame and a new frame fabricated out of dom. On a 4-door it is going to be more complicated.
I have had the trailer queen on 40's, had the long distance runner overland truck on 33's and now I am building something in between. Been to Panama in my truck, lived out of it on the way, trailered the crawler to Moab, Arizona and whatever. Been there done that. You can't build a 'do-it-all" on 40's without spending big bucks!
I am not trying to shut you down or say you can't do what you want. I have however built a truck on 40's with 16" coilovers. I have also built plus used an overland truck and drove it a long ass ways and lived it out of it for nearly 4 months. I am now building something in between and so I am giving you want I think, my opinions and advice from my expericne. You can do with that as you will!
That is my 2 cents! And by all means if you have your mind set on 40's and a truck to travel 1000+ miles down the pavement to the trail plus the cash to build it by all means I say do it! But perhaps a different platform would work better for links, 40's and overland.
