Does anyone make caster drop brackets

[asuddendeath]

I did find a company in the states that imports them from Australia, they want 500 bucks. Found the company in Australia that makes them. Around 320 dollars on ebay before shipping. They should open up in about the next hour. Ill give them a call.

If it comes down to it, I found a used pair about an hour away from me. 150 dollars. May have someone that can make copies...... so might be able to sell a few to people here.

 

[Delta VS]

We could certainly make something like that (and looked into it a bit), but it didn't seem like that many people wanted them. We chose to make replacement arms instead.

 

[synapse]

I've posted up about these quite a few times and find that they're great. 2" drop and moves radius arms forward 11mm. Corrects for 3-4" lifts. A good compromise between best road mannerism, and better flex from a drop box(radius arms are parallel) and not losing so much clearance from a 3-4" drop box. They are weld-in as just a fyi and are from Australia.

If you want full drop box you can go with Boss Drop Boxes, also from Australia...

@Delta VS You could look into a hybrid system that uses a drop box and radius arms. For instance on a 4" lift, use a 2" drop box to keep radius arms more parallel, and extra castor correction from your 2" radius arms. This is similar to what superior engineering in Australia does for their hybrid systems. I mentioned in a PM before I'm interested in your bump stops which will raise me 1 extra inch and therefore will also consider your 2" radius arms when the time comes to get me a little extra castor.

 

[asuddendeath]

@synapse You dam kiwis and dingos have all the good stuff. Looking for a bolt on not weld on.

 

[ccslider]

Edit

View attachment 1821096

 

[AussieHJCruza]

@Delta VS X2 on ^^^^^ - I'd be keen for a combo of radius arms and a drop box to push the front axle forward a little bit whilst not having a big hangey down thing...

Drop Boxes are popular in the Nissan Patrol world because the radius arm mounts are outboarded on the chassis rather than underneath - I'm minding a mate's LS2 powered GU at the moment - can post photos if anyone is interested. - Superior Engineering does Drop Box/arms for patrols but not Cruisers.

 

[CHDAZ80]

I have a pair (minus the bolts) that were originally purchased from Man-a-fre. I switched over to the slee plates years ago. I'd be happy to ship them off for a fair price if anyone is interested.

------ SOLD -------

 

[asuddendeath]

Are the plates that much better? I can see the brackets getting hung or hitting stuff.

 

[ccslider]

Are the plates that much better? I can see the brackets getting hung or hitting stuff.

Not too bad.. maybe if you do extreme rock crawling.

 

[Dragos80]

...but it didn't seem like that many people wanted them...

Hmmm
Really?
At least one fool is looking for them.
Wanted - Man-A-Fre 2" drop brackets 80 Series

 

[Delta VS]

@Delta VS You could look into a hybrid system that uses a drop box and radius arms. For instance on a 4" lift, use a 2" drop box to keep radius arms more parallel, and extra castor correction from your 2" radius arms. This is similar to what superior engineering in Australia does for their hybrid systems. I mentioned in a PM before I'm interested in your bump stops which will raise me 1 extra inch and therefore will also consider your 2" radius arms when the time comes to get me a little extra castor.

Our goal is to keep costs down to a minimum with solutions that work. We have had zero requests to make drop brackets and A LOT of interest in our radius arms (I think partly because of cost). If 10 people wanted to prepay or something, then we'd consider going through the trouble of designing/building. I would not run them myself though. Our arms are length adjusted so the stock wheelbase is maintained at the stated lift height (2",4",6"), and we have had requests for longer than stock just for that extra little oomph.

I have a set I just removed .. think they are man a fre .. used with 850j springs 3 inch lift. I had 4 deg of caster with oem bushings

View attachment 1821096

@asuddendeath sounds like you've got a couple options here! The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

@Delta VS X2 on ^^^^^ - I'd be keen for a combo of radius arms and a drop box to push the front axle forward a little bit whilst not having a big hangey down thing...

Drop Boxes are popular in the Nissan Patrol world because the radius arm mounts are outboarded on the chassis rather than underneath - I'm minding a mate's LS2 powered GU at the moment - can post photos if anyone is interested. - Superior Engineering does Drop Box/arms for patrols but not Cruisers.

As mentioned above, don't really see the cost/benefit being worth it for a "hybrid" kit. And after spending time offroad with an 80, definitely don't want any extra hangey down things...

Hmmm
Really?
At least one fool is looking for them.
Wanted - Man-A-Fre 2" drop brackets 80 Series

Seems there are plenty of used ones available, and as mentioned above, if 10 people want to pre-pay, we'd take the time to do a run. Those things just don't really fit our natural approach to solving the problem.

 

[Dragos80]

Their 2" drop brackets were actually good for correcting up to 3" of lift.
The 3" version is simply way to low, unless one only sees pavement, I don't think that is a good idea off road.

I am not looking for more than a 3" lift for my 80. 2"-3" should be plenty for me.
The control arms you offer are outside of my spec request, I believe. I looked at them one time and thought they would not help in my particular case.

I simply don't want to see anymore rocks from behind the wheel, so the drop brackets should be a safe option for me.

 

[Delta VS]

Their 2" drop brackets were actually good for correcting up to 3" of lift.
The 3" version is simply way to low, unless one only sees pavement, I don't think that is a good idea off road.

I am not looking for more than a 3" lift for my 80. 2"-3" should be plenty for me.
The control arms you offer are outside of my spec request, I believe. I looked at them one time and thought they would not help in my particular case.

I simply don't want to see anymore rocks from behind the wheel, so the drop brackets should be a safe option for me.

Makes total sense for your application. Sounds like you better beat OP to the punch for the two sets of used ones in this thread?

Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by our arms are outside of your spec request? Always looking for ways to improve things.

 

[Dragos80]

Makes total sense for your application. Sounds like you better beat OP to the punch for the two sets of used ones in this thread?

Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by our arms are outside of your spec request? Always looking for ways to improve things.

As I recall, they were made for a bigger lift than what I want to have on my car. Therefore anything else besides what I want is out of the intended spec for me.
Not in the sense that your products are out of spec. I did not even smell one.

 

[asuddendeath]

seems 3-4 inch of lift.

 

[Delta VS]

As I recall, they were made for a bigger lift than what I want to have on my car. Therefore anything else besides what I want is out of the intended spec for me.
Not in the sense that your products are out of spec. I did not even smell one.

Ok, just so you know we've expanded the offerings of them since the original sheetmetal arms. Now available for 2/4/6" lifts and getting you in the 3-4* range at those heights.

 

[synapse]

Our goal is to keep costs down to a minimum with solutions that work. We have had zero requests to make drop brackets and A LOT of interest in our radius arms (I think partly because of cost). If 10 people wanted to prepay or something, then we'd consider going through the trouble of designing/building. I would not run them myself though. Our arms are length adjusted so the stock wheelbase is maintained at the stated lift height (2",4",6"), and we have had requests for longer than stock just for that extra little oomph.

Thats fair that a hybrid system costs a lot more, but for my uses I wouldn't mind spending the extra money(I know not your typical budget minded 80 owner). My use for the 80 is currently a daily driver(until I move back to North America, where I have another vehicle in storage, and then the 80 becomes a weekend/extended trip rig) that does see some weekend offroad use, and the type of offroad'ing I do do is more biased towards adventure/expedition/overland as opposed to rock crawling.

Just to play devil's advocate though(as I will eventually go with your radius arms mated to my drop boxes for my own hybrid system), I'll use the same arguments you use for panhard brackets. You have a graph on your thread showing arc travel when panhard is parallel vs lifted, same theory applies to radius arms. Having a parallel radius arm is often too overlooked for a rig that is either a daily driver, or used for long expedition/overland trips, you can't beat the driveability. The improved flex at full suspension droop is another great benefit. I keep thinking of how the slinky setup isn't being taken to its full potential without some sort of radius arm, drop bracket, or both(hybrid) because of how much more droop they have. With a hybrid setup you don't necessarily need to have a huge drop box that hangs down the full amount of the lift. Mine hang 2" lower and I'm at a 4" lift, so still 2" higher clearance than stock at 2 small points on the rig. I'd personally be more worried about the cats and under frame exhaust routing on certain model year 80's for clearance issues than the solid drop boxes that can take a beating.

That being said, I'm glad you're producing radius arms as I refuse to deal with Superior Engineering due to a horrible customer service experience I had with them. For a purpose built rock crawler, yes I'd avoid drop boxes for clearance, but anything outside of that spectrum and in the world of daily driver, expedition, overland, or just adventure use I don't see anything better than a hybrid system for 4"+ lifts if budget weren't a concern. My .02

 

[jkeithw]

I've posted up about these quite a few times and find that they're great. 2" drop and moves radius arms forward 11mm.

I'm making brackets to use in conjunction with my 50mm slinky kit; but I'm thinking about moving the axle forward more than 11mm...

I read where @Box Rocket wrote:

1.25” has worked out really well. Plenty of cloture clearance at the firewall. Straightened out the coil and centered the bumpstop in the coil again. With 35’s it would be perfect. With my 37’s I trimmed a little off the bumper wings and the front of the inner fender well to keep full stuff of the suspension.

and seeing the relative fender heights of his 75mm slinky kit vs my stock truck, as mentioned here:

Yeah, the heavies seem to get about an inch more lift than the intermediates (which I have). @GW Nugget and I got 23" front and 23.5" rear with intermediates while you and @Box Rocket got 24" front and 24.5" rear with heavies.

I laid out Adam's radius arm arc and tried to match the position of a 35 (which is what I'm going to run) as it compresses into the wheel opening so that I can take advantage of the firewall clearance he referenced above.

This puts me at 39mm forward on my 50mm drop bracket, or just over 1.5" forward - within the recommendation quoted below:

Darren told me could go as far 1.75” before starting to get any interference with steering/panhard. Pretty sure Darren tries to avoid offset (caster) bushings. I do as well and prefer sticking with OEM rubber bushings.

Here's where I am so far - my objectives are: self-locating (for easy alignment), reversible (maintains the stock hole if ever needed), and reinforce the factory mount (I ran a ramp up into the opening on the back of the factory bracket to give it strength for lateral impacts and am making the mount 3/16" thick.)

I'm not going to seriously crawl with the FZJ80, and I figure with 35" tires it will still be gaining 1" of ground clearance over the factory bracket and 33s... (and since it doesn't protrude below the arm itself, it shouldn't hang on any obstacle the arm might be sliding over..)

I realize the approach angle benefit, but I'm curious, however, what if any unexpected consequences there will be to moving the axle that far forward in terms of actual use? For instance; does the stock front driveshaft have enough plunge/extension to accommodate that at full droop? Potential binding of the front panhard? etc?

Thoughts?

 

[Box Rocket]

I'm making brackets to use in conjunction with my 50mm slinky kit; but I'm thinking about moving the axle forward more than 11mm...

I read where @Box Rocket wrote:



and seeing the relative fender heights of his 75mm slinky kit vs my stock truck, as mentioned here:



I laid out Adam's radius arm arc and tried to match the position of a 35 (which is what I'm going to run) as it compresses into the wheel opening so that I can take advantage of the firewall clearance he referenced above.

View attachment 2130270

This puts me at 39mm forward on my 50mm drop bracket, or just over 1.5" forward - within the recommendation quoted below:




Here's where I am so far - my objectives are: self-locating (for easy alignment), reversible (maintains the stock hole if ever needed), and reinforce the factory mount (I ran a ramp up into the opening on the back of the factory bracket to give it strength for lateral impacts and am making the mount 3/16" thick.)

View attachment 2130278

View attachment 2130279

I'm not going to seriously crawl with the FZJ80, and I figure with 35" tires it will still be gaining 1" of ground clearance over the factory bracket and 33s... (and since it doesn't protrude below the arm itself, it shouldn't hang on any obstacle the arm might be sliding over..)

I realize the approach angle benefit, but I'm curious, however, what if any unexpected consequences there will be to moving the axle that far forward in terms of actual use? For instance; does the stock front driveshaft have enough plunge/extension to accommodate that at full droop? Potential binding of the front panhard? etc?

Thoughts?

Bringing some nerdy-ness out in full effect! Well done.

From my experience with my own, the front driveshaft hasn't been an issue. With what you are planning I think the only real concern I can foresee is panhard clearance/binding. Have you considered modifying the bracket design to include two set of holes instead of one? Would take some additional calculation to get it right for caster but would give you a second option if you run into any clearance issues with the current location. Or just make new ones with a different location if you find you have binding since it looks like you have the tools, and resources to make additional brackets.

The other thing I should remind you of is that you'll likely need to trim sheet metal at the forward section of the fenderwell, along with your bumper wings potentially. I removed 2" from my bumper wings and most of the lower forward part of the fender well to clear tires for the full range of suspension compression and steering lock to lock.

 

[jkeithw]

Have you considered modifying the bracket design to include two set of holes instead of one? Would take some additional calculation to get it right for caster but would give you a second option if you run into any clearance issues with the current location. Or just make new ones with a different location if you find you have binding since it looks like you have the tools, and resources to make additional brackets.

I thought about multiple holes, but I'd like to keep the rear ramp profile as slim as possible (for situations where it needs to slide off of something..)

The other thing I should remind you of is that you'll likely need to trim sheet metal at the forward section of the fenderwell, along with your bumper wings potentially. I removed 2" from my bumper wings and most of the lower forward part of the fender well to clear tires for the full range of suspension compression and steering lock to lock.

That was for 35s? If so, did you have room to creep it back toward the firewall with that setup? (meaning the mount hole location)

Any photos of that cutting/clearancing?