jkeithw
Supporting Vendor
Btw, ended up backing down to 30mm forward, IIRC
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Does anyone make caster drop brackets
- Thread starter asuddendeath
- Start date
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I don't anymore. I might be the first. I built a whole kit for Man-a-Fre in the mid 2000s. I had drop radius, drop rear lower control,
drop front and rear panhard and drop upper rear control arms. I also built Lower and upper rear controls, the upper being adjustable on the truck. After the crash the market dropped out and Man-a-fre never really got back to the size they were. Man-a-fre only kept the FRABs ( front radius arm bracket ). Chinese parts like the lower rears became available cheaper. We made ours from 2 3/8 x .375 wall DOM. The Chinese stuff is much cheaper. I will admit that the original Slee arms were even better. His first ones were TIG welded
Chromoly heavy wall. When the mild steel stuff started hitting the shores the high end parts became hard to sell. Slee went to
lighter stuff, .188 wall DOM. Many of the Chinese units are just solid 27mm mild steel bar. Some are tube but Chinese and India
sourced DOM is not the same as US or European sourced DOM.
jkeithw
Supporting Vendor
Yeah, you were out in front of this stuff! These types of geometry corrections are really quite significant in restoring proper handling (even though most of the aftermarket ignores them.)
I always raise the panhards when I can, but the front of the 80 is a pickle in that department.
Do you have any old photos of your front drop solution? I just finished up some rear panhard lift brackets for the 80, in fact. Selectable for 50, 75, 100, & 125mm lift heights (similar to my 3rd gen 4Runner stuff.)
Yeah, you were out in front of this stuff! These types of geometry corrections are really quite significant in restoring proper handling (even though most of the aftermarket ignores them.)
I always raise the panhards when I can, but the front of the 80 is a pickle in that department.
I just finished up some rear panhard lift brackets for the 80, in fact. Selectable for 50, 75, 100, & 125mm lift heights (similar to my 3rd gen 4Runner stuff.)
What was odd was most of the kits that did sell went to Europe. The Europeans had been using linked suspensions for much longer
while US automakers were using leaf and wishbone suspensions. As a result the Europeans were more educated on the way
a linked suspension works and how changing just one piece vs all the pieces affects handling. Because there were so many pieces,
the cost was higher than Americans wanted to spend on 80s at the time. At that time 80s were still new and many owners were reluctant
to do involved modifications. The first 80 rear carrier I built involved replacing the rear crossmember. Even though the result was much stronger and the departure angle improved significantly no one was willing to cut into their 80. I sold three in 4 years. That was 1999.
These are pics from the first prototyping. Certain appearances changed in the execution but geometry and concepts are
right. Prototypes are the rough drawings. Later you add the pretty
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The first80 rear . I believe these were the last two I built in 2002. I was selling through Man-a-Fre. They couldn't get any interest
over the three years so they cancelled them
over the three years so they cancelled them
jkeithw
Supporting Vendor
Lots of good stuff going on there - tight to the tailgate, high clearance sides - that's impressive for that long ago!
very nice.
Here's a rear that I do for the 3rd gen 4Runner that you may appreciate, seeing as it's on the same wavelength, so to speak...:
- incidentally, you can see my panhard correction in both photos as well.
(great minds, eh?)
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jkeithw
Supporting Vendor
BTW, I love seeing photos of your stuff - keep them coming!
It was a little harder back then. There were very few cnc cutters out there for outsourcing. Now there are multiple lasers, waterjets and
plasma tables in most decent size cities. I started making plate bumpers in the early 90s when everyone was still doing tube bumpers.
It was about that time when the first decent hand held plasmas became readily available. That machine changed a lot in the custom fab world.
I remember, not long before, plasma cutters used bottled oxygen rather than air and were the size of the old Buzz box welders.
Best investment ever made was the Hossfeld bender I bought when I was 20 in 1979. I still use it today. It has probably been used
in 5 million dollars of parts. I'm glad I was one of those kids that would rather have bought a tool than a useless toy. Makes me think
of the wasted money that kids spend on 600.00 cell phones. I still have my 2015 Motorola Droid Turbo 2 that I bought used for 85.00.
The last ever USA made cell phone
jkeithw
Supporting Vendor
Were you drafting in AutoCad at the time? (thinking back to my first ACAD night class in '97...)
I was. I started using Autocad R10 in the early 90's on an old 286 computer. Everything was 2D . I was always good at visualizing
so I didn't really use 3D very much unless I was doing it for someone else's benefit. I "see" the finished product in my head and
then I "see" it in 2D components. It's faster for me to do it that way. It's easy to make a 10,000.00 bumper. Just spend 80 shop hours
building it. The trick is building the 80 hour bumper in 15 to make it affordable. You figure out how to minimize assembly time.
The more forming and less welding the better but making sure the forming is not too difficult so that an average brake operator
will mess up a pallet of parts.
so I didn't really use 3D very much unless I was doing it for someone else's benefit. I "see" the finished product in my head and
then I "see" it in 2D components. It's faster for me to do it that way. It's easy to make a 10,000.00 bumper. Just spend 80 shop hours
building it. The trick is building the 80 hour bumper in 15 to make it affordable. You figure out how to minimize assembly time.
The more forming and less welding the better but making sure the forming is not too difficult so that an average brake operator
will mess up a pallet of parts.
jkeithw
Supporting Vendor
Truth!
For the OP, MAF makes them again and they're in stock, just got a pair delivered yesterday!
Looks like those reposition the mounting hole a bit forward (not just dropped)? hard to tell from the pic.
