Warning: Long post.
Wow.
It looks like I will acutally be adding some stuff to my `93 this year that I didn't think would happen in the next few years-if at all.
Short story:
I've been bouncing the idea of fabricating a custom rear bumper + tire carrier off my dad for several weeks now. He's been welding his whole life, and after seeing Dusty's fine work I got particularly fired up about being able to build a quality bumper without having to bend much steel.
We looked over some pictures of Christo's, Dusty's, and others' bumpers last night, and he is definitely on board. He'll start rounding up steel today (he says he throws away two or three bumpers worth of steel every week).
The real surprise is how excited he is about building up my truck in general. He's also worked with and around cranes and industrial winches his whole life, and he's always had winches on all of his trucks. He's really into winches. He has concluded that I MUST have a winch. Long story short: He has decided that he is going to buy me a Warn XD9000 and a front bumper, and I can't talk him out of it.
At this point I feel like a kid again--getting toys from my father--but it's hard to feel too silly when he's more excited about it than I am.
In the meantime, I've convinced my wife that we MUST upgrade the suspension on the Cruiser to accomodate two big steel bumpers and a winch--"It just wouldn't be safe to drive the kids around."
New toys for Hayes:
2 x OME 850 springs
2 x OME 863 springs
1 x SD24 steering damper
1 x Caster correction (question to follow)
4 x OME / Bilstein / Edelbrock shocks (another question to follow)
1 x a custom rear bumper (sometime in the next few months)
1 x SLEE or ARB front bumper (as soon as you folks help me decide)
1 x Warn XD9000 winch (as soon as I get the front bumper)
Questions for the collected IH8MUD wisdom:
1. Is there a caster correction option for the 2.5" OME Heavy lift that will allow me to use the stock control arm bushings?
Search was inconclusive on this one (for the 2.5" lift).
2. I've got myself 90% convinced to use the Edelbrock IAS Performer shocks instead of the OME shocks. Their dimensions and stroke are less than the OME's, but longer than the Bilsteins--and I haven't heard any real negative comments on using the Bilsteins with the OME springs.
3. SLEE's front bumper vs. the ARB bull bar. The vast majority of folks seem to be running the ARB. Why isn't Christo's front bumper as popular? To be honest, I don't really want the Roo-smasher bars, and I'm sure that the SLEE front is excellent. Also, will Christo's front bumper fit the XD9000 (with spacers, like the ARB)?
Search got me nothing on this one.
I'm going to call Christo and order the suspension stuff as soon as I reach a conclusion on the caster correction and shocks. Hopfully I'll have a newly-suspended truck in the next couple weeks.
Feels like Christmas.
Thanks for the feedback.
Hayes
Wow.
It looks like I will acutally be adding some stuff to my `93 this year that I didn't think would happen in the next few years-if at all.
Short story:
I've been bouncing the idea of fabricating a custom rear bumper + tire carrier off my dad for several weeks now. He's been welding his whole life, and after seeing Dusty's fine work I got particularly fired up about being able to build a quality bumper without having to bend much steel.
We looked over some pictures of Christo's, Dusty's, and others' bumpers last night, and he is definitely on board. He'll start rounding up steel today (he says he throws away two or three bumpers worth of steel every week).
The real surprise is how excited he is about building up my truck in general. He's also worked with and around cranes and industrial winches his whole life, and he's always had winches on all of his trucks. He's really into winches. He has concluded that I MUST have a winch. Long story short: He has decided that he is going to buy me a Warn XD9000 and a front bumper, and I can't talk him out of it.
At this point I feel like a kid again--getting toys from my father--but it's hard to feel too silly when he's more excited about it than I am.
In the meantime, I've convinced my wife that we MUST upgrade the suspension on the Cruiser to accomodate two big steel bumpers and a winch--"It just wouldn't be safe to drive the kids around."
New toys for Hayes:
2 x OME 850 springs
2 x OME 863 springs
1 x SD24 steering damper
1 x Caster correction (question to follow)
4 x OME / Bilstein / Edelbrock shocks (another question to follow)
1 x a custom rear bumper (sometime in the next few months)
1 x SLEE or ARB front bumper (as soon as you folks help me decide)
1 x Warn XD9000 winch (as soon as I get the front bumper)
Questions for the collected IH8MUD wisdom:
1. Is there a caster correction option for the 2.5" OME Heavy lift that will allow me to use the stock control arm bushings?
Search was inconclusive on this one (for the 2.5" lift).
2. I've got myself 90% convinced to use the Edelbrock IAS Performer shocks instead of the OME shocks. Their dimensions and stroke are less than the OME's, but longer than the Bilsteins--and I haven't heard any real negative comments on using the Bilsteins with the OME springs.
3. SLEE's front bumper vs. the ARB bull bar. The vast majority of folks seem to be running the ARB. Why isn't Christo's front bumper as popular? To be honest, I don't really want the Roo-smasher bars, and I'm sure that the SLEE front is excellent. Also, will Christo's front bumper fit the XD9000 (with spacers, like the ARB)?
Search got me nothing on this one.
I'm going to call Christo and order the suspension stuff as soon as I reach a conclusion on the caster correction and shocks. Hopfully I'll have a newly-suspended truck in the next couple weeks.
Feels like Christmas.
Thanks for the feedback.
Hayes