Hey guys, first thread here after following along on what other folks are doing for these trucks. My journey started after getting one of these for myself after importing a few for other people I absolutely fell in love even despite their quirks and I've always loved the challenge of making good quality and affordable performance parts. I knew mine had some prior rust issues before I bought it, partially why I was able to afford it, so I knew it would be a perfect test bed for the suspension work I had planned. My local laser cutter recently purchased a new machine with a whopping 1.25" cutting capacity in steel so I set to work designing some arms with a solid 3/4" thick center section, not perimeter welded like some other options on the market. I chose this for simplicity and to cut down on tolerance stack up with multiple weldments and human error not to mention labor cost.
I took a factory arm off my truck and got to work modeling the dimensional changes I wanted and looking for off the shelf DOM tube I could easily modify to press the bushings into. Unfortunately I could only find this for the rear bushing sleeve so I have a big order of front bushing sleeves on order with a CNC shop. The prototypes came out well and work great, the steering feel on the road is drastically changed, its completely docile and you don't need to give it constant attention and correction. Exactly what you want a solid axle truck to be.
Cutting apart the factory arms I found the center web to be only 1/4" thick in some places and based on the CAD software's calculations and some napkin math with a good dose of gut feeling I don't see these bending at all. I've posted these on the 70 series facebook group as well and gotten good reception and feedback.
I'm not sure what it takes to be an approved vendor here or if I'm allowed to post a link to my site but I wanted to share my progress for anyone interested.
I took a factory arm off my truck and got to work modeling the dimensional changes I wanted and looking for off the shelf DOM tube I could easily modify to press the bushings into. Unfortunately I could only find this for the rear bushing sleeve so I have a big order of front bushing sleeves on order with a CNC shop. The prototypes came out well and work great, the steering feel on the road is drastically changed, its completely docile and you don't need to give it constant attention and correction. Exactly what you want a solid axle truck to be.
Cutting apart the factory arms I found the center web to be only 1/4" thick in some places and based on the CAD software's calculations and some napkin math with a good dose of gut feeling I don't see these bending at all. I've posted these on the 70 series facebook group as well and gotten good reception and feedback.
I'm not sure what it takes to be an approved vendor here or if I'm allowed to post a link to my site but I wanted to share my progress for anyone interested.
