Waggoner5
SILVER Star
I thought I would do a small review on a new product Christo has coming to market soon. He and I spoke about this kit in detail at SEMA when they were still under developement and he said that it might be too much caster for just a J sprung truck. I am a big fan of allot of caster on a lifted truck with 35's so I decided I would try them and make them work. I figured I could install the OME caster correction bushings upside down to regain some negative caster if needed. So any way, Christo sent me a set of yellow cad. plated, laser cut, brackets made for trucks with more than 3 inches of lift. I installed them today on my wife Kelly's 80 with 850J fronts and 863's on the rear. I have a single OME steering stabilizer, along with L shocks.
Although Kelly's truck has a relatively low lift for this kit, and since I don't have bumpers and other stuff weighing down the suspension, I achieved more than 3" with this configuration, making more - caster than the OME bushings would handle. The ride is excellent, not too stiff for a soccer mom at all. Now on to the install.
With the truck on a lift I removed both control arms, one at a time, and pressed out the OME caster correction bushings, replacing them with stock. Christos brackets mount over the stock welded on brackets with supplied bolts using the extra top hole above the stock front hole as a mounting point. I used the supplied spacer for this bolt so the factory bracket won't crush and noticed that the bottom edge of the factory bracket must be ground or cut about 3/8 inch for the new bracket to fit flush with the old. Christo's design has a small square piece of plate welded on the inside bracket as a spacer for the stock front and rear bushings to fit flush. After removing the small amount of lower bracket, I bolted the new control arm brackets up, and reinstalled the arms with the factory bushings installed. Done. Including pressing the bushings it took me about 45 minutes.
Now some data on caster changes.
Left Right in degrees +
Stock springs with stock bushings 1.0 - 1.5
J springs with OME bushings 0 - .5
J springs with Slee Correction arms, stock bushings 6 - 5.5
Now before getting slammed for going so far out of spec with + caster, let me say that the truck before, being close to stock specs, drove OK at best. It road wandered pretty bad and felt if in a panic situation, could do some scary bad things. I believe the difference in caster from side to side is a little excessive but having a little less on the passenger side corrects for the slope in the roads. With Christos kit installed, giving me so much positive caster, the truck runs straight, no wandering, no darting, no following of ruts, etc. All of this feeling much better even than a stock truck. I ran the truck up to a crazy 100 mph on a bad section of freeway and found no signs of the dreaded death wobble that positive caster of this amount can sometimes cause. I am completely blown away by how well the truck handles now and I can't imagine not using these brackets on ALL the 80's that get J springs and larger amounts of lift. The kit , when available, will be pretty much a bolt on kit with the exception of a small amount of lower bracket trimming. I was also concerned about what the driveline angles would be with this kit in place but found that the front out put is at 86* and the front diff flange is now at 87*, allowing me to use the stock front shaft with no vibration being within the 2 degree limit of being parallel. Very cool.
I am not sure where Christo will be pricing the kit, but I think it will be in the neighborhood of 120.00.
If anyone has any question about their trucks handling with a lift, install this kit.
Gary
Although Kelly's truck has a relatively low lift for this kit, and since I don't have bumpers and other stuff weighing down the suspension, I achieved more than 3" with this configuration, making more - caster than the OME bushings would handle. The ride is excellent, not too stiff for a soccer mom at all. Now on to the install.
With the truck on a lift I removed both control arms, one at a time, and pressed out the OME caster correction bushings, replacing them with stock. Christos brackets mount over the stock welded on brackets with supplied bolts using the extra top hole above the stock front hole as a mounting point. I used the supplied spacer for this bolt so the factory bracket won't crush and noticed that the bottom edge of the factory bracket must be ground or cut about 3/8 inch for the new bracket to fit flush with the old. Christo's design has a small square piece of plate welded on the inside bracket as a spacer for the stock front and rear bushings to fit flush. After removing the small amount of lower bracket, I bolted the new control arm brackets up, and reinstalled the arms with the factory bushings installed. Done. Including pressing the bushings it took me about 45 minutes.
Now some data on caster changes.
Left Right in degrees +
Stock springs with stock bushings 1.0 - 1.5
J springs with OME bushings 0 - .5
J springs with Slee Correction arms, stock bushings 6 - 5.5
Now before getting slammed for going so far out of spec with + caster, let me say that the truck before, being close to stock specs, drove OK at best. It road wandered pretty bad and felt if in a panic situation, could do some scary bad things. I believe the difference in caster from side to side is a little excessive but having a little less on the passenger side corrects for the slope in the roads. With Christos kit installed, giving me so much positive caster, the truck runs straight, no wandering, no darting, no following of ruts, etc. All of this feeling much better even than a stock truck. I ran the truck up to a crazy 100 mph on a bad section of freeway and found no signs of the dreaded death wobble that positive caster of this amount can sometimes cause. I am completely blown away by how well the truck handles now and I can't imagine not using these brackets on ALL the 80's that get J springs and larger amounts of lift. The kit , when available, will be pretty much a bolt on kit with the exception of a small amount of lower bracket trimming. I was also concerned about what the driveline angles would be with this kit in place but found that the front out put is at 86* and the front diff flange is now at 87*, allowing me to use the stock front shaft with no vibration being within the 2 degree limit of being parallel. Very cool.
I am not sure where Christo will be pricing the kit, but I think it will be in the neighborhood of 120.00.
If anyone has any question about their trucks handling with a lift, install this kit.
Gary
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