Lots of progress this weekend! First I installed the OME 2.5" lift. Christo at Slee recommended 850's in the front and 864's in the rear for the weight that I'll be carrying. It's sitting a little tail-high right now but I'm not going to do anything about it until the suspension has had a chance to settle and I finish adding weight. Once all that is done, I'll add a small spacer to the front to level it if need be. The install was simple, but time consuming. It took me about 4 hours start to finish. I'm really happy with the ride and handling. The truck doesn't wallow at all and feels much more stable in turns. I haven't done any caster correction yet, as I plan to wait until I decide whether or not to add a spacer to the front. At that time , I'll use Slee's caster plates. To me, the caster bushings seem a little hokey.
Me in the middle of 2am impact wrench practice. My neighbors love me.
Before:
After:
I also got my ARB awnings installed today (8 foot on the driver's side for hanging out, 4 foot in the rear which will provide shade for the slide out kitchen that I'm about to build). I'm not sure if anyone else has done this with the PrinSu rack, so here's a couple of tips:
Rear (4 foot) awning: You'll need to do some notching on one side of the crossbar and use longer bolts if you plan to mount an ARB awning to the crossbar of this rack. Not a big deal and the awning is the same width as the crossbar, so it fits between the side rails of the rack without issue.
Notched the crossbar for bolt clearance, used a plate on the back side of the crossbar.
Rear crossbar installed vertically and at an angle to provide clearance between the awning and the roof.
Side (8 foot) awning: The awning needs to be spaced away from the rack in order to clear the screws that hold the rack together and the roof brackets. I used some scrap 1/4 aluminum bar , cut, drilled and painted black (which was not necessary because it can't be seen). I also used longer bolts to make up for the spacer bars.
1/4 inch aluminum spacers. You need three of these:
I used the top slotted hole in the side rail of the rack for the awning's top bolt and drilled a hole in the side rail under it for the bottom bolt. This was done at the front, middle and rear of the side rail. NOTE: This is not an ideal way to mount the awning if you like to reconfigure your rack a lot for different loads. However, my rack will always have the same load on it (awnings and tent), so it was the perfect solution for me.
Front:
Middle:
Rear:
Installation Tip: A ratcheting 10mm box wrench is your friend here. All told In was able to install both awnings in about 2 hours. (Including a bolt run).
I love how simple and easy the awnings function. Setup of both awnings, alone, takes me about 90 seconds each.
Awning porn:
The next step will be the fabrication of my spare tire/water can swingouts and the design and build of my slide out kitchen and fridge mount/slide. Stay tuned...
