bagging my 69 (questions)

[Painter D]

alright dudes i gonna bag my truck in a couple of months so im looking for which mounts are the best and simplest to run up front. i used to have a bagged , bodydropped truck many years ago so im not new to this stuff, just new to doing these trucks. all im interested in doing is getting the front to lay all the way down to the bottom of the control arms, and getting the back to lay as far down in the c notch as it will. im not looking for anything real serious just a simple setup. dont wanna fool with the steering , dont wanna fool with the crossmember. also as i stated above its been many years since ive had this stuff, what size bags are the majority of you guys running ( front,rear). when i used to have my s-10 it had 2600lbs. bags up front and 2800lbs bags out back, and that was on a much lighter truck , so does anybody run 2800lbs. bags up front in these trucks, or is something new and improved out now? oh yeah when i say it was many years ago , all we had was quarter inch airline and slow paddle valves, and cantilever setups were few and far between. any help would be great.

[Bagged Nissan]

2600's (224c in firestone, re7 in a slam or contitech 2600's) is what is most common to use in the front of these. Its not too small like a 2500 is in an s10. As you know we do them in dimes for better ride, that bag is just like running it on a dime, ride height might be a tad higher in the psi range due to weight, but its def not a waste up front. You can run a 2800 bag (re8 Slam bag) in the front, but its very soft and you'll need a good shock to help counter the softness. I would personally run 7's all around... you wont notice enough difference going to 8's.

we've improved a lot since the 1/4" and MIC manual valvea days. lol

[Painter D]

ive noticed some people run what looks like a plate for an upper bag mount on the front, and some people run the cups. whats the pros and cons on those mounts. also ive enclosed a current pic of my truck if anyone notices anything that im not thinking of let me know.

[Bagged Nissan]

The upper plate with the lower cup will lay a 20 with a z on a smaller tire.. there are some ppl that run the upper plates, cut the hump and the adjacent side off, plate it as low as possible and mount the bag straight to that to get a bit lower.. using the upper cups you gotta cut your spring pocket too, but it also will let you go lower. I just cut the spring pocket off the frame completely and use a torsion bar plates.. this might be too much for what you want, but in doing this, i can mount the bracket anywhere and lay out without messing with the top plate setup or a top cup setup.

You can experiment what way you wanna go, I would probably go upper and lower cups for adjustability as far as lift and lower.. (you trim your upper cup to lay lower, but whatever you take off is approximently double at the wheel.. if you need to go down 1" to lay lower arms (assuming you dont wanna Z), then you cut half inch off the cup).

This is a picture of a c10 i did that used the plate upper and cup lower with an re7 bag.. as you can tell it wasnt getting at all and he put 22's on it.



this is laid out with a top plate, mcgaughy spindles and a re7.. this is also a 31" all terrain (he had no tires for the 22's yet)

[bdydrp97s10]

can you lay the frame on the ground with the upper plates and lower cups, if you do a z.. and a 20 inch wheel with a 40 series tire???????

[Bagged Nissan]

Originally Posted by bdydrp97s10

can you lay the frame on the ground with the upper plates and lower cups, if you do a z.. and a 20 inch wheel with a 40 series tire???????

not sure to be honest.. i only remember reading about what the gguys are going with awhile back.. There arent many c10's up here.. that is the first one I didnt do 'my way' with the torsion setup as its cleaner and a lot easier to work with. And that truck with the 265/25/22 tires would of been around 4" smaller then what is up there.. so I think a 235/35/20 and a 245/35/20 would lay.. but i'd measure before I bought the brackets.

[Painter D]

no i dont wanna Z or remove the spring mounts all together, i just wanna get the lower control arms on the ground with as little modification as possible. (guess im just lazy)

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by 69chevyshort

no i dont wanna Z or remove the spring mounts all together, i just wanna get the lower control arms on the ground with as little modification as possible. (guess im just lazy)

Do you still have my cell #? If so, give me a shout.

If you can, swing over to my part of town to see things first hand before I tear it down for the Dropmember swap.

[Painter D]

hey Scoti ,yeah i still got your number maybe we can set something up next week.

[lowrod65]

i have a 1965 chevy swb thats about to go under the knife also. im running everything from porterbuilt street rods for the front. they make a crossmember for 1947 thru 1987 that is bolt in to the factory holes. if you get the jan.08 street trucks magazine. they show an install for front crossmember kit. they are out of arizona.

[lowrod65]

you dont have to z the frame, and it will lay. they have alot of options for the 1947 thru 1987 front setups. chek their website out, they have alot more info than what i can give.

[Bagged Nissan]

you dont have to Z if you run a porterbuilt crossmember, its a damn quality piece, but wasnt sure if he had 1200 in his budget for that piece alone.

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by Bagged Nissan

you dont have to Z if you run a porterbuilt crossmember, its a damn quality piece, but wasnt sure if he had 1200 in his budget for that piece alone.

Exactly. For some reason I think he want's to keep it simple......

Originally Posted by 69chevyshort

.....all im interested in doing is getting the front to lay all the way down to the bottom of the control arms, and getting the back to lay as far down in the c notch as it will. im not looking for anything real serious just a simple setup. dont wanna fool with the steering , dont wanna fool with the crossmember.

[Painter D]

yeah , back in the day i would go for the DROPMEMBER , and all kinds of other good stuff to compliment the whole setup. but its a simpler time now not to mention the wife is about to quit working so now i have to budget for that. HOWEVER, is it possible to install the dropmember with the motor in the truck? and if i did go that route what would i do with my new quick ratio gear box

[lowrod65]

yes you can install it without pulling the motor. in the street truck tech artical they install it without pulling the motor.

[Painter D]

well thats good news about the dropmember, oh yeah i was being sarcastic about my gear box. LOL

[lowrod65]

oh hell man , it didnt even hit me like that. by the way your truck is gonna look insane on the the ground.