Bolt-in frame stiffener enough?

[xr4tic]

Originally Posted by bikeguy0@yahoo.com

huh, that's interesting. I never really thought through that impact. What hole are you using on the trailing arm mount? I have Qa1 full coilover kit so my trailing arms are adjustable so I can fine tune it when I complete the install.

I'm using the lowest hole, per the instructions, it's good for a 5" lowering (moved forward). I originally had stock arms with a 2" block and 4" springs, but I added the Hotchkis spherical bearing and I'll be using air bags with the 2" blocks. I figured I'd start with moving it forward and use the lowest hole and work up if needed. I'm aiming to have my "ride height" be a typical 4/6 drop.

The instructions: "For trucks at stock ride height, use the rear most holes in the c-channel mounting plates, and the LOWEST trailing arm mounting position. (See Figure 5) For every inch of lowering, raising the trailing arms up one hole will retain the factory rear wheel position AND factory suspension settings. If your truck is lowered 5 inches, we recommend moving the bracing assembly to the forward holes in the c-channel plates, and then resetting the trailing arms to the lowest position, moving up a hole for each additional inch of lowering beyond 5 inches! "

I suspect this is all about maintaining stock wheelbase and pinion angle, but I also suspect that it makes no consideration for where the wheel is in the wheel well when it's dropped 6"+

From what I can measure with the bed off, moving the axle forward an inch isn't a good thing. Also, looking at pictures of stock trucks, it looks like the wheel is forward of the center of the wheel well.

Unless I see a good reason not to by tomorrow evening, I'm going to move it back to the "stock" rear position and go from there. Pinion angle can be done with shims if need be.

[SCOTI]

My experience has been that the closer the axle comes to the frame, the more it needs to shift toward the rear to keep things centered.