Question for Porterbuilt....dropmember ?s

[-Greg72]

PB,

Just a couple of quick questions for you after reading the article on your dropmember in ClassicTrucks...

The article mentioned (and I think you've said it on this board a few times) that a 27" tire will lay frame up front. I'm assuming that is truly the limit of the suspension travel, since I think the article mentioned that a 29" tire would still be 1" off the ground at max drop...

Questions (assuming the 27" front tire scenario):

1. What is the angle (in degrees) of the front A-arms at full drop? I'm imagining they are upswept from the frame to the spindle, but I'm just wondering by how much.

2. What is the angle (in degrees) of the front A-arms at full ride height? I'd imagine that thay are sweeping down in that case??

3. What is the frame height, when the A-Arms are completely parallel to the ground? I can probably calculate this based on the answers to #1 and #2 above, but if you already know it you can save me the trouble...!!!


The reason I'm asking all this, is because I'm trying to understand what ride height is going to give the best ride quality....A softer psi in the airbags generally gives a smoother ride, but depending on how low the a-arms are attached to the crossmember, it might take a lot of air to get the truck to an acceptable "street driving" height and the ride quality might suffer.... does this make sense?

You may remember that I asked a while ago about using the Dropmember in my '72 Burb with a BBC. Now that you've solved the motor mount issues, all I need to understand is how to best overcome the steering rack issues (My truck is going to be very close to the maximum recommended weight of the current offerings).....would using a C4 version of the Dropmember all me to use a C4 steering rack? Would that have a better weight rating for my "portly" Suburban application???

Thanks for any info or clues you can send my way...