Bed Spacing

[David67]

I am currently putting together a mildly bagged chassis. The bed floor in my stepside will not be raised. How low I can go before my axle housing hits the bed floor (Distance between Frame/crossmember to bed)? The box is off of the frame currently and I am not in a position to place it back on. If I remember correctly, it is very close at about 1/2" to 1". I am using the CPP crossmember, but it is even with the frame rails.

I am using Dead End Garage notches and my ECE panhard bar/mount from when it was dropped 4/6. The stock ECE mount hit the notch and required trimming. The tab closest to me looks like it is hitting the frame, but it is not. If I am able to use this bracket, I will give myself some more room. After trimming, the panhard bar now hits the notch. I will try to relocate the mount to underneath the trailing arm.

As it sits (frame against panhard bar), the axle housing is about dead even with the top of the crossmember. If I put my weight on the driver's side, the notch bottoms out on the U-bolt (see pictures 3 and 4). So...after I fix the panhard bar issue, I am wanting to know if I will bottom out on the U-bolts first or the bed floor, so that I can place bump stops accordingly.

Here are some pictures to help explain!

[David67]

One more... currently as it sits on the panhard bar.

[68is4me]

I am running pretty much the same setup. The axle does sit above the bed floor and I had to cut out a section of floor. Is your ECE bracket mounted correctly? I think mine is mounted below the control arms.

[David67]

Originally Posted by 68is4me

I am running pretty much the same setup. The axle does sit above the bed floor and I had to cut out a section of floor. Is your ECE bracket mounted correctly? I think mine is mounted below the control arms.

Yeah it's in there correctly. I called ECE and they told me they have seen people trim it and run it beneath the trailing arm.

[68is4me]

I had to run out to garage and look at mine. The bracket is mounted just like yours. I have a cpp notch in and the bracket just fits right in the cut out of the notch. Make sure that your axle is centered as I did gain some more room on that side when centered.

[68is4me]

Okay, I had to go take a picture and now I remember. I also had the exact same problem until I put a lowering block in and that fixed it. It was either a 2 or 1.5 can't remember for sure. I also have a spacer on top of my bags for the air lines. Mine did not hit the bump stops until I put the spacer in.

[David67]

Originally Posted by 68is4me

I had to run out to garage and look at mine. The bracket is mounted just like yours. I have a cpp notch in and the bracket just fits right in the cut out of the notch. Make sure that your axle is centered as I did gain some more room on that side when centered.

Originally Posted by 68is4me

Okay, I had to go take a picture and now I remember. I also had the exact same problem until I put a lowering block in and that fixed it. It was either a 2 or 1.5 can't remember for sure. I also have a spacer on top of my bags for the air lines. Mine did not hit the bump stops until I put the spacer in.

Thanks for the picture! Yeah these notches are pretty beefy/bulky so that may play a factor. The bag mounts are incorporated so I can probably get a little lower than usual... without the bed on there to hit the housing. Tomorrow I'm going to try and move the bracket beneath the trailing arm. If that doesn't work, it shouldn't be too difficult to fab up something nice.