anyone done this also.

[roofingbloke]

Here is a picture taken fron a posting from one of Dinos threads,

? does this work well ?

[OARNGESI]

LOOK THROUGH THIS IT SHOULD ANSWER ALL YOUR QUESTIONS http://www.captkaoscustoms.com/chopcross.html

[NZSquare]

Ive just finished putting one in, chopped 1.5" and yes it worked well

The control arm issues are not to be underestimated, I ended up getting tubular lower arms, I had read of people 'trimming' stock ones but don't believe it, the amount youd have to 'trim' would be huge and make them unsafe. The cross shaft and tie rod nuts hit the arms, and the stock arms rest on the arms when the thing is aired out, no such problem with tubular arms.



Its emabarrasingly dirty but it shows how close it all gets

I used unisteer universals from Scotts hot rods


Then made a simple gusset for the centre bearing that bolts on top of the engine mount.

One thing that the naysayers tell you will render the truck undriveable is the bumpsteer caused by changing the tierod input angle, I had intended to flip the tie rods so they attached to the spindle from the other side, got some bushings to do this but figured I'd drive it first. I took my time and aligned it as best I could and the bumpsteer is just not there, at any ride height for that matter.

I found a huge amount of misinformation about it, mainly on this forum unfortunately, I did attempt to get a bolt in crossmember but couldnt find a reasonable shipping cost (Im in New Zealand) so did this mod thinking one day Ill get a bolt in crossmember.



This is how it sits for now, theres another 2 inches to go once I remove my bumpstops, overall Im stoked I did this, I did it myself and it cost me 100 bucks for a spare crossmember, 240 or so for the steering gear and the cost of the tubular arms.

[54Caddy]

what rims are those, running adapters?

[roofingbloke]

Thanks for the info NZ Square, The shipping and import duty from the US works out at about double the price of the parts in the first place, Some of the products from thorbeck brothers are amazing and would have liked to have been the first to have one of these products on a UK truck. Looks like i will be doing the same as you have,
Thanks Darron.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by 54Caddy

what rims are those, running adapters?

Those are Dodge 20" spare tire rims. The pattern is 5x5.5 so something had to be done to make them fit. Either adapters or redrilled hubs.

[NZSquare]

No problem,
and yeah the wheels are dodge 20's, $190 US from ebay, about that in shipping and duty and another $400US or so to get the BCD changed.

I got a guy here that builds wheels to make new centres with the right BCD and hub diameter, then he just cut the stock centres out and put the new ones in, it worked a treat and the weld is barely noticeable. He must have done it pretty straight to because the worst wheel only needed 30grams to balance it.