Dropmember in a 69 C10

[PBFAB.COM]

Originally Posted by onehot69stepside

is that a typical ford rack and pinion (24" inner balljoint centers) or is it a modified one for extended travel, or does the drop-member require the use of impala spindles? what im getting at is how the turning radius is with that rack. I'm building a full chassis front to back on a table and I think I've got it figured out how to build my ifs from scratch using a rack with the same amount of bumpsteer as stock but I have to figure a way to get my turning radius tighter.

Suspension geometry can be a complicated thing! When building a custom chassis or one-off piece things can become less complicated than when building a production piece like the dropmember. Sounds wierd, but true. Production pieces have to be cost effective... a custom rack would change that real quick. In all suspension and steering design/geometry there has to be certain trade-offs that take place. The stock rack does take away slightly from the turning radius, its turning radius is still average or slightly above, but I would be lying if I said it was the same or better. To increase the steering radius I could have had a custom rack produced or decided to use different spindles with a shorter steering arm, (this might be what you need to do for your custom application) , but it would have defeated the purpose of building this crossmember. My original objective was to build a kit that was a quality piece, both in design and manufacturing, and most importantly cost effective for the consumer. It is an exceptional design, the quality of the piece is incredible, the suspension geometry is an improvement from stock, all obstacles that are inherent with putting these trucks on the ground have been addressed, and the price is reasonable. Sorry for soapboxing and giving you more info than you probably wanted or needed, but I hope I was able to help answer your questions.