Cross Member Drop?

[HotRodYJ]

Surely this has been done before but so far I've not seen where anyone else is doing it. I'm new to the lowered truck stuff so I still have allot to learn. Has anyone else ever sunk the front cross member up over the frame rails instead of Z-ing the frame? In hind site this would have been much easier to just Z like everyone else, but I like to do things a little different and thought this might look a little bit cleaner once completed. Sectioning the cross member was actually really easy to do but steering becomes a much bigger issue since now the frame is in the way. I've seen the "dropmember" that is available for purchase but why not just sink the factory cross member? If you don't go as far as I did, steering issues would be pretty much identical to what one would use with the dropmember. The Dropmember seems VERY expensive at least for my tastes, but I am a cheap kind of guy. I'll spend 2 weeks fabing something up to save a little coin.

Here's some pics of what I've done so far. This front suspension is actually from a 77 C10, basically I sectioned 3.5" out of the cross member and 1.5" from the bottom of the frame rails. Then boxed the frame and slide the cross member up over and welded them together to get a total 5" of cross member drop. The first pic it's not finished but you can see more of how it went together. I have since finished the upper A-arm mounts and gusseted them in place and ready now to fit the motor and mount the rack. The biggest issue obviously is steering since the frame gets in the way. I decided to go with rack & pinion and picked one up from a 95 Camaro Z28. To get correct steering geometry I sectioned and boxed into the frame pretty deep then fab'd these bridge pieces to bolt back on top to regain the lost strength. I think it should work out fine this way. I can jump up and down on the front frame section and nothing moves so I'll call it good. The steering set-up is the only advantage I see so far to Z-ing rather than simply dropping the cross member as I have done.



Back on the ground with RE7 bags and unmodified Suicide Doors bag brackets and 29" tires. Everything else is stock including spindles. I'm actually not looking to lay frame, I just want a very low comfortable ride. This is the first time I've ever used bags on anything so I am curious where ride height will be when the bags are aired up for driving? I can always add spindles to get more drop at a reasonable cost. I'm sure I can get another 1" safely by trimming the lower bag cups without getting into trouble.





Still a long way to go but I'm interested in your thoughts and comments. Anyway, here’s my project. I'm working on a 66 step side that will get tandem rear axles. I know the mini truck guys did a lot of tandem trucks back in the early 90's and I wanted to add some of that flare to a classic truck. I don't see the point of using dummy trailer axles just to get the look so in my case both rear axles will be driven via a divorce mounted transfer case turned backwards. This will allow each rear axle it's own dedicated driveshaft. The rear-most axle will have an offset pinion to help keep the d-shafts in-line and clear the forward axle. Should be a unique set-up and here's what I hope to end up with one day. I'm using a pair of 9" Ford axles and a Ford NP205 t-case. The rear will be triangulated 4 link and bags on each axle. I'm also planning an engine driven York On Board Air system for the bags. Same type OBA system used in the Jeep world for real air power while offroad. You can actually run air tools off of these things and it will save me the cost of a decent electric compressor since I have a York compressor laying on the shelf that I picked up at a swap meet a few years ago.



Thanks for looking.