[Guest]

ha ha thought that might bring a few in!

so any ways just what does a truck need to survive the punishment and torchure of a desert racer?

heres the foundation,
a 78 bronco 460ci c6 np205 1ton axles f/r

6" bds lift 35" goodyear MTR's , the truck for the most part sees all mud,it's a daily driver that can snag 1000pts on a 20deg rti (whoopie,never have i came across a ramp in the bush!)

the kicker is , i want to stay with the straight axles

the lift stays/ and it has to be street leagle

what do i do to the rest of it to survive?
what kinda shocks are goodin's?

and how do i post a pic on here?
thanx for any replies guys
i know this is quite a general how to question,but any suggestions would be greatly ap re sh ge ate ed

 

[Guest]

well I think it is interesting that you want to stay with straight axels but if you want to do that and you really want to mash your truck you could four link the front end and put some coilovers on it. but if you want to keep it fairly simple put some long travel leafs and slap some bypasses or just good shocks like bilstien, sway-a-way, king,or fox. these companies all make good products and I'm sure you can find something that can fit your budget. But what ever you do keep it FORD and remember they don't leak they just mark there territory!

 

[Guest]

well i want to keep the straight axles in cause they work good for all the other types of drivin i do

i think because i just put the 6" coils up front that i will leave them in and just get some long travel shocks

you mentioned several types, i priced out king shocks, 32" tall 2.5 pre-runners at 300 bones (remote rez)

what are sway-aways?

is there a place that i can read about specs of a pre-runner type rig?
if i could see what mods they have done to a rig,that might help,

thanx for the response

 

[Guest]

sway-aways are a type of shock and you can check them out at swayaway.com and a couple places you can check out pre-runners and suspension kits would be Autofab.com, Bajaconcepts.com, Camburg.com, weldtecdesigns.com, and if you just want to see some sick prerunners you can go to prerunners.com, or prerunners.net. alot of these places have links so you can find other web sites to. Most of these places are in SoCal. but im sure they will ship you the parts you need.

 

[Guest]

Well I wouldn't go with such a beefy truck. It's a great truck though with a combo that is hard to beat say for mud and heavy duty trail use but not Desert Racing. Get you a 2wd truck. Those do real good in those desert racing events. Just give me that old bronco. I'd be more than happy to take it off your hands.

 

[Guest]

nooo waaayy!
i roll into buddies shop today to ask him about some racey shocks,

he sez hey dude! i herd throgh the grape vine that some guy in a kick ass bronco was tottally rippin up the river bank,and pullin off some SICK AIR!
they told him that this rig was hell bent for leather!

ha ha i just love the grape vine in a lil 1 horse town!
so the rig stays! i'm lookin at blistiens tommorrow

and all the other bent and broken parts will go on the wall of flame!

god i just love this new style of drivin i found!

 

[Guest]

Well for your truck, id go with some 3" shocks by Sway A Way, King, or FOX. If you can swing it, Bypass would make it user tunible. Its a heavy truck, so valving will be heavy. Get some 7 or 8 inch rims so you can use the tires for rim protection. Get some decent bumpers\engine cage goin on, and some skid plating. This way you can keep your lift that you have said you dont want to replace.

Thats pretty much what your limited to id say.

If you reconsider changing some other things, you can do more.

 

[369]

Custom 4-link with coil-overs, air bumps, and a bypasses. But were talking BIG $$$$$$

 

[Guest]

so is a shock the single most important part on a trophy getter?

i mean, looking at the travel of suspension being totaly useless unless you have a shock to make it managable?

the type of suspension makes a rig more speed friendly of course,

but in my application, should i seriously look at the top dogs? (exo-by-pass-remote-rez) god that sounds so cool! hope thats how you say it,

are these shocks going to match the rest of the truck?
or will these bad boyz compansate for the lack of truck?

or will they be only working at half there true potential?

the other shock i see is, say in the bilistiens is the 7100,
remote rez thats it
they are so much cheaper than the 9100 series, will they get pounded because of the size of truck?

as far as price goes i will drop the coin on what ever,
i've spent thousands on the boiler/lift/paint/bars/winch stuff/sterio/tranny/t-case/diffs and yadi yada, so i will do the right thing,

as stated earlier, the last set of shockes that were on this rig were james duff, the complimented the rest of the truck, but now they are layin on a riverbank, so what good is that?
thanx for all the replies,again

 

[Guest]

Shocks make a night and day difference. I was just trying to figure how to make it work with the suspension you already have and said you wanted to keep.

Even with the really nice shocks it will never be optimum. If you get longer custom leaves for the back, with new pivot points and shackles it will be better. On the front im not sure if you have leaves, or a coil and link arms. If you have leaves, do the same as the rear. IF you have arms, go way longer and get coil overs.

As far as diameter of shocks, I would reccomend 3". I run 2.5s on my Toyota, which is way lighter than your truck.

 

[Guest]

cool,
i have coils up front with radius arms

the rear has a leaf set up

i'm thinking the big daddy's are my ticket,
probly over kill for the capacity of the rest of the truck
but oh it will score big with the ladies!

i 've got plans to remove major wieght from the front,

does anyone know who the cat is on page 16 of the 02 baja 1000 picture gallery?
that is a 78 bronco, it looks to have a lot of stock components on it,
if anyone knows this guy so i could get a hold of him, i'd buy you a beer

http://bbs.off-road.com/photobb/showgallery.php?cat=549&si=&thumb=1&page=16&sort=1&perpage=9&ppuser=&stype=

page 16 of the trucks volume 1 02 baja 1000

 

[Guest]

Beer for info, yeah! The guy you're looking for from the Baja 1000 is Don Moss. He lives in Cal. I raced against him in that race. My truck is #302, a Chevy Blazer. I don't have his email address at the moment, but send me a tag at [email protected] and I'll forward it to you. His truck works extremely well. He runs a single 3" shock at each wheel. I don't know what kind of travel he gets, but the most important thing is his reliability. He finishes most of his races.

 

[Guest]

Yah, another straight axle prerunner/ racer

Cleartoy has the right idea - good and big shocks. You may want to go with longer rear leafs - 63" Deavers may be the best set up for travel. For the front you may consider coil overs mounted to a front cage. This will give you plenty of wheel travel and tunability.
That 460 pig needs all the spring / shock you can afford. You will definily need to truss the axle housings. Other must do items are a good roll cage - 2"x .120 minimum with a big Bronco. Also consider steering upgrades, beefing the frame, rear body cage, 5pt seat belts.
But what / where are you gonna get the trophy and kiss the girl at?
The only race class that comes to mind is the MDR 1450 class - street legal pre runners (most are barely legal) but are a lot of fun to watch. Suggest getting a SCORE rule book or visiting the Best In The Desert (BITD) web site (www.bitd.com) for the online copy of saftey and race rules. They are a great guide in what is required for a true race truck.

 

[Guest]

thanx for all the info so far, i am overwellmed by the response, i priced out shocks, i've got a roll cage design figured out, i just have a couple of sample pieces to take down to the bendin shop, i gotta see what radius i get,

i dunno about the rear springs yet, where would i get longer springs, or do i just measure how far i want them and order a set from napa?

now as far as front shock mounts, i make a hoop right?
do i cross brace it to the other side hoop?i can't really tie it into the dash cross bar,all the dash stuff has to stay
and should i make a whole new front rad support outa tube?
i don't mind doin extreme stuff, cause i have the shop to do it all, and right, i just aint to smart bout the build up part,

thanx for any replies

 

[Guest]

If you need longer springs, get in touch with National Spring Co, or Deaver Springs. You will need to have the weight of the vehicle (back half anyways for your rear springs), intended usage, length desired, (probably 62-70" in length). Of course you will need front spring hangers moved forward, and make your own shackle mounts.

What shocks are you goin to run? Sounds like your gonna keep your coils and run shocks independently in the front?? If so, some simple hoops and a cross bar will be sufficient. If you bite the bullet and do coil overs, much more bracing will be needed due to the stress of holding up the truck.

If you run it hard, you may eliminate the core support and run the radiator on tubing mounts.

 

[Guest]

ok so i'm gettin smarter here,

i've talked to a few racers now, seen tons of waaayyy cool vid clips and checked out every shock avail,

i have aquired a 78 bronco tub so i can make my bends and welds in so i don't have to gut my bronco for every lil bleap 'n' blunder

i have decided i will buy bilstiens remote rez exo by-pass,
i believe the exo by-pass is the best way to tune a shock for a rookie that is not quite sure of what he is doing, they tell me you can tune it from the out side, coil overs work better for someone who knows exaclty what they are doing,and can set the valving up before using them,
plus a way cool factor is involved

i think i will change the front stuff around, the inner fenders are guandi byebyes, the front rad mount can be mounted to a tube coming from one side of the cab to the other in a big hoop from the orginal inner fender mounts,that will be braced to the frame, (bada boom! shock mounts hood mounts and rad mounts all in one,

thanx for all the help guys, a couple of paydays away and i'll have some build up pics

plus a ton of other "Q"s

 

[Guest]

Not to diminish your enthusiasm...
But for a first timer buying an completed truck is a very good alternative. I speak from experiance on this. Had gathered up what I thought was everything to build up an 80 Toyota. Then some one I knew had this very same conversatoin with me. Wound up buying an older Toyota 7s race truck. While I am still putting work and $ into it, I am time and $ ahead by doing such. Is this my dream rig - no way, but it will get me started and it is something to learn on. When I am done it can be sold to another budding racer.
You can find some great deals on older trucks. Someone else has spent all the $ for the fab work, shocks, running gear, etc. Most of the used stuff sells for 50% or less of new.
PM me and I will send you some links and leads on some Fords.

 

[writeforus]

National Spring is out of business, last we heard. Deaver is a good resource.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

National Spring is out of business, last we heard. Deaver is a good resource.

Psssssst...this thread is 7 years dead.

 

[writeforus]

Deaver came up because we were talking to them about a current project; looked to see what we had done in the past. Came across this thread, thought it had some good info.

Tech info is never "dead" - someone's always looking for help from someone else that's already done what they're trying to do.

Otherwise, we'd purge this board every 6 months.