Getting ready to put a 4 link in the truck advice needed

Well I have the shaft for the table. My brother has a well drilling side of his irrigation business and they had a 10' long chunk of 1.5" well stem that they donated to the project. I don't know if it's chrome moly, or just cold rolled, but it is straight and clean, and heavy as heck. I am thinking about what to use for the base. Would a piece of say 12" channel iron with some heavy gussets across the bottom work? I'm thinking of say 1/2" strap welded the length of the channel and boxing in around where the center section bolts to. Is this enough or should I find something more substantial?

I guess most any steel "beam" shape, H/I beam or T beam (angle iron welded back to back) could make for a decent jig table as long as the part that is used as the "backbone" was tall/deep enough to make it as rigid as possible so it won't bow when you have to push/pull/force housing tubes around.

With channel iron, if laid flat with the two "legs" facing down (like an upside down "U") it might not really be tall/deep enough to form a strong enough "backbone". But if you take two pieces of channel iron welded back to back (to form an improvised H/I beam shape) it could be more rigid/stronger.

4 link kit finally showed up.

I finally got the 4 link kit this week and assembled the pieces to start measuring for fit on the chassis. I have 9" travel shocks and am wondering about how much initial compression I should see when installed.

No idea where to set the shock's "at ride height" center-to-center length if this is a mud/dirt truck. On a drag car depending on the shock brand (& who you talk to) you might run the shock with about 60-65% of the shock travel in the shock. But then there are some guys that just leave only 1" to 1.25" of shock shaft showing regardless of what the maker calls for. The mud/dirt stuff's shock lenght requirements could be way different than the drag stuff. If the shocks are Afcos you probably should call them for the C/C ride height length ball park.

Compared to a normal drag racing setup that 4-link layout looks kinda strange, kinda up side down. I guess it's the high ground clearence the mud/dirt trucks need.

Schmitty when I converted to ladder bars and coil overs I talked to several of the pro drivers around here and they said to put the shocks in the center of your travel so a 9 inch shock would have 4.5 inches of rod showing, then adjust your ride height by moving the lower mount up or down. Also an expensive lesson I learned is make sure you put limit staps on with the shocks to keep them from over extending and ruining the valving inside, I didnt and first night out had a rough track and jumped the truck shocks have to be sent off and rebuilt now. Bump stops for bottomimg out would be a good idea also.

Todd

I put it together like this and it doesn't look as good of a fit to the chassis.

A lot is going to depend on what wheelbase and weight percentages front and rear. We see more seperation on our rear shocks than compression. 6 or 7 inch travel shocks with only about a quarter to a third of the rod showing at ride height. mostly smooth drag type mud/dirt tracks. The above pic is putting the instant center way out front. that probably won't be too ideal.

simpleman wrote:A lot is going to depend on what wheelbase and weight percentages front and rear. We see more seperation on our rear shocks than compression. 6 or 7 inch travel shocks with only about a quarter to a third of the rod showing at ride height. mostly smooth drag type mud/dirt tracks. The above pic is putting the instant center way out front. that probably won't be too ideal.

I just put the stuff together to see what it looked like. I didn't do anything as far as try to figure out the I/C yet.

Looks like the frame mounts are adjustable also. Good idea!

Custom made deall that strokedmyford came up with and has his neighbor fab up for him. Nice pieces for sure and give a lot of options.