Opinions On Rear Z-Link

The pickup in question is a 2001 ECSB f250. It's basically gonna be a fun street truck and testntune racer so being out of a certain class doesnt bother me. Instead of a traditional 4 link I'm thinking of doing a Z link, obviously with the lowers facing forward. I'm very familiar with building suspensions (all off road oriented) and am quite confident I can get the AS numbers I want with the Z link but I just want some opinions from guys who have been around racing longer than me. Thoughts?

Never tried it, but I don't like the idea of the lowers facing forward. I say this because with that arrangement you'd lose AS with compression and gain with extension of the suspension, which is backwards. The same happens with a torque arm or ladder bars, but to a lesser degree.

If you reversed that, so that the lowers connected the axle housing to the rear section of the chassis, I think the geometry would be very good but you'd need very stout mounts and possibly reinforcements on the frame.

The way I figured it is; if I run long lower links and shorter uppers facing toward the rear pointing slightly down toward the chassis and using the twisting of the axle it "should" act just like a normal 4 link. Only instead of pulling back on the uppers, it will be pushing back and slightly down on the uppers. The only thing that's hard for me to figure in my head is how it will react as the suspension cycles. Having the uppers facing back and slightly down (higher at the axle than the chassis) when it compresses it should keep the pinion angle relatively consistent with long lowers.

You're probably right about the pinion angle staying consistent. Just keep in mind, if you have the uppers positioned with that angle, you're going to need a very steep angle on the lowers to get your instant center in an appropriate location.

Is this on a 2wd or 4wd truck?

4wd. You may be right about my instant center. Like I said, this is all in my head. I'll have to play with a 4 link calculator when I get to a computer. Right now my only Internet is my phone. The whole reason for this was because I don't want to relocate my fuel tank for my upper links.