Well now I have a little time to update this thread. Work and family has taken all of my spare time but I have some time off to enjoy some family time and Thanksgiving so I figured I'll get to updating.
So after completion of this truck to where you see it I was excited to take it out for a ride. Plenty of slow cruise testing to ensure the wheels or axles were not going to fall off before I started to lay into the skinny. All slow testing was good still the ole rough riding first gen but fun to drive. I proceeded to make some harder pulls in drive while rolling and it was quick to respond and I sure could feel the difference being a lighter truck compared to my previous third gen quad cab.
After a few days we had some nice weather and I finished bolting on the front end grill and bumper hood etc. I proceeded to take it to my testing grounds near my shop long wide open country roads. First big launch I left with 35 lbs of boost it was scary and disappointing at the same time. The truck took off like an animal the first 150' or so and immediately darted to the right of the road heading straight for the ditch. It was not a slow pull or veer or anything it was like someone spun the truck 90 degree's and said have fun. LOL
It took all my attention to keep it from dropping down 20' into a culvert. I was able to back up with 8" to spare from the edge of the culvert and proceeded to drive back to the shop. I pulled back in and put the truck on my lift to see what the hell was happening to make that pull like that.
Upon inspection I checked every bolt and joint and ensure it was torqued to spec. I found some things not as tight as they should so I went back out for more testing. Made some hard pulls without launching just slow roll on's and as soon as this nasty motor came onto boost full song 3rd gear locked it did the same thing but now it’s worse because I'm going faster :nail: I forgot to mention all of this is while in 4WD making these pulls. When I would make pulls in 2WD it would just blow the rear tires off and seem normal but traction was very limited of course and that's not fun. All of this is happening with a CR 6.7 based more making over 1200 hp at the time.
Back to the drawing board as I pulled back to the shop and continued to make changes and research others having these problems. However finding anyone besides guys like Cole Dow etc I was coming up short. I started to look into the axles and the traction along with axle wrap. I spent the whole summer trying different things to make this truck launch straight and quit darting left to right it was expensive and frustrating at the same time. The front Dana 60 was an open diff so the famous one wheel peel is all you get with it. The rear was a Dana 80 limited slip and seemed ok at the time so I upgraded my cross over steering bar.
We built a heavy wall CM bar tied into each steering knuckle with a 3/4" heim joints. Wanted to eliminate any chance of getting a little flex from the stocker. Went out made some pulls same thing. Built some front bars to limit the axle wrap from happening on the front leaf’s and while it did improve some it was way to sketchy still. Basically the Dana 60 front passenger is only driven wheel up front when in 4X4 since being an open diff and the Dana 80 rear driver side was the only wheel with positive traction most of the time. I believe the LSD was getting worn out.
I pulled the front diff and installed a new limited slip trac-lock in which at the time this was a very rare find. After it was all installed I went out for more testing and while it was better the darting was still there at higher speeds only :nail:.
I parked the truck for a bit until I could get some more time to figure out what was going on. One weekend I decided to install my Go Pro moving it into four different locations under the chassis and started to watch for anything I could find pointing me in the right direction. First thing I noticed was nothing LOL. After moving it around I noticed the driver side front tire would come up as the torque came on hard. I found some excitement because I may have found the culprit of the driver’s side frame rail being yanked up drastically from torque causing the passenger wheel and tire to wobble like a shopping cart. Or so I thought because you couldn't see it wobble in the video at all just the frame pulling up and then a hard pull toward the side of the road.
I came up with a plan to build a crazy looking CM brace to bolt to the frame, and to my cage mount and the firewall to help gusset and minimize the frame flex in the chassis. It was worth the effort to try since so far I am now in the late summer and I haven't been able to use the truck at any decent power levels. I also had the camber and caster re-checked again to see if something was out of wack. We adjusted the caster to minimize this situation and get out for more testing. While again this helped a wee bit more it was nowhere near safe and still darting left or right had a mind of its own. I also planned on making a lot more power then 1200 at the time so it would only amplify when I do bump it up even more.
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This is where anger and disappointment leads to depression :lolly:
So much time, effort and hard earned money and I am now left with a rough riding expensive old Ugly that was better off with a 450hp VE motor in it.
Now you may be thinking why did it work for RonA. Hell I don't know I did notice if I tuned it to bring on the power slower it would act better on the road but what the hell kind of fun is in that when you have well over 1200 hp on tap. I was able to get close to full power at the end of the power band but still a challenge and required a lot of effort. I kept researching looking for others having the same issue. Even watched Cole Dow’s video’s nonstop and if you notice him early on his truck was all over the place which was the same thing I was getting but amplified even more darting left to right. So I don’t know what to say.
I came to the conclusion since I switched the truck to a CR the torque naturally comes in faster which is when it causes it to go out of control. Again just an assumption I’m sure I am wrong but I did simulate this many times pulling power out down low and bring it in slowly at the end and all was better but that's not fun now is it LOL
There is more I have done then what I have just explained hell I have forgotten the amount of time and people I have talked too and others that have looked at it and couldn’t figure out how to stop it other than pulling the frame again and adding more metal and bracing etc. I was at that point now it’s getting late in the fall of 2014 and I just wanted my truck to work before the snow was going to fly and I have to park it.
I thought about it for awhile and realized my primary use of the truck is for a truck to do anything not dedicated to one thing and not the best at one thing just a good overall contender of everything. One of those on my list was DD driving and while the old first gen theme is neat it’s still a rough riding rattling box of metal nowhere near comfortable of longer duration's of time in it. My primary driver is my 4th gen mega cab so it’s for sure drastic difference riding from one to the other.
I started to brainstorm the idea of just removing this damn cheap ass flexi first gen frame with a silly steering setup and axle configuration and put an entirely different proven chassis under it to gain strength, better axle geometry and a better ride on and off road. Most important being able to put even more power thru this truck and not have to struggle to maintain going straight. If I was launching or hard roll on’s I didn’t want to deal with the death darting anymore. This was not death wobble at all just to be clear.
Snow has now hit the ground and it was a time to get something done.
I stumbled across a for sale thread on here with a member that had posted having a newer third gen regular cab 4X4 frame with partial axles for sale along with some other things including a third gen truck cab and a clean 06 2WD regular cab complete with no motor and trans. The deal was taking it all for one cost and it was a great deal at that. I made contact with him and bought everything. Sent my flat bed and trailer down to load everything up and bring it back to the shop. I was able to sell some of the small stuff and an extra cab and recoup some cash.
My new plan was to take the regular cab 4X4 frame and graft it into this first gen. I had enough of the first gen frame and was determined with the idea of removing it and starting over. So after much debate and discussing with my guys at the shop they looked at me funny and said are you serious we are cutting and taking this truck apart. I said hell yes we are. First gen with custom built coil over suspension that I can dial in for a better ride and support big power all in the same old Ugly first gen truck body.
So we talked about how this would be done and the work begun. My idea was to leave the motor, trans in the truck and hang the truck cab, engine, trans and all the wiring along with the piping and mechanical's in the air above my lift. We would then lower the original frame out from under the truck using the two post lift arms and the the rest would hang from the support beams I already had above my lift. This would save a bunch of time and it will be easier to graft the new third gen frame under the first gen truck. Sounds easy right? LOL.
Finally here is some pictures show the process of the work while I think it was easier it was still a chit ton of work. For some reason I cannot find all the pictures of us removing the frame and fitting the new one. There was a ton of work in just that but you you get the idea.
So here is how it sat then we started ripping it apart again.
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This was shot earlier in the late summer when I was trying everything to keep it going straight. I even had my slicks on it just to try different traction scenario's.
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Now it was time to do a serious upgrade to the suspension and overall ride of the truck. Everything gets cut off the third gen frame to start over with a different plan.
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Test fit for the new Carli/Deaver springs!
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Its late so I will update this more on the weekend with a ton of pictures of the process and upgrades.