moving front axle forward 1.5" on a four link truck????????

[nts007]

I run a lot of sidewalk on my tires too 35's are a solid compromise and readily available everywhere

[Reloaderguy]

Before going crazy I would really suggest just looking at existing setups. The improvement seen by going from a 5-link to a triangulated 4-link cannot even be felt by most people, and those who can feel it will notice very little difference. Most of the difference is how the body "stands" on the Trackbar. As far as crawling goes, you would probably lose a ton of articulation by swapping suspension systems due to frame design not permitting the open-ended concept needed in most link setups.

As far as coilovers go, they are an excellent upgrade and I probably will end up doing them on my truck, but NOT on the front. The rear is what needs improvement on these trucks. The front with long arms is amazing.

You can fit 38's on a truck with bolt on mods. Or you can spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to fit 40's. Even going from 33's to 37's isn't even cost effective in my mind after spending a week in Moab with guys who had 37's. My 33's did awesome, with a frigging camper on the back of my truck! Rock sliders compensate for 37's.

Sorry f I sound like a dick, I'm trying to save you a massive amount of time and money that will not yield expected results.

Oh, I might be coming out with the body armor you're looking for in a year or so

As someone that has gone from 5link to a triangulated 3 link, you might like the ride quality a lot less and find the truck handles poorly on the street. Be prepared to buy custom valved shocks because your freed up front end is going to feel floppy.

[DamageWagon]

Before going crazy I would really suggest just looking at existing setups. The improvement seen by going from a 5-link to a triangulated 4-link cannot even be felt by most people, and those who can feel it will notice very little difference. Most of the difference is how the body "stands" on the Trackbar. As far as crawling goes, you would probably lose a ton of articulation by swapping suspension systems due to frame design not permitting the open-ended concept needed in most link setups.

As far as coilovers go, they are an excellent upgrade and I probably will end up doing them on my truck, but NOT on the front. The rear is what needs improvement on these trucks. The front with long arms is amazing.

You can fit 38's on a truck with bolt on mods. Or you can spend thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to fit 40's. Even going from 33's to 37's isn't even cost effective in my mind after spending a week in Moab with guys who had 37's. My 33's did awesome, with a frigging camper on the back of my truck! Rock sliders compensate for 37's.

Sorry f I sound like a dick, I'm trying to save you a massive amount of time and money that will not yield expected results.

Oh, I might be coming out with the body armor you're looking for in a year or so

As someone that has gone from 5link to a triangulated 3 link, you might like the ride quality a lot less and find the truck handles poorly on the street. Be prepared to buy custom valved shocks because your freed up front end is going to feel floppy.

So much sarcasm it's almost hard to see the point... You don't have a triangulated 3-link, you have radius arms. Jeeps don't either, although they have a 3-link.

Going from short arm 5-link to radius arms like you're saying is a massive improvement - because you're going from short arms to long arms. I'm not comparing short arms, I'm saying that if we compare a readily-made 5-link like Thurens Alien Arms and a custom one-off swap to a homemade triangulated 4-link for the front of our truck, you're going to be screwing with a lot of difficult geometry that the frame was never made to accept.

[Reloaderguy]

I went from a 5 link SA to longarms (RA and TB) to triangulated three link on my TJ. I'm not talking about my truck. The difference was obvious, good and bad. On the street it was terrible, mainly because the shocks were not valved heavy enough for the freer range of motion. The same thing would apply to the PW. I assume all brackets would be removed from the axle and frame and rewelded using 1/4" plate in the correct placement (if you even could on the frame). I wouldn't do it if you want to continue driving the truck on the street.

[DamageWagon]

Oh I gotcha. Cool! Yeah I don't think 3-links really belong on trucks outside of the front axle on a rock crawler. With no swaybar my truck is all over the place with short arms, but I like it that way. The shocks are valved for higher speeds, and are too soft in the low speed stuff like body sway. I couldn't imagine a heavy rig like this on a 3 link.

4-link really is premium, but usually is only feasible on rear axles due to having more room to play with under the rear on trucks. The only guy I know of to link both axles is gun45boat, but he bobbed the rear and is running coilovers all around on a dedicated rock truggy.

[RAM4ROKS]

I cannot comment about Moab since I missed the trip but, I can comment for trails around here-
I would not even consider hitting some of the trails I've hit on 37s with my truck when it was on 33s. Yes, it's only 2" ground clearance difference but on rocks, 2" more clearance can easily make the difference between driving through fine vs having to "pave" (ie stack rocks) the trail to make it through. Most of the trails I am on regularly, I was able to do on 33s but they are noticeably easier on 37s. Where I used to have to stress about tire placement when on 33s I can now drive right on through with 37s. Rock sliders and 37s make a HUGE difference in the terrain I frequent! (though, even 37s are not quite enough for some of the trails) The lift helps too but, at approximately 2" front and 1" rear, it's not a huge departure from stock. Up travel increased slightly since I did not move my bumpstops down at all but, I did possibly lose a little bit of droop travel due to the limiting straps. They're worthwhile though, I'd rather lose a little droop travel than rip open a King shock! Also, the lift and tires save a LOT of wear from the skidplates and rocksliders on my truck- prior to lift and tires it would drag on 70% of the berms on the trails I am most often on. Now it only drags belly on about 20% of them. Hard to believe a little over 3" clearance added would make that much of a difference but it did!

[olyelr]

Hey RAM4ROKS, here is a link to a guy installing AEV flares on his '12 cummins truck, with no lift... and 40's. I figured you would be interested, if you havnt seen it already.

http://forum.aev-conversions.com/showthread.php?t=12495

[OffroadTreks]

I cannot comment about Moab since I missed the trip but, I can comment for trails around here-
I would not even consider hitting some of the trails I've hit on 37s with my truck when it was on 33s. Yes, it's only 2" ground clearance difference but on rocks, 2" more clearance can easily make the difference between driving through fine vs having to "pave" (ie stack rocks) the trail to make it through. Most of the trails I am on regularly, I was able to do on 33s but they are noticeably easier on 37s. Where I used to have to stress about tire placement when on 33s I can now drive right on through with 37s. Rock sliders and 37s make a HUGE difference in the terrain I frequent! (though, even 37s are not quite enough for some of the trails) The lift helps too but, at approximately 2" front and 1" rear, it's not a huge departure from stock. Up travel increased slightly since I did not move my bumpstops down at all but, I did possibly lose a little bit of droop travel due to the limiting straps. They're worthwhile though, I'd rather lose a little droop travel than rip open a King shock! Also, the lift and tires save a LOT of wear from the skidplates and rocksliders on my truck- prior to lift and tires it would drag on 70% of the berms on the trails I am most often on. Now it only drags belly on about 20% of them. Hard to believe a little over 3" clearance added would make that much of a difference but it did!

Where is all this awesome wheeling in NC? I lived and grew up in VA and used to wheel over in the GWNF and I wish I had known about something this awesome years ago. What I do recall though is trees, trees and more trees ready to destroy some body panels.

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Random thought about the stupid sliders. I'm planning to cut my body panels and weld the sliders with the help of DamageWagon.

I bang my sliders on too many dang things that I wouldn't even hit rockers on. And even GTOMike with 37's in some places he's floating over stuff, but the stupid sliders still bang when really they shouldn't.

Mine are going up 2 inches.