Project 4x4 Commuter Mazda

[escort_gts]

looks good, should last quite a while now. probably longer than the truck.

 

[chrwilkins30]

steering looks good.

 

[legoms013]

looks good, should last quite a while now. probably longer than the truck.

Thats what I'm hoping

steering looks good.

Thanks man!

Now about wheels and tires...

 

[legoms013]

Tires: Bfgoodrich KM2 Mud Terrains, 33x10.5 R15

Wheels: Procomp 98 series black steelies: 15x7, 4.00" BS

 

[Boggin]

Sweet

 

[Bennybooster]

pics?

 

[MAranger]

The truck bumpsteered to the right didn't it? where your passenger tie rod is "below 9 o'clock", upon compression the knuckle was forced to turn right (left in your pictures). your driver tie rod followed it, and where it is horizontal, or even "above 3 o'clock", upon compression it traveled right even more and compounded your problem.

Were you running a drop pitman arm? IF SO: if you were runnin a stock arm your first setup would've worked better.

IF NOT: an extreme drop arm may have made it work right, but you'd probably have clearance issues.

What was killing you was having your tie rod angles out of phase. Having one tierod above/below 3/9 o'clock put them "out of phase". The solution was to get your drivers side rod "below 3 o'clock" to match the other side, you accomplished it by shortening that side.

The factory made a compromise in their steering, allowing more toe change for less bumpsteer. The only way to get around this compromise is a K link ($$$) where the tierods function independently of one another, and their lengths are each matched to their respective beams.

Just sayin'. Hope this made sense to ya.

EDIT: not trying to hate in any way, your craftsmanship looks great. I've always liked your truck!

 

[4.0B2]

Tires: Bfgoodrich KM2 Mud Terrains, 33x10.5 R15

Wheels: Procomp 98 series black steelies: 15x8, 3.75" BS

?? come on... you know by now how we have to see pics of this kind of thing...

 

[legoms013]

pics?

Soonish.

The truck bumpsteered to the right didn't it? where your passenger tie rod is "below 9 o'clock", upon compression the knuckle was forced to turn right (left in your pictures). your driver tie rod followed it, and where it is horizontal, or even "above 3 o'clock", upon compression it traveled right even more and compounded your problem.

Were you running a drop pitman arm? IF SO: if you were runnin a stock arm your first setup would've worked better.

IF NOT: an extreme drop arm may have made it work right, but you'd probably have clearance issues.

What was killing you was having your tie rod angles out of phase. Having one tierod above/below 3/9 o'clock put them "out of phase". The solution was to get your drivers side rod "below 3 o'clock" to match the other side, you accomplished it by shortening that side.

The factory made a compromise in their steering, allowing more toe change for less bumpsteer. The only way to get around this compromise is a K link ($$$) where the tierods function independently of one another, and their lengths are each matched to their respective beams.

Just sayin'. Hope this made sense to ya.

EDIT: not trying to hate in any way, your craftsmanship looks great. I've always liked your truck!

Yeah it makes sense. Yes I was running an extreme drop pitman arm from skyjacker. So the only way to get the tie-rods to be in phase (basically flat) would be to go back down to 6" coils from the 8" ones i have in there now. I'm not changing the suspension...i've done that a million times. And a father drop pitman arm doesn't exist sooo.....That being said, with the extreme drop there was clearance issues with the axle drop bracket and pivot bracket on the draglink.

Some day I'll experiemnt with building a K-link 1 ton steering setup, a la superlift superrunner style. Until then, my 1 ton stock style setup works great for the large amount of highway driving and little offroading I do do. Not to mention it should theoretically be much more wear resistant.

Yes all I really did by going back to the stock style was make both tierods have similar angles, meaning as the suspension compresses, the toe change of each tire is closer to the same amount. This results in less perceived bumpsteer, as the toe change on either tire sort of cancels out any left or right bumpsteer.

Don't get me wrong, it still exists with the way that it is now, but it was 10x worse the other way.

?? come on... you know by now how we have to see pics of this kind of thing...

I know I know, just a teaser for now. The point is, that it is going to happen....real soon.

 

[legoms013]

Going to MoonRocks for the day tomorrow (Hungry Valley in Nevada just outside of Reno). I'll try and take pictures, but we all know how that goes....

I also may be buying 6, yes 6 brand new 33x10.5 BFG KM2's from a guy off Craigslist on Wednesday.

 

[legoms013]

Few Moonrocks pictures (I'll have some more later):

 

[88_Eddie]

that's a cool looking place.....i'd love to go out there and do some 1000 yard shooting

 

[legoms013]

 

[Kyle M.]

No body damage from that? Looks like some cool terrain

 

[legoms013]

No body damage from that? Looks like some cool terrain

Wrong haha. I scraped the very rear of the bed, bumper, and tail light.

I made out very lucky considering the situation....nothin a little sanding & glossy krylon can't fix.

I worked the BFG's hard on the rocks too....let out to 15psi and just drove on all the surfaces of the tire lol. Since they won't be mine much longer i figured i'd get some good usage out of them. BFG A'Ts actually do very well on dry rocks. Different story thought if they are wet/slick.