Bye, bye TTB--bolt-on SAS

[ThatGuy]

Been busy getting stuff ready for the swap. JD finally called and said they were ready to do the bolt-on SAS to the Ex. Took it and dropped off this morning. Figured I'd start a thread to document the trials and tribulations as they are encountered. This will all be fabricated using my Ex as the guinea pig and turned into a bolt-on SAS kit to be sold thru JD. The key is to be able to bolt everything on in a driveway and be able to duplicate it 100s of times. There will be pros and cons to the kit but that's what happens when you try to appeal to the masses. If it were a one-off for just me, things would be done differently but since it has to be an affordable, bolt-on, mass produced kit some compromises have to be made.

I will continue to update this thread as progress is made. Looking at around one week to do everything. Biggest issues are track bar bracket, tranny cross-member/t-case skid, and what we found out today---frame mounts.

Here's what we are using: JD EB extended radius arms, EB 5.5" lift coils, RBV universal coil buckets that take either RBV or EB coils, were going to use regular RBV frame mounts from my old kit but ran into issues so maybe have to custom make those too. We are also going to mock up both an EB Dana 44 as well as a '78-'79 Dana 44 so that either can be used with the kit. I will be sticking with the full-width 44 and matching 9 inch rear that I have already built up with chromo shafts and 5.13 gears to turn my 39.5" Iroks.

The rear will be simple enough, I'm going back to my stock Ex springs in a SPOA configuration with probably a 1" block plus the shackles I already have. All the real work will be in the front.

I took a few parting shots today as I was driving into the shop. Flexed out the TTB a few times on their 30 degree ramp and then got out the impacts and started working.

One last shot of my Stonecrusher Steering. Hopefully Anthony will make me a new steering setup for my new axle.

Then it was time to start dropping stuff.

That's about all that got done today as we were working measurements and what ifs and boring junk like that. Looking to actually start bolting stuff up in the next day or so after we tweak some mounts and such. Got a sweet x-member done up but don't know if it will fully work out or not.

I will update with pics. and info as we roll on. Got several big rides coming up so we are hoping to get this thing mobile to show off at the events.

 

[ThatGuy]

Hope the mods don't move the thread. I know it's a SAS but it IS a suspension kit also. That's why I put it here.

 

[Tony Raine]

Heck yeah, i'm subscribing to this thread!

 

[4x4junkie]

Looks like that shaft hitting within your beam window was limiting your flex by a good 3-4" there.
Cool deal. Be interesting to see how everything turns out, the trackbar bracket in particular (bolt-on trackbar brackets have often been an achilles heel with SAS swaps). Hopefully JD has a good design for it.

 

[organic]

Definately following this. Are they doing this work for free seeing it's for R&D? What are you doing with your old axle and steering setup?

 

[ThatGuy]

Everything from my old lift will be for sale after it is cleaned and gets re-powdercoated. JD will sell it as seconds. I've got just over 3,000 miles on this kit and kinda hate to see it go. All my axles and tires are also for sale. I've got new tires and wheels to fit the new axles. Steering will be going back to Stonecrusher for Anthony to check out and make needed adjustments. He has already received orders for this system but doesn't want to send any out until he checks mine over. I am going to ask him to make a new steering for my SAS.
Going to the shop to work on this later. Pics will be posted later today.

 

[ThatGuy]

Well didn't get to work on it this weekend like I'd hoped to. Did get a chance to stop by today and see what was going on. Frame mounts turned out to be no problem, reused the ones from the TTB lift (had to move back about 8").
Rolled the new axle under to check fitment.

Shot it with some chassis black before attaching the EB extended radius arms.

Check out that pimp tie-rod!
Got everything lined up and squared

Started bolting things up. Put some coils on it (5.5" EB coils) and sit it down to ride height.

With the 3" per side difference from the coil towers to the lower retainers, we modified JDs heavy duty coil retainers to sit in further so the coils didn't bow out. Tomorrow will be all about the track bar bracket and the trans mount/skid plate. More to come.

 

[ChrisR1S]

Subscribed! Hopefully JD can come up with a better(and cheaper) bolt on kit than than that fabritech kit.

 

[Downey]

hold shit you love to spend money at james duff

 

[Andres629]

Looks like a lot of JD blue up in this batch!

Coming along nice, will be cool to see how this turns out.

 

[legoms013]

WORD! I really like and prefer JD blue over Skyjacker red, well now black.

If they go through with the SAS kit, I might be in the market assuming its a good kit. Its about time a company made a competitive kit for those of us who try to get by with minimal fab work.

Props to James Duff!

 

[88_Eddie]

i dont think your truck is a good test vehicle, how about i bring my BII over and they do a SAS to it? lol

how exactly did you get the chance to do this? do you work for duff or just know a guy that knows a guy? just asking cause it seems like i remember a thread you posted about testing out a new lift for them. lookin forward to more pics

 

[ThatGuy]

Subscribed! Hopefully JD can come up with a better(and cheaper) bolt on kit than than that fabritech kit.

I don't think that company even exists any more. I've googled them several times and can't find anything. All the posts speaking of the kit are from '03 or so.

how exactly did you get the chance to do this? do you work for duff or just know a guy that knows a guy? just asking cause it seems like i remember a thread you posted about testing out a new lift for them. lookin forward to more pics

In the original thread I stated that I approached JD and asked about a SAS kit. I already had my axles at that time. They had new stuff in development and needed someone to test it. I agreed to test what they had if they would do a SAS on my Ex when the testing was done. Well, I done my part, so now it's time to do what I had originally intended to do.

Moving forward, here are progress pics. for today.

Everything is bolted up on the front end. Made a track bar bracket that uses an adjustable EB track bar. It's still in the "maybe" stage. They have a backup plan in case we decide to change this one. It all depends on the EB 44 that they are going to bolt up tomorrow to see if they will interchange.

Here is the front sitting on it's own. 39.5" Iroks makes the roof height at 6' 10", I have to jump to get in it seeing as how I'm only 5' 8". The bottom of the windows is about chin height on me.

Looking at about 5.5" of uptravel before the crossmember wants to connect with the pumpkin on the axle housing. That means that the 5.5" EB coils would be almost completely bottomed out. Don't see this as being a problem unless someone was jumping the vehicle. It takes a lot to compress the springs that much in low speed rock crawling especially with a spring rate of 310-390 lbs/in. Could possibly trim the x-member a bit to prevent this but will wait until it's done before we mess with it.

 

[BlackBII]

Get some bumpstops.

Looking good!

Do you have a pic of your custom TTB steering on level ground?

 

[ThatGuy]

You mean this?