TTB Bent Beam Lift?

[CopyKat]

I've done it to my exploder and it's pretty much a science to get it right. On top of doing the cut & turn, you'll need lift springs, custom shock brackets, custom cross member, c-clip eliminator, drop pitman arm, extended radius arms with johnny or heim joints, and some tweaking here & there on the radius arms. If you go this route, I wish you luck!

To sum it up nice an short.

"Not worth the time and effort to do it this way!" There are better ways to do it.

 

[BlackBII]

Maybe this will give you an Idear:

http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/zimmerman_ttb.htm

Are you a good welder?

 

[4x4junkie]

it is nice. lots of flex. but you want to know what your doing.

Bent beams won't affect the amount of flex, that's a function of the coil springs and shock lengths.

I would agree though, it's not really worth doing except in the case of a prerunner truck where Baja jumping and high-speeds would be common (the shorter drop brackets would have better clearance when the suspension compresses on landings than with full drops).

Definitely don't try this if you don't have a full understanding of the suspension's geometry.

 

[Bent Bolt]

I would agree though, it's not really worth doing except in the case of a prerunner truck where Baja jumping and high-speeds would be common (the shorter drop brackets would have better clearance when the suspension compresses on landings than with full drops).

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I dunno. I'd do it. I've smacked the left beam bracket a few times climbing into and out of mud holes. Maybe if I had 6" lift and bigger tires = more clearance.

 

[canyoncritter]

cut and turned beams are just like a lift kit(ie you still need longer coil springs,longer shocks and in some cases sterring correction) but with out the need of drop brackets for camber correction.Instead of drop bracket's like used of the skyjacker kits etc, the "beams" are cut and turned.

they can be turned like the zimmerman's and like the truck in the pics above, or they can be cut at the lower ball joints and moved out to correct camber.

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I have a question as to why one must have heims,jhonny joints, and a Clip e elim. to do cut and tured beams?.....

crossmember between the radius arm mounts is a good thing, keeps your frame from twisting...if you dont go all the way back to the trans crossmember with the radius arms.

the stock shock mounts in the coil buckets can work,but just like with a drop bracket kit, the shock mounting location in stock form limits travel...so that a wash right there.

radius arms are on bushing, c-clip still in the diff,have about 10 3/4inchs of bump travel and 5inches of droop from ride height on my autofab kit

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[MikeWild]

The stress of leaving the c-clip in on a cut and & turn will put too much pull on the retaining washer on the passenger side stub shaft resulting in it rounding itself and no longer holding the shaft in place causing you to lose the locking functionality of that hub. I had an external retaining ring machined that bolts to the pumpkin and after a while that too would blow the retaining washer. I've since added a valve spring to the slip yoke to see if that helps, and so far it's been holding up. I've done the same proceedure to my ranger with a 6" BDS lift & the c-clip eliminated and so far so good for that too. If I get a chance I'll snap some pictures & post'em up tomorrow.

 

[canyoncritter]

Im taking it your beams are done at the balljoints?....how much camber correction were they cutt for?

not trying to start a pissing match, just a good info thread.

 

[CopyKat]

I have a question as to why one must have heims,jhonny joints, and a Clip e elim. to do cut and tured beams?.....

Same here. If you do a bit of looking around TRS you'll notice that the guys pulling decent amounts of travel are all still using stock style bushings.

I've got the E-clip eliminator on mine only for the fact I have a lockrite in the front, and is kinda required.

Sorry blue you have good fab skills but that cut and turn you did is an abortion and a lesson in how NOT to do a cut and turn.

 

[MikeWild]

Stock style bushings are a common weak spot on 'unlifted' TTB's and constantly need replacing. With the added travel on the suspension, IMO, they'd wear out faster and you'd be always under the truck replacing them. Heim or Johnny joints work so much better in that type of application. You get so much more rotation out of a heim joint than the stock bushing.

 

[MikeWild]

Here's my rendition of the cut & turn

extra reinforcement on where the cut took place, front top & bottom had extra plates welded on

Custom shock buckets

Custom cross member

Extended radius arm with heim joints

For the rear I did a SOA and welded new perches on top of the axle, but wound up bending them around the tube one day doing some aggressive wheeling, so it was back to the drawing board, I ground off the old ones and rewelded new perches, I left the original perches on the bottom of the axle and gussetted them front & back, top to bottom for extra support. So far they've held up great.

Also made new shock tabs to move the shocks outward towards the tires

The complete application

Here's where I did in the rear spring perches & snapped a drive shaft

 

[kevinsranger]

Extended radius arm with heim joints

do you have any better pics of the radius arms

 

[MikeWild]

Next week's lesson: How to properly do an SAS on an exploder

 

[MikeWild]

do you have any better pics of the radius arms

I'll run out and snap some more, anything in particular you'd like me to focus on?

 

[CopyKat]

Stock style bushings are a common weak spot on 'unlifted' TTB's and constantly need replacing. With the added travel on the suspension, IMO, they'd wear out faster and you'd be always under the truck replacing them. Heim or Johnny joints work so much better in that type of application. You get so much more rotation out of a heim joint than the stock bushing.

Yes they are a problem with "Unlifted TTB's" because most put the polly bushings in thinking they are better. The durometer is harder therefore putting more stress on the tin crossmember. In general they bring the suck just like Heims do.

Extendeding the rad arms helps with the arc movement at the bushings. My setup has less than 10° rotation each way, and my 5 year old bushings are $25 for both sides.

Heims are used because they have a better degree of freedom. but stock rubber bushings have some give to them also. The bind with extended rad arms is not at the rad arm end. The beam end bushing is where it binds. It does on mine anyway. Uniballs would have fixed that.

FWIW Yes I did run a Heim end on my rad arms and it was noisy as shit.

 

[kevinsranger]

I'll run out and snap some more, anything in particular you'd like me to focus on?

yea if you could the inside area where the tubing meets the factory flare up by the axle, i know how to build the back, just curious how you braced and welded that joint for the front half