radius arm drop bracket

Warlock489 · Post by **Warlock489** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 1:51 pm

^^ Good call, I had a brain fart.

Yeah, it does kill some ground clearance. If I take the 3 inches out of the bottom and move the hole for the radius arm up it won't be any worse then a radius arm mount drop bracket.

The dimond plate is 1/8 and I'm going to brace and box it up in the back. It is just something I'm trying. If I notice it bending I'll make something else.

Do you have any pictures of how you did your stuff?

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 7:27 pm

well, I don't like the extension with a heim joint because you are adding 12" in length to the arm and adding a weak point to the center of the arm.....unless you box and try to stop the bending or breaking of the arm which I think was brought up in another post about being extremely heavy.

I think the shims are going to work nice I got them the other day and they look great. I plan to get more installed on Mon. so I will give some updates. I just think that a small alteration to the radius arm bracket if needed will make everything happy.

my biggest thing is I didn't want to loose ground clearence.

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:36 am

got the shims on and the springs are strait......next question, here is a pic of the radius arm brackets:

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:39 am

the retainer is kinda close so I was thinking to trim the bottom of the bracket here:

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 11:41 am

I am thinking if I trim it and run the offset bushings it will complete the fix. what do y'all think? I am realy worried about the bracket becomming weaker and bending.......

ranger5.0 · Post by **ranger5.0** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:23 pm

I think that i would shave some off of the washer before I cut into the bracket. Washers are cheaper.

foxfan · Post by **foxfan** » Tue Feb 01, 2005 4:54 am

i'm not talking @ adding a piece to the end.

cut the whole arm off and make it out of tubing, like JD's or Cage's.

marinebroncoii · Post by **marinebroncoii** » Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:57 pm

I think you would be fine shaving the bracket where you have it marked, it wouldn't weaken it that much. It is made for a 5000 lb truck and you are using it on a much lighter one anyways.

I don't have any good close up pictures of my setup, all I did was move the stock radius arm mount and crossmember back to where I needed it. Mine is lifted high enough that the angle the bracket hold them at when moved back is the angle the arms sit at. I also had to buy weld on C wedges to put on the originally leaf sprung D44 HD, so I didn't have to worry about special bushings to have it sit right, I just welded them on at the angle I needed. Then for the spring mounts I made my own that are angled to make the springs sit right. I used 2 pieces of 3/4 inch stock-the bottom piece was drilled and countersunk to bolt into the radius arms and cut at a little bit of an angle; then the top piece is drilled and countersunk for a 7/8 bolt to come up through, which I welded into the piece, and cut at a slight angle also. On the top of it I welded a short piece of pipe around the bolt to hold the spring centered, then used a big thick washer to hold the spring down, like stock B2s use. Then I put some shims in between the two pieces at the front and welded it all together. I think it could be done a little better by just making an angled box out of 1/4 inch stock and use a cup like the stock F-150s to hold the spring down, that way you could still get to the bolts that hold them into the radius arms. If I ever have to take mine apart I gotta cut my weld all the way aroung with the angle grinder.

foxfan · Post by **foxfan** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:07 pm

if you had a leaf sprung axle why would you weld C-wedges on and go w/ the factory junk that a lot of guys are stuck using because they have cast C-wedge axles?

you could have welded mounts anywhere and ran a 4 or 3 link setup.

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:11 pm

I prefer coils and a factory 3 link over leafs anyday. for one reason.....approach angle. with leafs you will run the hangers into junk. 4 link would be better but untill I read tech articles for like 6 mo. and get a few hundred bucks I can throw away in case it dosen't work right I will stick with the factory style 3 link. besides have you seen how much articulation you can get out of the factory style 3 link? for the weight of the BII or ranger you will be in great shape with this system and it is alot simpler. plus you can find parts everywhere. the only custome parts you are running are the coild and a wristed arm.....everything else can be foud at a junk yard or off the parts shelf at autozone.

ranger5.0 · Post by **ranger5.0** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:09 pm

I believe the coils give a better ride and the don't twist out and come apart like a leaf does when under heavy use. I was able to remove my factory wedges and slid them in 2 1/2 to fit the frame width.

foxfan · Post by **foxfan** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 8:10 pm

i'm not talking @ running leafs, i prefer coils on RBV's for sure.

what i'm saying is that you get better performance, strength and ground clearance by using extended tubular arms w/ heim joints. not to mention handling. some setups don't even require a trac bar.

DBrown · Post by **DBrown** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:17 am

well the point I was trying to make earlier is that extended aftermarket arms with heims are expencive, plus they are longer so smacking them on stuff is going to happen. the factory 3 link does a pretty good job, with some alterations. face it.......the custom 3 link and 4 link are great setups but you have to be ready to dump some money in then to initaly get started and I just didn't want to go that far yet. besides you can find 3 link parts at any yard and they are not that hard to setup. people usualy only have problems with the factory 3 link with a wristed arm if they are heavy, like FS trucks. in a BII where you only weigh 3000lbs you will have no problems.

marinebroncoii · Post by **marinebroncoii** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:43 pm

Sorry I haven't had time to get on in a while but have my own computer up and runing now. But anyways if you were asking me about the stock 3 link setup DBrown pretty much listed all of the reasons. i plan on building a trail beater that I can experiment more with and not care if I screw up, but My current ride is my going to be my DD when I get home and I made it as functional and practical as possible for that big of a daily driver so that I can have fun in it and still have a reliable, easy to fix rig.