Beast from da Middle East

OK, here we go. I can already feel my wallet aching.

What I got.

'78 or abouts chevy Big-10.
new GM crate 350 w/ 800 cfm 4bbl & alum. hi-rise intake.
SM465 4-spd
unknown transfer case
front 10 bolt (i think)
rear 60 or 14 bolt, not for sure
38 / 12.50 / 16.5 boggers
new 3 core radiator
dual yellow top optimas
2-14" aulillary electric fans
SOA for front axle
6" block lift for the rear

The plan is a true 6" to 12" lift all around (no crappin blocks) with some 44 or 49" bead locked on it. Prolly a leaf spring lift, but may coil over or something. Thats what this thread is for. Post up your thoughts on the matter. Prolly gonna try to start something mid April or so. Gotta recoup my losses from my vacation home. Fully locked, selectable, wheels, tires? Let me know what ya think. :flipoff2:

Before
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...30SEP05046.jpg

After
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...y/100_2583.jpg

Your truck has a NP205 transfer case with the race track bolt face pattern and 10 spline weiner input. Do you know what the axles came out of? My guess is 10 bolt or dana 44 front and 14 bolt FF rear. Your electric fans are auxillary, as in in addition to the stock mechanical one?

The first question if you want ideas on how to build your truck is what do you plan to do with it? I can assume you want to wheel with us and if that is the case a versatile all-around rig should be the goal. This eliminates any lift over 6". I had 9" of total lift on my suburban (6" suspension and 3" body) and it was a little tall for the kind of stuff we do. A 6" lift is acceptable but a 4" would be best. Wanting to run 44's sounds like fun but you have to factor in everything needed to do it. You either will need 8-10" of lift of some serious body modifications to fit them on your truck (not to mention better axles but we'll get to that). It sounds like you have some money to throw at this project but to be honest, you can build a *****in wheelin rig and spend more on tires and wheels than the entire rest of the truck.

Lets go hypothetical situation here. You want 4" of lift and to run 44's. This will take some work but it can be and has been done. For the front, you will deffinately need to hack off most of the outter fenders and lose the inners completely or fabricate some new ones. You will need to move the front axle forward 4-6" to clear the cab of the truck. You may run into steering box tire contact issues but I'm not sure how that would play out after moving the axle forward, the box may end up inside the tire's scrub radius. You may encounter leafspring to tire lug contact issues, in which case you need to either try different backspacing wheels (which may again hit the cab or PS box) or adjust your steering stops so you cant turn as far. You can use normal aftermarket 4" lift springs in the front, or you can do what alot of chevy people have been doing recently and that is taking the factory rear leaf packs (yours should be 52" long) and putting them in the front. This requires some frame mods, and moves your front axle forward 4", and creates about 4" of lift. This is the cheapest and flexiest way to do a front suspension with leaf springs.

For the back, that is easy. Shackle flip. You are again going to have to cut the piss out of your fenders and probably do some wheelwell modifications in order to fit the 44's. I would suggest just ditching the bed completely, it is much easier to see your rear tires and you are much more maneuverable without it. As far as the suspension goes, you can again go cheap and use factory leaf packs. I would recomend getting a set of 56" long rears from a late 80's model truck for the back. You could use 63" long ones from a later model but they require a little more work to install and from what I hear the flex from them is comparable to the 56's. In order to get lift from the rear you do whats called a shackle flip, where you use another set of the front rear spring brackets at the rear of the spring to flip the shackle over. Depending on where you mount the brackets on teh frame, how long your shackle is and what brackets you use, you can get from 0-6" of lift easily.

If you have ay questions, look at my buildup thread titled "Pigpen." Everything I mentioned here I did on my own truck, except for the 44's :( .

Like robert said, just what do you want to do with this vehicle? Mud, sand, rocks, trail riding, mall crawling, etc. Do you want it to be mildly capable of each terrian, or kick ass in one, and not so good in another? What kind of money, fab skills, tools and shop area do you have to use for this buildup? Remember its real easy to get in over your head real quick, and sometimes things just come up, so plan for it. Finally, are you set on keeping the chevy, and what are your reasons for wanting to go large on tires? I'm not saying you shouldn't, but there are good reasons for it as well as bad ones.

To begin, the biggest thing would be to keep it low. Do not lift it 12 inches. It doesn't need to be that big. If you want to keep the chevy, go to pirate and research "The Beast" from alaska. That guy understands how to build a fullsize. In your case I would look into some rockwells for axles. Move the front axle forward as much as possible (new leaf spring mounts or a linked suspension). This will allow you to keep it lower and keep the tires out of the cab and pinion out of the oil pan. Of course sheetmetal reworking will ensue. Go with full hydro steering as well. Ditch the bed, and build a tube or flatbed. Replace the wimpy tcase, and go with a 203/205 doubler with better spline counts. Put fuel injection or propane on the engine, a heavy duty roll cage that ties everything together, and you should be allright.

Another thought on moving the front axle forward. There was a mud truck featured in some old 4x4 mags where the guy moved the cab and engine back on the frame. This centered the wieght more, kept it low, and let him run huge tires with little lift

I say limit your actual lift and trim the body as needed. Trust me a tall rig is not good. Robert has some good ideas in his post. another thing i suggest you do before all of this is some major gearing reduction. look into dual cases you are going to need lower gearing with bigger tires to get anywhere.

BTW, if you go rockwells, buy a complete 2.5 ton truck to get them from. Then sell the remaining non-steer axle to robert so he can do his rear rockwell/53 inch tall tire swap and we can all laugh at him :flipoff2:

I am looking for a good trail rig that is still gonna be able to do a little blacktop drivin. I dont care if it is legal, as we live in the middle of nowhere and the fuzz are lookin for little belly dragin cars, not trucks. I started out wanting a good mud truck, so I might be a little hard to convince at times that "the air up there" is not always as sweet. I went out to Katemcy and loved it. I would have never thought the trails was where it's at, but it beats throwin a rod in the mud. Now, why keep the chevy? Call me whatever you want, but there are already plenty of jeeps, and I want to stay domestic. Plus, the truck already has plenty of room (i.e. more room for my beer belly). Not couning rims and tires (which I figure will run $3k for what I want), I am looking at a budget of around 6 to 8k on the suspension, maybe more if the axles are more than what I think. I am currently workin overseas, so me wrenchin on this thing is almost out of the question. I do have facilities (moms carport), but no one there to do the work. I can do any type of welding and such, this is not a problem, but getting there to do it is. I have no regrets about loosing plenty of sheet metal. I would like to keep the bed intact ( I have kind of grown fond of the old stepside look), but if the fenders have to go, so be it. The doubler will sure be a "must have".

i think 6 inches will work, and minimize some of the body cab problems, with the huge meats. i think a 60/14 combo would be fine for you, rockwells are way to heavy and gay in my opinion. With a set of chromo sahfts for the 60 you could run 44's and prollly get away fine, and this would prolly keep you around your price range 1 grand or so for shafts,1grand for the 60, and another grand for gears and locker.

An arb would be nice up front especially to make steering easier with that big a tire. You can go full hydro or hydro assist, i like hydro assist myself from what i have seen, versus full hydro, full hydro would be better on the rocks, but hydro assist will be more driver friendly on the road-from what i hear about full hydro.

i also like the idea of keeping the stepside bed cause it looks cool, and you dont see it alot, and i am all about being original myself, thats why i wouldnt trade my pile for any jeep. But if the bed stays then be prepared for it to get smashed some unless, you did a mild exo on it. Only problem with this is now your truck is a couple inches wider.

Now i have mixed feeling about the lift, right now i have about 6 inches i think on my bronco with 38's. I really dont like the way it feels when wheeling it mainly at clayton, feels way to top heavy on some obstacles, so i plan to lower it a couple inches this summer, but that is a lot easier to do with 38's than 44's.

As fpr beadlocks i say go with the Humer h-1 beadlocks cause i think they look wicked pissah with big meats.

As for fuel delivery, i would go with a chevy tbi(efi) system cause it is fairly easy to do, and fairly cheap for your truck.

I think if I went with a TSL I'd rather stay with a 42" because it's a couple inches skinnier.

If you went with a big wide bogger and wanted to mud efficiently I think you'd have to get more horsepower.

I think like most people, keep it to a 6" lift, 42's or 44's, move the front axle forward, do a doubler, and I'd go full hydro if you can afford it.

Ideas:

blazer on mogs

Not sure what this is as pirate is down

Pics of a guy with mogs on a truck similar to yours

I wouldn't put the time and money into building up that truck. It has tires, wheels, axles, and lift you're not gonna use anyway. And the body is falling off the frame. I'd sell it and find a stock one in better condition to build up. Keep the stepside bed if you want. Building a stock truck would be the same work, or maybe easier if there are things on yours that you'd want to undo or redo.

And seeing as you're gonna have to have someone else build it up, it's gonna cost some money. You can probably find one allready built for less than you'll spend to have it built up. Seems lots of people put a lot of money into these things and then don't use or don't like them and sell them at a big loss. Take advantage of that.

Brung. Ed. http://www.alaska4x4network.com/showthread.php?t=4639

Don't worry about wheeling a fullsize, they're fun too. I don't know how much sheetmetal you want to hang on to, but if I were building a fullsize truck, the only sheetmetal I'd keep would be the cab. It certainly opens up your options, and I dig the "truggy" look.

You don't have to go high to run big tires either. I wheel with 3 K5 Blazers, one on 42s with 6" lift, (6" front, 2" rear + shackle flip), one on 42s with 4" lift (52" rear springs up front, shackle flip rear), and one on 44s with 4" lift (52" rear springs up front, 63" springs + shackle flip rear).

EDIT: For tires, go with the new 47" Swamper LTB. It's not so damn wide (17"). You're going to be wide enough as-is.

*** andy that truggy has some sick fab work done to it, that thing is awesome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stx4wheeler

*** andy that truggy has some sick fab work done to it, that thing is awesome.

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You've never seen bgreen's freak? Maybe I'm just a chevy fag :rainbow:

yeah, thats the one I meant when I said the beast. The work the guy does is crazy clean, and he really thinks outside the box.

wow that front end looks strangely similar to a certain red truck turned black that I spent way too much of my life working on :confused2
:flipoff2:

really? I think they look nothing alike :confused: Well other than a red cab with tubing on it