Completed Project Turboexplorer's Full Width SAS Build Thread

[adamsbro2]

I know with an e load tire they have a super stiff sidewall so your pressure has to be pretty dang low before you'll see anything!!

 

[Stang5lgt]

I have heard all the poor balancing on Interco tires as well. I have a bunch of e mails and phone records of me talking with them about it before I even bought the tires. I think in this case its more of an out of round thing than a balance thing. We will see what they say though.

I wonder if its exaggerated by the tire pressure. I am at 30psi and it seams a bit hard still. You almost cant even tell there is any weight on them. They are an E load range tire. What do others run for their road pressures on 35-37's?

I run 22 psi max on the Merc they are load C. But the Kevlar sidewalls are hard as a rock. Most times I run them 15 psi when coming back from the trail.

 

[rookieshooter]

I know on my SAS on my Bii I have BF KM2s and it's just plain crazy how sweet they are at highway speeds. Went on a 200 mile trip most on I-81 and you could even take your hand off the steering wheel and no shimmy whats so ever. And no steering stabilizer. Now I have very shallow angles on my track and drag bars also. Also my High steer helps out also by raising the steering link so the drag bar is at a low angle.
In fact the drag bar was too shallow of an angle so I reversed taper the pitman arm so it's on the top. Both drag and track are same angle.

 

[turboexplorer]

I run 22 psi max on the Merc they are load C. But the Kevlar sidewalls are hard as a rock. Most times I run them 15 psi when coming back from the trail.

My friend that has a big 4,900lb J/K on the same M-16's runs his at 22-25psi as well. He said 22 when they where new and 25 now that they have 35k on them and have been broke in so to speak being air down on rocks every week. He airs down to 8-11 depending on terrain. So Sounds like letting at least 5 lbs out will be more than fine.

I talked to Interco and Discount and both are all on board to change the tire with a new one if needed no problem. So tomorrow after work or Friday morning I will head to discount and have them road force it to see what is the issue. Then we can get this all nipped in the butt right away. Drove 15 miles home on the freeway today and it did great other than the rear being a bit bouncy. I did watch a S-10 Blazer do a 360* turn on the freeway at 65 mph though. Lol long story but thank goodness it didn't roll and everything was okay. BTW had to do a pretty hard brake while S-10 was dancing in front of me and it felt great under hard brake. The anti dive angle is perfect and no front end dive hardly at all

Anyways I got some better flex pics tonight so I will post them up tomorrow.

 

[james t]

I run 25psi on the street on load C iroks.

Interco has alot of "****ed in the mold" issues, which makes the tire slightly out of round. Basically when the tire goes in the mold its not perfectly squared once the bag inflates... then the mold closes and it gets cooked slightly off center.

 

[turboexplorer]

Cool I'll lower them to 25 and then go from there on how they feel.

I've heard the same thing but they told me they had fixed those issues before I bought the tires. Lol, o well either way even if I get a new tire I'll be very happy

Still thinking I need to increase my caster to 4* and possibly toe it in another 1/32" or so as well.

Also last night I got the transfer case skid plate back on and held the sway bar up to see what its going to take to make work and it doesn't look to bad. So I'll jump on that next week for sure.

 

[turboexplorer]

Here are the pictures I said i took the other night. I noticed a few things. 1 I need limiting straps bad it will full droop easy and I need a strap so the weight isn't resting on the shock. So I bought some 18" ones at Teraflex today on my lunch break. They are Off Road Warehouse brand ones and look to be built for desert racing with how freaking huge they are. 2nd is that I need to adjust the coil over so that it hits the stiffer spring rate WAY sooner. Since it doesn't at all currently the front end almost fully flexs before it makes the rear do much of anything. So hitting my stiffer spring rate sooner will force more weight on the corners sooner and get the rear to flex like I know it can. Also will help the rig not follow the back end so hard as well. It follows the rear of the truck like it followed the front in stock form.

Anyways you can see how the front does a ton with little from the rear. Tomorrow morning before the trip I will try to get the limiting straps on and the coil overs adjusted. All part of starting to dial in the rig. I also picked up my front driveshaft today at lunch as well and its just as pretty as the rear one is. Its a 1330 CV for increased angle allowance with conversion u joints for the 1310 flange for the T-Case and a 1310 u joint for the diff side. Also has a 7" slip spline. Its great as usual from Tatton's.

Look at the left front in the pictures here that is will 30psi in the tires and the tire still looks like there is no weight on them.

 

[turboexplorer]

Couple suspension views.

At almost full droop the pitman arm TRE is still free and no binding.

 

[turboexplorer]

Clearance is perfect! Very happy.

 

[turboexplorer]

And for the other side. Not as steep approaching from this angle.

 

[DUDER 1]

I have a question i just bought an 8.8 rear end out of a 1990 bronco and it looked like you rear 8.8 is wider, is there a difference between an f-150 and bronco as far as width. What it the width of your 8.8. Thank you.

 

[turboexplorer]

I'm not sure if there is a width difference at all. I think mine is 65" WMS-WMS It was like 1/2-1" narrower than the front D44 which is normal. Even the new Super Duties are slightly narrower in the rear than front. Heard it helps with turn somehow and no scrubbing tires? Anyways I believe mine is 65" Flange to flange. Think the front is 65 1/2" Hard to measure because you can't measure it straight up because of the cast pumpkin sections.

 

[turboexplorer]

Measuring for where to install the limiting straps.

 

[turboexplorer]

And the other side.

 

[jaschlum]

:notworthy

 

[turboexplorer]

Well I took it out wheeling last Friday up to forest lake. Its a mild trail, a trail that i could get through with 31's and sliders before but it would take some very careful guiding and line picking to get through. But in its current state it didn't even think about it. It walked up anything i pointed it at.

I did however find a few additional things that i need to do though. Main thing is I need to make some bump stops to stop the axle from coming up that last 1" What it does is it pushes the tire up into the fender and bumper. So I am going to roll the bumper and trim and roll the fender some to help with that. The biggest disappointment with that was it slit my tire pretty bad. All the way through 5 lugs. O well part of wheeling. Anyways going up was easy fun and went well coming down however was a little more challenging. With the weight of the rig now on the front the coils are soft and i need more shock for sure. When a tire would fall off a rock or ledge the truck would follow and wouldn't stop would just sink right through the shocks. So another thing i am going to do is to re-valve the shocks at least 20% stiffer. This will help in 2 areas. 1 when off roading and coming down off ledges, and 2 on the freeway the front end looks a hair bouncy. Like when a car has a bad strut in the rear and you can tell that the tire isn't being firmly held to the road, kinda looks like that so stiffening up the front should better help keep things planted to the road. So trim and roll panels and re-valve shocks, and do bump stops. But really other than that it was fantastic and was great and smooth and really just plain awesome.

So I made a little quick video of the trip. It has the pictures from the trip as well as the video parts. Sorry the GoPro was only in one spot the whole time but hey its awesome to watch the front axle and its crazy how much it moves. In the video I also included the parts where the tire gets pushed up into the bumper and fender so you can see how hard it hit twice. Anyways was great to get it out to the trail and that included a 30 mile drive to and from the trail and up a canyon road. All in all did very well. Have about 175 miles on it now. Enjoy! (It's nothing special but cool none the less)

 

[turboexplorer]

I just talked to Scott at Dirt Fab racing and I think I am going to re-valve the shocks myself. Its about $150 more in tools to do properly and all I would need to find is someone that has high pressure N2 I can use to recharge the shocks.

But it would be good to know and good to learn how to do though. And would be another cool thing to know how to do and one more thing I can say that I did with the truck. Now to go convince the wife!

 

[sector9]

It feels great! I rode in it last weekend! Cant wait to get it down to St. George to do some wheelin!

 

[turboexplorer]

I have since driven it about 200 more miles and it feels fantastic. Interco still hasn't made up their mind yet on what they are going to do with the 1 tire that is barely out of round. But I have trimmed and folded the front bumper so I gained 1 1/2" more clearance for the tire there and I trimmed and folded the front fender as well so now there is nowhere else for the truck to cut the tires up. Also i adjusted the dual rate collar down so that the last 2" of travel before the tire touches the fender goes from the coils in series which is about 125 lb per inch rate to a 300 lb per inch rate so the last 2 inches will be a fair bit stiffer which will just force the rear to do more like it should. I also got the axle breathers fully done front and rear. Its almost time to change the rear diff oil. I also got it all washed very thoroughly inside and out and it again is as shiny as it should always be.

The weekend before last I went to St. George and went wheeling with sector9 in his first gen (my little brother). It really really made me wish that I had brought down the Explorer. It would have been a blast. But either way we took his stock first gen out and had some fun. Here are some pictures of the trip. His first gen floats on the sand compared to my second gen with the same size tires at the same tire pressure. I am very curious to see how mine does now with the monster meats and it being locked front and rear more or less.

 

[turboexplorer]