- Joined
- January 27, 2002
- Messages
- 10,648
- Reaction score
- 12
- City, State
- Texarkana AR/TX
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 94 SAS sport
I helped a friend of mine build his early bronco with rocks and radius arms/coils front and rear. I know an EB isnt exactly the same thing as an Explorer but its pretty damn similar. Here are a few of my opinions (i was at one time thinking about rocks under my rig)-
Ride height- this was the main reason why i didnt do it. I did not like the fact that the rig has to be really tall. I wanted to keep it low and go with 39.5's or 42's. It still would have been too tall for my tastes. You have to run alot of "lift" so the driveshaft will clear the oil pan. Even then, we had to limit up travel a bit on my buddys rig.
Pinion brakes- we did pinion brakes and they work awesome offroad. Too good in fact. He wound up bleeding air into the system on purpose so the pedal wouldnt be so sensative. Remember, that tiny pinion brake is multiplied by the gear ratio, so two little bitty brakes can lock up all four real easy. This also means NO STREET DRIVING. Since the brakes are on the pinion, they are running whatever speed you're running times 6.72. At 40 mph, the brakes are turning about 270 mph. Ever see what happens to a Honda Civic rotor/caliper when you stand on the brakes at 270 mph? It aint pretty. And thats at 40 mph.
Parking it- this was another big issue to me but not a big deal to others if you have a shop. See, i have a garage. There is no way i could get the thing under an 8ft. garage door. That means it would have to be worked on in the driveway, and parked in the back yard. I used to have to work on stuff in the driveway... im not going back to that. Even with suck-down winches and airing all four tires down to flats it wasnt going to fit.
Trailer queen- once again, not that big of a deal to some... but i want to have something that i can at least sneak to work every once in a while. Obviously i could have went with wheel discs, but at the time they were very expensive and negated that fact that rockwells were dirt cheap. It would have been cheaper to just go one ton.
Ride height- this was the main reason why i didnt do it. I did not like the fact that the rig has to be really tall. I wanted to keep it low and go with 39.5's or 42's. It still would have been too tall for my tastes. You have to run alot of "lift" so the driveshaft will clear the oil pan. Even then, we had to limit up travel a bit on my buddys rig.
Pinion brakes- we did pinion brakes and they work awesome offroad. Too good in fact. He wound up bleeding air into the system on purpose so the pedal wouldnt be so sensative. Remember, that tiny pinion brake is multiplied by the gear ratio, so two little bitty brakes can lock up all four real easy. This also means NO STREET DRIVING. Since the brakes are on the pinion, they are running whatever speed you're running times 6.72. At 40 mph, the brakes are turning about 270 mph. Ever see what happens to a Honda Civic rotor/caliper when you stand on the brakes at 270 mph? It aint pretty. And thats at 40 mph.
Parking it- this was another big issue to me but not a big deal to others if you have a shop. See, i have a garage. There is no way i could get the thing under an 8ft. garage door. That means it would have to be worked on in the driveway, and parked in the back yard. I used to have to work on stuff in the driveway... im not going back to that. Even with suck-down winches and airing all four tires down to flats it wasnt going to fit.
Trailer queen- once again, not that big of a deal to some... but i want to have something that i can at least sneak to work every once in a while. Obviously i could have went with wheel discs, but at the time they were very expensive and negated that fact that rockwells were dirt cheap. It would have been cheaper to just go one ton.