Spring over going well

[Rosey]

Hi Guys,

the spring over is going great guns now. Sent my rear drive shaft off to get lengthened and balanced today. Also sent Cheezy my hi-steer arm to get the tappered hole machined. I'm planning to make up some front drive shaft spacers, one for each end of the shaft. I'll use some piping flanges from work for the spacers, these are almost a perfact fit, may need a little time in the lathe.

I have done the front end simular to Dr. Frankinstine, got rid of all the steering link and cut down a mq tie rod so it goes directly from the pitman arm to the hi-steer arm. The hi-steer arm I made from a slab of 1" thick steel with a 1" rise in it.

I'd like to thank the guys that have helped me so far;

dr. Frankinstine - helps of help with all the pics, I will drop in for a beer in Tassy one day.
V8Patrol - a wealth of knowledge
Wendle - posts on every topic out there

everyone else how has made a comment relating to SOA.

here's some pics of what I've done so far. More to come soon I hope.

cheers

[bru21]

rosey you mad cun% thats nuts. you will have to drive it down so we can flex it out with the fork lift, or i can drive up - let me see 6 hrs in the car should be about 60 on the fork - if only you were allowed to be above .05! booze cruise.

cheers bru

[V8Patrol]

And God said " Let there be LIFT"

& soa was done

Praise the lifted tho lower scum for they can run 38's through the gates of hell and back.

& Mosses nodded as he now knew that the meek would never "drive it" and the earth would be a playground for the high n mighty

Jesus smiled and said.....

Our SOA which doth put us in heaven

unbelivable flex be the game

thy swampers shall come

when the SOA is done

On earth we shall ride as in heaven

Give us our highsteer & self centering dampers

& Lead us not up easy trails but deliver us harder rocks

for thine is the lifted , the clearance and flex for ever & ever

yeah baby

[Wendle]

good shit. looks good. not ridiculously high either.

i managed to miss the other thread, how did you end up going with your rear shackle problem?

[Shorty40]

I like your safety boots

[V8Patrol]

All it needs now is 2 extra cylinders for the motor

[Rosey]

The rear shackle problem is sorted, moved the mounts forward a bit and added another leaf to the pack. I'll be setting the broken back as soon as i get the rear drive shaft back. I'll take the tyres of so that if it does drop off the stands at 80clicks it doesn't drive through the neighbours garage. It could end in disaster.

[Wendle]

cool..
tack the stands to the axle if you are really worried..

[Doggy]

As said by shorty, love your work boots. You got the overalls on, and all the gear lying around being used and you've got a genuine pair of steal capped thongs on. Thats something I would do

[bru21]

living in qld you learn pretty quick not to hurt ya totsies. thongs is where its at. the best thing i recon is when welding lands on your feet you can kick it off while still running a bead, whereas with shoes it gets so far down your inside your socks after burning through drop everything, which always leads to the tack breaking and the part you spent the last hour aligning and checking goes awal.

i hate using the 9" near my feet though fark that

bru

[pongo]

Mighty impressive The more of soa pics i see the more im getting keen as . Dont know if i need it though but one can never have too much lift .I'm new to the game so was wondering exactly what extra lifts you have body,spring,shackle? If i had it that high here in wagga wagga wagga, the cops wouldn't even let me out the drive way.
It'd be a while before i can do it but i am gathering info from everywere

Upon carefull inspection of pictures i have overlooked the whole bare foot bush man routine and ask you where the hell is all the XXXX (is that how its spelt?). Not a Stubbie or can insight

Cheers.

[Justin_M]

Just how high is a SOA if you use springs that are pretty much dead flat? Its just the high COG would worry me, but being able to have soft, flat springs without rubbing your belly on the ground, would make for some fun times

[Rosey]

thongs are the best to work in, only put on boots when i'm moving the diffs. As bru said, when your welding you can kick the hot ambers from between ya toes. If you get a hot amber down your boot your farked.

Bru i'll have to make the treck up the sunnie coast when she's down, might as well wait for you to finish your beast. Mine will look like a toy next to yours.


COG may be higher, however being able to run softer springs means you don't lift wheels as easily, meaning axles and the weight of the tyres are lower to the ground...results in lower COG at full flex. High speed roundabouts will be the issue I believe.

Stubbies where drunk during the buildup... and still are being drunk, believe me. Last thing you need is smashed glass when your working in thongs, so I try clean those up. Bloody oth thats how you spell XXXX

cheers

[Screwy]

Just how high is a SOA if you use springs that are pretty much dead flat? Its just the high COG would worry me, but being able to have soft, flat springs without rubbing your belly on the ground, would make for some fun times

My SOA with 3 inch body, stock springs and 2 inch shackles on 35's sat the top of the tailgate level with my eye brows and im 6 foot 1!!

Ask kingy how tall it was, before the xtra inch in body and shackle

Now ive pulled down the springs to flat and im sitting on 38 inch swampers with about a foot in the guards

Shes almost done, ill take some pics next week with any luck

screwy

[Screwy]

Rosey,

truck looks good by the way

[V8Patrol]

Just how high is a SOA if you use springs that are pretty much dead flat? Its just the high COG would worry me, but being able to have soft, flat springs without rubbing your belly on the ground, would make for some fun times

Flat springs actually work well although they are a tad weak when the going gets real rough, the big problem is that they have lost much of their ability to "spring" back. This is one of the main reasons I urge ppl to fit a new spring pak when doing a SOA, the leaves can easilly be removed to lower the rig back to a more user friendly & stable height & once the pak has settled leaves can be added back into the pak thus maintaining its desired height.

The height of an SOA'ed rig depends on "HOW HIGH CAN YOU AFFORD" but generally when is all said and done for an average height bloke ( say 5' 10" ) then the bonnet will fit nicely under ya arm pit and the rear window will be around mid hand height when open and ya wont have to stand on ya tippy toes to reach it.
Most ppl dont worry about these heights as such but do constantly complain about the height of the sill panel and the HUGE STEP they have to take ta get in/out of the rig. ...... yes I have fallen out of mine on several occasions

Jeff's rig initally was far higher than mine and I left him with it at that height knowing it would come back down at some stage in the future, certainly 10",11",12"+ lift isnt uncommon when dealing with SOA's but the heigher one goes then more dramas await further down the track, ya driveline WILL HATE YOU, as Jeff found out by removing leaves he gained flex, brought the rig down to a stable height and still managed to keep the whole unit in proportion so it "looks" standard from a distance.

As for the "drivability", well at first they are a tad scary, bit like getting out of a Mini and jumping into a Mack truck. In general allow a week of "learning to drive it" once a SOA is done, you'll soon get used to the added body roll around the local streets and roundabouts become fun, infact its hard driving a my stock unit and then driving my big rig, but I know which is more fun !

Kingy

[MereMale]

Every thing I see about doing an SOA makes me want to try it
But after speeking to some ppl I really wondered if it was worth it as the amount of changes that were needed???
The drive shafts needing lengthened etc, but what has stopped me at the moment was ppl saying that I'd chew out Uni's with the angles or that I'd have to somehow change the angles on the diffs etc
So now I really don't know what to do or whether just doing a 2" body lift would allow me to do the bigger wheels or not.