The Begining...

It all started when Eric purchased his extended cab Chevy in 93. He immediately put on a 4” lift kit, bumpers, roll down back window, and sun roof. Soon to follow were the heartbeat captain’s chairs. Eric was never known to take it easy on his truck. After the addition of the Vortec supercharger a few years later, the truck had all the power it needed.

Over the next 10 years, Eric broke and bent just about everything you could imagine on his Chevy. He went through numerous rear ends, a frame, 3 paint jobs, and even most of the components on his IFS lift. At one point, the entire lift was taken off and sent out to a welder. Every joint was gusseted and re-welded. It seems the truck wouldn’t hold up to Eric’s abuse. Right about the time Eric was ready for his next frame, he saw another Chevy “Straight Axle Swap” that WFO had done.

The next day, he dropped the truck off.

Eric basically said, “Build me something that won’t break.” He didn’t care about the details, he just wanted a truck that could withstand his abusive every day driving! His other request was a set of 44” boggers. With this Idea, we went to work!

The first thing to go was the IFS front end. We cut out the front suspension, along with the old cross-member and all brackets. The frame was ground clean, and a new cross-member was welded in. From there, we moved right to the back. The 241 transfer case was removed, along with the bed. Everything we didn’t want was cut out. The spare tire holder was cut out, along with the gas tank, leaf springs, brackets, and all existing cross members. All existing fuel lines and wiring were also removed.

At this point, we pondered what to do with the frame. Even though it had already been replaced once, we could soon see that it wasn’t going to be strong enough for what we were about to do to Eric’s truck. We decided to build a sub-frame to house the front and rear link mounts. We wanted something substantial to tie the two points together.
After pressure washing the mud from the inside of the frame rails, we began to construct our sub-frames.

Our material of choice was 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 x quarter wall square tubing. We started where the original boxed frame ended, directly under the firewall. We notched and bent the rails to fit perfectly inside the frame, following the original contour We ran these rails to within 12” of the rear of the existing frame.

We also removed the spare tire mount, and welded in a permanent cross member in the rear of the frame. We bolted in the sub-frame using as many existing holes as possible. Only a few holes were drilled in the frame.

The sub frame was our starting point for the link mounts. At this stage, Beau headed to his computer. He drew the frame rails, along with the basic lines and angles of the truck. He was able to design the complete 4 link setup on a 3D virtual model, using Solidworks. By modeling the suspension first, we were able to run it through its motions, and tweak it one way or the other. By doing this, we were able to achieve zero caster change throughout its 16” of travel. This is extremely important and vital to the life of the suspension components.

The rear three link was also designed on the computer. It was designed with the same basic concepts of a radius arm setup. The pinion remains pointing directly at the transfer case throughout its travel. This allows the 1350 CV joint in the driveline to function properly.

Once everything was designed, we went to work. The front link mounts were welded to the sub-frame, while the rear link mounts were built using another cross-member. All links were built from 2” x .250 wall DOM tubing. Tubing inserts were welded in for the 1.25” heim joints.

The links were attached to the axles using the heim joints and high angle bushings. (Inventory parts, heim end high mis) At the frame end, they were attached with poly bushing. By using polyurethane bushings at the frame end, we were able to keep road noise to a minimum. We were able to achieve all of the needed flex from the high angle heim bushings.

With the links in place, we bent up the front shock hoops that would hold our 2.5” x 16” triple rate, King Coilover shocks. The hoops were bent from 1 3 / 4 x .120 wall tubing. The frame was plated where the tubing was welded on. For extra support, a removable strut bar was bent up to go over the top of the motor and connect the two shock towers. The strut tower was bolted in with poly bushings in order to accommodate frame flex. All parts were then cleaned, and painted with a grey base/clear paint.