Big Rich

Has anyone else had this problem, I have a Skyjacker 6" lift, run 35" tires and
run this truck pretty hard off road...

But,

3 pitman arms in 13 months ?

Rich

Boatnik

Need to know how it is breaking and where on the arm is the fracture. Without that information I can only guess you may need a good strong steering stabilizer for when you are drinking diet coke. 40 feet of air in a 4 ton truck is going to break something.

Big Rich

They are breaking, at about 10 o'clock with the arm pointing down, and cracking at about 1 and 3.

I have a new stabilizer, Rancho...

I picked up a superlift arm for a ford/jeep, much thicker collar, but had to clearance it with a grinder to clear the frame. I'm going to install high steer arms for a cross over tie rod, hoping that will help with the geometry.

It's kind of baffling, I can't see any bind. A friend recommends we look at the steering stops to see if their set right, so I will do that as well.

Rich

89dieselkong

Man...I get nervous when my back end hops on a frost heave at 60! 40ft of air @ 65mph? Hate to see what she would do with regular Coke

Big Rich

I better clarify this a bit....

Over the big rollers on a couple of our race courses you can get a long distance with not really getting to high. The highest elevation from the road distance in a forty foot jump might be 2-3 ft with a long drop out landing zone, as long as you keep the truck straight.

But after looking at the dents from the bed hitting the cab.... maybe the landings are not all long drop outs

Rich

Diesel Junkie

The stock short front/back draglink can add some really bad stresses to the steering system, because of the extreme changes in geometry as the suspension moves. Plus it causes the truck to handle like crap on the street.

This is especially taboo in rock crawling. Short link systems usually wont last one good trip in the rocks, doesnt matter if its toyota, chevy dodge or what.

Crossover steering is really the way to go.

I couldnt stand the street handling after i put 6" springs on mine. I went straight to a cross over steering setup within a month after the springs.

I used a 3" block to space up a fabbed steering arm on the axle, this put the draglink over the springs and nice and level.
The brackets that held the box to the frame were junk, and there is a bolt pattern right on the frame that can hold the box in a different orientation. So i monted it there but still had a lot of frame cracking issues until i finally scabbed the whole area of the frame with 1/2" plate and a pile of gussets. Had to modify the steering shaft. I also used a dropped pitman arm.

Totally level drag link now and its about 4 or 5 feet long, truck handles way better than stock.

I would highly recommend a panhard bar though. Havent gotten around to building one for mine, but its obviously needed.

I definitely dont jump my truck, it would probably split in half. Mine gets used like a tractor off road, uprooting trees and accessing difficult areas for farming/firewood/snow/rescuing backhoes/ect. plus its my only street legal daily driver, and it tows the rockcrawler.

Boatnik

I bet you won't forget to buckle your seat belt more than once....OUCH