Brenthel long travel install

[svc]

Good job Nathan,

I know you have been kicking around all the options for a while now and I'm glad to see your happy and all is well so far.

Keep us posted.

Jarrett

 

[ntm]

Good job Nathan,

I know you have been kicking around all the options for a while now and I'm glad to see your happy and all is well so far.

Keep us posted.

Jarrett

You bet, we will see how it all holds together when I smash some trails with it.

Definitely looking for a rear end suspension solution at this point. I can tell already that the rear is going to limit performance significantly.
Tough for a regular guy like myself to make the financial investment and sacrifice the daily driver capability by doing a four link and cab cage.
I was going to give you a call about notching the frame and doing a bed cage this winter.

 

[MTUH3]

Great work and looks good. I really like the way this looks and fits to the truck. When I first saw bits of this kit a year or two ago... it would have been the way I would have gone, if I could afford to do it all at once.

 

[Blind1]

Great write up! Subscribing...

 

[Raptor911]

As ALWAYS your write-ups are excellent!

 

[KaiserM715]

One of the best tech write-ups we have had in a while. Looking forward to more.

The instructions don't say anything about clearancing the hydro formed rails, but they do mention to set the cv angles at 26 degrees. This measured out at only 12.5 inches of travel before hitting the upper rail with uca.
Out came the sledgehammer and I went to work on the upper rails. In a later conversation with Jordan, I discovered they usually just cut these.
The damn things are tough !

Do you have a pic that shows this?

 

[ntm]

Thanks for the kind words. I actually thought I was lacking detail, as I was kind of scrambling as I bumped into unexpected issues. I guess more than anything it's just reassuring to see what someone else did, and I could find only a few bad pics on the net of this kit installed, and nothing of the actual install. Hopefully this will help reassure anyone doing this kit in the future.

It's the front of the uca that needs the most clearancing of the hydro formed rails. Here's a pic that has the rail about half way to where it needs to be. If I had to do it again, I might just notch them for clearance, they are ridiculously strong. I wailed on this one with a 15 pound sledge for an hour to get enough. The passengers side I used a torch and got the rail red hot, much easier to dent in then, but you have to go through the trouble of removing the battery tray and any wiring in proximity to the rail.

 

[Darthyota]

the rouge racing cantilever setup looks pretty sweet for the rear i.e. for keeping the dd usability of the box. your install looks good, can't wait to see how you finish the rear up

 

[Jordan@Apollo-Optics]

the rouge racing cantilever setup looks pretty sweet for the rear i.e. for keeping the dd usability of the box. your install looks good, can't wait to see how you finish the rear up

I was going to mention the same thing. Might want to look at their setup since it sounds like you use your truck as a truck first and toy second.

 

[ntm]

The rogue setup looks interesting, but cargo capacity isn't that big of a deal to me, as I'm usually just getting somewhere, shouting a few orders, and moving on down the line.
Potential advantages to the rogue setup are in the damping, near as I can tell. Dunno that you're going to see more compression travel compared to a bed cage, the axle can only go so far without a frame notch, which the rogue cantilever doesn't look compatible with.
Other potential downsides are more failure points, the bottom of my bed is typically packed with clay and sand, and the inability to do a sunken dual spare tire carrier at the rear of the bed, as that space is now occupied by the shocks and frame of the cantilever.
I'm looking to find more up travel for the rear, rather than more droop, hoping to find an answer besides "four link".