Brenthel long travel install

[ntm]

Glad you are happy with it. I have enjoyed following your build and looking forward to seeing what you do with the rear.
Since my truck was wrecked, I have spent a bunch of time in RSV1 and you are right, it's amazing the difference in how the long travel soaks everything up. Next weekend we are doing over 400 miles and we will be using a long travel sprung under and I am looking forward to seeing the difference to the linked rear. Has the same front setup, minus the 4.0's. You should come down and join us on a run, would be great to have you.

I'd love to come down later this winter, I'm tied up flying a large (for my company) pipeline project for the rest of summer.

I'm going to be very interested in your thoughts on the long sprung under vs the four link.
I've been talking to giant about their daily driver link kit. It's a bit of a strange setup, but the guys with them are finding they nicely bridge the gap between the leaf and four link setups.
There was a bunch of skepticism when they were first introduced, but the ones I've seen are really performing.
You don't gain much compression travel, but get a bunch of droop.

giant motorsports daily driver link - YouTube

daily driver link side window - YouTube

 

[vanilla_gorilla]

So I've been out tuning on this brenthel kit.
It's ridiculous.
3.0's aren't even close. The lt kit sticks like a cat on Velcro.
You can crest a hill, or come out of a g-out, and immediately correct your line. Feels unnatural, the truck is way up in the air and you're totally in control. Same with big hits or g-outs, its very progressive and there is no big thump and subsequent upset to the chassis.
It sucks up the small to medium stuff with zero drama, its hard to tell you are hitting anything. Big stuff is more of a "whoooomp", not a "bang" like the stock shocks and 3.0's.
My wife lied to me, travel length certainly matters !

Something else I'm seeing on the gopro footage is that unlike some lt kits, it doesn't ride on the bumps in light to medium use. They only strike the lca on high articulation angles. Makes tuning easier as you don't have a big compression jump until very late in the travel.
I'm impressed as hell, can't quite believe how much faster it is now on my regular trails, yet more composed too. It is damn near boring on fast whooped out sections where I felt right on the razors edge with the 3.0's.

Worth the money and time ?
Hell yes !
I'm shocked how much better it actually is, I did not expect such a dramatic difference compared to the old 3.0/deaver setup.
Downsides, it does wander a bit more on the highway, it does feel a little like you're driving a trophy truck in terms of chassis response, and you've seen how they handle on pavement.
Upsides, it handles a little like a trophy truck in the dirt !

Awesome write up. One question, are you running a sway bar with the new set-up? Did the kit come with it or are you "free-balling" (no sway bar)?

 

[ntm]

Awesome write up. One question, are you running a sway bar with the new set-up? Did the kit come with it or are you "free-balling" (no sway bar)?

There are no provisions for a sway bar.
It wanders more on the highway, and certainly rolls more in corners.
But the performance in rough corners is amazing offroad.
You can come into rough corners way hot, sideways and survive. Even with the 3.0's and no sway bar, stuff like that would rip the steering wheel right out of your hands.
Only place I ever liked the sway bar was with the fox 3.0's on very high speed sweepers. Pretty much everywhere else it was a detriment to offroad performance.

Talked to a couple guys with the giant ddl rear kit on tundras, apparently they are seeing a lot of pinion angle change with the v8 power. So that option is out.
Back to searching for a rear end solution.

 

[pirate air]

Awesome front end build. The Brenthal kit price makes it a really reasonable option when you compare the amount of money that can be spent on 3.0's and stronger arms and tie rods which offer virtually no travel gain. I remember working on a raptor with a Brenthal kit a couple years ago and the tie rod center links hit the coil overs when turning. Do yours make contact? I heard Brenthal was working on a solution. I remember they were also going to offer high angle cv joints to allow for more droop, but it looks like all you replaced was the center shaft.

Im interested in what you decide on the rear. I looked at the dd link kit too earlier this year but found the same issues with full size trucks over powering the air shocks and ending up with tons of pinion wrap on accel as you did. Neat system tho. A short course style link was the last thing I was trying to research. Imo, at this point, anything short of notching/cutting the frame to gain the up travel will just ba a waste of time/money. These trucks need more up travel in the rear even in 3.0 form.

 

[ntm]

Awesome front end build. The Brenthal kit price makes it a really reasonable option when you compare the amount of money that can be spent on 3.0's and stronger arms and tie rods which offer virtually no travel gain. I remember working on a raptor with a Brenthal kit a couple years ago and the tie rod center links hit the coil overs when turning. Do yours make contact? I heard Brenthal was working on a solution. I remember they were also going to offer high angle cv joints to allow for more droop, but it looks like all you replaced was the center shaft.

Im interested in what you decide on the rear. I looked at the dd link kit too earlier this year but found the same issues with full size trucks over powering the air shocks and ending up with tons of pinion wrap on accel as you did. Neat system tho. A short course style link was the last thing I was trying to research. Imo, at this point, anything short of notching/cutting the frame to gain the up travel will just ba a waste of time/money. These trucks need more up travel in the rear even in 3.0 form.

The tie rod link has about a 15 degree bend in it to give the coilover more clearance. I was a bit skeptical, but the gopro footage shows no flopping around of the link or anything weird like that.
Yeah, just a replacement center shaft on the cv's. They had been trying to get some rcv's whipped up for it, but we have seen how that panned out with the stock width raptor replacements. Turning radius seems unaffected from stock.
They recommended 26 degrees of droop on the axles, I went to 32 degrees before seeing any telescopic binding when static, so strapped it there. Gets an extra inch and a half of droop travel there, and is close to the mechanical limits of the lca/spindle. One wouldn't want to run 4wd while fully drooping the suspension of course. A typical 3 ton floor jack can't get the tires off the ground from ride height, lol.
I'm slowly resigning myself to taking the truck south somewhere for a traditional four link setup this winter.

Still pleased as hell with the kit, aiming to get some proper video here soon if it would quit raining for a couple days.

 

[Darthyota]

need to be real careful when bringing a modded truck back across the border

 

[ntm]

need to be real careful when bringing a modded truck back across the border

How so ?
Have you had a bad experience with that ?

 

[rptr]

watch out. the cbsa is a bitch. any mods and labour have to be declared and payed taxes on. if failure to declare a search and seasure can occur. in that case you will have to pay a vehicle confiscation fee 800+ dollars and 50 percent duty on every undeclared item found. its better to just declare everything and pay the taxes.
our government cares so much about canadians buying stuff in the USA the border is just there for a MONEY GRAB.

---------- Post added at 12:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 AM ----------

also the CBSA has more authority than provincial Police and even the RCMP. They have the right for a search even if you say no. They will tear vehicle seats up , send cars for X rays so on and so on. Do not mess with them. After 2006 when the CBCA got authorized to wield firearms they think they are the bees knees.

 

[Darthyota]

also they can make you have to return the vehicle to stock which depending on what was done may be impossible forcing you to abandon the vehicle. on that note i do know of a few guys this side of the border that can do the work one you'll want to call now to see if you can get it in for this winter as he doesn't do as many big builds as he used to. the other no longer has a shop but is looking to find another just not sure when it will happen

 

[rptr]

if you are straight up honest with them and have all recipts you wont have a issue. Ive done it many times.