YotaWoRx

These are the shock tabs and frame tabs welded on and painted with some rustoleum brush paint. Positioning of the frame tabs was quite simple. The tabs were simply bolted onto the hoop assembly and attached with the front mounts using the same bolts as the idler arm. The rear was then positioned perfectly where it needed to be on the frame then clamped and welded.
The shock tabs required some measurements and lines drawn at right angles over the LCA to get positioned properly. Once they were in position it was a matter of tacking and finishing the welds.

YotaWoRx

After all tabs were welded and painted, the top brace and bracket assembly was installed using the existing bolts from the UCA shafts. The rest of the hoop simply bolted on, shocks were installed and here are the pics....

YotaWoRx

some pics of the kit installed

YotaWoRx

More final install pics............ After this kit was bolted on, of course I went out and beat on it. One of the major differences I noted was even smoother operation of the front suspension. Before the install the Blazeland kit worked great, but I had noticed that bumps and dips were felt a lot more then after the install. for me actually the difference was night and day !! Let me know what you all think.. comments and questions anyone?

YotaWoRx

I've been pondering on what to do with the rear of my rig for quite some time now. Money has been tight as usual. What I really want and WILL eventually end up doing is a spring under in the rear with shock hoops through the bed. For now however, I spend a few hundred bucks and picked up some used Downey 3" springs and had Deaver Spring add a leaf on the bottom of the pack. My old packs were wasted and both looked like a "W"! I used the old rancho shocks I had in the rear for now. Again the ride compared to the old springs was night and day. Not to mention the ride is more solid and stiff in the rear. It is a little to stiff I could say but after all my gear and extra spare tire in the back, the ride smooths out quite a bit... the rear end is also about 3" higher than it was.

BlazeN8

Nice update on your build thread! Upgrade those rear bumpstops with something thicker and more progressive. Make sure you set them so the rear leaf doesn't go too far into negative arch, otherwise you will end up with some "W" shaped springs all over again. I still ant believe the prvious owner just cut the brackets off and ran with nothing?

Lets go wheeling again soon before the season is over and it gets too hot. Or make it to the Pismo trip in July, its nice and cool on the costal dunes!

BlazeN8

Thanks for taking the videos of the Fordota in action last weekend. I am a nub at this video thing. I tried to get an account at YouTube but failed. Something on Youtubes end not mine! Said to try back later. Anyway I did a
"print screen" from the video and got a photo of me being airborn. Here it is.

BlazeN8

Got the YouTube going. Now how do I upload it here?

Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vAdR...x=1&playnext=6

cr@ves4wheelin

Nice

LGcrawler

cant beleive i missed that video, finally i get to see it in action. any vids of it in whoops nate?

BlazeN8

I have some video of me moob'n some whoops then a nice hill climb up Blow Sand in 2wd. I also have some video of me tooling around the kids moto-cross track drifting, jumping and whoops. Unfortunatly the footage is raw, really low quality, and it needs to be edited. I will post it when I can.

LGcrawler

lookin forward to seeing those nate. and aalba hows the blazeland holdin up?

Ron's 85

any updates on the blazeland kit? Im thinkin about doing the same. I mostly drive logging roads and fire access roads. does it soak up the potholes well? you said that speed bumps are plush, thats the kinda crap that i mostly drive on while hunting and fishing.

YotaWoRx

it rides awesome. I just picked up an 85 toy 4x4 and it rides like a brick compared to my Blazeland equipped '88! Check out www.blazeland.us and look at the pics!

YotaWoRx

So, whats up everyone?? Its been a while since I've posted any updates on my Blazeland equipped rig... Last mods I did to my rig were downey lift springs with the deaver mini pack. I had 8 inch travel rancho shocks dampening my rear end, but they were limiting my droop travel. I couldn't use longer shocks with the stock mounting hardware because longer shocks would solve the droop problem, but instead would bottom on themselves. Since then I have been in touch with Nate from Blazeland. I explained to him the issue and asked him if he had any Ideas. Well some time later he got back to me and came up with some modified stock spring u-bolt plates. They allowed me to use a longer bilstein shock, and gave my rig some more rear travel. I also added some longer shackles and some progressive bumpstops. Nate supplied some spacers as a safety so the shocks wouldn't bottom out. What do you guys thinK??? (By the way, I'm still planning on doing a deaver F55 spring under setup, but no fundage yet!!!)

YotaWoRx

I also added some backup lights and offroad lights.

dark_fairytales

I love the way you mounted the rear bumpstops, I am going to copy that setup.

BlazeN8

The way these bumpstops are mounted are a fix for a modification that the prevous owner performed, as I had done on my truck pictured below. We had both cut off a bracket from the frame that limited the compression. Without that bracket the factory leaf springs will go into negative arch which is damaging to the spring. In some way this turned out well as now the bumpstops have much more cushion. The 4.5" bumpstops we both used are designed to compress 2" Its nice to be able to bolt in some shims to adjust travel limits. You could also weld a bracket onto the frame to mount the bumpstops hanging down. When I converted to the Chevy 63's not having the factory configuration was good because the spring didn't go into negative arch and I got extra up travel. For this I needed a 2" body lift and fiberglass bedsides or the tires slammed into the fenders.

BlazeN8

Back to those below the axle U-bolt mounted shock plates, they do hang down 3-1/2" inches so they may present clearence issues. The 1985 extra cab vintage race truck I co-owned with Albert had some similar configuration shock plates that gave me the idea. That setup has been on the truck for a long time and the loss of clearence for desert wheeling doesn't seem to be a problem.

When it comes down to ease of installation and budget, bolting on modified shock plates is supper easy. You don't even need to jack up the rig. The shocks are off the shelf Bilsteins (for a 4" lifted truck or SUV) (part number 24-185752) that are correctly valved and and direct fit that will bolt in without modification. I am thinking this could be a weld on kit that you gys weld to your shock plates. Anyway here are some photos.

ChefYota4x4

iTrader: (5)

Wow, sick rig! Great updates/write ups! I'm also looking to increase rear travel, and yes, funds have been dry(the cabbage crop as of late is badly damaged by the proverbial vermin of life! lol)... Gonna look at this thread and some others in the future for some 'more rear travel'... But then again, I still have only slightly modified IFS up front, so I'll be limited either way for now, lol.

Great looking truck! (Good on N8, too.... always great posts/answers!)