theksmith 2,928 Posted May 24 (edited) this weekend i worked on installing a pair of Teraflex Heavy Duty Rear Falcon Brackets/Skids. i previously had some EVO weld on control-arm skids that were hacked up to fit the lighter duty Falcon bolt-on skids. the new HD brackets can be installed at factory height or 2 higher positions, and this was the main reason for the switch... after getting my bump-stops dialed in for 37's and to keep the rear pinion out of my gas tank skid, i ended up with some unused up-travel on the rear shocks. raising the axle mounting points will give me a little more ground clearance and allow full use of the available travel (increase droop). turns out this was a crappy job lying on the garage floor under the rig with a grinder in my face! i needed to cut off all the existing shock and sway bar bracketry and shorten up the control arm mount as well. because of the limited space to work you i was shooting sparks right back at my head most of the time. a plasma cutter would have made this much faster and easier. here's the removed bolt-on skids and some of the metal that had to be cut-off: i got them installed good enough for a clearance test, but still have some work to do, including welding in place for long term abuse. using the second possible install position moves everything up nearly an inch. i did a hard hard romp run with the zip-tie test in place and confirmed the new location doesn't bottom out my shocks... i actually still have about a half inch of available travel at full bump-stop compression. that's not quite enough to move the brackets up to the next higher position though. i still need to do some cutting/shaping on the factory control arm brackets. these new ones have an integrated skid that is supposed to wrap upwards at the front (the need to still be bent along that cut-out line you see). even though they increased clearance underneath, these stick in towards the center of the Jeep way further than required. i'm going to cut them off at the red line and then weld back in a vertical support to help reduce their "land anchor" status. hopefully i'll have time to finish this project later in the week... Edited May 24 by theksmith 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 2,928 Posted May 26 On 5/23/2022 at 8:44 PM, theksmith said: this weekend i worked on installing a pair of Teraflex Heavy Duty Rear Falcon Brackets/Skids. i previously had some EVO weld on control-arm skids that were hacked up to fit the lighter duty Falcon bolt-on skids. the new HD brackets can be installed at factory height or 2 higher positions, and this was the main reason for the switch... after getting my bump-stops dialed in for 37's and to keep the rear pinion out of my gas tank skid, i ended up with some unused up-travel on the rear shocks. raising the axle mounting points will give me a little more ground clearance and allow full use of the available travel (increase droop). turns out this was a crappy job lying on the garage floor under the rig with a grinder in my face! i needed to cut off all the existing shock and sway bar bracketry and shorten up the control arm mount as well. because of the limited space to work you i was shooting sparks right back at my head most of the time. a plasma cutter would have made this much faster and easier. here's the removed bolt-on skids and some of the metal that had to be cut-off: i got them installed good enough for a clearance test, but still have some work to do, including welding in place for long term abuse. using the second possible install position moves everything up nearly an inch. i did a hard hard romp run with the zip-tie test in place and confirmed the new location doesn't bottom out my shocks... i actually still have about a half inch of available travel at full bump-stop compression. that's not quite enough to move the brackets up to the next higher position though. i still need to do some cutting/shaping on the factory control arm brackets. these new ones have an integrated skid that is supposed to wrap upwards at the front (the need to still be bent along that cut-out line you see). even though they increased clearance underneath, these stick in towards the center of the Jeep way further than required. i'm going to cut them off at the red line and then weld back in a vertical support to help reduce their "land anchor" status. hopefully i'll have time to finish this project later in the week... abrupt u-turn, i think i'm going to go a whole different direction with all this... 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,004 Posted May 26 4 minutes ago, theksmith said: abrupt u-turn, i think i'm going to go a whole different direction with all this... You’re selling and buying a Bronco? 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 2,928 Posted May 26 1 minute ago, 4x4tographer said: You’re selling and buying a Bronco? 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Stacey and Scott 916 Posted May 26 3 hours ago, theksmith said: abrupt u-turn, i think i'm going to go a whole different direction with all this... Does this "change of direction" surprise anyone?? 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 2,928 Posted May 31 (edited) On 5/25/2022 at 6:52 PM, theksmith said: abrupt u-turn, i think i'm going to go a whole different direction with all this... i ended up doing a fair bit of booty-surgery on Gadget. i ditched the HD skids and with a little work was able to invert the shocks and use a different brand of lower relocation brackets. write-up on all that is over here... Edited May 31 by theksmith 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 2,928 Posted June 11 no turning back now! 1 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dzJeepChic 1,875 Posted June 11 1 hour ago, theksmith said: no turning back now! BEEFY!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theksmith 2,928 Posted June 12 didn't get very far today because #1 i got overheated out in the sun early on, so i came back inside till the driveway was in the shade - AZ summer-time yay! and #2 even the main part of this driver-side slider was bent, not just the hoop, so i had to weld just a little then pull it and the new metal together/flat with C-clamps and repeat several times. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4x4tographer 2,004 Posted June 12 8 hours ago, theksmith said: didn't get very far today because #1 i got overheated out in the sun early on, so i came back inside till the driveway was in the shade - AZ summer-time yay! and #2 even the main part of this driver-side slider was bent, not just the hoop, so i had to weld just a little then pull it and the new metal together/flat with C-clamps and repeat several times. Still looks like good progress man. Is the plan to completely eliminate the hoop and just replace it with that big beefy C-channel? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
