Ardent Fab Custom Axle Flip, C-Notch, and Shock Relocation

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ArdentFab

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Wanted to share some pictures of the work I recently did on my truck: long overdue axle flip and C-notch!

Originally, I had lowering hangers and shackles as well as removed the helper spring and the bottom leaf spring of the pack. Of course, the truck rode like crap but I was trying to ball on a budget. Now, I've fabricated my own C-notch and a bunch of other stuff as you can see, made a WORLD of a difference; better than I ever imagined.

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Truck feels like it's on rails, probably due to the fact the the rear shocks are more in line with the suspension travel and the fact that they're Monotube KYB's (Pretty impressed by them actually; monotubes other than Bilsteins but are affordable? Yup!).

No more axle wrap or wheel hop but much better initial bite off the line and a surprisingly reduced amount of body roll in the turns! Not to mention no more back-breaking bottoming out. I may actually consider Autocrossing this thing haha.

Sometime in the future, I'd like to do either a four link with a panhard bar for a drag racing biased truck or a three link with a watts linkage for more of a spirited driver kind of set up. We'll see!
 

DaCoupe

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Very impressive work there :) The top shock mounts you added do they interfere with the box?
 

ArdentFab

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Very impressive work there :) The top shock mounts you added do they interfere with the box?
Thanks! By box do you mean the bed? If so, no, they clear with plenty of room. The bed is actually like 1.5"-2" off the frame rails via its own cross bracing underneath. Thanks for reminding me actually, I need to notch the cross brace right above the differential at some point lol.

Notch looks great, did you put the original hangers and shackles back on after the flip?
Thank you! Yes, glad you asked. I did reinstall the stock hangers and shackles.

So I determined that lowering hangers + lowering shackles + removing helper springs and bottom leaf spring = ~5.5" drop (no spare tire). With my current set up now, it's like a 6" drop. That's all a guestimate since I never took before measurements because the truck was actually lifted when I first got it lol. I'm just going off of pictures I've studied a bit, comparing it to my truck.
 

Aarong23

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Did you weld the notch in and box in the frame? If so, that looks really good. If the whole frame was powdercoated, it would look like it came from the factory that way.
 

ArdentFab

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Did you weld the notch in and box in the frame? If so, that looks really good. If the whole frame was powdercoated, it would look like it came from the factory that way.
Yessir, I sure did, and thank you. Everything's TIG welded.

Lol yea, for time's sake I just slapped some spray paint on it because I absolutely needed to finish it that weekend.
 

brianmcb

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That looks like a great place for shocks. Very nice!

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
 

ArdentFab

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That looks like a great place for shocks. Very nice!

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Thanks! They're a little close to the frame rail and leaf spring but so far no contact/rubbing. They just barely fit :waytogo:
 

brianmcb

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Thanks! They're a little close to the frame rail and leaf spring but so far no contact/rubbing. They just barely fit :waytogo:
Panhard bar would deffinitly keep them from ever contacting im sure. I like it
I want to do something similar to yours or even a 3 link with coil overs.


95 rcsb, L33 5.3, hot cam, frost tune, 5spd, 4/6
 

ArdentFab

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Panhard bar would deffinitly keep them from ever contacting im sure. I like it
I want to do something similar to yours or even a 3 link with coil overs.


95 rcsb, L33 5.3, hot cam, frost tune, 5spd, 4/6

Yea, ultimately getting away from the leaf springs would be a great option, especially for my intended use of the truck. I'd love to build a watts link, I bet there's a few 10 bolt diff. covers out there that provide pick-up points for a watts link. Then it's just easy simple linkages and brackets. It would also be nice to be able to fine tune rear spring rate as well. It's actually a bit bouncy at low speeds but loaded up it feels awesome.

What 5 speed do you have in your truck?
 
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