Thread: ratrod suspension setup

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Okay Coogan---Heres the deal---frame is built fron 4" x 2" x 3/16" wall mild steel rectangular tubing. Front gusset plates at the Z are burned from 3/8" mild steel plate. rear gussets/4-bar mounts are burned from 3/16" plate and set flush with outside of frame rails , thus leaving 1 1/2" between them for the 4-bar ends. The front cross-member is 2 1/2" outside diameter x 1/4" wall mild steel pipe and the 3 plates making up the suicide mount are burned from 3/8" mild steel plate. The height of the front end can be "tailered" by how high you make the suicide mount above the centerline of the pipe.
The rear crossmember can be either 3" outside diameter pipe with a 3/16" wall or another peice of the same rectangular tube that the frame is made from. The frame rails should not extend over the rear axle tubes, or it may limit your suspension travel and ride height---(you don't want the top of the axle tubes to hit the underside of the frame rails when you go over a bump.
This set up works best with coil-over shocks, or if you want to be economical like I am, weld coil cups to the rear crossmembers and matching coil cups to the rear axle housing at the 4-bar attachment brackets and run a set of conventional coil springs with bayonet type shock absorbers running up through the center of the springs. You will need to fab up a Panhard rod.
I have shown this thing with a total of 6" kick in the frame Z and with the truck body channeled 2 1/2"