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Pic request: 37's & a 3.5" lift

Recko555

Sr. Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2006
Messages
577
It does rub once in awhile, but I guess it doesn't rub enough to make me change it. I didn't do much cutting on the inner wheel wells. I just used a BFH and beat the sharp edges smooth.
 

GaBronco

Sr. Member
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
388
Loc.
South Ogden
wow Dusty that rig is really awesome! Id like to see some more pictures or info on how and what you used for the full widths...
 

Dusty

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 28, 2001
Messages
2,965
X2 I'm liking that lower stout stance. :)

Well you’ve heard the adage about the plumber who’s own house has the leakiest pipes in town? I’m kinda like that. I’m half owner of a Bronco shop that builds some pretty awesome rigs, but my own stuff suffers from neglect. But we’ve been able to piece together a few things and spend a little bit of time cobbling it together. I’m hesitant to post too many photos of it though, as it is not a good representative of the quality of work we do here at WCB—its just hastily thrown together whenever we have a little spare time which is rare. At any rate here are the basics. It has a full width D44 from a 78/79 Bronco. The coil buckets were spaced outboard from the frame using some prototype spacer brackets we’ve been working on for eventual sale as a kit. Its running West Coast Broncos long travel tubular radius arms. The D44 has an ARB and Warn axles. The rear is a full width 9 out of an early 80’s OJB with 35-spline Currie axles, Strange nodular third member, spool, and Explorer disk brakes. Gears are 4.56:1. The springs are 2.5” Deavers front and rear. Front shocks are Bilstein 7100s on a set of custom hoops that I built myself many years ago for a different rig, which we moved over to this one. The Bronco has a SEFI 5.8L and C4 with D20. I have a STaK Mini Monster Box on the way for it.

Its actually my wife’s Bronco, affectionately known around here as “Coco” (her name for it) but I’ve sort of commandeered it recently since I needed her to have more of a trail rig than what it was. My philosophy for it is to keep it light, low and wide rather than tall and heavy like most trail rigs are. I intend for it to be just as at home in the high speed dirt as it is in the rocks. I’m committed to cut wherever and however I have to in order to fit those tires without going any higher. Its close now but needs a little more trimming. The front inner fenders are gone (replaced by a WCB prototype tubular core support) so that makes things easy in the front although I may need to section a small sliver where the floorboard meets the kick panel. In the rear I will probably have to similarly section the front and rear corners of the wheel tubs, as I already have the pinch flanges trimmed back as far as they’ll go. By the way, the offset on those wheels is a little more than I want, so if I ever get around to replacing them it should suck the wheels back inboard an inch each side. Still I hope to have enough clearance inside the rear wheel tubs to build custom shock hoops that extend up into the tub rather than leaning forward or inboard, or having to cut into the interior space for clearance.

It’s a cool little rig and my wife and I are looking forward to getting it back out on the trail soon. Someday it will have a proper WCB cage, some of the rust cancer fixed, PRP seats, etc.

Dusty
 

Gummi Bear

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 8, 2003
Messages
3,647
Well you’ve heard the adage about the plumber who’s own house has the leakiest pipes in town? I’m kinda like that. I’m half owner of a Bronco shop that builds some pretty awesome rigs, but my own stuff suffers from neglect. But we’ve been able to piece together a few things and spend a little bit of time cobbling it together. I’m hesitant to post too many photos of it though, as it is not a good representative of the quality of work we do here at WCB—its just hastily thrown together whenever we have a little spare time which is rare. At any rate here are the basics. It has a full width D44 from a 78/79 Bronco. The coil buckets were spaced outboard from the frame using some prototype spacer brackets we’ve been working on for eventual sale as a kit. Its running West Coast Broncos long travel tubular radius arms. The D44 has an ARB and Warn axles. The rear is a full width 9 out of an early 80’s OJB with 35-spline Currie axles, Strange nodular third member, spool, and Explorer disk brakes. Gears are 4.56:1. The springs are 2.5” Deavers front and rear. Front shocks are Bilstein 7100s on a set of custom hoops that I built myself many years ago for a different rig, which we moved over to this one. The Bronco has a SEFI 5.8L and C4 with D20. I have a STaK Mini Monster Box on the way for it.

Its actually my wife’s Bronco, affectionately known around here as “Coco” (her name for it) but I’ve sort of commandeered it recently since I needed her to have more of a trail rig than what it was. My philosophy for it is to keep it light, low and wide rather than tall and heavy like most trail rigs are. I intend for it to be just as at home in the high speed dirt as it is in the rocks. I’m committed to cut wherever and however I have to in order to fit those tires without going any higher. Its close now but needs a little more trimming. The front inner fenders are gone (replaced by a WCB prototype tubular core support) so that makes things easy in the front although I may need to section a small sliver where the floorboard meets the kick panel. In the rear I will probably have to similarly section the front and rear corners of the wheel tubs, as I already have the pinch flanges trimmed back as far as they’ll go. By the way, the offset on those wheels is a little more than I want, so if I ever get around to replacing them it should suck the wheels back inboard an inch each side. Still I hope to have enough clearance inside the rear wheel tubs to build custom shock hoops that extend up into the tub rather than leaning forward or inboard, or having to cut into the interior space for clearance.

It’s a cool little rig and my wife and I are looking forward to getting it back out on the trail soon. Someday it will have a proper WCB cage, some of the rust cancer fixed, PRP seats, etc.

Dusty

Details.

Must have them...;D
 

Dusty

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 28, 2001
Messages
2,965
Details.

Must have them...;D

Well the Mini Monster Box is brand new from STaK, it resembles the original Monster Box except that it is 10% smaller in every dimension. This makes it fit in between the EB frame rails even better than the B-Box. I originally had a B-Box for my other rig, then I sold it and bought an original Monster Box so the front driveshaft would clear the C6 tranny pan on my trail rig, but I never got around to putting that rig back together so I decided to trade it in on one of the new mini-boxes to put into Coco. We're a STaK dealer and Tony over there has been great to work with, as there is usually some customer on a waiting list ready for a box each time I decide to off-load mine and do something different. So this will be my third STaK box but hopefully the first one I've actually installed and used in a rig of my own. BTW, if you're interested in a Mini Monster Box we're taking orders now. The other STaK vendors have beat us to posting up the info on them but we'll get around to it soon. And we might be the first shop to actually get one into a Bronco (Coco) and onto the trail.

As for the tubular core support, this is something we keep sort of picking away at little by little. We've built tons of them over the years on the project rigs but they've always been one-off custom jobs for whatever specific rig we're working on. Eventually we hope to have a universal-fit one ready for production. The one in Coco is just a quick R&D unit we threw together to test a couple of ideas but it won't necessarily resemble the final design in every aspect. Here's a pic of the engine compartment where you can sorta see the tubular core support structure. Don't laugh at my frankenstein'd crossover shock hoop brace. I had to modify it to fit the MAF under the hood (the Bronco I had that unit on before had a body lift, this one doesn't).

Dusty
 

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Gummi Bear

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 8, 2003
Messages
3,647
The mini box sounds like a perfect solution. Doe it really require that whole wacky Novak NP435 adapter on their site, where you have to replace the output shaft?

The tubular core support is a great idea, I am wanting to build an engine cage/core support for mine, and was hoping that's what y'all were offering. I'm pushing the front axle forward a few inches, so I'm wanting for it to build some shock hoops into it at the same time. Good idea on the crossover bar.

You've gone very close to what I'm doing with my wife's 68, except for the 4 link rear, and ~10" of wheelbase stretch I'm working on.

Sorry for the hijack, and thanks Dusty!
 

Dusty

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 28, 2001
Messages
2,965
LOL...your build is very similar to what I had planned for my trail rig--stretched, 4-link, D60, coilovers, etc. Those ambitious plans pretty much killed the project though, I just never had the time to follow through. I've put the carcass of that one in mothballs for some later resurrection, and have moved some of the parts over to this one or sold them for parts I could use on this one. I learned my lesson, this one will get some cool mods but stay mostly Bronco in order to keep it from getting too deep into a project that I won't be able to dig out of. Whenever I get around to focusing back on my trail rig I'll probably just do a tube-chassis buggy with EB skins.

Dusty (also, sorry to all for the hijack!)
 
OP
OP
rsharpnm

rsharpnm

Sr. Member
Joined
May 2, 2005
Messages
712
Loc.
Las Cruces
We just put 37's on one of my Broncos with only a 2-1/2" lift and no body lift. It has full-width axles (I like it wide and low). As you can see in the pix we still have some trimming to do but I'm confident we can butcher it enough to not need any more lift. At most it may end up with a 1" BL but I'm trying to get away with not adding any more lift at all. In the first photo, the truck behind it has 35" tires for comparison.

Dusty

That looks pretty cool! I really like the stance on that truck. I'm still running eb axles though, so I have to worry more about the inner fenders.

Recko555, thanks for sharing, nice to hear from some one running the actual setup i was wondering about.

Thanks everyone, now I'm pretty convinced to go to 37's when my 35's wear out;D
If only 37's weren't $30-$50 more than 35's per tire:cry:
 

Dusty

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 28, 2001
Messages
2,965
Hey rsharpnm I'll be in Las Cruces this weekend if you want to get a beer or something. I'll be helping my in-laws move but I could probably get away for an hour or so. PM me if interested.

Dusty
 

tdc_worm

Full Member
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
349
Loc.
Austin
As for the tubular core support, this is something we keep sort of picking away at little by little. We've built tons of them over the years on the project rigs but they've always been one-off custom jobs for whatever specific rig we're working on. Eventually we hope to have a universal-fit one ready for production. The one in Coco is just a quick R&D unit we threw together to test a couple of ideas but it won't necessarily resemble the final design in every aspect. Here's a pic of the engine compartment where you can sorta see the tubular core support structure. Don't laugh at my frankenstein'd crossover shock hoop brace. I had to modify it to fit the MAF under the hood (the Bronco I had that unit on before had a body lift, this one doesn't).

Dusty


any progress on that tubular core support?
 

DZap

Full Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
Messages
329
Loc.
Houston, TX
3.5" lift and 2" body lift, normal trimming, about to go to 38.5 x 11 from current 35's, and a lil' extra trimming if necessary
 

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GloNDark

Full Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
393
Here is mine, No body lift, 3.5" lift springs up front, shackle flip in the rear and 37" krawlers on walker evans beadlocks. Lots of fender trimming and innner fender clearancing as well.
 

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Dan76

Sr. Member
Joined
May 17, 2006
Messages
895
Ya I want to hear about that tubular core support too. Get that thing done I bet a ton of people will buy them!
 

Dusty

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jun 28, 2001
Messages
2,965
Ya I want to hear about that tubular core support too. Get that thing done I bet a ton of people will buy them!

Well we've finally had some time recently to concentrate on getting some of our new products out, you've seen some of them in the Vendor section recently, with more to come in the near future. The tubular core support is on that list too but its one of the bigger projects for R&D. We haven't made any progress on prototypes recently but we do have some of the hurdles worked out conceptually. I hope to have some news to post soon.

Dusty
 

malcolmzilla

Bronco Guru
Joined
Mar 18, 2003
Messages
1,522
Loc.
Calgary, AB, Canada
I think its important to consider there are quite a few variables with the old tire/lift/will it fit question...

A new 3.5" lift will sit higher than an older one, weight of the hardtop, doors, winches, etc will sit lower, longarms and hard wheeling will also flex it up more, but you can drop bumpstops if you dont need max articulation...

Also got mention the wide variation in nominal vs. actual tire heights and widths, my barely used 35" Xterrains measured 34.5" unloaded making them a bit taller than most 35's, and rim backspacing will also affect fitment.

And of course you can trim the inner fenders and mount flares higher.

So yes, I am pretty sure you can make 37's and a 3.5" lift work for you, by whatever combination of means.

My original plan was 3.5" lift and 35x12.50's, and of course now that I have the frame tie-ins welded up I find myself thinking about 37x13.50's LOL
 
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