Here is what I did. This is my rear crossmember. I have a 2" body lift in my truck. So, I pulled the lift blocks out of the rear body mounts, and added this 2x2 .25 wall box tubing. Cut the bushings in half, put the top half between the box tubing and the body mount perches, put the other half under the crossmember where it mushroomed as I torqued the bolts down. I added a pc of angle iron the width of the truck between the bed and the box tubing, to fully support the bed, but I am thinking I will replace that with a pc of nylon cut to width. A little worried that the corner of the angle iron will dimple the rib of the crossmember if I really load it up. A pc of flat nylon or aluminum would work better, just have to find one that is the right thickness. I also bought longer grade 8 bolts for the two corners. The bolts never fit in the rear, so I have not had the bed bolted down for a couple months. The bolts were in, but they did not extend far enough past the uncompressed body bushing to get a nut and washer on. Now I have everything cranked down tight.

While I was at it, I pulled my bumper, and beat it back into shape, ....kind of.

My rear bumper mounted to the "crossmember" (piece that goes from framerial to framerail) was ripped free on the driver's side. There was a tow bumper (probably rated for tongue weight of 10lbs.) and I assume p/o towed his house around w/ it... Or my bumper dragged while off the highway somewhere. Plusw sh*tty factory welds :rolleyes: . Anyway My next big thing is lift the body up high enough to weld a new plate in there. I think its stupid how they made the body mount go through that crossmember waaaaay out there like that with all the leverage. I also suspect thats why the driver's side sags.

Originally posted by scouter77
I think its stupid how they made the body mount go through that crossmember waaaaay out there like that with all the leverage. I also suspect thats why the driver's side sags.

All that weight out there on those thin ears, just seems like poor engineering. But, I was looking at a Jeep setup, and they are exactly the same. Difference being, of course, no one tries to fill the bed of a jeep with gravel and drive home like I have been known to do, and even if you did fill it with gravel, the bed is so small it would not weigh anything in any case. :)

This box tubing setup transfers the bed weight back to the frame, rather than the ears of the crossmember, plus it gives a good platform to support the bed rib. That really is all it is for. Awfully heavy for such a limited application, but it is not going to bend, the body is properly supported, and the bed is supported all the way across the back end.

My crossmember is torn also. Torn at the weld to the frame. I am kicking around how I want to go about repairing it. But, my bumper to crossmember was heavily reinforced, so my bumper is not in danger of coming off. It is just tweaked.

Cool, Pat,

I did the triangle gusset technique on mine. Hey why have you not done the extended shock crossbrace that i did so you can run longer shocks yet. Man more flex more flex man thats what its all about now ya know.:flipoff2: :)

Take the rear crosbrace that the upper shock mounts are on, cut it out and move it up as high as you can with your body lift. I was able to go from Rancho 9015s to 9010 with more travel. It helped alot with the cross up action for real. Its pretty easy to do Pat.

Fleckster

I did a susp lift for a friend on his scout:flipoff2: It was nice, just bolt it all in and go. No custom fab at all, it was fairly painless and he is really happy with his moderate lift:rasta:

Originally posted by The Fleckster
Cool, Pat,

I did the triangle gusset technique on mine. Hey why have you not done the extended shock crossbrace that i did so you can run longer shocks yet. Man more flex more flex man thats what its all about now ya know.:flipoff2: :)

Take the rear crosbrace that the upper shock mounts are on, cut it out and move it up as high as you can with your body lift. I was able to go from Rancho 9015s to 9010 with more travel. It helped alot with the cross up action for real. Its pretty easy to do Pat.

Fleckster

You gussetted down to the bottom ear? The nice thing about the box tubing is that it transfers the weight directly down onto the frame, plus, it supports the bed across the entire width of the tub. No worries about bending the bed if I put a heavy load into it.

I've seen the gussets, and they work well also. But, it would have required straightening my ears back up. Much easier to just slap this tube in there and go. I even cheated and let a shop drill the holes for me. $5 for the pair of holes, 40" o.c. No muss, no fuss, bolts dropped right in. It was worth the $5 ;)

My shocks do not limit my flex. The only thing they limit is full axle droop, i.e., the entire axle has to swing down evenly to max out the shocks before I max out the springs. That means I have to be airborne, or hung up on my bumper with both tires off the ground, niether of which is a problem I expect to have.

I know I could cut the cross member, but with my 33 gallon tank under there, it gets to be a real nuisance to cut, and weld properly. My shocks went in easy, and do a good job as is. Only thing I might do is put a limiting strap so that if for some strange reason I pull a Tom M and get airborne, the strap will keep the axle from blowing out my shocks when it swings free.