swon said:I bought one of the first Avalanche 1/4 elliptic kits for my 1977 Land Cruiser. I first contacted Jeff Beach to have him make me a kit but he wanted my truck in California and 5k to do it. Yeah right! I waited about a year for Avalanche to release their kit. They made new spring brackets for me as I cut mine off when I boxed the frame. I didn't like their setup and totally redesigned it to suit my needs at the time. The kit originally had the springs on the outside of the frame (not the way to do it) with the lower links just inside the frame and the upper links inside the lower links. I changed almost everything. I moved the springs inboard under the frame rails. The lower links were moved outboard of the frame and the upper links stayed in their original configuration. I tack welded and checked and cut and tacked again everything myself numerous times. Not for the faint of heart. An older gentleman I know did the final welding for me. We did not MIG it. We stick welded everything with his welding truck. He worked on the Alaska Pipeline and knows his stuff. He pulled up to the garage and 2 days later it was done. The only problem with the kit was that space was at a minimum and I didn't have an easy time mounting the shocks. They were mounted to the axle facing backwards to the rear most crossmember. The cant was too much and they weren't affective at contolling the dampning of the axle. This made it harsh on the street. Offroad it was AWESOME. I did not use bumpstops on it and I never had any binding or the links hitting the frame. The springs would drop completely away from the frame. You can see pictures of it at: www.rockcrawler.com
Go to: Readers Rides, State: West Virginia, Last Name: Matteo
The pictures show about half of the movement possible. You can just make out the dual limiting straps in the middle of the axle. They are still at their static position and haven't moved yet. 40" of articulation or maybe more are possible I believe. My truck doesn't have the kit in it anymore. I have lower it with 2" and 4" Skyjacker springs. The pictures show 8" of lift and 33" BFG's.
The kit is just laying in the garage rusting now. After I cut it out from under the truck my welder almost cried when I told him what I did to it.
swon