Differential drop info

[Ascinder]

I have vert welds; they are just small. Check my gallery! Even the "pro" didn't have the gonads to mimic my skills!

So to me it looks like you cut out the lower portion of the bracket just above the large hole and slid it down, then slid in a spacer plate and welded it all in place then ground down the welds near the side of the large hole to provide clearance for the CV cup. That sound about right? If that's the case, it looks like you have about 1" or so less vertical weld than me. I'm sure Clint can take a pic of the brackets to show how I did mine.

Tom, you may want to reread my post above. If you do I think you'll find I'm really not disagreeing with you, the points I made are true, as are yours. I was just trying to reiterate that the brackets are weakest sideways and could've used more support there. You do have a fairly heavy center section that is applying forces to the brackets whenever it moves. Yes the bushings do serve to isolate it so what it actually sees abuse wise we'll never know. I am just saying that vibrations and vertical welds are not the best of friends. Just think of this going across washboard trails and the pounding it'll take. Like it or not that center section is acting like water in a glass getting sloshed around whenever you do any quick back and forth turns. All in all I really do think they'll hold up fine, and I think you already know my comments weren't designed as any kind of attack on anyone out there. More to serve as a caution to get people to realize what I said above. Anytime you have mods like this done, they aren't factory tested, abused, etc. so you need to make sure and check them from time to time. You gave me what I was looking for right here:

I thought this through quite a bit before I jumped in with both feet.

I just wanted to know someone was paying attention to the small stuff too. I see it pretty often on other boards where you get someone with a good idea and some good intentions, but not a lot of consideration goes into "how safe is this to sell to people". I sure that wasn't even remotely the case here, but it doesn't hurt to make sure.

[tom4bren]

I just didn't want to scare anyone away from doing the mod. I agree with your concerns but the drop brackets don't cause more risk for failure than the lift & running bigger meat.

[tom4bren]

"Well, WormGod said to start a fight club! Let's get it on! "

Dude - you can't hang with the big dogs - you have small vertical welds.

[Ldub]

"Well, WormGod said to start a fight club! Let's get it on! "

Dude - you can't hang with the big dogs - you have small vertical welds.

Not to mention a decidedly dainty radius...

[tom4bren]

BTW,

Two things that I noticed when I installed my drops:

1. You'll need to extend, stretch or replace the axle vent hose.

2. You need to notch the passenger side on the rear where the bracket curves in. There's a bolt on the pumpkin that'll hit. (I took a pic for JHarris but haven't posted it yet - it's on my laptop so I can't get to it from here - I'll post it tonite).

Tom

[tom4bren]

"The berries are bigger than the twig..."

I have no response to that.

[Ascinder]

Zeus, are you saying you didn't weld the lower sections of your brackets on the sides, just to the 2" portion horizontally?

[ZEUS]

So to me it looks like you cut out the lower portion of the bracket just above the large hole and slid it down, then slid in a spacer plate and welded it all in place then ground down the welds near the side of the large hole to provide clearance for the CV cup. That sound about right? If that's the case, it looks like you have about 1" or so less vertical weld than me. I'm sure Clint can take a pic of the brackets to show how I did mine.

Drop_Thread I should have just posted this before. I couldn't find any pics of your brackets, but if you did yours like BigMeatVX did his, then you should have twice as much vertical weld because you welded two vertical seams, where as I have one. Like I said in my build thread, both designs should hold up just fine, and I am not worried. It did cross my mind to weld a 5/8" rod inside the radius to connect the 3 pieces together, but I felt it was overkill. Again, USE THREADLOCK!