After farting around trying to figure out how to make everything live in harmony (body mounts and leaf mounts) it turns out I had a bit of luck. Just this past week, we got our Torchmate running at work. Since I got to help set it up I made up a few “test pieces” that were identical to the front leaf mounts I used. At the time I wasn’t sure that I could use them or not, but I figured…

For the rear, I decided to ditch the standard Ford springs and go with the Chevy 1500 rear leaf pack. These are a cheap way to lift the rear 3” when left in the stock location. Not that it matters since I’m moving everything around anyway.

My main goals for the rear axle were to: 1) Be a full floater 2) Have disc brakes 3) Common enough to find gears/lockers for it So that narrowed the field down to the 14 bolt, Sterling, and rear 60 axles. All of these have their strengths and weaknesses. The big selling point for all of them is that they’re cheap and plentiful and more than strong enough to handle a lighter rig. The draw back to the 14 bolt/Sterling’s…

A brief period of dry timed allowed me to flip the truck around yesterday, so here’s a before and after shot for you. Pulled into the garage 2/15/11 looking like this: Flipped around 3/10/11 looking like this:

Turns out pulling the bed off these trucks really is as easy as everyone says. I’m shocked at how light the thing is (If it wasn’t so awkward, I’m betting I could pick it up myself). Before pulling the bed, I took some measurements to try to figure out where I want the rear axle to wind up sitting, as well as what my final wheel base would be. Ideally, I’m shooting for 110-115” WB when I’m done, time will…