notching lowers

the last pics and the first pics are pretty much the same but just not cut as much in the last. i would leave an inch from the bottom of the notch to the bottom of the control arm and you will have enough. i use 2500 firestones which are somewhat similar to conitechs. you will probably have to reangle the upper balljoints as well if going with bigger than an 18 without spindles.

thanks man, I am running an 18" wheel for the time being. just picked up a set of the caddy escalade ext 18"s. Im hoping i wont have to re-angle that.

so..im back...with a few more questions like the virgin builder might be of expected...But so im tearing into my front suspension..with a good idea of what to do...as far as ball joints spindles..etc etc...ive done my fair share of work up front... but.

so I understand the sway bars can go.....but how bout the bars right next to it..(the forward support strut bar..) may be wrong with the name..but its located directly next to the sway bars..what do i do with it?? I cant leave it and notch out my lower control arms..and bag it or that bar will basically hit the steering. And I really cant just take those support bars out..and expect the lower control arms to be only held on by the bolt that goes through them through the frame,they will be solely supported on one bolt..doesnt seem to sound to me.

Eatinpavment- you obviously pulled the lower arms out, and removed those support bars and made your own (A-arm) out of it using tubular steel..

is this my only option, is everyone doing exactly that or is there something else i can do,besides fab'ing the lower arms into a-arms????

Hope someone can answer more of my helpless questioning...sorry guys...im trying to learn and do this shit myself...any help would be greatly appreciated.

are you refering to the torsion bars?? if so i am pretty sure you can elimate them by making your lower control arms into an a-arm like in the pics

they are radius arms. there are many ways around this. you can leave them if your using stock spindles. if using drops, you can swap sides and turn them around and relocate them to shoot to the rear, mounting to the arms the same as they are now but using the other two bolt holes for the balljoint. you can move or make a new mount for the bushing on the framerail in the new location or you can find heim joints that thread onto the bar and make brackets to use them. you can also just use a bar with a heim joint on each end from the lca to the framerail. OR you can make your lowers into an a arm. you can get creative with it. as long as there is something there to hold the lca from moving front to back. just make sure whichever you do you keep clearance for you to turn your wheel.

the torsion bars are the bars splined into the back of the lower control arm that run to the crossmember under the truck and act as a spring to hold the truck up. you will be getting rid of these when you bag it.

eatinpavement- you answered my question perfectly..It was the Radius arms that I was talking about...this gives me a great detailed idea of what i can do with them. thank you again for your expertise..I am using my stock spindles..to eliminate the wheel push out of running a drop spindle, I love the stock lines of the Pup..without the wider fenders up front...so I am doing whatever I can to stay away from using an Amigo/rodeo fender. So I am notching my lower stock arms as well.

I also know i am removing the torsion bars..that was my first step up front..next was digging into the brakes/spindles ball joints and rest of what makes up the suspension up front.

do i need to use the flat steel plates I got with my torsion truck bracket set up from SSD.???..they look to be about roughly 3" wide..maybe 1/4" thick by 6" long with a curve towards the end...They are meant to be welded to the top of the lower arm with the circle bag plate ontop of them..I see that very few guys use them to bag theier front ends...but have seen a few pics of them being used..such as on "project isabella" keefs truck.

This project is teaching me many things, as well as all the help I am getting along the way from you guys! Thanks so much!!

either way will prolly be fine. i put my lower balljoints on the top of the control arm so i used a plate on mine to lift the bag a little off of the balljoint.

i thought i would explain how i did this on 20s, but i didnt eliminate the caster bars although id like to later. i notched a 2x3x5 triangle in my lowers. the outcome was about another 5 inches of suspension travel. After doing this i cut the top of the shock tower off to clear the uppers then ran into another prob, my uppers were now in A bind. so to fix that i pie cut the uppers at the end rite behind the b.j. itself. i had to make to cuts to do this so ill post some pics later. I got the bags mounted in wich had very close toleranse when liad completely out. After all this work the truck still didnt lay all the way. In the end i had to make a 1/4 inch shim plate for the uppers and Z the frame 1 and 3/4 inch but it finally laid completely,looked amazing, had 0 pos or neg camber at full lift. When laid completely i come out with a total of about 5 inches of neg camber and didnt have to use a drop spindle. If u do this rought i forgot to mention u will have to reverse ur upper control arm bolts and notch ur driver side upper to clear the steering shaft. Ill post pics later on this and hope this helps someone. ....oh yea dont make the mistake i did and order a new set of wheels in an 8.5 wide u will have to regraft ur bedsides and use amigo fenders.

can you post a pic of the notch? when you flip the ball joints how much more does it tuck. i know on toyota it is 3/4 of an inch. i just did one earlier and tou could really tell the difference. but on my zu i want to notch the control arms and wanted to check on how far up the control arm i needed to notch it