How do you set ride height?

[noteron]

OK fellas I need your help. Im trying to build a 67 swb stepside. I bought a Big window cab this weekend from 68Mike (Thanks Mike!) and he threw in a swb frame. Id like to start cutting it up. My goal is to Bag it, Drag it & Lay it out in the weeds when its parked. Now I've read alot on here about ride height, but no one has really explained so that us simpleton's could follow along and possibly duplicate the process. How and Where do you measure? I want to be able drive it home if I encounter parts failure. So Im guessing that will dictate my ride height. Any and all info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.

[jkade]

I had mine down to bare frame, I knew I wanted to drive mine where it would scrape up the reflectors on the road I also wanted mine with no rake from front to back, I set the frame at 5" off the ground and level from side to side front to back, and welded in some angle iron to hold the frame off the floor this way. I also figured out what size tire I wanted to run in the begining so I have set all the suspension parts to be where they need to be with the height of the tire I am running. For instance, I am going to run a 335/30/20 on the back and that tire is 28" tall, I set my rear end at 14" from the center of the axle to the ground and them welded in my bottom 4 link bars in parallel to the ground. On the front I am running c4 corvette suspension and I set the lower a arms to be parallel with a 26" tall tire. I hope this makes sense, if you are using stock suspension you pretty much need to figure out how low you want to be and clearence everything from there and install a notch, etc, etc, etc... Do some reading on here and it will help more than anything. Good luck....

[bagged69c10]

Your ride height will not effect how high you drive if you have parts failure. Look at how low it gets and thats how you will be driving if you have parts failure. In the rear I put my bars parralell with the ground where I wanted my ride height and set the bag so that it was not compressed or expanded at ride height because that is where the bag operates at it optimum. The front all you can really do is just make sure everything is clear to drive that low.

[aggie91]

jkade has the right idea as far as setting ride height while building your truck. Bagged is also correct about where you will set if a parts failure occurs. Remember, if you are going to be layed out on the ground/in the weeds your bags will no air in them just like it would if you blew out the bag..

Also, keep in mind that the loaded radius of the tire is less then the unloaded radius of the same tire. I mean that if you look at the tire on your truck/car that is complete and sitting on the tires, the half of the tire on the ground is shorter to the center of the wheel than the top half of the tire...

[noteron]

"I had mine down to bare frame, I knew I wanted to drive mine where it would scrape up the reflectors on the road I also wanted mine with no rake from front to back, I set the frame at 5" off the ground and level from side to side front to back, and welded in some angle iron to hold the frame off the floor this way. I also figured out what size tire I wanted to run in the begining so I have set all the suspension parts to be where they need to be with the height of the tire I am running. For instance, I am going to run a 335/30/20 on the back and that tire is 28" tall, I set my rear end at 14" from the center of the axle to the ground and them welded in my bottom 4 link bars in parallel to the ground. On the front I am running c4 corvette suspension and I set the lower a arms to be parallel with a 26" tall tire. I hope this makes sense, if you are using stock suspension you pretty much need to figure out how low you want to be and clearence everything from there and install a notch, etc, etc, etc... Do some reading on here and it will help more than anything. Good luck...."

Thank You jkade....its starting to make alot of sense when you explain it that way...
I have a set of 20"[245/35/20] / 22"[255/30/22] wheels to use for mock up. I plan on running 22's in front & 24's in the rear. Ill need to find out the diameter of the 24" tire. Right???

"On the front I am running c4 corvette suspension and I set the lower a arms to be parallel with a 26" tall tire."

What kind of x-member do you have ?
Do you have any pics of your frame build-up & or set-up?

What about you bagged69c10, do have any pics of your frame? BTW your truck is bada$$...thanks for the info.

Thanks!!! aggie91

[abadsvt]

Originally Posted by noteron

"I had mine down to bare frame, I knew I wanted to drive mine where it would scrape up the reflectors on the road I also wanted mine with no rake from front to back, I set the frame at 5" off the ground and level from side to side front to back, and welded in some angle iron to hold the frame off the floor this way. I also figured out what size tire I wanted to run in the begining so I have set all the suspension parts to be where they need to be with the height of the tire I am running. For instance, I am going to run a 335/30/20 on the back and that tire is 28" tall, I set my rear end at 14" from the center of the axle to the ground and them welded in my bottom 4 link bars in parallel to the ground. On the front I am running c4 corvette suspension and I set the lower a arms to be parallel with a 26" tall tire. I hope this makes sense, if you are using stock suspension you pretty much need to figure out how low you want to be and clearence everything from there and install a notch, etc, etc, etc... Do some reading on here and it will help more than anything. Good luck...."

Thank You jkade....its starting to make alot of sense when you explain it that way...
I have a set of 20"[245/35/20] / 22"[255/30/22] wheels to use for mock up. I plan on running 22's in front & 24's in the rear. Ill need to find out the diameter of the 24" tire. Right???

"On the front I am running c4 corvette suspension and I set the lower a arms to be parallel with a 26" tall tire."

What kind of x-member do you have ?
Do you have any pics of your frame build-up & or set-up?

What about you bagged69c10, do have any pics of your frame? BTW your truck is bada$$...thanks for the info.

Thanks!!! aggie91

I am believe JKADE is using the Dropmember C4 for his front crossmember. Nathan from Porterbuilt Street Rods designed both the regular and C4 dropmember.

[bagged69c10]

Here are some.

[jkade]

Originally Posted by noteron

"I had mine down to bare frame, I knew I wanted to drive mine where it would scrape up the reflectors on the road I also wanted mine with no rake from front to back, I set the frame at 5" off the ground and level from side to side front to back, and welded in some angle iron to hold the frame off the floor this way. I also figured out what size tire I wanted to run in the begining so I have set all the suspension parts to be where they need to be with the height of the tire I am running. For instance, I am going to run a 335/30/20 on the back and that tire is 28" tall, I set my rear end at 14" from the center of the axle to the ground and them welded in my bottom 4 link bars in parallel to the ground. On the front I am running c4 corvette suspension and I set the lower a arms to be parallel with a 26" tall tire. I hope this makes sense, if you are using stock suspension you pretty much need to figure out how low you want to be and clearence everything from there and install a notch, etc, etc, etc... Do some reading on here and it will help more than anything. Good luck...."

Thank You jkade....its starting to make alot of sense when you explain it that way...
I have a set of 20"[245/35/20] / 22"[255/30/22] wheels to use for mock up. I plan on running 22's in front & 24's in the rear. Ill need to find out the diameter of the 24" tire. Right???

"On the front I am running c4 corvette suspension and I set the lower a arms to be parallel with a 26" tall tire."

What kind of x-member do you have ?
Do you have any pics of your frame build-up & or set-up?

What about you bagged69c10, do have any pics of your frame? BTW your truck is bada$$...thanks for the info.

Thanks!!! aggie91

It really depends if you are going to use the stock suspesion on how to go about doing this. If you are using the stock front suspension you don't really need to worry about what I did because I built everything around my ride height if that makes sense. If you are using the stock front suspension it depends on how low you want to go, if you want to lay frame you are going to have to section your stock crossmember, z the frame, or get a porterbuilt drop crossmember that will bolt right in. On the rear you ain't going to be able to lay frame with the stock trailing arms, you are gonna need a 4 link or something similar and a weld in notch. If you are just wanting a low ride height like me and not so much out to lay frame you can use a lot of the stock stuff. I chose the route I did because I may or may not bag mine and it will lay frame if I do go the bagged route.
How low do you want to be and do you want to lay frame?

I am running a self made front crossmember that is more or less a copy of Porterbuilts c4 dropmember. I wanted to run the vette stuff becasue it is a better design, uses rack and pinion steering, and I can run 13" or 14" brakes fairly cheap. I also wanted something that didn't handle like a early 70's truck but something that will handle like it is on rails. On the rear I chose the 4 link for the simple fact that it was easy to install and has no side to side movement so I can run a little less offset on my wheels and not have to worry about them getting in the fenders.
Keep asking questions that is the only way you are going to figure out what you need to do.
I have pics of mine in the projects section under project break me.( http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...d.php?t=261923 )
Thanks, Kade