new to me, but not "brand new"...brand used?

[Monster]

Regardless of round headlights or molding, all three examples you like, have bright body colors and the problem is that yours is dark.

[fatguyzinc]

the problem is that yours is dark.

hey. that sounds kinda racist to me, buddy...

i know what you mean, light/bright colors pair differently than dark.
as stated earlier, the paints actually halfway nice as is so i "probably"
wont do anything except leave it alone...
at least thats the plan.

[Monster]

I prefer the solid dark color myself.

[SuperBuickGuy]

use silver as the accent.

[fatguyzinc]

so the 48" ladders look like it will pickup at roughly 45% of the body length, thats DANG close to
the theoretical 50% i "should" use.... (48" divided by the 106.5 wheelbase gets me 0.450704,
where as the 67" would be at 0.629108 or almost 63 % of the wheelbase....d@mmit, mathing
is hard.remember, i been hit in the head a LOT..... )

i wonder how far down i should hang the pickup point? in THEORY the bar 'should' be level, but
that aint gonna happen with 10" of lift and 36" tires...............

[RockJustRock]

I'm assuming you're giving up on ride quality? On a leaf spring the front half of the spring is the axle locator along with providing support. Locate the axle AGAIN with any length other than the front half of the spring and you are flirting with making a triangle. It will be a long flat triangle, but a triangle nonetheless and quite rigid. Cal Tracks aren't available to stop pavement wheelhop on an off-road vehicle, but something like that is what I'd recommend. I'm just a little black rain cloud on this thread.

[fatguyzinc]

I'm assuming you're giving up on ride quality? On a leaf spring the front half of the spring is the axle locator along with providing support. Locate the axle AGAIN with any length other than the front half of the spring and you are flirting with making a triangle. It will be a long flat triangle, but a triangle nonetheless and quite rigid. Cal Tracks aren't available to stop pavement wheelhop on an off-road vehicle, but something like that is what I'd recommend. I'm just a little black rain cloud on this thread.

shackle at the front mounting point takes care of that...
or float the spring/axle connection. got the stuff to do either way.
aint my first rodeo.

[SuperBuickGuy]

what do you want it to do when you nail the throttle? the more vertical the arm, the more limiting the suspension... how are you attaching it to the axle?

[fatguyzinc]

what do you want it to do when you nail the throttle? the more vertical the arm, the more limiting the suspension... how are you attaching it to the axle?

id LIKE it to wheelstand like a monster truck whos driver just got stung
on the nads by a bumblebee while stepping on the throttle and hitting
the nitrous at the same time....but seriously.......

actually, i just dont want it to porpoise as badly as they usually do
in sand. the bars are bolt-on in the rear with giant ubolts BUT
they could be welded if needed. (and im thinking its needed...)

im also 'assuming' i need something to stop 'spring wrap/wheel hop'
on the front axle as well, maybe the 'shackle mounted shocks' deal....

[SuperBuickGuy]

you should get more separation at the rear axle with the shorter arm.... that 'should' resolve the porpoising or make it far worse...

[fatguyzinc]

........... 'should' resolve the porpoising or make it far worse...

well, i cant say you dont have your bases covered.....

[RockJustRock]

Isn't appearance the main concern here? Like a 4wd gasser?

[fatguyzinc]

Isn't appearance the main concern here? Like a 4wd gasser?

not at all. why on earth would you think that? the 67" bars would LOOK way gnarlier (and theyre already
metalflake blue to boot...) but the 48" should work better.

is that the way you build YOUR rides, appearance being the main concern? this is the first vehicle ive
owned since i was 13 that has an actual halfway decent paint job on it--that may tell you something.....

for those who wonder what the h@ll im talking about when i say 'porpoising', heres a perfect example
(another k5 blazer even--and its nicknamed bouncing betty fer chr@stsakes...) at the 1:12 minute mark,
watch him power up that hill--and porpoise like crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH0Jy3ZQpZM&t=54s

[fatguyzinc]

'nother vid of the same blazer, starts porpoising so bad he has to get off the pedal...
i think its a combination of the short wheelbase (blazers seem to do it the worst of
all the "K" series trucks, they got the short wheelbase of 106.5"...)
and weight/power causing spring wrap and wheelhop...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Rl1hTogvs

[RockJustRock]

Looks like the added unsprung weight of the wheel/tire combo overcoming the shocks. A quad shock kit would fix that. The lighter overall weight of a Blazer exaggerates it. Anyway on ladder bar geometry calculations are done from the center of gravity, not the wheelbase.

Oh yeah, if it IS spring wrap the shocks could be stagger mounted.