"X" member

[Ryan Gee]

Fabbed up a rear crossmember for the X spring over guys...

Needs a little cleaning up... the idea is there.

http://aycu13.webshots.com/image/25652/2004335997802584173_rs.jpg

http://aycu37.webshots.com/image/23956/2004332965085822249_rs.jpg

[DamnHippie]

I need to move the upper mounts of my rear shocks and I've been pondering that design that puts them in the center of that crossmember. Why the center? It seems like the further outboard you can get them the more the shock piston will travel the same amount as the axle is travelling (IE, make the hypotenuse of the triangle as short as possible.) I would think with closer to 1:1 shocktravel:axletravel the shock would be able to do a better job.

[Ryan Gee]

You are right. The idea behind what these guys are doing is fitting the longest travel shock under the rear of their rig as possible. Most of them run a 9 position adjustable shock in order to dial the dampening (or loss in dampening) to their hearts content. I think the shock that has been used is 32 inches extended and around 20 compressed for 12 inches of travel. These can be mounted like factory but most of the time this entails a hole through the floor of your rig. The angled way probably requires more shock in order to get a given amount of travel. But none the matter a Rancho 9000 cost around 89 bucks for whatever length of shock.

As the axle articulates up and down it somewhat travels an arc around the center of the differential. One tire goes up and one goes down in an arc. So I suppose the best way to make things work would be to try the line the shock up with that arc in order to have the best of both highway and off road worlds. Hmm... swaybars with discos also come to mind.

Kevin says his setup sways less than ever? I guess the side to side movement is dampened by the shocks being somewhat lined up with that direction of movement or the arc of articulation. However, I think the 9 position adjustable shocks are the key to this whole mess.

[Nissanclay]

Thats still on my list of things to do. My xmember is not going to be a fancy, just 2' box steel and two bolts going through it. I might have to do some cutting and make mine look like yours.

[Ryan Gee]

Guys, I can bend the tube in about 10 minutes if you want to do the rest.

That much DOM is about 20-30 bucks and seamed is about half....

[Alpine Spirit]

Hey that looks familiar

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/1902/roninco07002oy6.jpg