SAS 720.

[Nathyne]

Okay so i am going to do a sas on my 720 this summer.

Here is what I am planning so far.
I want to use a toyota axle I have seen a few pictures of people having the shackles on the front but I know that makes it harder to go over trail obsticals so I was hoping to use a 2 x 6 piece of steel and make perches on the front and put the shackles at the rear. I want to keep it lower and run 31-33inch tires don't like too much lift. I am going to make something like a hitch that will go up the sides of the frame and weld it on there and drill a hole in the frame box it and put a piece of tubing for the shackles to bolt to hoping this will keep it a bit lower.

Now this is my first major modification to a vehicle I have only really done bolt on parts before. would 1/4 inch be strong enough for the front mounts and to box the frame with the tubing in it? My welder maxes out at that. If it isn't I could always just leave my IFS tack the mounts and take it to a place and get them to finish welding it with a bigger welder.

Does any of this sound like it would work or am I way out to lunch with how to mount this axle? Is an older toyota axle a good candidate for a sas on these trucks? Does anyone have pictures of a sas on a 720 with the shackles at the back? or is the frame just too short to pull that off? I have seen some hardbody SAS swap pics and want to build a crossmember like the Calmini - SAS Front Hanger.

Depending on how this goes I also want to swap in a VG30ET at some point aswell but this is all a pipe dream at the moment.

Also I know there is a lot more to think about such as shock mounts and steering linkage but I want to plan it one step at a time.

[MetalFab]

Sounds like how I'm going about a SAS on my rig, 2x6 rectangle tubing laid flat along the bottom of the frame with tabs dropped considerably off the front. The parts rig I have now has the shackles up front--I'll switch them to the rear. It is my understanding that the way the suspension flexes with shackles up front it is good for crawling in certain cases, yet bad for just about everything else. As the suspension compresses, the tire moves forward into the obstical, this exaggerates potholes and bumps and probably does pretty crazy things to steering in a forward shackled rig.

1/4 inch should be good for spring tabs, just box the face in. Bevel your edges and run two or three passes instead of just one. If you have a torch handy it helps to preheat where you plan to weld to get good penetration with a smaller welder on thicker material.

Keep an eye on my build thread, I should have a post up on progress by this weekend. I'm planning to use chevy springs up front as stock springs give an easy 2 inch lift and I have a set of 4 inch lift springs off a gmc and should get 6 inches+ I'm also tossing around a few ideas on shock towers, 1 off revolver shackles or a crazy double sprung setup out back. The front axle is moving forward almost 2 inches to keep 35's out of the firewall but I'd suggest moving it forward an inch if you plan to run 31's without a lot of lift.

Build it, don't buy it.