GoFastBroncos.com

Well guys I have good and bad news. The good news is that we are first in the points lead in our class and we got new tires and the bad news is that are last race of the year was cancelled because all the rain in texas and the bronco is going to be getting a major suspension upgrade because our season is over until next year. The bronco is going to be getting 3/4 ton extended ttb in the front and the rear is going to be pushed out with a four link rear suspension and a new axle. The motor will be getting 4v close chamber cleveland heads for higher compression, a good cam, and we will put holly fuel injection on it that I have sitting on the shelf on the garage. All the parts, from axles to the leaf springs are going to be sold because were not going to be using them any more, and most of the spare parts body parts because they wont work any more. The cage is going to getting a little redesign.

Well guys I know I said we were going to be using 3/4 ton ttb, but I know most of the guys on here use the stock bronco beams, extend and truss them and seem to do fine, so I was wondering if the bronco ttb would be fine for racing.

I don't see why not. A few on here are pretty hard on their stuff and it appears to hang well.

Rmc wrote:I don't see why not. A few on here are pretty hard on their stuff and it appears to hang well.

Thanks RMC

I'm my opinion there's only 2 weak parts on the ttb front end, the ball joints and the area around the flange the snout attaches to. It's .200-.375 cast steel in this area and that is kinda why I started building my knuckles. The ball joints usually give a tell tail sign of clunking before failure. Normally ( in my past experiance anyway) it's not the shaft that shears it's the cup that deforms and allows the joint to pull out. I did have one once that stripped the threads to the cotter pin holes and cotter hole up broke off but that may or may not have been common. I was pretty hard on that truck and it wasn't beamed either so I don't know.
I know a perfect solution for the issue but it would require grafting machined parts to the beam end and custom knuckle but agian how much time and money do you want to spend before you establish a known failure rate. I'd run them and check them after the each race. I generally watch the joints when I jack it up and also give an up down push pull test as well as a horizontal push pull test, this shows me slop in steering and the ball joints. Just my opinion though.... I have yet to jump my bronco over 3 ft off the ground, I will soon though. A few things to finish first though. Maybe Michael cox, or Chris can lend some opinion due to them having bronco race experiance.

Well I raced a D44 TTB Class 8 with 35" tires and never had a failure. Of course we reinforced the cast uprights as is common practice.
But our new race bronco is on 37's and it's suspension works a lot better than the 8 truck did so we are running it faster in the rough than we used to, plus the 37's are more stress.
And we have twice had the upper ball joint cup tear out of the beam. The first time, we did not have the cup full welded, the set of beams we used only had the cup partially welded by Ford.
But the second time we had fully welded in the cups and added a doubler plate under to add strength and it still tore out. Perhaps fab/weld technique issue, who knows. We are beating on it for sure.
We ended up cutting the ends off and grafting in a Spidertrax housing end, upright, unit bearing combo to the ends of the beams. Was tricky to get camber right as these are designed for solid axle apps.
One bonus was this upgrade also got us to huge axles, yokes, u-joints. Will see how it all holds up in the Baja 1000 in 3 weeks. We ditched the leafs, put coils on the rear coilovers and entered class 8, #839.

Sweet! Ill be in Ensenada on the 11th chasing for a quad team. Ill keep an eye out for you guys.

Sounds bad ass Chris, can't wait to see pics.

Okay I want your guys 2 cents on what size coil overs we should run on the back either 2.5 14 or 2.5 16.

How have you liked the Grabbers? I've seen lots people that run them in the desert but curious how they are in the Midwest dirt.

Weve gone on a couple night runs and they seem to do great, on the hard packed and in the washes.

Realistically you can probably run 2.5x14's and be fine. My 2.5x16's yielded 33 inches of rear travel. I strapped it of course but that's what the shock got me. It all boils down to the motion ratio you create by the shocks placement. I really don't think 30" travel is do able with the short drive line in a bronco but it again depends on the motion ratio created and the arc intersect points to keep that drive shaft pointed at the rear of the trans.

I ran 2.5x16 and a 3.0x18 with a 58 inch link to get 33" as I recall it was someplace around 12 inches in front of the axel at the lower mount.

I've been told by quite a few to make the lower links shorter than 60 inches as it creates a slow responding rear end and slow responding rear suspension equals bucking, or something to the effect of the rear is still moving up off the previous bump while the front has redrooped and is entering again into the compression portion of the next bump.

Man, I love your bronco! I think it is awesome that you all are kicking so much a$$ in it! I noticed that you are running a windshield in the firecracker 250, where can I find the rules for those races?

What are the roll cage rules?

I am over in New Mexico, so it wouldn't be a terribly long drive to check out some of those races.

Since I have yet to do my cage, I wonder if I could do one that is race legal, and retain my back seat. I have done a lot of desert racing on bikes, but there is not much in the way of desert racing, except in Juarez, but I don't particularly like going to that particular place.

Anyway, I'm glad to see desert racing in Texas!

If you need someone to help you in the pits, I'll volunteer, just let me know when you are racing.

I have a complete Dana 50 ttb off of a 88 F-250, if you want it I will give it to you cheap. It has 4.10 gears. In fact I have an entire 88 f-250 minus motor and tranny, 208 t case.

Hauls Assington wrote:Man, I love your bronco! I think it is awesome that you all are kicking so much a$$ in it! I noticed that you are running a windshield in the firecracker 250, where can I find the rules for those races?

What are the roll cage rules?

I am over in New Mexico, so it wouldn't be a terribly long drive to check out some of those races.

Since I have yet to do my cage, I wonder if I could do one that is race legal, and retain my back seat. I have done a lot of desert racing on bikes, but there is not much in the way of desert racing, except in Juarez, but I don't particularly like going to that particular place.

Anyway, I'm glad to see desert racing in Texas!

If you need someone to help you in the pits, I'll volunteer, just let me know when you are racing.
I have a complete Dana 50 ttb off of a 88 F-250, if you want it I will give it to you cheap. It has 4.10 gears. In fact I

have an entire 88 f-250 minus motor and tranny, 208 t case.

Yea we did have the windshield was in but we took it out for the Texana race and found out it was alot better. You can go to Texas Desert Racing. Com and they might have the rules under there website. Were are you located in new mexico, I live in Albuquerque. The next race we are attending is going to be in El Paso on November 23.

Points standing until next season because our last race was cancelled. We are first in the points lead for heavy metal for now.

Will you be making your parts for the TTB? I saw that GiantMotorsports has made a conversion a while back. Maybe they could help. I might be in for a set of brackets?

I'm in cruces, it looks like i might be able to make it! Like i said i would be happy to help in the pits, maybe i can meet up, and follow you all down there? Is it the casaritas 125?

cdnbronco wrote:Will you be making your parts for the TTB? I saw that GiantMotorsports has made a conversion a while back. Maybe they could help. I might be in for a set of brackets?

Yea cdnbronco we will make all out parts/brackets for the ttb conversion.

Hauls Assington wrote:I'm in cruces, it looks like i might be able to make it! Like i said i would be happy to help in the pits, maybe i can meet up, and follow you all down there? Is it the casaritas 125?

Yea you can come on down and help if you want, we will have some friends from the El Paso area there to help to. Yes the race is the Cascarita 125.

Well guys we went to El Paso, we raced against trucks that should of been in a 1450 class, and we pulled out a second place, first was a built a-armed f-150 an it was linked so yea, the bronco did great nothing went wrong kock on wood and the only reason we had to pit was because we needed fuel. I want to say thanks to Hauls Assington for coming down hanging out and lendind a hand when need.