PaulW wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 11:41 am
Wilson Truck Comments
- The ABS kit was not one of my great ideas. They worked ok after a bunch of tweaking. Looks like Steve is making it more conventional. My decision for ABS was the significant increase in line pressure versus stock. Oh well. Yes it is a 7000 # rig and needs really good brakes.
- Front shock were never altered since new. For sure I think a rebuild is in order. I did move the reservoirs from on top of the motor to a much better location.
We played with the King bumps to try to get rid of some of the harshness by lowering the pressure. Never had them apart since new.
- The rear is another story. The bumps are crap. We rebuilt them, but had a hard time with internal parts. They went back together in a marginal way. I would suggest replacing them.
- Steve, What is your comment the unconventional rear shocks. Happy or not? For others those shocks are setup as air shocks.
- The motor when Steve got WIlson was a stock unit. I always wanted to upgrade it. Single exhaust. I did add the heavy duty mounts that required mods for the radiator shroud because of the 1" lift at the stock fan. (Maybe 3/4").
Hey Paul!
I keep telling you we’ll meet up during the 250 but never manage to make the time… maybe next year? Lunch or something on me!
Honestly, for what they are, and what the truck is, the brakes work pretty damn well. Funny enough, I recently lost a brake line, which resulted in no front brakes… I realized this as I was mid turn, applying brakes, which turned into blowing an intersection, sideways at speed. Wilson was true gentleman and took it in stride. My passenger asked me, “What the f$%k are you doing!?” Haha. Could have been bad but turned out fine. Anyway, I replaced that line and bled the brakes… I don’t know that they’ve ever felt better. It makes me question the brake change, but I still think the simplification is a good idea.
We rebuilt the bumps when we first got the car. They seem to work fine. The recent re-valve was night and day. The car has always done well and, if I’m fair, most people would think it was phenomenal. But in the big stuff, the front packed a little and it just didn’t push off bumps the way I like. Now it keeps the front end up through the whoops and takes big hits event better… super happy with it an looking forward to dialing it in further.
Rear shocks: The air shock coil-over is cool. Having the ability to adjust for load is handy. I have found, however, that since if I’m taking the car out, all my gear is in it, so my load doesn’t change all the much. In light of this, I’m planning to re-spring the rear for my most common load, so then the air shocks will only come into play when i have extra.
While we did rebuild all the shocks on the car, we’ve never changed valving in the rear. In fact, I’ve never even adjusted the bypasses. On some rolling bumps or bug hits, the rear will “grow” and I keep saying I’ll make time to tune it but, you know… has worked well enough to have a damn god time so I never did it. Life hasn’t slowed down, but I’m prioritizing the things that make me happy, and Wilson is one of them, so it’s getting extra love these days. More shock tuning eminent.
Oh, I should mention that people love the air shock set up. Some of the guys from Fox were drooling over it at the 500 last year. Haha.
Engine: Despite 156-ish thousand miles, a lot of them hard, a leaking air intake tube that caused it to eat A LOT of dirt, lean out an melt a head gasket, that 5.8 still runs great! The AFR cylinder head upgrade certainly helped. Still, the new engine is going to be next level… can’t wait.
Good to hear from you!
