BajaF250

[BajaF250]

One of those very annoying aspects of punching the shocks through the bed is the hole needed to fit the shocks and to provide enough room for shock movement as it cycles though it's range from bump to droop. Especially since the shocks are next to the wheels, the interior of the bed collects quite a bit of dust as it's spun off the rear wheel and it billows up through the openings. After only a few short miles off road, the rear of the truck has collected a very heavy coating of dust and the dust obviously covers everything packed in the rear... just extremely annoying.

So, I thought I'd seal the hole to keep (most) of the dust out. I made a template to fit the shocks, to include the bypass tubes and brought it to one of the local upholstry shops. The guy at the upholstry shop cut out the holes to match the template and sewed a hem around the holes to contain the stress as the shock moved around and to avoid ripping the material. We used a heavy canvas material, the same used for convertable tops.

I then made a small stainless steel frame to screw the canvas down to the bed to contain it. I had to ensure I have enough fabric folded up within the frame to allow the shocks to move as they cycle.

The first picture is just to illustrate the hole and how big the darn thing is. The second and third are look down views of the seals around the shocks.

The first run was this morning out at Plaster City during my shock tuning... and I must say, it worked absolutely fantastic. I'm used to getting a good heavy layer of dust, just in those couple of hours of testing. When I got home this morning, the back was essentially dust free... looks like it works like a champ!

[vred]

Looks good Tom. Glad it worked.

[Becks_Bronco]

Awesome Tom! I always hear people complaining about the dust, and this seems like such a relatively simple solution.

[philofab]

The crew cab has never had braking problems with 37s and stock components. It will also lock the tires up on asphalt. I figured the 4wd caliper was an upgrade over the 2wd.

Do you run the 1 1/8 master cylinder?

[BajaF250]

Yeah, it's a Wilwood as well... I upgraded the master cylinder a while ago. So what did the crew weigh?

[BajaF250]

Awesome Tom! I always hear people complaining about the dust, and this seems like such a relatively simple solution.

Thanks Will... we will see how it works out in the long run. Of course, I am a little concerned about heat as the shock gets hot, but we talked about the different materials available and what would take the heat the best. When running out at Plaster City yesterday, it didn't seem to bother the canvas at all... and I got the shocks nice and hot... although I didn't bring my IR thermo.

[BajaF250]

Looks good Tom. Glad it worked.

Thanks Vic!

[BajaF250]

Tom, are we going to get more GoPro video from testing days? I really enjoyed those.

Really? I didn't think anyone looked at those. Ok, I'll break out the Go Pro and get the batteries all charged up for my next testing session. Which, I hope is soon... I really need it.

I apparently missed a great opportunity this week... Bill and Mike Julson were out in the desert at the beginning of the week testing a few customer's trophy trucks and I was off the grid and unavailable... bummer!

I found them and thought they were awesome and so did a buddy of mine.. he sent me the link and I was like "DUDE! That's the Minty Green Monster!"

Awesome vid's by the way.

Hey Agui, I guess I should start using it more... I'll bring it along on the Aug trip too!

[AussieRod]

Beautiful work, Tom You will probably find the Polymatrix pads will always work better the hotter they are. With any hi=po brake pad, dust will be a problem, just make sure to not let it sit too long on your aluminum wheels, or it will be a pain to remove later. I have also found the cryo treated and slotted rotors give the best life / stopping power / wear rates for your money. Maybe you should look into them for your next rotor replacement. Anyway, fantastic they do the job and more for you. Cant wait to see the Minty Monster again when I get there.

Thanks Rod... yup, I expected all of the things I noted... interesting note on cryo treated rotors... I've been talking to Bill about that and he has a fair amount of experience on cryo treating the race rotors... he did it on his TT prerunner. His experience is that they don't last that much longer... he's come to the conclusion that it's not worth the money. One cool thing is that my rotors are not very expensive and very easy to replace. So, I'm not too worried about rotor changes.

Thats one good thing in your favour, the inexpensive rotors. Slotting the rotors would help the outgassing of the pads under heavy braking and prevent fade. It also keeps them clean. Its great the work you did has produced excellent results in terms of braking performance. Thats one area you cant skimp on if you want reliability and safe stopping in all circumstances Again, well done, Sir.

[BajaF250]

Hey Rod... thanks!

Yeah, vented and slotted (or cross drilled) rotors have particular performance gains in certain applications. I've been running vented and slotted rotors for some time now and quite frankly, I have noticed zero performance gains in my application.

So, when I went to purchase the new rotors a couple of weeks ago, the price of the slotted rotors had skyrocketed... they were about $150 each... ZOWEE! That's a lot of clams... Five times the cost... plus they had to be special ordered... So, since I've experienced no performance increase last time I ran them (as a matter of fact that's what was on the truck), I decided to go with the old plain jane cast iron rotors... $30 a piece.

Vented, slotted and/or cross drilled rotors have a significant advantage on road type applications where they use their brakes just a little differently and in greater frequency. So the advantages in outgassing isn't realized as much in my application as I don't do near as much heavy braking for prolonged periods.

[philofab]

Yeah, it's a Wilwood as well... I upgraded the master cylinder a while ago. So what did the crew weigh?

It's somewhere between 6K and 7K. It was just over 6K but I've added a t-case, larger fuel tank, and some other junk since then.

I have this weird theory. I always but the cheapest pads available... and others buy the "premium".... I think the cheap stuff might actually work better.

[BajaF250]

Yeah, it's a Wilwood as well... I upgraded the master cylinder a while ago. So what did the crew weigh?

It's somewhere between 6K and 7K. It was just over 6K but I've added a t-case, larger fuel tank, and some other junk since then.

I have this weird theory. I always but the cheapest pads available... and others buy the "premium".... I think the cheap stuff might actually work better.

You may be right... I suspect the "premium" pads may mean they have less squeal and less dust... both of which degrade the stopping performance of the pads... great point!

[ChaseTruck754]

snip...
The first run was this morning out at Plaster City during my shock tuning... and I must say, it worked absolutely fantastic. I'm used to getting a good heavy layer of dust, just in those couple of hours of testing. When I got home this morning, the back was essentially dust free... looks like it works like a champ!

Nice Tom. As always your attention to detail on things like this is just great.

I have this weird theory. I always but the cheapest pads available... and others buy the "premium".... I think the cheap stuff might actually work better.

Funny - I though I was the only one who went with the cheap-o's. The squeeling doesn't really bother me. I'd rather have the truck actually stop well.

[hobbyturnedobsession]

I've got the duralast red pads. The expensive ones and will swear by them. I used my brakes ALOT this weekend and no issues.

[philofab]

I've never had the pads make noise but I always use the orange goop between the pad and caliper/piston.

I've never noticed the brake dust over all the other dust/mud/dirt on the truck.

[Becks_Bronco]

From my understanding of brakes, is that the more expensive ones tend to be more performance oriented and need to be warmed up to function their best. The cheapo organic compound ones tend to bite hard and brake well when they're cold. Since in off roading the brakes aren't used quite like they are in on road conditions, the cheapo ones actually are working better.

[BajaF250]

From my understanding of brakes, is that the more expensive ones tend to be more performance oriented and need to be warmed up to function their best. The cheapo organic compound ones tend to bite hard and brake well when they're cold. Since in off roading the brakes aren't used quite like they are in on road conditions, the cheapo ones actually are working better.

Most unfortunately for my application, it didn't matter, cheap, premium, rotors, pads... didn't matter, just wouldn't stop (again, with the 35s). But, the new brakes work wonderfully!

So, what I'm hearing from you guys is that you don't really need, nor want a Wilwood conversion for the Bronco?

[tcm glx]

From my understanding of brakes, is that the more expensive ones tend to be more performance oriented and need to be warmed up to function their best. The cheapo organic compound ones tend to bite hard and brake well when they're cold. Since in off roading the brakes aren't used quite like they are in on road conditions, the cheapo ones actually are working better.

Most unfortunately for my application, it didn't matter, cheap, premium, rotors, pads... didn't matter, just wouldn't stop (again, with the 35s). But, the new brakes work wonderfully!

So, what I'm hearing from you guys is that you don't really need, nor want a Wilwood conversion for the Bronco?

Ha ha ha............ They speak for themselves, I want will woods just cause they are cool!! Ha

[Andy Jones]

Do want!!

Sent from my T-Mobile G1 using Tapatalk

[BajaF250]

Do want!!

LAMO!