New Puller

I was pit crew and mechanic for my buddies street modified pull truck. now im building my own super stock pull rig, but im all ears for some tips and ideas. whats the best way to weld up the rear suspension? anyone have any pics i can get some ideas from? and whats the best sized tire to run? im running a 1982 F-350 with 4.10 gears. i was thinking just a 33x12.50x16.5 on a 10" wide rim. i dont think that class allows any wider rims. and as for front weight, i was thinking of welding up a steel rectangle box with a plug and filling it with water. are there any rules against that? and i see guys cutting out the floor of the bed, but how do you keep the sides supported? and advice or tips or pics is appreciated. thank you.

well you'll have to go through your local rulebook, Depending on the class sometimes you can remove the bed floor, sometimes you cant. AND same thing with what you can do with your rear suspension. I wouldnt recommend water in a weight box. Its only 10 lbs per gallon, so you'd need an awfully large tank just to make 500 lbs. (50 gallons)

the other problem you might have with the water is if the truck were to start bouncing or surging the water might throw you around alittle and for the tires i would go with a 35" tall tire if they allow it

I can cut the bed out, i can block the rear suspension, i can run a 36" tire max, but it doesn't say how wide the tire or rim can be, and i can hang weights. i want to try and keep the front end stock height and jack up the back end but find a way to weld it solid so that it doesn't squat at all. pictures would be great. and what do you fellas advise for front weight? it cannot extend 42" from center of front axle. and you recommend a 35x12.50x16.5 with 4.10 gears?

I would forget about 16.5 tires and run 15's or 16's. 16.5 tires are getting hard to find and are getting really high priced if you can find them.

Dennis

Actually, out my way they are a dime a dozen on craigslist, but ill see wat i can find. tires are one of my least concerns at the moment.

If you are still looking for pictures give me your email address and I will send you a few. I would rather not post them since most of the pictures are not of my truck.

Kirk
hsojks@yahoo.com

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8744/pics123006.jpg (http://img203.imageshack.us/i/pics123006.jpg/)

tenforty... my email is tstein77@gmail.com. Digger... that is a beautiful set up. how do you have your hitch set up? and where are the blocks welded on to the axle? is that a body lift?

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/2650/pics123003.jpg (http://img97.imageshack.us/i/pics123003.jpg/)
I made the blocks that are welded to the axle out of 1/4" thick steel. Used a 3 1/2" round hole saw from Menards(20 bucks) to cut a hole through it, cut it in half to get around the axle and welded it back together after I got it on the axle. I had to do a 3" body lift because I have a 61 Ford Uni-body on a 72 Ford 4x4 chassis and the elevations are different between the two trucks. The hitch is 3 1/2" pipe inside a 4" pipe. You can use the same hole saw to drill through the frame and weld the 3 1/2" pipe to the frame and let the 4" pipe hinge around it for your hitch height. Be sure to get plenty of rake in your truck. I think it works better with lots of rake. Besides it looks cool. Watch your drive shaft angles. A divorced transfer case usually helps there. You can raise it or lower it.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7162/pics123017.jpg (http://img402.imageshack.us/i/pics123017.jpg/)

Beautiful truck my friend! That is an awesome set up. I will definitely be using your advice! What do you have done to your motor?

Check the rules for the organization you are going to pull with. Pay particular attention to the hitch rules as many require that the hitch be no further forward than the centerline of the rear axle. Digger has a sweet hitch, but it is forward of the center line. Also on the subject of rake, there is plenty of debate on that. I have rake in my truck, but if you look at many of the pro stock and mod 4x4 trucks in PPL and NTPA, you won't see hardly any with any rake, so that has me thinking.

To answer your question on the bed, if your rules allow it, gut it out so that all that is left is the outer skin on both sides. You don't need a front or tailgate (I wanted the tailgate, so I gutted mine out.) To supporte mine, I bought 2 20 ft sticks of 1"x1"x1/16" steel tube and made 3 supports for the front, middle and rear. The completed support assembly only weighs about 30lbs, so it is very light weight.

Also, you can check out my albums on photo bucket. you'll see mainly pictures of my truck/build but there are also a few hitch and suspension pictures from a friends truck.

http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/loganwildman/

http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q291/loganwildman/Truck/

I've kind of wondered why some trucks do so well without rake. Would they maybe do better if they did have some rake??? The modified trucks usually build thier frames and maybe underneith those fiberglas bodies there is rake built into the frame. A modified truck might look kind of stupid with rake. I know one thing for sure. It is a bitch putting rake in. The more you put in the worse the drive shaft angles get. I guess it just depends on how you want your truck to look. You know what they always say,If it don't go crome it.

I've kind of wondered why some trucks do so well without rake. Would they maybe do better if they did have some rake??? The modified trucks usually build thier frames and maybe underneith those fiberglas bodies there is rake built into the frame. A modified truck might look kind of stupid with rake. I know one thing for sure. It is a bitch putting rake in. The more you put in the worse the drive shaft angles get. I guess it just depends on how you want your truck to look. You know what they always say,If it don't go crome it.

I have looked at quite a few mod and prostock trucks, and if they do have some rake hidden behind the sheet metal, it isn't much. I know several of these drivers go back a long way in pulling and I'm guessing they've figured out a few things along the way. Honestly, if it wouldn't be such a pain in the rear to change, I'd be very tempted to re-think the amount of rake in my truck.

OK if you need pictures for thought, go to this web page and search the pages
http://www.network54.com/Forum/228279/ I have my truck build in there and there's like 10 other truck Builds on there.