bags and handleing???

ok i got a 07 colorado, that i am planning on bagging with a sfbd. i am also in process of getting a new motor that is alot more powerfull than the stock. looking into a custom cantilevered parallel 4-link in the rear. i grew up around sports cars and just got out of imports and still got love for playing at the drag strip and playing some in the corners. if i bag this like planned am i just going to have to forget handling or is there ways to fix that.

if you run the right shock combo it'll still handle good.

Well for handling, I would run an adjustable valved shock that is designed for the weight of your truck, that will give you the ability to tune your suspension. as for the rear a propersly set up 4 link and a watts for the location of the axle will be a good setup, But I don't like the idea of leverage or cantilever setups if you want the truck to handle tight, by leveraging the rear you have to run more pressure to make the suspension stiffer, which in itself is not a problem, but by running more pressure you are also adding more hieght thereby increasing the center of gravity of the vehicle which will obviously diminish the handling. Also I would still run sway bars if you like to corner, that will help immensly. Run the valves as close to the bags as possible, making the amount of compressable air in each corner as little as possible, and don't run 22" chrome plated heavy ass wheels, do some research and find a comprimise for a lighter wheel that still looks good, and while you are on it do some tire research too, find a tire that has a higher speed rating and a lower treadwear rating and find one that is not too heavy either. My B4000 outhandled a good deal of cars and had a good 8" of adjustability on it. Also make sure you engineer the stock floor right, chasis flex will be very noticeable if you are driving it hard and the tighter the chassis the better it should work for you. Maybe think about moving the motor back a bit if you can too. Thats just my pennies, well more like 3 or 4.

with the right shock, and an 8 valve setup it should handle great,. no body roll

i cant think of anything to add to aaron. hes dead on.

I built mine to handle, rode a little rough but it corners awesome, i;m sure the T1-S toyo's helped, a bit, and the Poly bushings everywhere made a big difference.

Aaron- You got most of that right, but there are a few misunderstandings that you have

Sorry, I do have a fairly good understanding, but I just wanted to lay down some very basic things, and im horrible at eplaining myself fully hahah... MAX is most certainly right. I was assuming ussing the same bag either over axle or on the bar, but yes changing bag size, and mounting points will make a very large difference in the handling of the vehicle, sorry I should have gone more in depth with my explanation.

And I had heard a while back about the sway bar thing, I used to build VW's older GTi's and the such, and was told when building it that if I got the right spring and shock rates at each corner that there was little to no need for swaybars. But then again, but they are a tuning tool as well, A bigger rear bar will change the bias from understeer to oversteer if all else remains the same, and a biger front bar will change the bias to understeer if all remains the same, then again there are bars with adjustable mounting points that can have the effect of changing bar size due to their different leverage amounts.

I should have added earlier that with increasing the performance of your truck I would also highly recomend upgrading the braking system, The stock brakes are designed for normal driving and will display fade, and high wear when used under demanding driving. A bigger kit might not be required, but at least upgrade the pads and discs out front, if the back is a drum there is not much you can do apart frm better shoes, or upgrade to adisc setup. If you upgrade to discs, make sure to upgrade the proportioning system as discs and drums need different amounts of pressure and different amounts of residual pressure in the lines to operate properly. Also You can get better brake fluid, you don't necessarily need to upgrade the DOT level, I assume your truck is DOT3, but just look at the different brands in that Grade and find the one with the highest boiling point, there are some differences. If not find out if you can use DOT 4 from the dealer, it should have a higher boiling point, but make sure again to read the container. And don't use DOT5, it is a silicone based formula and it will not work with your stock components.

God I'm sure there is more, or I could have explained some better, but thats why we apreciate guys like MAX. Their knolwedge can only make this sport/lifestyle/hobby better for the current and future people inthis scene.

Damn Aaron, I think that you hit on quite a bit there.

I think that in general, a decently put together truck would handle better than expected, but for those that are looking for above and beyond performance, everything that you have talked about and more will help.

the cantilever wont make you run anymore pressure, it can actually make you run less. it depends on your cantilever arm ratio. for example, if your bag side is 7 inches long and the lift side is 14, you have a 2:1 lift ratio. my s10 only runs 35 pounds in the rear bags to get 7 inches off the ground, where as a friends runs 70 to get to the same point with the same air lift 7 inch bag.