control arm opinion

okay guys ive been doing alot of thinking lately and wanted to get some of you seasoned guys opinions as well. ive decided i wanna cut back apart the front of my truck because i wanna put a 7 in the front and pocket the frame. i got great lift with my 6s but i wanna go for even more and even better ride haha. this time i plan on setting the ride height up about 1.5 to 2 inches off the ground. i plan on doing this with my wheels or get some 18s and 4wd metal. fellow bscener mikey has talked with me and told me of how much he is able to turn at that height with this combo. the thing is is i do not want to chew up tires. so i have come up with the idea of taking around an inch out of the lowers at the end and remount the balljoint. with this i will have to get rid of the strut bar like josh did and triangulate them. i believe that this will get most of my camber out of the front end and have it close to stock specs except 1.5" off the ground!! woot!!! the goal is to keep everything murdered and have it appear as if its just hovering down the road. Was wondering if any of you guys have tried this or see a fault in the plan anywhere or maybe a hint. im about ready to start cuttin on the lowers to see what i can come up with.




-justin

it'll work, but your camber gain and overall suspension geometry will be f*cked. what you need to do is move your lower control arm's inner pivot point outward(or the upper arms inner pivot inward, or a combination of both) so the arms are closer to the same length. you'll have to change your tie rod end distance to be inline with the new control arm pivots to do this tho or you'll get mad bump steer. that will allow you more suspension travel with less camber gain.

so are you saying that the way i stated above ill have some problems? what kind do you think that i will run in to? trying to get all my information before i start cutting. if i cant get it that low and roll it that low without having the horrible bumpsteer that it has now when its low then im not going to do it because i cant stand driving it like that.






-justin

draw it out on a big piece of paper... full scale. or on the garage floor, or kitchen floor. measure your a arms, from bj to inner pivot and measure the vertical spread of the inner pivots mark all that stuff out. also measure and mark your bj heights at the spindle. now simulate the arc the a arms will create when your suspension cycles up and down. you can see as your suspension 'bumps' your shorter upper a arm has a much smaller arc, and that's what causes your neg. camber. your on the right track shortening the lower arm to counter the camber, but if you cycle the suspension to 'full lift' you'll see where your plan flaws.you'll get serious positive camber. like real bad...
the bump steer thing i mentioned is if you changed the inner pivots without taking into account the tie rod locations. all your inner pivots MUST line up or you'll get bump steer. the stock mazda front end isn't exactly lined up, that's why you get toe out when you go down.