Well, I gotta tell ya... I love my truck...

Clicky

holy crap batman! That's insane! It makes the X look like a little truck.

That front end looks horribly stiff. There's almost no articulation at all which shows by the huge amount of body roll.

Compare...




You're pointing downhill, which is putting weight on the front end, and it's still not moving, and you're already lifting the rear.



Doug going uphill, unweighting the front end, and stuffing it.



Sorry, but I would recommend taking it back to whoever did it and have them find someone who knows what they're doing.

And don't even bother flaming me, just compare the pictures.

If you figure that tree stump is about 20 inches or so tall (based on a 16" outer diameter of the wheel for measurement), here's a stock Xterra with the same amount of flex.



Take it back Riad, have them fix it.

OK Ian, I am not gonna flame you. But I will tell you what's the deal. It has some issues, and I am working on it. But My front end is really soft, softer than the rear. Now the pictures you have posted, none of them have 35" tires. There's a big difference between 35" vs 33" vs 31/30", I am sure you know that. I just drove it to work. No vibration, smooth on the highway. I am gonna have to align the front end and install sway bars upfront. Other than that, it's been pretty good. BTW, feel free to flame on me

Forgot to mention, I have wider tracks...

There is no difference at all in how the suspension moves due to tire size, unless you're contacting the body (which it looks like it might be doing).

I'm with Ian in that it's not flexing too well, but overall it's darn nice and I wouldn't say it has any inherent shortcomings. Once the front end is softened up and/or unrestricted I think it's going to be pretty sweet.

Brent

It does look really rigid. I'm with Brent on this one. Great begining, with some tweaking it should be fine.

I'm with Ian on this one too.

The first thing I noticed is that it looked very much like an SAS Fronty that was shown here in the summer. The front has almost no articulation - the axle is almost parallel to the body

And, as Ian mentioned, the suspension doesn't know what tires you have on it, as long as it's not making contact with the body panel or chassis.

Forgive me for being stupid but are we again looking at the Calmini SAS kit here?? Or a different custom job? Just wondering how many of the Calmini kits are floating around now or if the first prototype one we have been seeing is it...

No, this is a radius-arm D44 SAS that was conceived, if not underway before Calmini had designed theirs, it just took over a year to come to be. First shop that laid it out backed out of the project at the last minute. It took a few months to regroup and find another shop that would execute it, but it dragged out and that shop had to bail on the project (and everything else) due to personal/family problems the owner encountered, leaving it about 70% completed. Another shop took it on and completed it.

Brent

I'll have to agree, The front axle isn't far enough forward of the stock location. Someone doesnt know how to use a tape measuere all that well. Also, with the radius arm setup you have, Your front suspension will naturally bind up as the arms try to fight each other. You could have the passenger arm wristed to allow it to twist freely.

Kinetic, you're the last person who should be offering advice on a SAS.

Is your POS even drivable yet ?

Then again with the issues he has had, maybe he is. :p

Comments like...

"Your front suspension will naturally bind up as the arms try to fight each other."

...and...

"You could have the passenger arm wristed to allow it to twist freely."

...are associated with suspensions that were done wrong and have to be ghetto-rigged in order to get them to work worth a damn.

It's the same story that has been plaguing these boards for years. Someone gets a hack job done at a local garage and they think it's the best thing in the world because they don't want to admit spending a ton of money on a crappy product.

Meh, So I don't word things the best way possible. Wristing radius arms isn't necessarily a bad way to get more flex out of the suspension. I guess you could go purchase a kit to wrist the housing of the axle instead. Either way will keep the suspenion from binding up and allow more flex.

I won't argue that I did have a POS when I first got my truck back. Since then, I cut everything out from under it and started over from scratch. I should have done it myself to start with, but I didn't have the proper tools at the time. The truck never really saw the road before I started rebuilding it at my friend's shop. It's driveable again... As long as you dont need to steer it I'm waiting on my hi-steer arm and various other things before I build my draglink and tie-rod.

Holy shit !

I guess everything I've said about PlushFab for the last couple years has been pretty accurate

Holy shit !I guess everything I've said about PlushFab for the last couple years has been pretty accurate

Amen!!

Riad... When you installed your OX locker, did the shop just slap it together using silicon to seal the diff cover, or did the shop use the supplied gasket?

If you didn't use the gasket, that could be some of your problems with the locker. It allows just enough clearance to opperate properly.

And cut your damn fender some so the tire doesnt self clearance on it, wrecking the fender and the tire.

If the difference between working properly and not working properly is the thickness of the gasket, then God forbid anything ever gets tagged!

Something would still be wrong if that was the case. Just an opinion. If I put it together, and that was the case, it would drive me nuts.

Yeah. Thats what happened to a friend of mine when we installed one in the front of his SAS pathy right when OX first hit the market. Its seen alot of abuse and hits since then and hasnt malufunctioned yet. Its definatly a fickle bitch to set up though

You and me both. Where is that Booty fab image when you need it.

It's not the gasket. It's the ring where the fork connects to engage (lack of a better word) the locker. This ring is too thick. I have talked to the manufacturer and they actually told me that, for the particular version of OX locker I have. They suggested to send them the unit and they will replace with a new one (with a labor charge). Or I can lath that ring myself, at a machine shop. Or I can grind more into the housing to make more space for the ring to travel left to right. But believe me or not, so far every time I have tried to engage the locker, it locked like a champ. I am going to try/verify all those options when I have some time. But as of now, it's just doing fine. As for the sealing, the original gasket was used plus some other stuff. But no extra distance was created between the diff cover and the housing itself (FYI).

I'm going to step in here and say thats not totally accurate. I had work done there, although not to Kinetics scale, and been happy.