Bigger Meats. 2-Door Bronco Rolling on 40s

[5GENIDN]

Thanks. I wasn't aware that going to portals decreased wheel travel. How much flex does going portals loose that makes it more significant than some extra ground clearance?

Portals do not decrease travel but hey do not increase it either. BMB is increasing his wheel travel and to do that he is increasing width. Longer arms in front require a wider axle in back. He should be able to increase his travel significantly. It is going to be fun to watch his build... He has stuck to his guns trying to keep that Bronco as low to the ground as possible while increasing both wheel travel and clearance.

Portals also increase width so to do both would increase width dramatically. Like 7 or 8 inches wider than a BRaptor. That would be no go territory.

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[LCW]

added the Spicer ultimate 60 rear axle to handle the extra loads from the big meats...Fantastic plug and play, bolt-on setup...so easy you don't even need to bleed the brakes.

So do you already have the BRaptor front control arms bolted in? Sorry I didn't go back to look at older threads.

added the Spicer ultimate 60 rear axle to handle the extra loads from the big meats...Fantastic plug and play, bolt-on setup...so easy you don't even need to bleed the brakes.

So do you already have the BRaptor front control arms bolted in? Sorry I didn't go back to look at older threads.

 

[BigMeatsBronco]

So do you already have the BRaptor front control arms bolted in? Sorry I didn't go back to look at older threads.


So do you already have the BRaptor front control arms bolted in? Sorry I didn't go back to look at older threads.

they shipped today...Spacers for a few more days...then install.

 

[Tex]

Thanks. I wasn't aware that going to portals decreased wheel travel. How much flex does going portals loose that makes it more significant than some extra ground clearance?

Given the same tire sizes, portals can be utilized to increase wheel travel over comparable a-arm widening, you just need to figure out how to get a taller shock tower in there. Portals give you tire clearance during compression, which means you'll be able to compress further up than you would with wider a-arms, by a little bit. Since the a-arms on most vehicles rarely go beyond a few degrees past level with the ground, you're missing out on a lot of potential travel that's within ball joint and CV joint angles. You just have to install a longer shock and taller shock tower to allow those a-arms to stuff a little higher up. So if a stock a-arm droops 10" from horizontal (say, 20deg of droop) and compresses 2" above horizontal (maybe 4deg of compression) before it hits a bump stop, your total wheel travel is 12" (keep in mind these are just arbitrary numbers). If those same a-arms droop 10" from horizontal and are allowed to compress 10" above horizontal, you could potentially get up to 20" of travel out of those a-arms, and you wouldn't be exceeding angles or binding anything in the process because you're staying within the same angles from center (20deg down and 20deg up). It's generally not an option people consider because a) you run out of tire clearance way before then, b) taller shock towers aren't always an option, and c) it may require aftermarket a-arms with zeroed uniball angles or replacing them with something like vertical double shear heim joints as seen on trophy trucks. Most a-arms were never meant to cycle that far up and are often canted a few degrees down to increase droop angle instead.

To be fair, you can hack away at your rig and achieve similar results without portals, it just means you're not going to have much of a quarter panel left. A-arm bracket lift kits and body lifts can achieve similar results. Portals help you get the tire a few inches further away from the fenders just the same, so you're saving that much of your fender from the sawzall, particularly helpful if you're getting into your door or hood or engine bay. Also, any time you place the tire further out from the a-arm mounting bolts, that translates to more wheel travel. So technically speaking you will get a little bit of extra wheel travel with portals (you'd also get the same from wheel spacers), but conventionally speaking the real gain in travel is when the a-arms are wider and reduce binding in the joints, plus the shock can still be located close to the tire which is preferable in long travel applications. Maybe that clears a few things up at least.

 

[BigMeatsBronco]

I ordered a Braptor swaybar assembly today...because the UCAs have a built in bump stop that won't clear normal Bronco Swaybar arms...Braptors are curved instead of straight. This will allow me to put the old swaybar on our WT....yipee.

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