Eddie Bauer Fender Flare Opinions
 

I really want fiberglass but since I would just break it the first time I went wheeling I decided to see what the Eddie Bauer flares off the '97 parts truck would look like on my truck painted white. What do you guys think of them? I like how they look and since they're plastic they won't break when (not if but when) I scrape them along a rock. The plastic will give and not break.

Not bad.

Yeah they don't look out of place.

Not too bad. I'll have to put the flairs i have for my truck on soon as well.

Paint them black...

Not a bad idea.

:thumbs_up:

I don't like how they look when black. What I really like are the fiberglass fenders but with the way I wheel I'd break them the first time out. I'm leaving them white.

Thank you for reminding me about mine.




Just stock plastic ones. I'll need a spacer in the rear (or a newer isuzu axle to fill them out right)

Those look good. I wanted to use the rears but they are going to work on my truck. The reason I wanted to use the is because my rear tires are wider than the body and I was hoping I could use the flares and then cut the metal on the fender so they cleared on full compression. So instead I'm going to try and flare the metal out enough to clear. I already rolled the lip and that wasn't enough so I'll try to flare them.

Ya my flairs are for show, I only rub on the front with my 33's and only at full lock and full compression. And that's stock, if I bump up my torsion bars a bit I wont rub at all. I can nearly run 35's in the rear as it sits right now. 18 inches of travel FTW

What has 18 inches of travel? With my solid axle swap I get 10 inches of travel in the front and with my home springs I get about 13 in the rear.

Here are some old pictures of mine. The only change since these are the Fox shocks in the front.





Rear:



Front:

Stock isuzu rear as 18 inches of total travel. Its also a coil 3 link stock.

But I only get 3 inches of down travel in the front. and something like 5 inches up.. IFS fail

Sorry for the hijack by the way.

Not my truck
But the same setup

Are you sure about the rear? Have you mearsured it because 18 inches of travel is a lot. The Raptor only has 12.5 and I think my Explorer stock only got about 7 or 8 in the rear and 6 in the front.

The Ford Raptor with stock rear spring has 5.5” of up travel and 6.5” of down travel

The trooper has 7.5" up travel and 10.5" down travel. The main limit to our travel is the shock.

Changing a flat tire sucks ass because I like lifting from my frame and not the axle.

Use my hoist to lift your truck and measure because I find 18 hard to believe. So you have an 16 inch or so travel shock?

i'll do it when i get off work.

Here you go Ron. Paint them with bed liner so they resist scratching too.

18" of travel does seem like a lot stock.

I like the white better.

My lower control arms are about 1 inch shorter then jeep long arm kits.

Isuzu's have good rear axles and lots of travel that's how they do so well off road stock.

How are your shocks mounted, what their extended and compressed length, where are they mounted in relation to the arms?

Here is a pic of an axle out of the truck (not mine i'll take some pic's tonight )

With my sway/shocks/springs still connected I get 8 inches of down travel
I was a little off but still a damn sight better then a raptor.

I don't feel like removing the shocks and springs right now so i'm not sure how much up travel I have.








Just a straight drop

Looking at my links on my home computer the 10 inch of down travel is with new shocks.


so i wasn't completely wrong lol

Measure from the top of the axle to the bump stop. Also measure and take a picture of the shocks at ride height and full droop.

It got too dark to take some more pic's i'll do that tomorrow.

Plus i already put everything away lol

On the ground


In the air

Tomorrow measure from the tire instead of the ground. Mark a line on the sidewall and measure to bottom of the fender. Then lift the truck and measure again. In the picture those shocks look like they only have between 6 and 8 inch shafts. There's no way you are going to get 18 inches of travel. Measure those as well. Measure them at ride height and and full droop.

Your shocks are at about the same angle as mine and my shocks have 11.5 inch shafts. I can unbolt them at full droop and get about 1 inch more down travel and I bottom them out at full compression straight up and down. With the angle they're mounted at I don't use the full shock when twisted up.

I looked up repalcement rear shocks for your truck and they have about 7 inches of travel. The Rancho 9000XL for your truck shows an extended length of 19.125 and compressed length of 12.875. The shocks on the back of my explorer are 29.830 extended and 17.320 compressed. The front fox shocks are 25.19 extended and 15.19 compressed.

They change out the rear spring and shock, The coil shouldn't affect travel

http://www.expeditionswest.com/equip...iculation.html

This is more an article about how to get more from the front end.

So I was wrong about the stock travel.

But I knew the stock geometry could handle crazy amounts of travel with a shock upgrade.

How does the coil not effect travel? If the coil is longer then it will go into coil bind soon than the factory coil. if it is softer than the factory coil (given enough shock travel) the weight of the axle will pull the coils apart more than the heavier coil. That's assuming they are bolted to the top and bottom like a Ford Ranger coil is.

Also, I'm not talking wheel travel measured when the truck is twisted up. I'm talking about straight up and down travel. There is just no way with a 7 or even a longer 10 inch shock that you are going to get 18.5 inches of travel without using a cantilever shock setup.

When you get home, measure your suspension like I said before. I'll do the same on the my Explorer.

I should of said that the coil used would not affect travel, They are the same length as stock just have a higher spring rate and different coil spacing's near the ends and I know my coils are not bolted in.

For straight up and down travel I most likely have about 11 - 12 inches, looking at how much my wheel was able to travel down yesterday.

I've not heard of "cantilever shock setup" but i'm liking the idea and now it much go on to my project truck! lol


You clearly know alot more about suspension's then I do.

Here are some measurements from my Explorer. I obviously can't give you the compression measurement but I can tell you that the tire hits the fender and I had to roll the lip to keep it from cutting the tire up. So it should be 7+ inches.

Here's how I lifted it.



The drivers side that I took all the measurements on.



This is from the tire to the fender at ride height.



Shock at ride height.



Tire at full droop.




Shock at full droop.



This is how I measured my shocks when I first put them on to make sure that I wasn't bottoming them out. I put a zip tie on them and after jumping the truck I checked the zip ties. As you can see they are still there but just barely.



As for a cantilever setup, think of it as a rocker arm. Let's use a 1.5:1 ratio for an example. With that ratio you can use a 10 inch shock and get 15 inches of travel. Here are a couple of pictures of Dixon Brothers cantilever.




This is what I have planned for the rear of my truck. If you plan to do something like this just make sure you use a good shock that is tunable and that can be mounted at any angle like a Fox or King. I plan to use the 10 inch Fox shocks that I have in the front now and then I'm going to use a 12 inch King triple bypass on the front.

In the air



On the ground


its right at 7.5

I have bilstein 5150's that i was gonna use for my project. 14 inches of travel


Not sure if they will work but i'll figure it out.

Are those the short body ones?

Not sure. but i don't think so