The truck was a pretty smooth build and it took several evenings to complete (most of the work involved some of the custom parts I was working on).

I didn't like the leaf springs and the stock suspension so I started experimenting with some custom setups. At the same time, I also threw in some blue aluminium hardware for looks, a whole set of hex screws for strength, some nice GPM machined parts and a complete set of ball bearings.

Custom 4-Link Setup #01

Here's the first setup I tried. Basically, when removing the leaf springs, it is necessary to find some way to stabilize the axles (otherwise they will move laterally easily). Some guys use stabilizer bars but I prefer the tried and tested method of 'triangulation' - to arrange the links in such a manner that they hold the gearboxes stable.

Here is what I will call the 'ESP-styled' mounting - where the lower links are triangulated closer at the axles. I made special mounts to do this and they looked pretty cool. They did a fine job of keeping the axles centred, but I didn't like the suspension geometry that resulted.

Here's what I didn't like. When the axle articulated, the top of the tire would hit the shock. This limited suspension travel and rock-climbing capabilities. I didn't like it. I tried many variations of this setup but they all didn't work for me. Click here to hear more about the setups I tried and why they didn't meet the mark.

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Custom 4-Link Setup #02

I set out to try an inverted upper link setup and this is what I came up with. By using some 2mm-thick L-channel aluminium, I made custom mounts for the upper link and the shocks. This way, I could mount the lower links at the stock positions and triangulate the upper links instead. In the pictures you can also see 'booties' covering the universal joints (by freddy) - they keep the joints from premature wear - and the cool GPM drive washers. The GPM parts are very well machined and look awesome!

Here's a picture of the assembled axles and the main chassis. You can see the various blue hardware as well as the blue-anodized, machined motor mount (from GPM again) and antennae mount.

More pictures of the axle attached to the chassis. On the right picture you can see the GPM heavy-duty tie-rod set. All the GPM parts here are not made of pure aluminium but rather some special alloy that is strong yet light. The steering rods are cool because they are turnbuckles (for easy and precise adjustments) and they also look very trick!

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More info on the next page.