Rear Panhard Conversion
 

As per popular request, I have decided to do a thread on the panhard rear conversion. I am not stepping in uncharted territories, and it is not the end-all solution for ultimate articulation by any means, I just want the info out there. I'm sure a lot of you know this, this is for those that don't.

Basically the idea is that with a watts linkage, you have reasonable articulation until a certain point where the linkage binds and there's no more give. There are ways around this, RTE has an extended watts linkage, as does Lucky8. I did not want to stay with the watts linkage as it's more complex and expensive to replace the bushings WHEN they DO go.

The benefit for a watts is definitely there, because it moves in a straight line essentially.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ts_linkage.gif

However, there is a curve and end to that line. Here is a panhard, it curves but allows for more movement.
http://image.sporttruck.com/f/985910...anhard_bar.jpg


I ended up buying the Ruff Stuff Specialties Panhard kit. It is a very nice kit that is all inclusive, everything you need to do the conversion comes with it. It is important to specify axle offset bracket and frame outside panhard. It can be found here: Panhard Kit - RuffStuff Specialties

Here's a photo I took of what I received in the package:
Attachment 57021


Basically you remove the Watts linkage, grind down the outside where there's that little bracket that hangs back, and weld the new brackets it. I am no good with a welder, so I had Don Trudeau of Portsmouth bang out the job for me. He did a great job and I highly recommend him. He did it to his own truck before mine.
Attachment 57022


And here it is finished:
Attachment 57023
Attachment 57024
Attachment 57025
Attachment 57026


As you can see it is coated in underbody spray, as we get a lot of corrosion in the North Eastern states.


Cheers,
Zack

That's quite the engineering feat you have there Zach. How about some real world poser shots!!

Better put in some spring retainers they might pop out on you.

Shocks won't extend long enough for the RTE +3 and 1.25" RTE spacers to dislocate.... yet. Bilstein 7100s on the way!

Attachment 57018

Nice post Zack.

Thanks Justin, you like that red diff up there? I've got christmas axles....

Nice!! From the pics it doesn't look like you have the rear spacers in. Are you still running them?

Yep, I do! As you can see the ring that the spring sits on is flush with the axle bracket that the spring seat mounts to, the spring seat itself is around 1.25" tall.

Gotcha. Hey, how are your ABS leads? They look fairly close to being stressed in some of those pics.. Keep an eye on em.

Love it! Thanks for the update! I will look into this once I'm done with my swap.

I got the extensions from another forum member here, should be fine. I'm more worried about the brake lines.