my goal is to not raise the van. I want it to remain the same ride height it is at now or very close to it. I keep hearing that it won't work, but never heard a valid (to me) reason why. So, no change to camber other than an alignment. However, that is going to be the tricky bit, getting it set right so I don't run out of alignment adjustment before I get a proper angle. I could have had it done today if I wanted to put the 4 inch lift on it, but I'm trying to tuck everything in. I may have to build a custom transmission crossmember for the driveshaft to clear, but that seems minor compared to everything else that's going on here.
Once it is all under there, I'll see what kind of interference I have with the front pumpkin and the engine crossmember, that will dictate how high of a lift, if any, I put on it.
On my bronco, I have 2 fingers of clearance between the frame rail bump stop and the drivers side TTB, so they don't travel very much. Granted I have a big ol winch on the front, but I drive it all over on road and offroad and it drives like any other vehicle, so I don't think there is anything wrong other than age on the springs... That TTB is tucked way up into it. But... the crossmembers aren't even close to similar, so..... I dunno... I'm just feeling my way through this blindly with a little bit of an idea of what I would like it to be at the end. I think when it's all done, I'll have the closest van to factory ride height someone can get without building a custom engine crossmember.
When I started, I had every intention of using the 4 inch lift kit, but after I mocked it up, I really didn't like how high it was, so, that's why I'm doing all this weird custom stuff now.
I'm positive bending and modifying those radius arms aren't going to hurt anything on them, comparing them to the donor parts, it will be fine. I'm taking pics of the whole process so after it's done I'll maybe make a thread and show where I'm cutting and bending, but it's really not much.... the radius arm opening (where the TTB goes into it) needs to be about 1/8th inch wider to take the 4x4 setup over the 2wd one. that's about 1/16th on the top and 1/16th on the bottom. Then the tops and bottoms of the arms horizontal surfaces are just a little wide and are hitting the TTB body preventing the bolt hole from centering up, I can trim off what I need to and still have at least an inch more metal there than the donor arms have.
I did think long and hard about the longer arms having more travel, but at the end of it my thought was that it works fine as a 2wd, so there is no reason I can think of that it won't work fine as a 4x4....
I think the main thing to keep in mind is, I'm building a van with 4x4 capability, not a ************ 4x4 van like U-joint or any of the other companies are building. I won't be posting any pics of one tire on a forklift to show how much suspension travel I have, it would be pretty sad haha....
To better state it, if I could afford a chevy express awd, that's what I would do because that is all I need, but since I can't and I have all this stuff and a nice "extra" van, might as well play with it some.
Wish me luck, I hope to get the drivers side TTB mounted tomorrow.... At that point I'll know if I have to give up on my "vision" or not.