I am building a 1.5 ton belly dragger shop truck . Just wondering about going low with some alternate ideas . Has any one ever seen or experimented with more than 6" of front axle drop ? Reasons / examples ?
Scrub line, google it so you understand what it is. Once you have the concept in mind you can measure your axle and determine how much lower you can go before you create a potentially dangerous situation.
Some axles, but probably not your 1.5 ton one, might not have enough meat or overall strength to support doing this, in addition to what EL-P said. If it is dragging it's belly, how are you going to use it as a shop truck?
If you don't mind the 8 lugs, take a look at modern 1 ton trucks, they look to have a good 8inches or so if drop...now I don't know if they'd be too wide, but definitely would have a lt of drop and strength...and probably could be dropped more.
I bought a 6" drop for my Bantam and it puts the hairpins 4-1/2" off the pavement with a 165/80-15, about 26" tall. The rubber height is 4-1/2" so it seems this is the max drop for scrub line as a 2" taller 15" tire would have 5-1/2" of rubber and hairpin would be at 5-1/2". If I had known, I'd have went with a 4" drop and more front kickup. I'll add a 1" taller tire if I ever wear these out (in the garage ). Of course a bigger wheel will allow half the diameter difference between it and a 15" wheel to be added to the drop without violating scrub line.
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