Hello all. Just joined with questions and soon to post some pics.
I'm looking for a front suspension system somewhat like the Raptor that will not break me financially. Actually I'll be doing two. One for wifey and one for her GF. This will be a crew cab though.
Thanks for any info.

 

What about the rear?
What year are the trucks?
4x4 or 4x2?

We need info before we can help you with anything.

All I can say is head over to dezertrangers and start doing a lot of reading. The raptor pulls around 12ish inches front and rear travel. So front anything that pulls 13" up which is generally mid-travel kit and rear usually starts around 16" with a set of deavers and a bed cage, so that's better than a raptor. Depending on the truck it could cost anywhere from 7-8k on the low end to 14k+.

 

I don't have the doner trucks just yet 2003 or I could go 2004 and 4X4. The Raptor doesn't have a bed cage I believe and don't want to loose the truck beds internal capacity.
Thanks for the heads up on http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/content/ but I now have spinal injuries just looking at the front page at my age. lol

 

Looks like my signatures not showing up.

 

The 2003 will be cheaper to build, but since it's 4x4 it'll put you at around 6k or more for the front setup. And without doing the rear, you'll have no travel back there, so kinda defeats the purpose of doing the front if you get what I'm saying. You may be able to find a shop to fab up a canti-leaver setup, but that could run you around 2k+ possibly not even including shocks, and if your not in the california/arizona area you'd probably be hard-pressed to find a shop capable of the complete custom work.

 

I just need a couple aftermarket A-Arms possibly new spindles. and weld in some shock mounts. If I had to take this build to a fab shop I would can it right now.
The Raptor just has leaf springs on the back and not really much of a challenge my local spring house could do.

 

Mid or long travel is a lot more than just some a-arms and shock mounts. The raptor rear is not just leaf springs, they're made for travel. Look at the price's for deaver leafs and you'll get an idea. And then look at the prices for fox, king, or sway away 2.5 shocks for the rear, and the 2.5 or 3.0 coilovers for the front. And then you'll need to take the time to tune the shocks so they perform the way you want. Getting travel number's is a lot more costly and more work than doing a basic suspension lift.

Look at dixonbrosracing for kit's that would put you around travel numbers of the raptor.

Oh and don't forget you'll need some fiberglass fenders and bedsides to use that travel either, so might wanna figure in cost of paint and install if your not up to it.

 

Someone just sent me this. http://www.powerblocktv.com/player/s...-08&ep_show=XT

 

Thanks Pizza. Would this fill the bill? http://www.dixonbrosracing.com/content/view/111/3/
As far as the painter goes your talking to him. Although a fine paint job has always been my forte I'm looking at green bed liner on the exterior for this build.

 

That's what I was going to say. It was a lot of work and a lot of coin...

 

Looks like 4.56 gears for 35" tire would work.

 

Four of these in each truck would suffice. http://www.jcwhitney.com/off-road-ra.../p2011342.jcwx
These any good?
Here's the same style harnesses I had in my jeeps. Saved my skin on 2 occasions and it was on the street of all place and not off road. The really play havoc with augmented boobies. http://www.ebay.com/itm/R-J-S-RJS-Ra...166ef6&vxp=mtr

 

They went with H&M Motor Sports http://www.hmracingdesign.com/html/s...rm4WD_hnm.html
http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/shop-reviews/119974.htm

 

Yup that'd set your front up like the raptor, so your looking at 4800 for the front plus shipping to get it, and if you've never done fab work before I'd definitely let a shop do it. Something skewed or even like an 1/8" off could be the difference between getting full travel bump to bump to only pulling like 6" before binding. I'd budget around 7500 to get the whole front end done including the cost of paint and installing the fiberglass up front. And then probably another 2500 for rear leafs and shocks.

Also the shocks will probably come uncharged so you'll probably have to have them charged also.

 

Buy a quality set of suspension seats, don't cheap out. Check out Pirate4x4, there are some good deals from the vendors. PRP seats seem to be popular now and IIRC are decently cheaper than some of the other brands.

I'm running Mastercraft rubicons and have been nothing but pleased but they're $400+. They have a similar model with an adjustable back which might not be a bad idea on a daily driver.

Same goes with harness, I'm running crow enterprises with padding in the shoulder. Think i paid about $75 each from 4ws.com (another pirate vendor)

edit: how do you plan to mount the harness without a cage or some sort of cross bar between the pillars? You could easily add a removable bar to the pillars between doors to mount the harnesses to if you dont plan on wheeling it