Custom beams with king pins ?

[motoxscott]

I'm not sure if anyone does this or has done it, but why hasn't someone come up with custom beams with a king pin design? Newline, SI and everyone else uses the older forged beams that are hard to find and then modifies them. Why not start from scratch with a completely custom beam and have a machined billet king pin beam end, similar to how Camburg does their ball joint billet ends?

Maybe it would be too expensive and thats why..........I dunno.

I was just thinking about this the other day and thought I would ask.

-Scott

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[1992f150]

could you use the stock spindle though?

[tim_krueger]

I would sure like to see someone making some. I?ve got a 71 F series that hopefully someday be a class 8 legal preruner. I figure no one has invested in a product because even if they were available cheep enough, there?s not a big enough market. Beams seem to work well for small light trucks, but most new full sizes run arms.

[motoxscott]

You could either have it setup where is would work with the older king pin spindle, or a new spindle all together. Why not step up the size of the king pin while you're at it. It will only make it stronger and also have more surface area on it so it will wear longer.

I can't see this costing anymore then what people pay now days for long travel upper/lower a-arms with custom spindles.

Maybe its too late, i-beams are on the way out.........

-Scott

[billymanfroy]

Dude,

You almost answered your own question... Camburg built a set for a big V8 ranger. Maybe you could call Jerry Zaiden and ask him about it. They look pretty beefy. I don't know any details, just what I saw on their site.

[motoxscott]

Those are just old king-pin forged beams that they modified. I'm talking about a fully custom beam.

I got an email from Kevin at H&M saying they do a custom beam with a 4130 king pin end. I was more curious why others dont as I would think it would be more work to track down beams from a junkyard and then modifiy them. You have more options with a custom beam.

-Scott

[WFODAN]

Back when I had my Ranger , AJ was talking about building a custom Kingpin set of beams . The reason we never did was because of the lack of camber adjustment on a kingpin beam . With a balljoint beam you can set the rideheight anywhere you want and set the camber from there . the price for a custom billet end wouldn't be anymore than the Camburg billet balljoint ends . I just don't think the demand is there for it .


Dan Vance

[Gabe_Lara]

Scott,
If you decided to go that route, its gonna cost you mucho$$.
I'm sure it can be done by any of the reputable fabricators around, but it would be a one-off full custom king pin beam set up.

As far as beams being on the way out, I don't think so... for ease of maintenance, and cost effective travel, I still believe a beamed truck set up right is the way to go.

I've barely scratched the surface on the capabilities on my truck, but let me tell you so far, it works great!

-Gabe

[Jerry Zaiden]

Scott,

Mike Smith did it on there prerunners. Scott Goodman also has that set up on his Bronco. It can be done but you will need to build the beamend, and the spindle peice. It will cost bigg$$$$ to do a few of them. But like everyone has said there is not a huge demand for them. We can build you those and fab up the beams but you will have no adjustment.

[motoxscott]

Thanks for the info guys. I understand the pros & cons of king pins vs ball joints, I was just more curious why no one marketed a custom king-pin beam rather than spending the time to find and modify junkyard beams. A lot of shops still use these beams for their long travel setups. I would say not enough demand for it I guess.

If you were to make a custom king-pin beam end, couldn't you also make it so that it had some minor adjustability to it while still keeping it bullet proof. This is where it would take some $$$ to develop and build. Money I dont have.

Technology says to use a-arms..........but I'm building a beam truck.

-Scott