Steering, and I tried the dropped pitman arm.

[joel brodsky <travelall1974@xxxxxxxxx>]

TRE,
I think you may have things confused.  The toe-in ONLY
changes if you adjust the tie-rod.  Changes to lift,
or caster do not effect the toe-in.  Caster MAY change
with a lift, depending on the shape of the springs. 
Usually (requiredly?), you should change the shackles
to longer units with lift springs as they need more
travel to allow the lift spring to flatten out.  This
is why MOST spring hangers are ripped from the frame
on trail rigs.  Yours look fine.

Well, I put the front shocks back in, and changed the
pitman arm to the dropped unit, and let me just say:
TWO BIG THUMBS DOWN.
to the dropped pitman arm.

It acted like someone else's truck.  Actually it was
like riding a horse.  You can tell it where you want
to go and when, but ultimately it's up to the truck to
do it.  It seemed like turning was more of a casual
suggestion of turning radius, rather than a command to
do so.

I still noticed a bit of bump steer on the speed hump,
and the turning circle got HUGE!  So, the choices are,
diminish the bump steer about 40% of the whole, and
accept the huge turning circle, OR, go back to the
stock pitman arm, keep good shocks in the front, and
get the same great tight turning radius, and live with
some appreciable bump-steer.

The stock pitman arm is back on the truck, and the new
shocks are all there.  It rides like a champ right now
(Aside from the g'd up steering wheel alignment, which
will get fixed).

I just wanted to report back that the dropped pitman
arm is ALL hype.  If it were longer than 7 inches,
then it would probably be okay, but the short arm, and
not eliminating bump steer?  Yeah, it's not a full
fix.

purely, clearly, FYI.

G'night all,

JoelB

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