Astro AWD "Stroverlander"

[trailrunner]

I think the vibration could be related to cranking the torsion bars. I know on S10's cranking the T-bars is notorious for causing early failure of front ball joints and increasing the normal angle that the CV joints run at. I'm not too familiar with the AWD in those van's so I'm not really sure how it biases torque, but you could be feeling driveline vibrations from the front end.

[Brad Kilby]

Hi Brad, thanks for the info. Everything I've read about lifting these vans with shackles has the pinion shims with the thick end facing forward to compensate for longer shackle. I understand what you're saying about rotating the pinion up to get the u-joints parallel and will probably try that next. Need to take measurements and definitely learning a lot about pinion and driveshaft angles.

If you're using a shackle lift, you're pushing down on the back of the axle housing which should rotate the pinion higher. If that's the case, you would put the thicker part in the front.

If you're doing 2" lift stock length shocks are fine in the front, much more than that and for me, they didn't work real well feeling harsh on rebound over bumps, etc so you may consider longer front shocks.

I personally think 2" lift in the front via torsion bars or keys is pushing it. I've raised my rig approx 1.75" via torsion bars and I've lost most of my down travel in the front. Matter of fact, I have about 1" of down travel measured at the shock. I'll be pulling all kinds of wheelies off road. Ha! When I had the van on my vehicle lift, I disco'd one front shock to see how much more droop the front would go. It goes about 1" but it feels like the axle shafts were binding when I turned the tires. If I were to go to a longer shock, I think I'll be asking for problems if those shafts do bind up while wheeling.

I relocated my upper ball joints to below the upper control arms, which corrected the negative camber after cranking the torsion bars further for the additional lift.

I did the same thing. Easy to do and only took a few minutes. :-)

[suntinez]

Stroverlander, nice looking Astro!

Thanks for all the details and explanation of your thinking. There's a new AWD Astro (Tiger) in the family needing some love and your thoughts are helping me sort it out.

[Stroverlander]

Thanks, glad I could help and just trying to return the favor for everything I've learned from all the other lifted van owners/threads. I bet that AWD Tiger is pretty neat, I just recently started following the Tiger threads here on EP.

After relocating the upper ball joints, adjusting shackle position back to where I originally had them (bottom hole) I could see I had postive camber in front and after driving only a short distance I could already start to see wear and cupping on the outer edges of the front tires. I finalized torsion bar settings/height and took it one more time for an alignment after I found a shop out in the boonies that specializes in driveline, springs, alignment and heavy duty trucks. I heard a couple of the guys while I was waiting talking about how "beefy" my van looked and maybe because it was AWD it was "beefier". Funny stuff.

Turns out I had pretty severe positive camber and toe-in so I'm glad I didn't wait long to re-align. Van drives down the road nice and straight with steering wheel centered (last alignment took shop two visits to get it sorted) so I'm happy. Great shop, no bs just a good quality alignment for the money. After rotating the tires and a trip to Florida, tire wear looks great and was a pleasure to drive though I did have to soften the settings on the Rancho shocks from #9 front/rear to a #7 front/rear as they transmit too much road "feel" at the firm setting and it's an acceptable trade off now for highway use. Even loaded down the rear springs did their job and only sagged to a level even with the front so it rides nice.

Here's a pic of my beach landing: (additional photos in the van pics thread)





New to me Camping Lab RTT:

[arlon]

That RTT looks like a pretty neat deal to me. I was really torn between sleeping inside or doing a tent. SInce it's only the two of us we decided it would be easy to try the inside bunk first but that tent sure looks inviting. I'd have killed for a setup like that when I was seriously into surf fishing.

[Stroverlander]

Arlon, the RTT is a pretty cool setup, lots to like about it and while the Camping Lab 71x94 is larger than I originally intended it was just too good of a deal to pass up and I like the extra room it has now, frees up a bunch of space in the van too.

I still do both though, for shorter trips I still just use an inflatable mattress and sleeping bag in the van.

I haven't really slept in the RTT much yet though, once I sorted out mounting it to factory crossbars trying to keep a low-ish profile. I'm not leaving the RTT mounted because it's my daily driver and now that I've figured it out, only takes about 15 minutes to mount/dismount from roof with a helper. That will probably be my next post - rooftop tent mounting setup, once I get some photos.

I'm excited about getting out and using the RTT, especially with a companion - my last gf wouldn't have been caught dead in a tent (ok,maybe dead, lol). Some places it's nice to have the additional security of sleeping in the van but everywhere else the RTT rocks.

[Loopie]

Nice, very nice! ...and Thx for the info on the 9000's, keep us posted

[arlon]

When you find a girl that doesn't mind (or better yet likes) roughing it, grab her. Even if you can't stand her parents it will be a bargain in the long run. Check the local outing clubs.. (-:}

[fnjeep314]

You really have a very cool build going on. I love it!!

Arlon-Thats almost the exact scenario I have. My wife LOVES tent camping. I cant even get her to camp in a pop-up camper!! And I can only half stand her parents.

[arlon]

LOL, my wife thinks camping is a 4 star motel. She's getting better but she's not about to sleep in a tent yet. She might give an RTT a try, at least it should be away from any crawley things as she calls them.