Giant motors ddl

circafwsk8r said:

depends what your doing with your truck, and your mechanical abilities. you want something simple, on/ off road comfort? ddl is a great option imo. Able to fab and work on your truck yourself? 4 or 3 link. Imo i could do a lot more myself for a better price. everything has its issues. seems like people are adding an upper link to the giant kit, as they don't fully trust the air shocks to control pinion angle. there are a lot of setups that work out there, even with the stock 9.75 rear end.

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ntm said:

I haven't seen any three or four link that uses the stock rear. It can't really be trussed properly for mounting points due to the cast center section. Nor have I found anyone that has actually done an upper link for the ddl.
I've spoken to giant at length about it, and have mine pretty much dialed for pinion angle control by changing to a heavier oil in the bumps and overfilling on oil to limit max angle change while retaining articulation.
He is very against running a third link due to the lack of rotational cushioning that leaf springs or the ddl provide. He indicated that the stock rear will break without some give.
When I spoke of adding a third link to mine that also involved replacement of the rear with a built 9".

If I could have a do over, I think I'd have chopped the back end off, four linked it, interior cage, modded the firewall, ls3 engine and done a bulkhead/center mount arms up front.
And that was the plan for this winter, but at this point I'm thinking I should just pick up a parts truck for the cab/vin/safety inspection, tube frame the whole damn thing and leave the raptor alone as it is still a pretty decent daily driver !
And then I've got my offroad fix while I work on the other project.

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RLTW said:

Lol, everytime you talk about different setups you're follow it by saying I wish I'd just done the next step up in the first place. There is no way to satiate the need for more, you buy a parts truck and next thing is to wish you just had a tube chassis to build a TT off of lol.

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circafwsk8r said:

Not trying to bash your setup or anything. Don't take it the wrong way. Plenty of people have success with stock rear ends of all types w cast center section. Obviously fabbed 9 or bigger is better. You CAN weld cast steel... I have and seen plenty successful jobs. Me personally I can build your whole bed cage for a few hundred in tube......not 3k or more. Built my bypass rack for 80 bucks. Everyone has or lack of abilities and or money coming out their ass. I prefer to have the satisfaction of my own work and most of all can't afford to pay for people to work on my truck. There are guys on other sites that have put upper links on giants kits..... May not be raptors but same concept.

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ntm said:

The parts truck is just for the vin, so I can register the tube chassis as an f150.
I know I have a problem...

---------- Post added at 01:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:33 PM ----------



You can weld the cast centre, I've done them before for rock buggies, but it's a pain in the ass to spend that kind of time on something that is going to break an axle at the slightest provocation. You cannot just weld a couple upper link mounts to the top of a cast centre, that's been established over and over by the desert guys. It's got to be a combination of axle trussing tied into the centre with "snubber" points.

Junkyard 9" is a better option if you want to do some work.
Which guys on other sites have added a third link to the Ddl? I've found zero, please provide a link if you can.

You need to realize that although I actually have all the tooling and skills necessary to build my bed cage, that the $3000 I paid for it was still cheaper than building it myself.
By the time I'd measured, cut, notched, prepped, bent, cut shock mounts, dimpled, etc. I would have made more money on an hourly basis at my actual job. You will get to a point in life where the value of your time far exceeds what you can afford to pay other people on an hourly basis. Sounds condescending I know, but it's the truth.
Things have slowed down for me now at work, for the next year, so I now have time to spend fabricating for enjoyment, hence the desire to go further with the raptor or just start a luxury prerunner project.

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