panhard bar drop bracket

[path.on.35s]

well i had been looking on here for ways to drop the panhard bar. as we all know that if you lift it then the bar is no longer going to be parallel to the axle which causes the rear axle to be shifted off center causing several problems. some have made adjustable panhard bars or just lengthened the stock one. thats ok but on compression it will still push the axle to the side. some have made ones off the calmini brackets. with this it wraps around the stock mount and just seemed to be able to move and looks like you would shear off the mounting bolts if put into a bind. the other option was to make a bracket that is inserted into the factory mount and it looks good but seems thin for the forces that are placed on the bar during wheeling. i took ideas from all of the above mounts and made this.

 

 

i measured how much of a drop i needed and it was about 6 inches. i cut the tube to 14 to be safe. i realized that the stock mount was too thick to slide the tube over. to correct this i cut the back of the mouth down the middle so that it could be compressed thinner to fit in the tube. once it would fit i had to notch out the side of the tube to allow it to slide up further on the factory mount.

 

 

i made the slot about an inch and a half so that the top of the tube would be up high enough to use the factory bolt holes and mated up with the welds of the trusses on the factory mount. i then made a template of the bolt holes and transferred it to the new mount. only problem is that when you collapse the mount then the holes arnt alligned right so make a template of the back too and transferre it as well. once the holes are made i took my two bolts and mounted the new panhard bar mount to the truck. i marked where i wanted the bar to be once mounted and began cutting the bottom of the new mount. i cut it in a way that i thought would allow it to articulate but yet keep its strenght too so i cut the rounded portion and then left a tab to fold over and weld so that the bottom of the mount would be strong.

 

 

once this was completed i centered the axle with plumb bobs off the frame rails and with a fat guy pushing on the axle i marked it and drilled the hole for the bolt through the panhard rod and there you go. i bolted it all up and while i was away getting the paint the big guy who helped me decided to lay the goose poop looking welds to finish it up. lol they held so i painted it and took it to the off road park for a test and it has held very well and allows for more flex without the driver side tire rubbing the frame. this is my first how to so i hope this helps guys and hope it makes since. will post pics of the painted finished product.

[RF600]

I see you have it bolted but those welds don't look like they will hold if you get into some serious stuff.

[path.on.35s]

I grounded the crappy welds off and rewelded it. A buddy tried welding while I was gone. I slid it off a creek bank and fell about four foot on to the passenger side wheel and stuffed the 35's real good and it held up great. Originally I didn't plan on welding it at all but I started thinking about how hard I've been on the rig and went ahead and welded it up lol.