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enlightened Ttb 1993 Ford Bronco Project Truck - 1993 Ford Bronco With Camburg Long Travel Kit - Photo 41305164

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  • We departed for a two-day, 200-mile desert trip a few weeks later, excited at the chance to test the suspension. And test it we did—through long washboard roads, deep whoops, bermed turns, patches of powdery silt, and passages of sharp volcanic rocks. The thing was awesome (and the General Grabbers survived the whole trip. Though the Bronco doesn’t have the power of a modern Ford Raptor, it easily kept pace with one throughout the trip. And we’re betting it would have even pulled ahead in gnarlier terrain thanks to the control and damping provided by the Camburg long-travel kit.
We departed for a two-day, 200-mile desert trip a few weeks later, excited at the chance to test the suspension. And test it we did—through long washboard roads, deep whoops, bermed turns, patches of powdery silt, and passages of sharp volcanic rocks. The thing was awesome (and the General Grabbers survived the whole trip. Though the Bronco doesn’t have the power of a modern Ford Raptor, it easily kept pace with one throughout the trip. And we’re betting it would have even pulled ahead in gnarlier terrain thanks to the control and damping provided by the Camburg long-travel kit.
We departed for a two-day, 200-mile desert trip a few weeks later, excited at the chance to test the suspension. And test it we did—through long washboard roads, deep whoops, bermed turns, patches of powdery silt, and passages of sharp volcanic rocks. The thing was awesome (and the General Grabbers survived the whole trip. Though the Bronco doesn’t have the power of a modern Ford Raptor, it easily kept pace with one throughout the trip. And we’re betting it would have even pulled ahead in gnarlier terrain thanks to the control and damping provided by the Camburg long-travel kit. A full 8 inches wider than a stock Bronco front end, the Camburg-modified TTB beams fit nicely under our 6-inch-wider-per-side McNeil Racing fiberglass fenders. The truck was irrevocably transformed into an attention-getter; we actually had folks flag us down while driving more than once to ask us about the mods. At this point, we are ready to officially call the truck a full-fledged prerunner. The big question was, “How would it feel in the dirt?” <strong>01. </strong>The tech team at Camburg pulled our TTB components off the Bronco, then cut into the beams. They were extended by four inches per side and turned a bit to retain correct geometry. Next, the open spots in the beams were boxed in. The 14-inch-stroke Bilstein coilovers (9100 series—more about them later) were mated to Eibach springs and then mounted up on the new shock hoops, which are supported laterally with a removable crossbar support over the engine compartment. <strong>02. </strong> Here’s a good look at the front of the passenger-side beam. Look at those welds! Lengthened by four inches per side then turned and boxed up, these beams are plenty strong enough for the front-mounted coilover perches…and certainly rugged enough for some high-speed rides through rugged terrain. <strong>03. </strong> Ford seemed to think that Bronco owners (or F-150 owners from that period) didn’t need boxed beams. That may be the case for those vehicles relegated to grocery-getting, but not for those that will most certainly be taken over desert whoops. The only holes in the beams that remain are those that are necessary for the axleshafts. <strong>04. </strong>Service with a smile! The oddball-length axleshafts weren’t readily available at any of the mail-order axle/drivetrain outfits that we contacted, but the Currie Enterprises gang didn’t even crack a sweat creating ours. When we have custom axle needs, we’ve found a call to Currie is the easiest and quickest way to get our fix. <strong>05. </strong>We used two springs of different rates on our coilovers (though there would be still graduated damping with two matching rate coils). We tried a few different combos and ended up with 450-pound springs over 500-pound springs, which is pretty common among prerunner Broncos. <strong>06.0 </strong> We’ve always run Bilsteins on this Bronco, and in this case we used a pair of their 2.65-inch diameter 9100s with the new ACV (anti-cavitation valve). Oil is forced through channels in the ACV before it reaches the inside of the reservoir.
<strong>06.5 </strong>This allows the shock to remain stiff over high-speed bumps without the use of a stiff main valving stack. Bilstein recommends that ACV-equipped shocks be used only in the front end of vehicles, as they can be a bit too aggressive for the rear. <strong>07. </strong> In addition to the coilovers, Bilstein bumpstops were utilized in conjunction with the Camburg kit. At some point in the near future, we’ll have these under all four corners of the Bronco, but for now, only the front end is so equipped. We stubbornly run 37-inch Grabbers under the Juice, rather than the 35-inch rubber that Camburg recommends with the kit, so the bumpstops were carefully placed in order to limit uptravel and keep the Bronco’s fenders and climate control equipment from being bashed and destroyed by the 37s. <strong>08. </strong> Camburg’s own radius arms were utilized as part of the long-travel kit, and these are even longer than some of the aftermarket offerings you’ll find from the usual lift companies. As you’d expect, the mounting brackets are burly too. Beard limiting straps keep the front wheel travel constrained to 19 inches. More could be coaxed out of the kit, but at that point we’d fear pulling the long axleshaft out of the differential. More than the wheel travel, it’s the well-conceived components and they way they work together that create the performance capabilities of this kit. <strong>09. </strong> One complaint we’d always had with TTB (twin traction beam) lift kits was that the urethane (or rubber) bushings at the end of the radius arms would wear out quickly, causing a clunk during braking as the end bounced around in the bushing cavity. No such problems here—Camburg utilizes a 3/4-inch pivot bolt through a 1.25-inch rod end rather than using urethane. The Heim joints are inherently stronger and will last longer in this radius arm application
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