Total Cost Involved Debuts Pro-Touring Ford and Chevy Truck Chassis

Total Cost Involved Debuts Pro-Touring Ford and Chevy Truck Chassis

When it comes to the hot rod hobby, the good old days are now.  Never in automotive history has there been such a vast selection of top-notch aftermarket goodies for car builders to choose from.

Total Cost Involved Engineering has been at the forefront of the resto-mod movement for decades and continues to lead the pack in chassis design and suspension components for hot rods, trucks and custom cars.

For all you fifties truck fans, TCI has just introduced two new frames for Ford and Chevy trucks. The company is proud to announce the release of its new Pro-Touring Pickup Chassis, designed to fit 1948-1956 Ford F100 & 1955-1959 Chevy pickups. The frames are the result of years of  TCI fabrication experience and many hours of racing experience.

TCI 1948-1956 Ford Pickup Pro-Touring Chassis

To start, they took with their tried and true 8” tall main frame rails that follow original frame profiles. Then they applied what they’ve learned from a decade of auto-crossing and road racing and integrated the technology into a new Pro-Touring independent front suspension that marries custom-designed spindles coupled with bolt-on steering arms. This maximizes the adjustable suspension geometry options, including camber gain, bump steer, Ackerman angle, scrub radius, kingpin inclination, and instant center.

The new Pro-Touring IFS still utilizes over the counter brakes, ball joints, and rack & pinion so replacements are readily available. Ridetech Million Mile Warranty coilovers are standard equipment. The new Pro-Touring IFS provides the ultimate in handling, weight savings, strength, ground clearance, along with a broad range of alignment adjustments.

TCI 1948-1956 Ford Pickup Pro-Touring Chassis

We talked with TCI’s Senior Marketing guru Jason Wilcox, and he elaborates further, “The Pro-Touring spindle we used in this new IFS is a unique design. We needed something that would use off the shelf brakes, bearings and seals. So we based the brake mounting point on an early Ford pattern. This also allows us to use a bolt-on steering arm so we can control Ackerman, bump steer, and turning radius. The spindle pin is made of solid chrome-moly and is pressed into place.

“The kingpin inclination is proprietary and designed to have aggressive camber gain. We use a lightweight short arm 1” anti-sway bar for tight packaging and maximum roll stiffness. The attachment point for the lower shock mount is as close to the ball joint as possible which maximizes motion ratio. This allows the Ridetech shocks to perform their best.  We offer brake packages from 11” single-piston calipers all the way up to Wilwood 14” with 6 piston calipers.”

Moving to the rear, TCI’s torque arm rear suspension was designed to eliminate the bind that occurs when cornering using the stock conventional leaf spring suspension. For the torque-arm to function properly, the rear frame rails need to be stepped, allowing for proper torque arm and link bar geometry.

This has the added benefit of lowering the center of gravity and moving some weight rearward making it more balanced. The Torque Arm features a telescoping slider at the front of the arm that rotates as the vehicle goes through suspension travel and articulation. This allows the handling to be controlled by the coil-over shocks and the rear sway bar with no suspension binding variables. The kit also allows for a lowered stance and greater rear axle control to dramatically improving the handling. There are three adjustments on the axle brackets giving you the capacity to change the ride height in one-inch increments. You also have the ability to fine-tune the ride height further with the Ridetech Million Mile Warranty adjustable coil-overs.

Jason continues with more etails about the rear suspension, “The torque arm rear suspension uses our proprietary ‘slider’. This allows the suspension to not only articulate bind free but also telescope during suspension travel. The link bar location has been moved up the frame to allow for minimal roll steer.

“The stepped rear frame rails allow not only a significant ride height drop but proper Torque Arm geometry. We place the link bars on the outside of the frame. The lower shock mounts attach to the link bar brackets which keeps roll stiffness very high. We also include an adjustable Panhard bracket for roll center adjustments.

“We can build the Currie 9” rear axle to pretty much any specification possible. If Currie offers it, we can build it. Anything from round back housings all the way up to Fabricated chro-moly housings and tubes. Iron chunks, aluminum chunks, billet pinion supports, 31. 35 or even 40 spline axles, and any gear.”

We offer a wide variety of additional options that allow you to custom tailor a chassis to meet your specific needs. All TCI Engineering products come with our Dual Warranty, six-year, 60,000 Mile Warranty on wear and tear. Any items built in house by TCI Engineering come with a Lifetime Warranty.

Go here for more details and pricing.

 

 

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About the author

Dave Cruikshank

Dave Cruikshank is a lifelong car enthusiast and an editor at Power Automedia. He digs all flavors of automobiles, from classic cars to modern EVs. Dave loves music, design, tech, current events, and fitness.
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