both of those are solid advice. spring clamps make a HUGE difference in how the truck launches. they're streetable, and actually improve the braking a little, especially on an unloaded truck.
dropped tbars will get rid of a lot of wheelhop. cuts down on those front shaft angles......
put it this way..... my lb7 has a quadzilla race programmer on it. i cant turn it up past 110 or it'll limp. however, on the 110 tune, with the truck weighing in ~7500-8000 lbs, i lost to a brand new 08 gt mustang by 1 car length!! that's a stock trans, 245 tires, a very traction limited...
damn, that looks mean. good to hear you and the boys got out under your own power.
i know the feelings. T-boned a truck a few years ago at ~50 mph in an 92 camaro..... it looked about 10x worse than your truck. small, unibody convertible car with lots of plastic.... i wonder why...
550 seems a tad high..... :D
i know the 5 spd alli will take ~100 over stock before things start goin south. a lot of this depends on driving habits and how hard you beat on it. as for the 6 spd, its beefier than the 5 spd but it also backs up a more powerful motor. with that in mind...
thats ALL i could run in my elky..... 22 gallon tank, 112 octane at ~$6.50 gallon (this was 4 years ago) ..... fill it up once a week. ran like a raped ape. new set of rear tires every month..... almost 14:1 will do that to you... :D
air down the tires a bit too. if you 4x4 you dont have to go way low, but droppin a few pounds may stop the wheel hop. definately drop the tbars down if you gonna do hard, boosted launches with no sleeves or braces. neutralize those cv angles so you dont tear too much shit up..... :D...
frames say not to weld on them simply because they are tempered. an inexperienced welder can put too much heat on a weld on tempered metal and cause more problems then they are fixing. if you know how to run a welder, then you'll be ok. dont superheat it, and you should be fine....... i...