Know a good 4x4 shop?

[BroncoHauler]

A good 4x4 shop is Ventura 4x4, and two good truck shops are Tarango's Auto Diesel in Santa Paula and Ultimate Truck Performance in Oxnard.

I' would recommend them all, and used them all while living for 30 years in the Oxnard/Ventura area, but finding someone who really knows (aftermarket) 4x4 vans is a challenge.


Herb

[B1200]

Hey hey hey! Rallypanam, you can't just tell me "Which isn't great for you" and just leave it there. Who the hell is Javier/Crow and why isn't that great for me? I've never heard the name and I would appreciate some more info. I mean, I am trying to find out more about my setup, good and bad, so I guess I should hear about it now. If you please.

[B1200]

Thanks Broncohauler. Those are the closest so far. I'm in Camarillo. Any one you would describe as more talkative and knowledgeable and willing to give me an honest eval of my rig?

[rallypanam]

Originally Posted by B1200

Hey hey hey! Rallypanam, you can't just tell me "Which isn't great for you" and just leave it there. Who the hell is Javier/Crow and why isn't that great for me? I've never heard the name and I would appreciate some more info. I mean, I am trying to find out more about my setup, good and bad, so I guess I should hear about it now. If you please.

Javier is a guy who runs Crows, and does 4x4 conversions for vans in Mexico. He’s well known for less than stellar quality, but there have been rumors of improvement. Loads of threads here and elsewhere, spend some time googling.

But, as I said, I’m not certain that’s his work, but it could be based on the control arms and brackets in your pictures.

[B1200]

Thanks Rallypanam. Now I'm more motivated than ever to get this thing checked out. It might be the issue with my front end problem.

[BroncoHauler]

Originally Posted by B1200

Thanks Broncohauler. Those are the closest so far. I'm in Camarillo. Any one you would describe as more talkative and knowledgeable and willing to give me an honest eval of my rig?

I would start with Ventura 4x4.



Herb

[carringb]

This conversion was not done well. I don't even think it's a Javier van, unless it was an early version. He seems to have mostly figured out geometry recently, and this sample isn't even close.

Where to start...The coils are way too tall for the radius arm brackets installed. These radius arms must be parallel with the frame on both directions. The current radius arm angle makes it impossible to have any camber at all for starters. And worse is that it wants to self-steer because the arms aren't parallel to each other, and instead form a trapezoid in plan-view. Proper conversions move the frame-end inboard, as the van frames are wider, in order to keep them parallel.

It's compounded by the steep tack-bar angle, the the front axle ends up moving laterally during bump travel, and this in turn causes the drag link to the push and pull while the suspension bounces up and down.

Basically, this setup is prone to death wobble, even if all the components are in perfect condition.

I suspect they used the super tall coil to avoid trimming the engine crossmember. And tall front-end lifts are popular with the bro-truck crowd.

Seeing how that setup was done, I think the easiest fix is retrofitting to MG's setup. This will fix the geometry, while allowing you to bypass crossmember trimming. Hopefully they didn't hack all the stock mounting points off the axle.

[805Rider]

Not sure if they work on vans, but Go Big Trucks in Ventura are excellent with suspension work.

[rob_gendreau]

And maybe 4Wheel Parts. I was skeptical, but they did some great work for me on my 4x4 E250, which had a bunch of custom stuff on it. So very labor intensive, and hard to find parts. I was impressed. I hear they vary a lot, but worth checking say other forums like pirate4x4 and expedition portal to see if a good one is near you.

And assuming they're open...the lock down here exempts auto repair, but it should be for daily drivers, not vacation rigs, so not sure all would be working. Would't want them to shut midway through a big overhaul.

[silvrzuki77]

My friend Andrew runs a custom fab/Offroad shop in Simi Valley. I’m sure he would help diagnose the problem and come up with some solutions.

https://mayhemmetalworks.com