The Ground Pounder
Let me start out with how my van got to be named. It's kind of a funny story. I bought this lil guy bone stock. It had the roof rack, stock wheels and tires, and this ugly gold ground effects kit on it from the factory. I started out by removing that hideous stuff and set out to give it a " 'lil drop ". I road trip out to the snow in the winter so, with sub-zero conditions ... bags were out of the question. I went for some 2" spindles up front, and some 3" drop-leaves out back. That was supposed to get me an even stance. The rear went about 3.5" and it was anything but even. Not to mention the fact that it only looked lowered when I was next to another van. Out I went and got some 2" coils for the front. This was supposed to get me at a .5" rake to the front. Well, the coils went about 2.75" - 3". If you can guess, a 5" drop onto stock wheels and tires was a bit of a "smokey" situation! Ok, out I went and picked up some 17" TSW's and some 235/45/17 rubber to get some air between the fender wells and the tires.
That got the clearance I needed but ... that took me to an all time low of 7" overall up front. If you own one of these you know that ... there is only about 8.5" of factory clearance between the oil pan and the ground. Can you see it coming? That weekend was a trip to Mountain High with some friends. Now I had a 7" drop, 4 passengers and myself and enough snowboard gear to do some real damage ... That was the ride of a life time ... I could throw sparks if I even so much as ran over a bugs ass! We got there, oil pan still holding (though I don't know how) and when my friends got out ... they christened it "The Ground Pounder".
I have since removed the spindles for a near 3"/3" drop (5"/5" overall with tires). It had a good enough stance and is still functional enough for road trips to wherever I need to go.
(It's not on flat ground ... I'll get one ASAP to show the actual side stance)
On the next pages I'll fill you in on how my never-ending project is coming along!
