[Caddy Fleet]

My 90 fleetwood is just about ready to roll, but i've been wondering if the 12 battery 4 pump setup in the trunk is going to cause serious trouble with the frame. I've done minor reinforcement, but not at all what is needed. I plan on doing the rest within about 2 months and need input on if i'm pushing the limits on the frame too much for now with it not reinforced.

[rlowride]

yes....

[Lowridingmike]

Lift it and drop it. You hop it or 3 and you'll either get addicted and will do it till it breaks or it'll break first time up... Trust me... For some odd reason fuccin trailing arms liek to go to crap before your frame ever does... If you already got those reinforce then the next thing in line will be the "ears" where the tailing arms bolt on to or your rearend..

[vegashopper]

What you should do is to take four of the batteries out and only roll with 8 until you get the rest the reinforcement done... I will tell you this, the stock rear axle will not fair too well with 12 batteries and no reinforcement... As long as you don't get crazy with hitting switches, you should be cool with 8 batteries with minor reinforcement...

[Cadillac Bob]

Originally Posted by Caddy Fleet

My 90 fleetwood is just about ready to roll, but i've been wondering if the 12 battery 4 pump setup in the trunk is going to cause serious trouble with the frame. I've done minor reinforcement, but not at all what is needed. I plan on doing the rest within about 2 months and need input on if i'm pushing the limits on the frame too much for now with it not reinforced.

Dont gamble man, I GUARANTEE you are gonna trash that frame... take it from someone who knows from experience!

You MUST

#1. Reinforce the front spring pockets
#2. Reinforce the front crossmember and inside front frame rails.. those twist in VERY easy. Just a couple hops and your fan will be hitting the shroud!
#3. Reinforce ALL THREE SIDES of the rear frame from the back bumper, up past the C section of the frame in front of the wheel hump. Just throwing some plate on the sides of the wheel hump WONT help. Those cars are very weak where the C frame section transitions into the wheel hump.

Thats really the minimum you need to do. As vegas says that axle is a weak spot too. Those are just steel sleeved pinned into a cast pig, and its NOT a strong rear at all. I managed to bend the shit out of a stock caddy axle with only 10 batts in no time at all. You really need to reinforce it well too. It's alot easier to build it right the first time, than to bandaid it later!

[Caddy Fleet]

Originally Posted by Cadillac Bob

Dont gamble man, I GUARANTEE you are gonna trash that frame... take it from someone who knows from experience!

You MUST

#1. Reinforce the front spring pockets
#2. Reinforce the front crossmember and inside front frame rails.. those twist in VERY easy. Just a couple hops and your fan will be hitting the shroud!
#3. Reinforce ALL THREE SIDES of the rear frame from the back bumper, up past the C section of the frame in front of the wheel hump. Just throwing some plate on the sides of the wheel hump WONT help. Those cars are very weak where the C frame section transitions into the wheel hump.

Thats really the minimum you need to do. As vegas says that axle is a weak spot too. Those are just steel sleeved pinned into a cast pig, and its NOT a strong rear at all. I managed to bend the shit out of a stock caddy axle with only 10 batts in no time at all. You really need to reinforce it well too. It's alot easier to build it right the first time, than to bandaid it later!

Thanks for all the help. I see i have my work cut out for me