Every day there are people thinking about plunking down their cold, hard cash for an independent front suspension setup for their vintage truck. The demand of today's classic trucks is far beyond what was expected of them in the past (not in the utilitarian sense-far from it in fact). Trucks are almost expected to ride and handle like most cars these days-which is a bit of a stretch-but there are cars on the market now that will start to apply the brakes for you when you get close to an object! The argument that these kind of ultra-modern features are making up for careless, distracted, and totally non-mechanically minded "drivers" is for another time and place. Nonetheless, most people now want their old truck to ride less like, well, an old truck.
A company called Helix has jumped in the IFS ring with their new CornerKiller RX IFS suspension packages. The kit is available in either a deluxe or economy version. The deluxe CornerKiller RX kit includes TIG-welded tubular upper and lower control arms and the crossmember with ground and smoothed welds, while the economy packages include an ungrounded crossmember. All packages include 11-inch drilled, slotted, and vented rotors with bearings and seals, coilovers, stock height spindles, calipers with brackets and pads, a front-mount manual rack-and-pinion with tie-rod ends and bushings, a spindle nut kit, and all mounting hardware.
There are also options that include Helix's Magnum Mustang II forged, 2-inch drop spindles, power-assist rack-and-pinion steering, or the Helix AirShock suspension system. To make installations easier, Helix offers complete air suspension packages that include everything you need in one box, including compressor, manifold, tank, lines, airbags/shocks, digital control with eight presets, a remote control, and a plug 'n' play wiring harness. Helix also offers an upgrade program that allows you to exchange your old aftermarket suspension parts toward a CornerKiller RX IFS at a nominal fee, which is pretty sweet.
Right now, Helix has kits for '53-56 Ford F-100s and '55-59 Chevy trucks, but they also offer a universal crossmember that can be trimmed to fit just about anything. Join us at Jimenez Brothers Customs (JBC), in Riverside, California, as they walk us through the installation of the CornerKiller RX into a '53 F-100.
