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Build Planner / Your rig

Your rig

A build sheet for everything on the truck, with what it cost and what it weighs, plus the numbers that matter off pavement. Take a tape to it for real approach, breakover and departure angles, clearance and wheel travel, and see what the next round of mods buys you. Share it as a link or a PDF.

As it sits
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Park on flat ground at normal ride height. Every height is from the ground; every distance is level, from the center of the wheel.

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Out back, the bumper often isn't what hits first. Lay a straightedge from the bottom of the rear tire up toward the back of the truck: the first thing it touches sets your departure angle, and on a lot of trucks that's the exhaust tip, a muffler hanger or the hitch.

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The bumper corner is the lowest point at the very front or back that would touch first going up a ledge, often the bottom corner of the bumper or a winch mount. C is usually a skid plate, the transfer case or the frame.

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Build sheet

Add what's on the truck, category by category. Only the part name is needed; price, weight and install date add up into totals. It saves in this browser and rides along in the share link.

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Payload is on the sticker in the driver's door jamb. With curb weight, the sheet shows what the truck weighs with its parts; with payload, how much they leave for people and gear.

Wheel travel

From the center of the hub straight up to the fender lip, three times: at ride height, at full droop (frame jacked until the tire just lifts) and at full stuff (on a ramp or rock until the bump stop). Do one front and one rear wheel.

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Sway bars don't change how far each wheel can move. They change how much of it you get when one side is up and the other is down, which is how a truck flexes on the trail.

Been up an RTI ramp? Put in how far up the ramp the front tire got before another tire lifted.

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Power and gearing

Stock output fills in when we have it for the truck. Add each power mod with what it claims; a tune that changes shift points helps in ways a peak number won't show.

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Planned mods
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Raises the body and rockers only. Bumpers bolted to the frame, skids and diffs stay where they are.

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New heights are as they'd sit on your truck today, before the new tires or lift. A buddy's numbers on the same truck work fine. A tucked or high-exit exhaust counts here too: if the tailpipe was your lowest rear point, enter whatever becomes the lowest point once it's gone, usually the bumper or hitch.

Measure the two bumper corners and the lowest point in the middle, and this works out your real angles.

How the numbers work

How does it get angles from a tape measure?

The approach angle is a line from the ground, tangent to the front tire, that just touches the lowest front corner. With the tire size, the corner's height and its distance from the wheel center, there's only one line that fits. Breakover is the same thing twice, from each tire to the lowest point in the middle.

What counts as the bumper corner?

Whatever would touch first if you drove the nose straight into a ledge. On a winch bumper that's often the winch mount or the bottom of the fairlead, not the bumper wings. Lay a straight board from the tread to the bumper if you're not sure which point it is.

What does a lift do to wheel travel?

It depends on the lift. A spacer or preload lift moves the ride height down into the droop travel, so you gain clearance but lose some down-travel. Longer shocks, longer arms or a long-travel kit add travel. Measuring at ride, droop and stuff before and after is the only way to know what yours did.

What is RTI?

Ramp Travel Index: drive one front tire up a ramp until another tire lifts, measure how far up the ramp you got, divide by the wheelbase and multiply by 1,000. It's a quick way to compare articulation, but only between trucks on the same ramp angle.

Use at your own risk. These calculators are here to help you plan and to inform your decisions, not to sign off on a build. Many numbers are estimates worked out from factory figures, and some factory figures are not yet confirmed. Check every number against your own truck, its manuals and a qualified shop before you buy parts, cut, weld, lift, regear or drive on it. Long Range Desert Tools is not liable for anything you do based on these calculators or their results. The full terms are in our policies.