I could write forever about the different types of setups, but I’ll go basic for you. Each combination of pumps and dumps gives you different movements, and different levels of power.

I’ll explain ‘em in this style: pump/dumps. Meaning a one pump, eight dump setup will be explained as 1/8.

1 Pump Setups

1/1: Best for one-corner operations.
1/2: Front, maybe back-only setups. Real simple.
1/3: Front and back, nasty sway. Funky setup.
1/4 (Manifold): Front, back sides. Hard to find the manifolds, though, at least the good ones. Otherwise they’re great for individually lifting corners.
1/5: Budget setup. Way funky, but it lets you do everything.
1/8 (manifold): In the late ’90s you’d have seen about 30 of these go out of my garage.

A 1/8 lets you do EVERY move a four-pumper will do. Its a manifold. The manifold is a bunch of dumps that are housed in one casing. It allows the fluid to move differently than usual, and it’s way cool. But the manifolds can be problematic.

2 Pump setups

If you have a FSC, start here. One pump isn’t going to cut it on a fullsize, even a V6.

2/2: Usually seen as both pumps going to the front.
2/3: 1/1 to the back (T’d off, so you get sway) 1/2 to the front.
2/4: By far the most common setup you’ll ever see. It’s advertised in all the kits. With a 2/4 you can LIFT front & back, and DUMP sides, corners, front, or back.
2/8: One of my old-school favorites. Think 1/8 with another pump. Quick, and it can move just like a four-pumper

3 Pump Setups

3/3: 1/1 to each front corner, 1/1 to the rear, t’d and sways.
3/4: 1/1 to each front corner, 1/2 to the rear. Used for hoppers usually, maybe for three-wheelin’.
3/6: 1/1 to each front corner, 1/4 to the back. That means you can lift corners. For the money, buy another pump and go 4/4.

4 Pump Setups

4/4: There really isn’t any simpler setup. People just tend to think it’s complicated, because of how many pumps there are. One pump per corner, and as many moves as you want.

Check back tomorrow for part 11: maintenance.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Custom Ride. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.