AssBurns

will wheel for beer
Staff member
Joined
Oct 1, 2018
Messages
7,959
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31
Location
Yucaipa, CA
We run a 22 Gallon RCI Fuel Cell. We could have finished all 200 miles without a fuel stop (if the pickup was working right). But, plenty for what we are doing.
Nice! That's pretty good you guys are getting that good of mileage in a racing environment. I was thinking about going a little bigger so I don't need to bring spare fuel on weekend trips, but if I could get 200 miles on a tank I wouldn't need spare fuel for mild weekend trips.
 

kasnerd

Danny's Red Headed Step Child
Joined
Aug 15, 2019
Messages
4,791
Nice! That's pretty good you guys are getting that good of mileage in a racing environment. I was thinking about going a little bigger so I don't need to bring spare fuel on weekend trips, but if I could get 200 miles on a tank I wouldn't need spare fuel for mild weekend trips.
Fuel cell is the way to go. 25gal gets bolted on here soon. Same reasons and balance. being able to 2 stop on longer stints with more margins. Will always carry 5gal extra...opens up mutliday jaunts without services.

Alex, cell is foam I assume and what are you using for the sending unit?
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
The Wild West 100​

This race was a butt kicker for sure. Glad we did it though, it put some new stressors on the car and the team and that is exactly what we needed.

We loaded up the truck and trailer and headed up on Thursday evening to allow ourselves a whole day of pre running and some time to work on minor changes the car may need. This proved to be very helpful.





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We spent most the morning get the car through tech, registering, setting up the tracker and getting a few last minute changes done to the car. By noon we were suited up and headed out for our first lap.

It was apparent the course was rough right of the bat. Hayden went out in his Tacoma to just follow us and have some fun in his taco but after about 2 miles decided it wasn't worth it. It wasn't hard by any means, but super bumpy, big dips, lots of branches and close trees and big nasty rocks in silt. So, you had to be careful about tire placement etc.

After the first lap the only adjustments we made was more preload to get the front end higher off the ground as we hit our front diff skid A LOT. This helped a ton. Then we headed out for the second lap of pre running. This is where about half way through the car started to feel real rough. We lost all dampening from the right rear. Limped it to pits and saw that we blew the cap off the resi. Snap ring and all, it just pushed out the aluminum housing.


So, we threw the 14" shock from Hayden's Tacoma in the race truck. By the time we were finished, pre-running was over and we just had to hope that it worked.

Race Day​

The team got suited up at 8am so we could line up at 8:30.
by Chase Brock

Pulled up to staging and got in some last minute stretches
by Chase Brock

Then it was time to lineup and start the race.
by Chase Brock
1 by Chase Brock

Right away, you could tell that shock was WAY softer than the rest. Not setup for what we are doing at all. This proved to slow us down quite a bit. We hit that corner to full bump nearly every hard hit, and there were a lot of hard hits on this course.

Lap 1 was great for us. We made really good time on both cars that started in front of us and even got a pass in. We zoomed past pits on lap one and hunted for the leader on lap 2.

by Chase Brock

by Chase Brock

by Chase Brock

This is when we started to notice that the right rear was getting softer and softer and more and more harsh on bumps. We blamed shock fade, which it very well could have been. Then, after another hard hit, we heard a terrible rattle and banging. It sounded like a driveshaft bouncing around in a drive shaft loop. We decided to roll through pits at the end of the lap, so we limped it the last 2 miles of lap two.

Sure enough, as we pulled into pits, the checked the drive shaft and nothing, no problems. But, someone noticed the entire right rear shock tower was ripped off the frame. It turned out that the King we put in was about 1” longer than the Locked Offroad 14” short body shock we normally run. This caused us to be bumping on the shock and not using the entire hydro bump.

by Chase Brock

by Chase Brock

by Chase Brock, on Flick

The pit crew thought fast and just removed the whole thing and sent us out on lap 3 with no shock on the right rear. It honestly did not feel terrible and we still were making really good time. We zoomed out of pits right behind a Bronco, eating their dust for about a ¼ mile before going through a marked caution and speeding up only to smash into a massive G out we did not have marked because normally it was super easy to see. Live and learn, mark EVERYTHING on the GPS. The truck took it like a champ though. It annihilated the front diff skid and bent the front cross member but we had no issues outside of that.

We kept cruising at a slower pace but still pacing towards a second place finish within our class. Which is not bad at all for who we were racing against. Then, a new noise. Very similar sound but it really did sound like the left side. We were close to starting lap 4 so we limped into pits again. This time, the whole bump stop on the right side was bent out, and it had punctured our soft line going to our caliper. No bueno. It had happened very recently as I had working brakes the entire time with zero sign of fade. Very thankful for that.

by Chase Brock

by Chase Brock

by Chase Brock

Sadly, the soft lines we had at pits had different fittings that this one and we had to call the race. There was no way to pinch to head back out and we put ours and others safety first. Not worth another band-aid just to hurt someone or wreck the truck.

Heads held high, we went and resigned from the race, but we were all in high spirits as we found new weak points and tested ourselves under rougher conditions. Gives us a lot to work on and to learn from which is what it is all about.

by Chase Brock
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
Fuel cell is the way to go. 25gal gets bolted on here soon. Same reasons and balance. being able to 2 stop on longer stints with more margins. Will always carry 5gal extra...opens up mutliday jaunts without services.

Alex, cell is foam I assume and what are you using for the sending unit?
We are using Alltech Baffles which are like plastic rings. Foam breaks down over time and makes a mess. No sending unit, we just watch fuel consumption on an ultra guage for now and to be be aware of the fact we do not have a fuel gauges.

Nice! That's pretty good you guys are getting that good of mileage in a racing environment. I was thinking about going a little bigger so I don't need to bring spare fuel on weekend trips, but if I could get 200 miles on a tank I wouldn't need spare fuel for mild weekend trips.
Best fuel capacity to weight ratio in my mind.
 

Dukestaco

Stirring the pot 24/7
Joined
Oct 3, 2018
Messages
7,472
Location
Tucson
Great job guys. It’s cool to see the process the ups and the downs of the team. Looking forward to more races and of course better outcomes.
How did the PCK work out and could you notice any changes in the handling?
 
Joined
Jun 29, 2019
Messages
11
Age
33
Great job on this! Definitely inspiring. Your rear shock hoops, how is the clearance back there. It seems like you had to use spacers to get the space? If so did you have to cut into the wheel well at all?
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
Great job on this! Definitely inspiring. Your rear shock hoops, how is the clearance back there. It seems like you had to use spacers to get the space? If so did you have to cut into the wheel well at all?

We do run spacers to clear the shock body, only 1.75" spacers. Eventually we plan to just slap a Ford 9" in that is the width of a soon to be long travel on the front so we can rid of that garbage.

Great job guys. It’s cool to see the process the ups and the downs of the team. Looking forward to more races and of course better outcomes.
How did the PCK work out and could you notice any changes in the handling?

Glad you are enjoying the vids, they are a ton of work but super fun to have for our memories and to share with everyone.
As far as PCK the main thing I noticed was less body roll as well as it seemed to droop more easily. The Panhard before would bind up real bad because of roll steer, It still does it absolutely still, but it seems better. Can't really explain it much past it feels better haha.
 
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Messages
12
Age
38
Good job on the build and videos. What will you be using for the long travel? ultra 4 rules for 4600 class “3.9.1 Wheelbase must remain within 3" (75mm) of stock, as originally manufactured.”
I’ve been wondering how a long travel will work without breaking the rules.
Keep up the good work!
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
Good job on the build and videos. What will you be using for the long travel? ultra 4 rules for 4600 class “3.9.1 Wheelbase must remain within 3" (75mm) of stock, as originally manufactured.”
I’ve been wondering how a long travel will work without breaking the rules.
Keep up the good work!

The rule is for wheel base which is measured front to back, as far as width goes we are ok running a +3.5" LT Kit. So assuming the rear axle stays in the stock location, we have 3" we can move forward on the front or, visa versa.
 
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Messages
12
Age
38
The rule is for wheel base which is measured front to back, as far as width goes we are ok running a +3.5" LT Kit. So assuming the rear axle stays in the stock location, we have 3" we can move forward on the front or, visa versa.
Thank you for clearing that up. I started following king of the hammers and I found your videos.
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
We drug the car out to Moab for some seat time in the rocks... and well, lets just say we broke a lot of stuff. Still jumped it and drove it onto the trailer so I would say it was a successful trip. Just did not get to wheel it as much as I was hoping for.

We took it out to Metal Masher the first day to break it in and well we broke it in good.

First thing was on the dirt road to the trail head. The same shock tower we broke in the race, well the lower shock mount must have been cracked or damn near ready to crack because it popped right off. (You can see this in the video)

First "hard" obstacle we lined up to it and tried to push the bumper up the ledge and well the rocks and the bumper and tires had more traction than our rear axle shaft. Good times. (Also in the video)

Regardless of the break we still pushed it through the trail with 2/3 wheel drive and had some fun. The extra gusto required to get up some of the obstacles proved to be hard on the car and specifically tie rod!
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We limped it off the obstacle and got a spare put in. It was late so we went back to camp!

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The next morning we went to Grampa's Garage. This place rocks! We welded the shock mount back on as well as did a tape measure allignment to get it mostly going strong again!

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Then we ran Poison Spider in all the other trucks. After that, it was off to the dunes for some sends!
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Then is was back on the trailer for the long, cold and frankly crappy drive home.

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Dukestaco

Stirring the pot 24/7
Joined
Oct 3, 2018
Messages
7,472
Location
Tucson
We drug the car out to Moab for some seat time in the rocks... and well, lets just say we broke a lot of stuff. Still jumped it and drove it onto the trailer so I would say it was a successful trip. Just did not get to wheel it as much as I was hoping for.

We took it out to Metal Masher the first day to break it in and well we broke it in good.

First thing was on the dirt road to the trail head. The same shock tower we broke in the race, well the lower shock mount must have been cracked or damn near ready to crack because it popped right off. (You can see this in the video)

First "hard" obstacle we lined up to it and tried to push the bumper up the ledge and well the rocks and the bumper and tires had more traction than our rear axle shaft. Good times. (Also in the video)

Regardless of the break we still pushed it through the trail with 2/3 wheel drive and had some fun. The extra gusto required to get up some of the obstacles proved to be hard on the car and specifically tie rod!
View attachment 29902
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We limped it off the obstacle and got a spare put in. It was late so we went back to camp!

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View attachment 29912

The next morning we went to Grampa's Garage. This place rocks! We welded the shock mount back on as well as did a tape measure allignment to get it mostly going strong again!

View attachment 29910

Then we ran Poison Spider in all the other trucks. After that, it was off to the dunes for some sends!
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Then is was back on the trailer for the long, cold and frankly crappy drive home.

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Good times and all in the name or research and development.
 

Alex Fleming

Owner at Sherpa Equipment Co.
Joined
Oct 7, 2018
Messages
159
Age
25
Location
Fort Collins, CO
KOH 2021 PREP JAN 1-3

We managed to knock out a lot this weekend. So I am very excited about that! While we are still waiting on a ton of parts to show up we knocked out what we could and started preparing for a lot of the parts that are showing up. The first thing we wanted to knock off our to-do list is the engine cage.

We jumped right into this build.

We started by landing some tubes on the coil buckets. This allowed us to keep this engine cage class legal and not modify any body panels. The only ones that we will need to modify are our firewall but for the purpose of tieing it into our main cage, it is acceptable.
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We then ran some tubes out to tie into our front bumper, deleting the AC allowed for some great tube pass-throughs without having to change anything on the truck.
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Then we replicated this on the other side and built a removable crossover tube to tie the two together. We also ran some tubes up to the A-pillar node on the main cage.

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We have plans to now tie our coil buckets into our custom shock towers which will allow us to have both shock hoops technically connected to each other spreading the forces of hard hits etc to each other. This is really going to strengthen our front end. Not only that but our bumper will soon be tied is as well so hard winch pulls or big hits will no longer bend our frame and cause safety concerns. Lastly, our engine is a bit more protected in the case that we roll the truck.

We then pulled our front diff, steering rack, radiator, and a bunch of other stuff in preparation for new parts and some upgrades that are coming.

Excited to keep updating all of you on the new stuff we are doing to 4628 in the near future! Hammers 2021 here we come!

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Be sure to follow us on Instagram @Sherpamotorsports , Subscribe to us on Youtube as well, after Hammers, we will have full videos covering everything we did to prep for KOH as well as coverage of the event itself. In the meantime watch our build videos leading up to now as well as the races we have already competed in!
 
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