Responsible Adult, and why I am not one.

[thezentree]

30 minutes here, 45 minutes there, and before you know it I’ve still made very little progress

 

[thezentree]

On its own weight for the first time in like 5 months. I'm still trying to figure out the shackle hanger placement.

I started with the factory 1335mm horizontal distance from spring hanger to shackle hanger. With the rear wheels off the ground I get this:



And this with no jackstands:




So I moved the shackle hangers forward ~6” so the shackles were at 3-4 degrees from vertical with the wheels in the air, but that resulted in this with just the weight of the bare frame on the rear axle:



I tried splitting the difference with the middle line. It'll still invert the shackle with the wheels in the air, and give me like a 30° or smaller shackle angle with just a couple hundred pounds thrown on the frame (half a sheet of OSB and four very bald and dry rotted 37s on steel wheels). I think with the bed, fuel tank, and anything in the bed the shackles would be just about flat.

Same springs as before, same length shackles.

The spring hangers are at the same fwd-aft position, but are just shy of 2” higher than factory because of the shorter tube section height. Moving the forward spring eye down 2” is doable but will be a shitload of work. Are longer shackles a viable option?

 

[Stairgod]

No. Leave the shackles as they are. At full droop have them in line with the leaf spring. And an anti-inversion bar to the shackles and call it good.
As long as they don't slap against the frame at full bump that is.
Just for shits and giggles what is the eye to eye center change on the leaves between full bump and full doop?
And how did you figure shackles length?

 

[thezentree]

I'm good with that, haha. Dunno the spring length change but I can try to get that measurement, and I just matched the shackle length for what was on the truck when I bought it.

 

[Stairgod]

Knowing the length change makes it easier to figure out the shackle length needed for those particular springs.

 

[thezentree]

Getting there...

 

[thezentree]

On to the front now.

 

[thezentree]

Insurance went active yesterday and if the spanner wrench I overnighted because I forgot to order it with the shocks shows up by midday Wednesday I have a decent chance of making it to cars and coffee in this shitheap on Saturday.

 

[thezentree]

If anyone wants this thing, it's for sale. I've got a kid on the way and I'm out of time, money, and interest in finishing it the way needs to be finished.

 

[Dukestaco]

If anyone wants this thing, it's for sale. I've got a kid on the way and I'm out of time, money, and interest in finishing it the way needs to be finished.

Congratulations on the kid.

 

[thezentree]

Thanks dude. We've wanted this for a while, so we're excited. I don't really want it to mean the end of this truck, but looking at it objectively it'll be many months if not years before I use it enough to justify it taking up limited driveway space. And that's assuming it's finished.

Life, man...

 

[Dukestaco]

Thanks dude. We've wanted this for a while, so we're excited. I don't really want it to mean the end of this truck, but looking at it objectively it'll be many months if not years before I use it enough to justify it taking up limited driveway space. And that's assuming it's finished.

Life, man...

Oh brother you don’t have to tell me about it. I hunted, fished , wheeled , dirt bikes , road bikes, all of that stopped to focus on the kids. When they got older and started doing their own thing then I started wheeling again. Now I am a grandpa and I am building and maintaining my rig to give to my Grandson. I don’t know how the market is to sell your rig but ask what you want and if you don’t get it well it doesn’t eat or ask you to talk to it. It doesn’t seem like it but those kids grow up quick. Before you know it you could have him/her riding shotgun in a booster seat saying “do it again dad do it again”. Thats what my son said when I took him off roading in the wife’s 4runner. The wife was not pleased but I knew I had a offroad Buddy in the making. He learned how to drive stick in my rock crawler when he was 13 and helped build his pre runner before he had his permit. Either way enjoy every minute because it flies by. Congratulations to you and the wife again.

 

[clearock]

If anyone wants this thing, it's for sale. I've got a kid on the way and I'm out of time, money, and interest in finishing it the way needs to be finished.

Dam another project that bits the dust, congrats to u both (responsibility sucks, my girl has been laying down the not so subtle hints) , probably be a quicker and more profitable to part out. It a hard sell on an uncompleted project, especially when people ask the sky, what r u thinking u want for said....

 

[thezentree]

Yep I've got it on fb marketplace for way more than it's worth. If it doesn't sell, shrug. I'm thankfully not hard up for the cash, and the parts it's got on it should hold their value decently enough, so I'm just keeping the garage door closed for now. I did reach out to a local fab shop to see if they could make it driveable for me within my budget, so it's not totally dead yet. I'm a cheap ass though, so it's close to being dead.

My 4Runner does pretty well on the trails around here, so my kid will definitely get introduced to four wheeling. My wife begged me to not turn him into a redneck. I told her that ship sailed when she married me haha. I'm so excited to have a little buddy to go do shenanigans.

 

[Dezert4Runner]

Congrats man, vehicles come and go. These hobbies of ours always take a back seat to family responsibilities. Your thread title is kinda ironic now though

 

[thezentree]

oh I'm still pretty fuckin irresponsible lol

A local fab shop is going to come get it in a couple weeks and see what they can do for a few thousand bucks. It still for sale in the meantime but I'm definitely asking more than it's worth to see if someone "lowballs" me with a reasonable offer