Slanders TuRD

[slander]

Starting to kinda look like a truck again. Pax side frame rail on, somehow they are all square and level. I also finished up the frame rail welding, except the fish plates. I'm waiting for the steel for those and the cross members.

Made a forward mount for the gas tank lift.

Cleaned up the cross member, God that sucked

It will be awesome if I can get it this high, I'm waiting to burn all this in until after I get the bed mounted.

Still no leafs, which is annoying. Once those arrive I should start hauling some ass, I also will order up.some tabs and shit from Barnes this week. I'm trying to make a club overland type run the first week of Feb, most likely won't have the sliders on but I will be able to at least get it in the dirt and the woods. It's the hurricane creek trail they ran for this year's UA, it's like an hour from my house.

If I don't make that I'll be shaking it down on some buggy trails in March, when I broke 10ft into the first trail of the first day last year LOL!!

 

[thezentree]

Giggity.

Man I pass the hurricane creek turnout a lot and never have time to actually run the trail. Post pics of you make the run.

 

[slander]

Giggity.

Man I pass the hurricane creek turnout a lot and never have time to actually run the trail. Post pics of you make the run.

Well I apparently can't read my clubs wheeling calendar and it was this weekend lol, so I'll have to go solo or something.

 

[thezentree]

Do you know the overall height of your truck?

 

[slander]

Do you know the overall height of your truck?

What do you mean? Ground to roof or belly height?

 

[thezentree]

Ground to roof. I know that will vary based on tire pressure and what crap you're hauling around at that particular moment, but just curious how tall a truck like that is for garage purposes.

Background: I discovered this weekend that if I air my shit down to single digits I can get it through the 6' garage door (yes I hate whoever decided that 6' was enough), but that means I can spend money on electrical upgrades now rather than spend a TON of money on 2' of wall and a new roof in like two years. So I'm curious just how fucked I'd be if I tried to SAS a truck in that garage when I tried to roll it through the door for the first time haha. Is it like "oh go buy some 29"rollers" or is it "take the axles off and roll it out with the frame on dollies"?

 

[slander]

Ground to roof. I know that will vary based on tire pressure and what crap you're hauling around at that particular moment, but just curious how tall a truck like that is for garage purposes.

Background: I discovered this weekend that if I air my shit down to single digits I can get it through the 6' garage door (yes I hate whoever decided that 6' was enough), but that means I can spend money on electrical upgrades now rather than spend a TON of money on 2' of wall and a new roof in like two years. So I'm curious just how fucked I'd be if I tried to SAS a truck in that garage when I tried to roll it through the door for the first time haha. Is it like "oh go buy some 29"rollers" or is it "take the axles off and roll it out with the frame on dollies"?

Ahhh ok, it fits fine through a typical suburban house garage door, I'll have to measure it though. Probably a touch under 7ft, as I'm 6ft and the roof line is above my head. It sits lower height wise than a typical full size pickup. I built it very low, it has around a 22" belly height. I wouldn't SAS a truck unless you really want to rock crawl it hard. I had a blast with this truck on 33s, a rear locker and a crawler, it really hurt feelings. I did the SAS because everyone I wheeled with was on 37+, it was falling apart and I wanted a front locker. I wasn't going to mess with the stupid, lock the front, unlock it, lock it, unlock dumbassery people do trying to keep IFS alive.

 

[thezentree]

I hear you. I don’t want to fill your build thread up with my rambling but def a crawl box before SAS. I’ve been beating on my 4Runner on 33s pretty hard for a few years and want 35s and a front locker soon haha.

 

[slander]

I hear you. I don’t want to fill your build thread up with my rambling but def a crawl box before SAS. I’ve been beating on my 4Runner on 33s pretty hard for a few years and want 35s and a front locker soon haha.

It's all good. Get a crawl box over an SAS, dollar for dollar the best mod IMO. It saves so much in breakage as you can slowly add torque and crawl stuff, no jarring clutch dumps, shock loading and bouncing over stuff. I used my front winch as a locker when I was IFS, I would much rather pull cable than pull out wrenches lol!

 

[slander]

Looking like a truck again:

Getting the bed in position and the mounts built and burned in sucked up my entire Saturday, as not expecting that to take so long.


Working solo with an engine hoist is tedious


The suspension goes in next weekend. Getting closer!

 

[slander]

Today was suspension day, was out there all day, got a bunch done. First task of the day, break down the leaf back to the main leaf:

Step 2, have your wife come out and measure the wheel base side to side (not pictured).
Step 3. Fuck up the shackle placement formula.

Step 4 fuck it up the other direction.


Step 5 fix it finally.

So that's how you setup a leaf spring rear suspension from scratch LOL!!

Onto the shock mount. It's 2" x.120 HREW held on with some tube brackets from Barnes.

The rear had 12" 7100 short bodies and I had them poking through the bed. Well I hammered the fuck out of that crossmember into it's new home and now I can fit them under the bed and didn't really lose any travel.

All the perches are burned in except the shackle mounts, I'll do that once I can get it down on its own weight.

I didn't have time to mount the air bumps, I'm having evil thoughts of notching the frame and welding them in there. I really don't want them landing on the u bolt plates, I have that up front and I hate it. Next week it's build the fish plates, mess with those air bumps and hopefully get the gas tank raised and installed.

 

[slander]

Some sort of a time wormhole opened up in my garage yesterday. I went out there at 9am, and next thing I knew it was 4pm and I only had a few things done to show for it. I had lofty goals of driving this out, fell short. I made the fish plates and cleaned up the frame, this is probably the worst part of the job welding wise and I'm glad it's behind me. Welding 3/16 to rusty thin tin foil sucks. I just have to add a bottom cap under the body mount. Good part is I can now drop it down on its own weight to check ride height and put weight in the bed to set the bumps without worrying about bending the frame rails. Ignore the booger welds, a lot of that was covering up blow through

 

[LT99]

After all the fun of welding rusty old frame would you go back and have complete new rails bent or are you ok with the work / frustration? I fkn hate blow through rust splatter but end up having to deal with it all the time.

 

[slander]

After all the fun of welding rusty old frame would you go back and have complete new rails bent or are you ok with the work / frustration? I fkn hate blow through rust splatter but end up having to deal with it all the time.

I went back and forth over this, but a cab/frame swap would have taken me FOREVER. So from a what gets me back on the trails the quickest perspective, this is worth it for me. I could have gotten a frame bent to my specs from the same place for around $4k.

 

[slander]

Put the leaf pack together to check pinion angle and shackle angle for a couple hours after work today. The truck didn't break in half so that's good. I'm glad that it appears it will settle down to be level with the front, worst comes to worst I'll add some leafs out of my expo leaf packs down the road. Pinion angle looks good, mounting the air bumps might be a PITA but whatever. I also did a final full bump test and I still have some room to go with the shocks before they bottom out so that's good as well. I'm getting close to the "burn it to the ground" part of the build so seeing it on its 4 legs again was a good motivator. Tomorrow or Sunday I'll be messing around with the fuel tank.


Might be tight, I may have to French it into the frame a bit, I'll have to ponder this. This is at ride height.

 

[LT99]

Killer! Keep going!

 

[slander]

Pulled the bed off for hopefully the last time. These fish plates and finish welding everything is a damn time suck. I spent most of the day making a forward fuel tank mount, it was mangled all to hell to begin with and would have been quicker to make a whole new one from scratch. The result was the most hack fuck thing I have ever created, as long as my fuel tank doesn't fall off I don't care lol!!

Made the fuel tank crossmember and what I'm going to be dangling the straps and skid plate off of.


I finished welded all my shackle mounts and the rear suspension is done minus the air bumps.

I am probably going to regret this move, welding the charcoal canister right there, hopefully it clears the tank. I did this after fabricating all day and my brain was a bit fried. Lspv also in.

Next weekend I'll be finishing up some more welding, getting the fuel tank fully in and skid hard mounted to the frame and crossmember, the air bumps on and the bed back on it.

Fingers crossed it leaves the garage next weekend. It probably won't have a rear bumper, but I can drive it in NC without one for the time being while I pick up my steel for the new rocker skids at least. I'm also thinking of another cross member thats between the frame rails and not sitting on top of the frame, thoughts?

 

[LT99]

I think charcoal can delete

 

[slander]

I think charcoal can delete

Work for zero gain whatsoever, no

 

[LT99]

Looks like an angry octopus box. Chop its fkn head off!