New project, what is it??

[burnin#2]

well got my rear suspension to go up and down last night, what a feeling [cl [P
got lower bag mounts made, and tacked in, and the top plate is 3/8" thick and you can see the 3/4' x 1' flat bars on top of it, they will get welded to the top plate to stiffen it up a bit more

now to figure out where i can squeeze in tube shocks...[S

 

[jfg455]

no lack of strength there![cl Nice job!

 

[burnin#2]

Thanks jfg i grew up on a farm and was taught and learnt that if your not quite sure of something just build it bigger and stronger!! man is there ever a lot of little tabs and brackets that go into a rear four link suspension..... i sat around for prolly an hour lastnight with a beer or two trying to figure out my shock absorber location and appropriate tabs and brackets that will go with them.....

 

[SugarRay8]

That looks great! Love how beefy it is.

 

[burnin#2]

ha kool thanks guys. i was worried about the top plate flexing (i do want to be able to haul whatever i want) even though its 3/8" thick, so thats why its getting the bars welded to the top of it, one along the front and one along the rear, and then i will criss cross the middle section (you can kinda see my rough chalk lines drawn on it)
glad to see the positive feedback i was worried you guys would $hit all over my top plate idea, thats why the bars are getting welded on [ [cl

 

[Johnson]

If you`re going to tow with it, then better safe than sorry! I want to see a picture of it towing a horse trailer or something when you are done....

Looks good.

 

[burnin#2]

a horse trailer perhaps, grew up on a cattle farm....so will prolly haul cows at some point in time. even more likely would be a fifth wheel with a camper at the front and the back half flat deck to haul my and my girlfriends quads
will have some pics hopefully tomorrow with my top plate bracing and shock mounts tacked together [[

 

[Sam_Fear]

When it comes to those reinforcement bars, the taller the better. Height will give you a lot more strength than width or number of bars.

 

[burnin#2]

well here is my top plate with reinforcement and shock mounts mounted up. with the top plate at 3/8" thick and the bars at 3/4"x 1" tall i dont think its gonna move

 

[Sam_Fear]

I don't know.... you might wanna put a 3/8" plate on top of all that too. Yeah, that looks beefy!

 

[SugarRay8]

That otta do it! Look great man.

 

[Johnson]

You should have plenty of traction now, that only weighs a couple thousand pounds right?

 

[burnin#2]

thanks its comming together nicely now, its encouraging to see it actually lookin like it resembles a truck now, it seemed like it was taking forever, working on getting the cab solid and making a frame i can build on. now to move on to the front end, i had it mocked up with dual leafs in the front to hold the cummins up......but im contemplating air bagging the front as well now... hmmm decisions... hopefully today i can get my kingpin bushings reamed to fit... just wish i didnt have to pay someone to do it... is there any way to ream king pin bushings without the reamer???[S[S

 

[CORPO]

thanks its comming together nicely now, its encouraging to see it actually lookin like it resembles a truck now, it seemed like it was taking forever, working on getting the cab solid and making a frame i can build on. now to move on to the front end, i had it mocked up with dual leafs in the front to hold the cummins up......but im contemplating air bagging the front as well now... hmmm decisions... hopefully today i can get my kingpin bushings reamed to fit... just wish i didnt have to pay someone to do it... is there any way to ream king pin bushings without the reamer???[S[S

looking good man... that cross member is crazy

You probably know I bagged the front of mine.. and I dont think I would do it again at least not on a straight axle.. its been nothing but a pain trying to get all the stuff up there and make it look decent.. sometimes I wish I just bagged the rear and went with springs up front and kept it simple.. oh well

You could buy or borrow a reamer and do it yourself.. thats what I did. I used an adjustable reamer and slowly worked it up to a good fit. I used a socket wrench on the reamer and just took my time. Took me a few hours to do both (probably like 4 hours) but I didnt want to screw it up or pay some one $100 to do it. Which is what I was quoted.

good luck

 

[burnin#2]

thanks for the advice CORPO, yes i have been getting inspiration from your build, and actually, your front airbag setup is one of the things made me reconsider my front end...... i have already built most of my front end up prevoiusly and mocked it up again last night too see how its gonna look since i have the rear susp pretty much done (save for finish welding) but after last night it seems to work together nicely..... still on the fence...

as for the king pin bushing dilemma.... im a HD mechanic, but work at a bobcat rental shop, so no reamer to be found here. i tried to buy one but i cant find anyone here in edmonton that sells them.... and yea a shop i asked said they would do it for $90....

 

[burnin#2]

so i laid out my front end........ if i have a wheel base of 150" and with my air bags fully inflated, will 6" of clearance from the frame to the ground be enough???[S[S

 

[CORPO]

With my bags at full inflate I will also have 6" of clearance which is just enough for me, what you need to look at is the side wall height of your tires if you had a blow out you want the rim to be able to still support the truck with out anything hitting. Its called scrub line, this being said there are a lot of hot rods running around with scrub line issues.. its a risk that these guys take.

wow man 150" that a big truck!

 

[burnin#2]

yea i know the 150" is a long gurl..... and as i sat and looked at my machine with the bags up and the front end placed together, beer in one hand, thought to my self with that 150" wheel base and 6" clearance will i have to worry about big speed bumps, or very uneven approach ways.... i havnt thought about a blow out though, so thanks for that. the tires im using are 19.5" rims and i think 225 70's i dont think they have 6" sidewall. and my engine and tranny are not in place yet and ill try to keep them above the bottom of the frame. i may even add perhaps a 1" spacer over my top bag mount to bring her up a little more...

 

[sneakysnake]

Im running 6" bags and hav'nt had any troubles in the rear, but have scraped the nose a few times trying to run to low.

 

[burnin#2]

sneaky, how much ground clearance did you build into the front of the frame? im thinking of setting the front of the frame at about that 5" of ground clearance to hopefully clear bad things on the road....