Crawler and crossmember install.

Just "sort of" finished my crawl box install need to find the proper leather for the shift boot and I'm done. Making this thread to share ideas/ maybe pick up a few as I will continue to tweak mine untill I'm happy. Disregard any spelling grammar issues as I am typing on a smartphone with autocorrect.

I ordered the inchworm box with clocking ring. Picked that over the trailgear as the whole rear bearing issue. I did not intend on clocking my case untill I put in the trail gear dual case skid and saw how awfully low it would hang. So I decided to go flat belly (or as close as I could).

I ordered a new clutch, some Toyota FPG and a rubber shifter boot. The clutch was installed and the whole unit was installed in an afternoon. Chopped off the mounting plate to my bolt on CBI sliders and mocked up the dual case skid I ordered. As we lifted it into place my friend tim told me as a friend he couldn't let me do something so stupid. Clocked the case and decided I liked it. And went on from there. Cut out a bit of the floor, clearanced the exhaust. Moved the ebrake and came up with a rear case mount as the crawl box factory mount is super low. Came up with a skid that is heavy shitty to take on and off. But is as close to flat belly as you can come with how low the crawl box portion hangs.

There are a couple things I would change and will change. If I did it all over again I would not have used the cup holder for the rear shifter. I would have the shifter come up to the passenger side and keep both of them live and learn. I also intend on putting the electric case shift knob onto the crawl box shifter and putting something cool on the rear case. I will also cut a hole for a driveshaft when/if I decided to SAS it but with ifs that shaft hardly moves.

 

For the rear mount I used a harmonic balancer off a spare case I had. I will explain that and post photos when it stops raining.

 

As you can see the crawl box actually hung lower than the tranny mount preventing a real flat belly.

 

Good God is that crossmember all 1/2" plate ???

Crawler and design looks good !

 

Close enough it's all cor-ten AR 3/8 plate. With the gussets it probably weighs 30lbs more than the trailgear one I had. The way it was cut/bent and welded without gussets it deflected a bit when a jack was placed under it.

 

I have the trailgear crossmember, good amount of weight.

Anyway, crossmember design looks good.

 

Thanks, it's probably a bit to heavy but I couldn't pick where I wanted to trim the fat from.

 

For the rear mount I went to autozone and looked at all the motor mounts, tcase mounts they had to find what would best fit. I didn't want to use a highly modified mount that would bolt onto the crawl box as if it failed I wanted something plug and play. I didn't want to loose clearance going stock. I couldn't find anything. I saw the harmonic balance off a spare tcase and chopped it up and it happened to fit perfectly. It only supports weight but I figured that's more important anyway as the motor mounts should eliminate the twisting motion. It was free easy to replace as I have a 3rd case with another balancer on it.

It's decently sturdy and there is quite a bit of rubber it rides on. If I have issues down the road I will figure something else out.
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Took it out and tested it pretty well, best upgrade so far without a doubt. I was able to idle up some rock gardens with ease that previously I had stalled out or fell off rocks in the past. At the top of one there was a big rock I was trying to climb over one in the rear and drag the side over... Wow this thing eats CVs destroyed both front shafts. Fun day though broke my exhaust hanger off, my tool box clamps broke...

 

Why did you change your cluch, would the OEM clutch have worked?

 

My OEM clutch had about 200k on it, figured it was about time to change it while I had the truck off the road anyway. OEM would have worked fine, still had some life left anyway.

 

Gotcha, are there any guys on this forum running T100 either SAS, long travel or mid travel?

 

There are a few iv seen around seem to be dwindling in the past couple years. There used to be a Sased T100 in western mass.