Alabama thread!

No sway bar there

 

I'm going to go with the b.a.m.f. kickout sliders. They are on the list. Not sure how their price compares to others, though.

 

oh....okay

ill look into them

 

Okay, these are frekin awesome! Pricy though.




These are the step up 1st gen sliders.

 

He's gonna need those so his girl can step up into his truck!!! Lol

 

haha ha! your funny mat. I'm thinking getting mine without the kick outs...dont know yet.

 

Those would have saves both sides of my bed multiple times....

Alex, I would defenintly try to get sliders with some bed protection or at the very least a kickout. Snorkel I would say ARB all the way.

Im game for that trail as soon as I get my front diff.

 

Get the kickouts will save your rear panels from damage

 

Alright, I've got some skids coming and hopefully tomorrow I will have a set of tires and wheels coming.

We need a ride meet at the end of April. Possible camping.

I volunteer the 21st or 28th of April. Location TBD.

 

Yes we do I can make the 21st but have to work the 28th

 

Stoneylonesome is rumored to be murder on paint jobs. Probably wanna rule that one out.

 

I'm always up for it!

 

Simple bolt on mod for my truck ordered.

Matte Black Level 8 Guardians 17X8.5 -6 offset (4.51 backspacing) and 265/70R17 C load Duratracs mounted and balanced are supposed to arrive in 10-12 days at my door!

Can't wait to put some new shoes on my girl!

 

Those are going to be awesome!

 

Those will look great on your truck Brian what kind of skid did you get

 

Sorry for being gone so much guys. Things in my personal life as well as the business have been insane! Who would have thought that in the 3rd month of business I would be grossing over $11,000! I was not expecting it. Had to do some internal expansion to get things caught up and rolling steadily. I am not as strong this month, but still over $7,000 so far this month. Now I know the NUMBERS look good, but all profit has been rolled back into the company. As far as personal life, well you know how women can be. You get the wrong signals, you think she wants something more out of the relationship, then suddenly you get told "It's over, you want more in a relationship than I can offer you." Talk about sucking big time! And she was supposed to be going with me on the next trail ride with you guys so I could show her off! lol. Such is life. Looks like I am gonna just do what I had considered before and talk to AlaMode and his gal to find me a beautiful Russian lady! lol.

So my comments so far here: For those who are talking about snorkeling-- The original intended use were for military trucks, i.e. diesels who have no spark plugs or ignition sources. Just have to keep the injector pump going! To properly seal a truck for possible immersion you need to take care of sealing several things. First, all outside electronic devices. Most makers seal them from general moisture, not full immersion. outside electronic boxes have vents to prevent internal condensation. You will need to make sure these vents are NOT sealed up, but somehow protected from water intrusion. You need front and rear axle vents, transmission vents, and transfer case vents extended and relocated to a point that will remain above the water line(we usually pipe them into the snorkel pipe!) Then you will need to consider what happens if water may enter the cab. This means sealing EVERYTHING inside from moisture. inside control boxes are NOT sealed at all. Water, even at 3 feet of depth has a certain amount of pressure. The formula for psi of static pressure is the height in feet times approximately .43. So at 3 feet of water depth, the lowest part of your vehicle is at 1.29 PSI. Your oil pan gasket and front&rear main seals, as well as transmission seals are the most at risk. It may seem impossible, but those seals are not meant to hold pressurized fluid or air. If you were fording where your pan was at the full depth of 3 feet, you could risk water pressing past the seals into your engine. In the USMC we had to always worry about water getting into the oil that way. It happened a lot. In the aftermarket we would use a regulator and our on-board compressors to apply a very small 2psi of pressure in the crankcase. I know this is taking things to the extreme, but I figure we should all know what the inherent risks are and where they come from. I have a LARGE amount of experience in truck fording and snorkeling. I am actually going to be making my own snorkel for my truck using 2 or 2.5 inch PVC piping and fittings. Oh, before I forget, you ALSO have to take into account your exhaust. At idle, and even just above idle, if your truck is under water that is 3 feet or more above the outlet pipe, the water pressure can overcome your exhaust pressure and enter your cylinders. If anyone has any questions about water fording and snorkeling, just ask! Yes, most all snorkels today are just designed to keep the inlet high, in cleaner air, and for SHORT water crossings where your truck is not under water for more than a few seconds.

 

I understand the personal life crap, Bill. I'm in the same shit fest at the moment. Damn glad to hear business is booming though.

Interesting read about sealing a truck and what water can actually do, that's crazy. I knew a lot more sealing would be required, but i had no idea!

 

Seems you know almost everything there is to know about this subject. However there is one topic I have never seen anyone address in the fording situations (I know it has been considered on military vehicles, but i don't have any first hand information about that). Head loss. No matter how you route piping, straighter is always better, but when we are talking running vent lines for things such as axles and anything drive train related, the amount of head has got to be huge. Running a 4-5 ft rubber hose makes no sense to me when you could possibly be 36 inches below water level. The amount of pressure would seal off, if not almost start a siphon, through the "breather hose" unless it was at least 3/8 an inch in ID and located well out of the internalized fluid. I could be over thinking this concept but I just don't see any successful way to address driving through water for more than 30 seconds or so. Another thing to consider to is the fact that water is ,ideally, considered an incompressible fluid, where as all the fluids in a vehicle are much less dense and are subject to pressure problems when submerged (thinking of coolant lines on this one). Vehicles just aren't designed to be in water below axle line.

 

While your specific information IS correct, however venting of the axles and other vented units are not a "flow" vent. They are meant to prevent excessive pressures inside the unit that would cause loss of fluid. This means that you can still submerge the vehicle even for periods of 5 to 10 minutes without adverse conditions. If it were a FLOW type vent, then yes, what you say would be an issue.

 

But when you suddenly submerge a hot driveline component such as axle and differential, the air inside suddenly compresses. And when air compresses in an otherwise "sealed" chamber a vacuum is created and thus, your breather acts as a flow vent to allow outside air to be pulled in to equalize the pressure. Is this not correct? I'm just trying to make the most sense of this with what I know.

No matter how you look at it, a vacuum is created and whether or not through a breather, pressure is going to equalize and this is usually by means of water entering through any way possible (seals, bearings, etc)