Slodgetto's Green Dragon 4x4 Conversion Build

lol

I'll post up my exact dimesnions for the skids when I get the chance. Just something to reference when you're making yours..

and i know you've seen adam's skids. he was my inspiration for making them! you should take notes from him. lol

 

Perfect example!!!

a friggin greed!

 

haha yea im going to do a cross member like his i think for mine.

im thinking 3/16ths for the front and tranny skid, since there is alot behind the front skid to reinforce it already and not much will get up to the tranny anyways. Then 1/4'' for the belly pan.

 

Good plan. 3/16ths is plenty for the front skid. However my tranny and belly pan is one piece.... You should be fine though.... my atou tranny hangs lower and needs more protection than a manual i think... also, My crossmember is being made from 3/8" plate...

 

You of all people should do 1/4 haha if your not getting bigger then 32s then you will want 1/4..then you won't care about dragging it everywhere haha

But i think its just too long of a span to not reienforce it a little bit to keep it from bending good.

 

3/8th plate??? ....hmmm that'll be interesting..


and ben we can do your in 3/16ths is you want. Can even use the BB crossmember i have.

 

x2

lol I would've prefered some 1/4" box tube, but it's all i could find in the scrap pile.....

 

I think mine will be DOM tubing and removable plates.

 

You going to re-do your skids?

 

The belly armor. Front skid is holding up okay but the pan looks like a raisin haha

 

haha yeah, you abuse the crap outta that belly armor. Good luck, man!

 

Oh im sure it will just fine haha


yea Jon your belly pan has been..well..loved haha

 

that would be sick!!

to bad no one does that around here..

 

Finally got to re-locating my rear shackle hangers. I was originally shooting for a 50 shackle degree angle since the expos are designed to be ran with weight (of which I currently have very little ) but somehow ended up with pretty much exactly 45 degrees.... It doesn't worry me too much, however, since I am mostly aiming for a lot of droop, and the 40-45 degree angle I will have, when all loaded down, will be perfect for oodles of droop and comparatively, not a lot of up travel. I don't want to go throught the bed with the shocks, and would like to keep them at the stock location. I would (and still might) go with a / \ configuration, but I don't want to get carried away with this since I'll be selling it soon anyway... I will decide how the shocks will work once I find a spot to fully flex out the rear end and measure everything.

Also, it lowered the rear 1 1/2"!!!

On another note. Who wants to buy my used, 10" 5150s? They are simply too small for my truck at this point.... lol


Some pics of the process... (Basically cut and re-weld. lol ) I'll get articulation pics up tomorrow if I can find a spot do it on...










Dang close to 45 exactly!

Going to trim the frame back another 2" so I have room to fit the new bumper....


Before:

 

Looking good!!

How much for the 5150s? I may be seriously interested, shoot me a PM.

 

Yea jon needs longer shocks BAD lol don't forget some bumpers too Jon.

Looks much much much better Silas!

Can't wait to see the droop

 

if you mount your shocks like that /\ you will lose alot of the shocks effectiveness.

 

Only if you go with an extreme angle. Look at how the shocks come from the factory on Tacomas. They aren't straight up and down... Mounting shocks in a / \ configuration greatly improves the ability for more travel and will only hurt the dampening properties of the shocks if mounted at an extreme angle. (Such as 45 degrees) I would only angle them slightly more than the angle they sit at their stock location.. (which I think is about 65 or 70 degrees)

You are correct that the dampening properties decrease as the angle becomes more extreme, but since I don't want to go through the bed, it is simply impractical to mount shocks straight up and down since I would get very little travel...

 

Annddd.. I discovered that one of my 5150s is actually blown. I shoulda noticed when I took them off, but at least I found it before trying to sell them!! Sorry, Jon...

Went and cycled the rear suspension today... Long story short, I re-installed the shackles wrong and torqued them down too tight, so I wasn't getting full droop... (It was still better than what it was though! ) Gonna go fix that now, and try again. Hopefully they won't bind up. (I really need some creeper joint shackle hangers!) However, I was able to get compression measurements and looks like I will be able to run 12" socks in the stock location, or 14" shocks in a 70 degree / \ configuration. Don't know for sure if I need the 14" shocks though... Hopefully I'll know by tonight.

 

Damn!
Between you, Monte, and some others I've seen with leaking Billies, makes me wonder if I should be looking at a completely different brand.