2000 Turbo Taco - Race Truck Edition, to include wannabe fabricator and machinist stuff(PIC HEAVY!!)

Rocker version 2.5? I think the angle of the pivot point is a little wide. Glad I fitted the tires up to see if it would clear. It doesn't touch, but boy is it close. Lmao




I'm realizing that getting the pushrods the right length to set the ride height is going to be very difficult since the bed and fuel tank are not on\in the truck. So there may have to be some changing of pushrod length after getting all the weight back on the truck to see where it sits. I'm wanting about 2 inches between the bump stops and axle with the shocks as close to 12 inches as possible. That means it will hit the bumps before the shocks bottom out. I've also gotta figure out a droop limiter. Thinking an easy fix is a limit strap like the long travel guys use and something I have on my Honda talon. Just wanna keep the shock from hitting full extension and destroying itself over time.

 

WOW!! I dont know that much about suspension to ever take on a project like this, but I sure hope it works out as bad ass as it is looking so far!!

Believe it or not, I really like the chicken coop too, looks like people could move into that beauty the way its going up. I for one wouldnt mind seeing it all completed in your pic heavy fabrication thread !

 

@FlyingWolfe cluckingham palace has competition!

 

@BananaMan Bitch, please.

 

We're all learning here, my man! I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I watch a lot of fabrication-type stuff when I'm bored, so I learn from those guys mostly. I try my hardest to learn as much as I can by watching things that interest me, then just trying them. Seems to be my way of figuring stuff out.

I'm going to pick up the metal roofing for the coop on Monday so they can live in it sooner rather than later, but we gotta wait 3-4 months for the wood to dry out in order to paint it...which is really frustrating, and I'm kicking myself in the ass for not looking that up before, lol.

 

Yoooooooooooooooooooo! I showed my wife and she was impressed. It has a friggin chimney roof vent?!
Is the one box next to the door your hen box?

 

Cupola with vents. That box is divided and theres two other boxes inside but they all insist on laying literally on top of one another in the same box regardless. We have 14 at the moment but only 8 are young and still laying, the elders are in retirement.

Rockwool insulation throughout, power, exterior lighting and motion lights on three sides to deter predators, fan for helping cool it in the summer, heated waterers in the winter, blah blah. We have no children so we gotta spend the money on something

 

Well, we DO have children, and my wife would still want to do this if I would let her!

 

Dont show her anymore pics then

 

Theyre a pain but we love em.


And I love posting this one of my hubs. “TF YOU SAY TO ME?”

 

I may be joining a chicken forum, this is fun stuff!!

 

Came for the suspension..

stayed for the chickens.. heated waterer’s - that is the best..

Love the fab work, Nigel’s Drift Ute is a thing of beauty, but the only hilux/Tacoma thing left is the outer shell.

Keen to see how this turns out and performs, still need to find a rear suspension solution myself, and front for that matter.. our hilux’s come with torsion bars

 

Lol, not even. Pretty sure maybe the grille and door shells, everything else is some kind of aftermarket fiberglass.

 

So I've finally settled on a rocker design and position. I ended up moving the pivot point in towards the middle of the truck around 4 or 5 inches and it kinda just...worked out...EXACTLY like I wanted it to in the beginning. Lol. Axle hits the bump stops on the under side of the frame like a 1\4" (adjustable) before the shock bottoms out and I found some super slim bump stops I can mount to the bottom of the rocker that make contact before the shock reaches full extension, maybe 1\4" - 1\2". I can adjust the preload to exactly what it needs to be once I get all of the bed and fuel cell installed, and then I can adjust height with the pushrods. The pushrods you see right now will not be the final product. They are just gunna be a place holder until I have all the weight back on it, then I'll make the final versions.

 

These are the "mount plates" that I made to relocate the pivot of the rocker, and big gusset underneath. This is all made with 3\16" plate, which is all I have, but would have rather (and may have to in the future if it doesn't hold up) used 1\4" plate. Call it an exercise in my gusseting skills... we'll see

 

I really wish I could take the time and slow down and document more of the in-progress of each step, but I just get in a groove sometime and don't like stopping or slowing down. Lol. Wish I had the budget to just hire someone to follow me around the shop with a camera, I'd have a lot more pics of everything involved. Lmao

















Here is where I stopped tonight. Driver's side rocker is basically done, and the passenger side just has its gussets tacked for the most part. You can see how much I used a flap disc to blend that sucker in. Lol. I almost wanna do the whole thing, but it would be super tedious to blend down around the pivot.













That random weld you see in the flat part is a hole I filled in. There were 2 on the currently unfinished one and I think 4 on the other one. Just some holes I drilled when I was about to make another modification or go a different route, but then changed my mind shortly after dilling the holes.

A piece of copper clamped to the back of the work, then fill it in and grind it flush. Can't even tell from the outside where it was once it's ground down.

 

This is looking better all the time, looks like the geometry is lining up nice, and a bunch more clearance for the rear tires with the revised pivots.. keep it up this is going to be bad ass it seems!!

Cant wait to hear how it performs on the autox!

 

The new rockers look good and seem to have solved the issues of the last design. As for the mounting plate, I think the 3/16" will hold up fine. If it doesn't you can always add some square tube going from the frame to the cross brace picking up the corner for stronger bracing.

 

Finished welding everything together. It might need a few touches here and there. I'm super stoked at how it turned out!

 

Looks epic! Now do mine...