Colinb17's kinda sorta build thread - now with 4-link and long travel

You may be able to rent a pneumatic/hydraulic torque multiplier from Sunbelt or someone like that. Rent it for a day and torque all your bolts/nuts at once.

 

jam nuts and linkages make regular torque multipliers a bit difficult to use. Most use a socket, and need an adjacent nut/stud/or fixed piece of steel to brace from. I do have a plan for these though. I also will cary the appropriate tools to ballpark tightening them on the trail should I need to for any reason.

 

Ok so it is basically the same concept as torque head studs on engines. I think I just figured that as you said you'll probably never approach the limit so it's way overkill.

My next question is what wrench are you going to use to hit 723 ftlbs. I feel like adjustable wrenches will have too much wiggle and slip and at those ftlbs the tolerance of a open end wrench might just slip too.

 

Going to try it with an open end. if the jaws open up, I do have a massive pipe wrench. Wanting to keep the pipe wrench off the links, hence the strap wrench, but I'm fine putting it on a disposable jam nut

 

completed the lower link crossmember. just have to weld it onto the freshly boxed frame. center piece is a brace for the most bend prone part of the crossmember, as well as a future expansion point. it has a disconnect on the end. after i route the the exhaust, I'll run a tube straight forward from it to another crossmember, which will give me plenty of support and mounting surface for new skid plates.

 

lower link crossmember in place, upper link horns in place. suspension cycled with the real links bolted up. cycling with the PVC links was a great proof of geometry, so with all of the real parts not on now, it was just a doublecheck of the numbers. the driveshaft remains the limiting factor allowing the system to cycle a little over 24 inches of vertical wheel travel. bumped and strapped will be closer to 22 inches of travel.

Upper link horns with billet end caps. the plain cut tube end welds to the inside of the boxed frame, and there will be a number of gussets and tubes coming off of it for additional bracing. the space the driveshaft occupies in the last 4-6 inches of compression prevents these from being a single crossmember like the lower link mounts.



Close to full drop. this will be about where the straps stop the axle.


Full compression.





A visual of one of the many braces that will be added for the upper link mounts. this one will continue up to the main vertical hoop behind the cab.

 

Why are my eyes more focused on the little tabs?

 

Weld, bolt, and clamp on zip-tie tabs from TMR Customs. These are of course the weld-on. Don't know what i'd do without them.

https://www.tmrcustoms.com/collections/zip-tie-tabs?currency=USD

 

Glad I'm not the only one. I was stuck on them too!

I'm sure you tested this Colin, but do your tires clear the cab at full compression? That photo makes it look close.

 

Tabs on the lower links are to mount the parking brake cables. Tabs on the upper link are for the brake lines, abs sensors, and diff breather hose. With this much travel, its no longer a good idea to have the lines drop straight down from the frame to the top of the diff.

Tires do clear. With the links nearly horizontal at ride height and a close to 50/50 compression/drop split, the tires travel in a very vertical path with little front to back movement. Pair that with maintaining the stock wheelbase, and we have room to go up another couple tire sizes still.

Edit: measured 6" from tire to cab at full compression. These are new 35s with full tread. So if I went up to a 40 inch tire, I'd still have 3.5 inches to the cab. Even on a really big hit, accounting for cab movement on the mounts, we're still good.

Full compression with tires on.

 

Yeah once you said they were zip tie tabs to Mark I had a pretty good idea what they were going to be used for. It's a pretty awesome idea for keeping those cables/wires out of the way!

That photo with the tires on looks much better. I don't know why the other photos looks like there isn't as much clearance. Some about the proportions must be off in my brain I guess!

 

I think it's the drums. They're so much bigger than a disc, it makes you think the tires are even bigger. The wires off photo does make it look like the tires won't fit.

 

5 bends all in the same plane was a bit of a bitch. super time consuming leveling and aligning everything. all the math on where to start the bends was tedious too. really expected to screw up and have to scrap at least one piece of tubing, so it was a pleasant surprise to not waste $100 of material. looking forward to the majority of the remaining tube-work being 1-2 bends per piece.

 

South Carolina is melting, but made some more progress. Shock mounts tacked, tested, adjusted, tested, and then fully welded. Next will be getting the basic shape of the frame made all of the way to the back of the truck. Then all of the bracing will happen.

Shocks are moved inboard about 1.5" more than this photo for a bit more tire clearance on the coils.

 

Sorting out how to package everything. Due to where the swaybar tube needs to be, I had to swap the fuel cell and spare tires. Sway bar tube goes in that little gap in front of the fuel cell, below the tires. Winch tray will go on the very back where the engine hoist is.

 

Amazing

 

Sway bar?! We don't need no stinkin' sway bar!

 

Slow couple of days with all the rain we've been getting.

Managed to get the bump stops cycled and the cans mounted. Still need to add additional bracing to the cans.

Got the strike plates in place, then pulled the axle into the garage so I would finish bracing it up during the rain.





Strike plates are 1/2" cold roll.

 

Been raining here a LOT too.