Flatbed,35’s and Mainly Parked For Repairs

don't put a tonneau cover on the bed now, it's a hassle to get to stuff out by the head board


glad to see the truck is back on the road!

 

Thanks! Don’t worry. Don’t think a tonneau is in the future at all.

this past week I started on fixing my cab mounts. I never re-plated them after I chopped them for 35’s and even though I could have plated them, it would have decreased clearance.

so I did what any logical person would do


started with some 3x3” tube (if I remember correctly) that I had laying around.


I am using a energy body mount kit (replaces all the stock body mounts) but I cut the holes to fit the mounts.



after some measuring I got to this point


Final welding around the mount (only the left and ride sides shown here)



painted

Back together


I did have to modify the washer for the bottom of the bushing. I didn’t account for the bushing to squish so much. Not a huge deal, as the bushing is still completely covered by the washer.

I still have to do the driver side which currently looks like this

I also got around to changing the rear body bushings as well which were all cracked and ready for replacement.

so far only out a couple evenings, the cost of a body bushing kit from energy and the scrap steel I got from somewhere.

will start the driver side on Monday, have some other non truck related work to do this weekend.

 

So that came out awesome. It looks like even more clearance than the all pro one I have. Ok ill get the 37's you get the 40's

 

Thanks! Still have one more side to go. With the amount of tire rub I had this past weekend I don’t see anything bigger anytime soon. Especially with the rack on the way out.

 

Completed the other body mount a few weeks ago.

Didn’t get any photos though as I got a bit side tracked with some play on the upper control arms. The bushings were toast after 3k kms. Trucks back together now after waiting for 3 weeks for bushings to be sent.
this is how much play was in the bushings.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CRCnwxzNWcb/

and on the truck

https://www.instagram.com/p/CQeHR36nZgY/

 

glad to see you got the cab mount and the bushings all done and dealt with!

 

Nice work, but as a PSA, you might want to consider gusseting those if you beat on your rig hard. I did the same thing with all of my body mounts without plating the frame or gusseting and did this. Gusseted the front ones after this happened, they weren't cracked but I could feel the frame bending in. I found out the hard way that the stock ones are actually pretty well engineered and spread the load out over a much larger area vs a 3x3" square.

 

Dang. Noted. I’m hoping that keeping the front ones pretty close to the overall size of the original I shouldn’t have too much issue. Height wise they are about the same. Just the width is smaller. Will definitely be keeping an eye on them.

for that repair did you weld in a new piece then plate over it?

 

Yep, plated and gusseted, then used the same mount that broke off. The other side was only severely cracked and was much more of a PITA to repair.

 

Fair enough. I’ll keep an eye on it and see what happens. Worst case more metal and some gussets. Kinda kicking myself as I had thought to gusset it but most of the kits I had seen didn’t include it so figured I’d be good. Live and learn. Appreciate the insight!

 

I thought the same lol. This lasted 2 years, but I spend quite a bit of time doing high speed desert beating stuff. I started feeling crazy vibrations through the driver seat and couldn't figure out why (Atlas case clocked up and into the body under the driver seat), I was thinking something was going out on the case, then started poking around under the truck and saw the pass mount cracked and separated and it all made sense. The body had been dropping due to the mounts falling off and was sitting on the case.

 

Dang. That’s pretty wild. I don’t do any high speed stuff so that may be my saving grace. Who knows though. My luck I’ll be ratchet strapping a body mount on the next trip lol.

 

I noticed it halfway through a week long trip 700 miles from home lol. I was going to just shove a piece of firewood between the body and the frame, but just kept an eye on it and took it a bit easier the rest of the trip and it didn’t seem to get any worse, then fixed when I got home.

 

Epic!

 

Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about hear but is it possible there was an aliment issue. Meaning was the mount not welded at the same.height as the others, putting un due stress on the mount? Interesting. Thanks for.sharing this.

 

Anything is possible I suppose. I have heard that the body mount relocation kits have been ripping off due to the extreme angle they are welded on. The bracket itself would rip the frame so it’s not necessarily a issue of a bad weld.

just happy that I didn’t have to pay to have it done and I can fix it if it fails.

 

Strange for sure, but with all the wheeling and the like, you never know what happens to frame alignment and body. Flexing, hitting rocks ect can throw things out of wack pretty easy. my right front fender has a big gap in there after a trail run... who knows how things bend and move under stress..... hear is a pic showing the different sides. Things move.....

 

I agree. There is a few things bent on my truck for sure from wheeling with my setups. Just another thing to keep an eye on now.

 

Wow @Windigo; I noticed your red fender flare clip on the front of your right fender. I wonder if it’ll pop back in or if the flex is too much pressure? You wouldn’t want to get a stick caught in there and rip off the flare but if you do here are the part numbers for my first gen……They are probably the same for yours. Each of my flares front and rear takes a combination of the blue and red clips they are slightly different in how they seat inside the fender flare.

Sorry to hijack your thread Peter!

 

thanks, I'm surprised there are still flares on the truck