Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
Yep.DaveInDenver said:
I like Budbuilt skids. Should still work the way I did that. http://www.budbuilt.com/new/ifs.html
If I don't get one of those I will make one that bolts off the cross members.
86 4Runner build
- Thread starter Grim Reaper
- Start date
I like Budbuilt skids. Should still work the way I did that. http://www.budbuilt.com/new/ifs.html
If I don't get one of those I will make one that bolts off the cross members.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
This is a Taco, but this is more or less what I'd like to do.
But just one of his cross members with a skid really eliminates the need for a belly pan. Then add a front skid that is similar to a stock but extends under the diff will be more than sufficient for anyone not hard core crawling. I have a Downey IFS truss and am trying to sell it because I'd like to put a rear IFS truss that is square so I can end up like this.
But just one of his cross members with a skid really eliminates the need for a belly pan. Then add a front skid that is similar to a stock but extends under the diff will be more than sufficient for anyone not hard core crawling. I have a Downey IFS truss and am trying to sell it because I'd like to put a rear IFS truss that is square so I can end up like this.
Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
That's a nice set up.
I want to flat belly with a 4Crawler 2 inch body and 2 inch engine. Bud will do custom crossmember belly skids for that. It ends up nearly flat.
My big worry is drainage. Lot of mud here. The stock front chin pan was full of mud from one ride. My tank skid on my last truck was always full of mud. Just can't seem to figure out a way to drain thats not going to also hang rocks.
Did you see 4rnrRicks Project Quasimodo build on pirate and the flat belly he did? Pretty slick but it sure looked heavy and prone to filling with mud.
I want to flat belly with a 4Crawler 2 inch body and 2 inch engine. Bud will do custom crossmember belly skids for that. It ends up nearly flat.
My big worry is drainage. Lot of mud here. The stock front chin pan was full of mud from one ride. My tank skid on my last truck was always full of mud. Just can't seem to figure out a way to drain thats not going to also hang rocks.
Did you see 4rnrRicks Project Quasimodo build on pirate and the flat belly he did? Pretty slick but it sure looked heavy and prone to filling with mud.
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
That's why I'd rather not have a full belly skid. Well, first, I don't need one since I'm not a hard core rock crawler. But they make maintenance a pain, they make keeping your truck clean a pain, they are heavy, gotta be painted all the time. Nah, I'll stick with the original plan of enhancing the stock setup. A better front skid, a lower profile crossmember with a better transfer skid plate and a set of sliders. All of this is heavy, but is functionally a step up without adding 200 lbs of steel that then makes changing tranny fluid hard anyway. I'm willing to double the weight of the front skid plate & crossmember and add a decent skid plate in place of the tranny/xfer tin plate. So I might add 30 lbs over stock (probably a wash, the stock crossmember is heavy). Add 40 lbs for sliders and I'm not cutting into my payload much. As it is fully loaded I'm at 5400 lbs and bolting on all that steel will have me pushing 5700 or 5800 lbs.Grim Reaper said:
Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
Weight is a very good point. It was the big reason I decided to get rid of my last truck and start over with this truck.
ntsqd
Heretic Car Camper
wow! Budbuilt!
There's a name I haven't seen since my days on the ORC yota list. Back when that was the source for yota info and Pirate was one of those up-start "forum" thingies. I remember when he first posted about the replacement frame project.
FWIW Pirate was full of attitude then too.
BudBuilt's x-members must work OK to enjoy the rep they have, but the engineer in me cringes at the design. Can't help but be unnecessarily heavy if they're going to have any stiffness to them. A tube would be stiffer & lighter at only a small cost in GC.
My plan for Patch, the Wonder Yota, is to use Front Range Offroad Fab's plate that bolts to the rear of the t/c and fab a x-member to run behind (rather than under) the t/c and put a single Hega for the rear mount at the bottom of the FROR plate.
Given the few times I've ever hit the stock x-member I am tempted to hang a 3/16" 2024 Aluminum skid off the stock t/c mount bolt holes (I'll have two sets of those when I'm done).
There's a name I haven't seen since my days on the ORC yota list. Back when that was the source for yota info and Pirate was one of those up-start "forum" thingies. I remember when he first posted about the replacement frame project.
FWIW Pirate was full of attitude then too.
BudBuilt's x-members must work OK to enjoy the rep they have, but the engineer in me cringes at the design. Can't help but be unnecessarily heavy if they're going to have any stiffness to them. A tube would be stiffer & lighter at only a small cost in GC.
My plan for Patch, the Wonder Yota, is to use Front Range Offroad Fab's plate that bolts to the rear of the t/c and fab a x-member to run behind (rather than under) the t/c and put a single Hega for the rear mount at the bottom of the FROR plate.
Given the few times I've ever hit the stock x-member I am tempted to hang a 3/16" 2024 Aluminum skid off the stock t/c mount bolt holes (I'll have two sets of those when I'm done).
Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
The problem with tube is you more or less add up to 2 inches below the case to make it. Bud's set up adds 3/8's of an inch. His set up will also let me go a head and buy a doubler crossmember but I can run a single till I have the money.
The mount off the tail cross members I am a little Leary of because you are now asking the aluminum case to support the weight of the truck if you land on the skid mounted to the case.
Not 100% set on Buds but For what it is its not a bad price and I like the low profile.
Now you want to see a JUNK cross member at its best...Go look at a CJ. I was helping a buddy weld in new blind nuts in his frame rails and we had to take a high lift to squeeze the factory plate into something close to original shape to get it back on the truck.
The mount off the tail cross members I am a little Leary of because you are now asking the aluminum case to support the weight of the truck if you land on the skid mounted to the case.
Not 100% set on Buds but For what it is its not a bad price and I like the low profile.
Now you want to see a JUNK cross member at its best...Go look at a CJ. I was helping a buddy weld in new blind nuts in his frame rails and we had to take a high lift to squeeze the factory plate into something close to original shape to get it back on the truck.
ntsqd
Heretic Car Camper
X-member would be behind the t/c, not under it. This is the plate I'd use. One of these would become the rear trans-t/c mount.
Yes, that's the reason I'm only tempted at this point & not commited to bolting the skid there. I don't run the Hammers in Patch, have no intention of trying it. Ranks right up there with watching ball sports on the boredom scale.
I rarely if ever hit the stock t/c x-member. Not sure if it matters, but Patch is a LA truck, not an IFS truck.
Yes, that's the reason I'm only tempted at this point & not commited to bolting the skid there. I don't run the Hammers in Patch, have no intention of trying it. Ranks right up there with watching ball sports on the boredom scale.
I rarely if ever hit the stock t/c x-member. Not sure if it matters, but Patch is a LA truck, not an IFS truck.
Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
Got it out on the trail yesterday to try out the locker and 4.88's. WOW....just WOW!!!!!!!
Now I wasn't rock crawling it but I was running some challenging trails and it just went everywhere I pointed it. I was following a buddy in a Unlimited Rubicon and I had no trouble keeping up and in a couple places he had more trouble then I did. That said we never had to pull cable or straps (both of us have winches (under our respective work benches LOL)
I also did another quick mod last week to get a little lift in the rear. I did the Napo/Zuk helper spring lift.
http://www.gearinstalls.com/dc.htm
http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showf...11919&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1
Old Toys are REAL bad about getting a saggy butt. When I bought this truck it was literally riding on the bump stops empty. No broken leafs but it had been used as a truck and it had sagged BAD. Right away I added a leaf from a set of stock K5 springs I had in the junk pile. It help tremendously. Rode much better and get about 3-4 inches between the bump stop. Well once I got my normal trail get in it the rear was back to being on the low side again and I didn't even have my camping gear in it yet.
So in my normal cheap way I hit up a buddy who had recently put a lift on his 2 door Unlimited. I knew he would have his old springs in his junk pile. 2 hours later I netted 2.5 inches of lift. Got that stink bug stance now.unk03:
I may pull the extra leaf out and see if it will come down about 1/2-3/4 inch. I am worried that if I take the top off the rear will really come up. Other then that concern I am pretty happy with the free lift. The ride improved even more with it off the over load leafs.
No problems with it off road. The springs are not long enough to stay in full contact with the springs but there is NO way they will fall out or get out of place. It took removing the shock and a 12 ton bottle jack to push down the leafs and then a crow bar to pop them over the snubber to get them on. They are going nowhere.
It did make axle wrap a little worse since the overloads are not my main support so I will be looking at a fabricating or buying an anti wrap bar. Something like this if not just buying this one.
http://www.budbuilt.com/new/traction_bars.html
One poser picture while I wait to see what pictures others have of our offroading event yesterday. Couples shots of the Napo/Zuk Lift.
Now I wasn't rock crawling it but I was running some challenging trails and it just went everywhere I pointed it. I was following a buddy in a Unlimited Rubicon and I had no trouble keeping up and in a couple places he had more trouble then I did. That said we never had to pull cable or straps (both of us have winches (under our respective work benches LOL)
I also did another quick mod last week to get a little lift in the rear. I did the Napo/Zuk helper spring lift.
http://www.gearinstalls.com/dc.htm
http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showf...11919&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=31&fpart=1
Old Toys are REAL bad about getting a saggy butt. When I bought this truck it was literally riding on the bump stops empty. No broken leafs but it had been used as a truck and it had sagged BAD. Right away I added a leaf from a set of stock K5 springs I had in the junk pile. It help tremendously. Rode much better and get about 3-4 inches between the bump stop. Well once I got my normal trail get in it the rear was back to being on the low side again and I didn't even have my camping gear in it yet.
So in my normal cheap way I hit up a buddy who had recently put a lift on his 2 door Unlimited. I knew he would have his old springs in his junk pile. 2 hours later I netted 2.5 inches of lift. Got that stink bug stance now.
unk03: I may pull the extra leaf out and see if it will come down about 1/2-3/4 inch. I am worried that if I take the top off the rear will really come up. Other then that concern I am pretty happy with the free lift. The ride improved even more with it off the over load leafs.
No problems with it off road. The springs are not long enough to stay in full contact with the springs but there is NO way they will fall out or get out of place. It took removing the shock and a 12 ton bottle jack to push down the leafs and then a crow bar to pop them over the snubber to get them on. They are going nowhere.
It did make axle wrap a little worse since the overloads are not my main support so I will be looking at a fabricating or buying an anti wrap bar. Something like this if not just buying this one.
http://www.budbuilt.com/new/traction_bars.html
One poser picture while I wait to see what pictures others have of our offroading event yesterday. Couples shots of the Napo/Zuk Lift.
ntsqd
Heretic Car Camper
I had similar issues going on with Patch, the wonder yota. Eventually I went to the GM 65" rear springs using WFO mounts, U-bolts & spring plates, and shackles. I used the longer three leaves with the yota overloads turned upside down. I also ditched the stock rubber bumps (one actually ditched me!) in favor of the nismo units. Night & day difference. Can now give pre-rnnr's a run for their money with my old LA.
Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
That may be the way I eventually go but for now this is a free fix with very minimal effort. If I SAS I will be going that way for sure.
ntsqd
Heretic Car Camper
F-R-E-E is my kind of price!
Were you closer to the left coast I'd offer you a ride in Patch. I was amazed at the difference. The springs were free and Trevor & I were at Chico State together. I've no idea if he cut me a deal or not, but the total cost of the conversion wasn't much.
Now to get the 7100's sorted out.....
BTW, Patch is set up similar, 4.88's and a Detroit x Lockrite. I've been pretty amazed at where I can go with that combo. Essentially a stock truck with those two changes makes for a pretty impressive rig.
There are times I wish for something like the E-locker in the rear, but not so much that I'm willing to spend that kind of cash on one. There have also been many times I wished Patch was an IFS truck, but that's a whole other can of worms.....
Were you closer to the left coast I'd offer you a ride in Patch. I was amazed at the difference. The springs were free and Trevor & I were at Chico State together. I've no idea if he cut me a deal or not, but the total cost of the conversion wasn't much.
Now to get the 7100's sorted out.....
BTW, Patch is set up similar, 4.88's and a Detroit x Lockrite. I've been pretty amazed at where I can go with that combo. Essentially a stock truck with those two changes makes for a pretty impressive rig.
There are times I wish for something like the E-locker in the rear, but not so much that I'm willing to spend that kind of cash on one. There have also been many times I wished Patch was an IFS truck, but that's a whole other can of worms.....
Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
Time for an update. Nasty rainy day today so stuck inside.
I have been doing a little tinkering here and there. Finally got my GPS Navigation set up complete With a Used laptop, some software.
I am running my Garmin GPSV as a receiver with a mag mount antenna on the hood. That keeps my Accuracy around 10ft. Problem is it only has 19megs of memory so I either have to reload often on trips or selectively load where I am going. Was sort of a bummer when you didn't have the nice stuff like Restaurant finder.
From that I am feeding old Compaq 7800 Armada I picked up from work when they sold off my old shop. Can't beat a $10 laptop. Only 8 Gig drive but it really does serve my needs. This laptop is only going to be used for navigation, some Internet access with a Aircard of data link from my phone and on rare occasions I might make a dump from the camera but with extra memory cards that will be pretty limited. The biggest downs side is it is a heavy old laptop. That might me an advantage since it is obviously old it might make it less attractive to a thief.
It had NT on it and that was causing me issues. I finally ran across a OS for the right price...FREE. Somebody I knew had a couple new copies of Win2000 Pro with the registration that were going to get tossed since they are out of date on the systems they were original bought for 6-7 years ago. I actually like it and it seems very stable.
The GPSV came with Mapsource 4.01. It was Ok but is didn't have a few features like Keeping the direction traveling at the top of the screen. I got pointed at a free down load to Garmin nRoute. It fixes ALL the complaints I had with the Mapsource software. It also has the voice directions that the wife and I are having great fun with.
I used a old Gamber Johnson mount that came out of a Decomed truck and was headed for the trash. http://www.gamberjohnson.com/index.php
I had to abandoned the actual mount for the laptop becasue of the size and the location of the gimble mount on it. Because of my old laptop I needed to shift the forward about 2 inches and it simply didn't have the mount in the right position to do that without adding a second bracket extension that would also add another inch to the height. I went with a piece of 3/4 ply wood and some industrial Velcro. I plan to replace that with a piece of aluminum plate at some point.
I had to pull the forward part of the center console to get to a place I could mount the assembly on. The 4Runner has a heating duct that blows under the seat for the rear seat passengers so that meant I couldn't mount off the side of the tunnel easily. The shift boots on that part were leather and in really bad shape after 21 years. I have future plans that made its days numbered anyway. Little clean up on the boot plate and paint and it won't look to bad with just the rubber boots the leather boots on the removed console covered.
The GJ mount is nice in the fact that with no tools I can remove the head when not in use. I have a second one of these mounts I plan to put in our Suburban tow rig where it will be a lot less of a space problem.
Excuse the mess, We are in a major drought and outdoor water ban. My truck is a pigsty inside and out as a result. The Inverter is my travel one for use in my work truck. I will be replacing it with one permanently mounted in the back so I don't have the cooling fan noise bugging me all the time. Temporary I ran a second cig plug to the battery to power this one. The factory cig plug is wired with 16 or 18 gage and simply not up to the draw of a inverter so I had to get power from the battery.
I have some clean up on the mount as well now that I have the mounting points picked. The brackets will be painted black. The Gray bracket will be cut down and welded to the vertical tube. The place it is mounted on the side of the dash is actually where the factory screw is that hods the lower dash to a metal mounting bracket. It is a very sturdy point on the dash that required no holes drilled.
I have been doing a little tinkering here and there. Finally got my GPS Navigation set up complete With a Used laptop, some software.
I am running my Garmin GPSV as a receiver with a mag mount antenna on the hood. That keeps my Accuracy around 10ft. Problem is it only has 19megs of memory so I either have to reload often on trips or selectively load where I am going. Was sort of a bummer when you didn't have the nice stuff like Restaurant finder.
From that I am feeding old Compaq 7800 Armada I picked up from work when they sold off my old shop. Can't beat a $10 laptop. Only 8 Gig drive but it really does serve my needs. This laptop is only going to be used for navigation, some Internet access with a Aircard of data link from my phone and on rare occasions I might make a dump from the camera but with extra memory cards that will be pretty limited. The biggest downs side is it is a heavy old laptop. That might me an advantage since it is obviously old it might make it less attractive to a thief.
It had NT on it and that was causing me issues. I finally ran across a OS for the right price...FREE. Somebody I knew had a couple new copies of Win2000 Pro with the registration that were going to get tossed since they are out of date on the systems they were original bought for 6-7 years ago. I actually like it and it seems very stable.
The GPSV came with Mapsource 4.01. It was Ok but is didn't have a few features like Keeping the direction traveling at the top of the screen. I got pointed at a free down load to Garmin nRoute. It fixes ALL the complaints I had with the Mapsource software. It also has the voice directions that the wife and I are having great fun with.
I used a old Gamber Johnson mount that came out of a Decomed truck and was headed for the trash. http://www.gamberjohnson.com/index.php
I had to abandoned the actual mount for the laptop becasue of the size and the location of the gimble mount on it. Because of my old laptop I needed to shift the forward about 2 inches and it simply didn't have the mount in the right position to do that without adding a second bracket extension that would also add another inch to the height. I went with a piece of 3/4 ply wood and some industrial Velcro. I plan to replace that with a piece of aluminum plate at some point.
I had to pull the forward part of the center console to get to a place I could mount the assembly on. The 4Runner has a heating duct that blows under the seat for the rear seat passengers so that meant I couldn't mount off the side of the tunnel easily. The shift boots on that part were leather and in really bad shape after 21 years. I have future plans that made its days numbered anyway. Little clean up on the boot plate and paint and it won't look to bad with just the rubber boots the leather boots on the removed console covered.
The GJ mount is nice in the fact that with no tools I can remove the head when not in use. I have a second one of these mounts I plan to put in our Suburban tow rig where it will be a lot less of a space problem.
Excuse the mess, We are in a major drought and outdoor water ban. My truck is a pigsty inside and out as a result. The Inverter is my travel one for use in my work truck. I will be replacing it with one permanently mounted in the back so I don't have the cooling fan noise bugging me all the time. Temporary I ran a second cig plug to the battery to power this one. The factory cig plug is wired with 16 or 18 gage and simply not up to the draw of a inverter so I had to get power from the battery.
I have some clean up on the mount as well now that I have the mounting points picked. The brackets will be painted black. The Gray bracket will be cut down and welded to the vertical tube. The place it is mounted on the side of the dash is actually where the factory screw is that hods the lower dash to a metal mounting bracket. It is a very sturdy point on the dash that required no holes drilled.
lionsbreath
Adventurer
This is a build up I can get behind. I have a 87 4Runner with a 22re that I am starting to build. I was thinking of building a custom jerry can holder that works with the spare tire winch to hold the two cans where the spare sits and then building a custom rear tire carrier.
Grim Reaper
Expedition Leader
I will be building a spare tire carrier as well and probably one Fuel can on the back or on the roof and a Water can o nthe back. Something like this.lionsbreath said:
http://expeditionportal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=13139&d=1197689419
There is an aftermarket Aux tank that mounts above the factory spare location but it is quite pricey.
I may be removing the storage drawer. My desire is to sleep in the truck in close by trips and the deck makes it about impossible to sit up. So I am thinking of going to in floor storage like this. http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=291387
That truck is bobbed so on a stock truck you could get two of those in the floor with the spare tire moved out.