In the post above you can see the orientation of the beams... that's all that matters, my big insane mount is just me going WAY overboard with it. In the second pic you can see it from the front. I'm not done, still has to come back off, a few braces put on, some spot welds finished up, trimming of the crossmember to clear the diff, and some paint but..... It's looking pretty darn good. With the drivers side beam centered under the front lip of the engine crossmember and the passenger side beam right up against the back of the crossmember, there is just enough space for the axles to clear. I'll take more pics of the big bracket I made when it comes off tomorrow or thursday. Tomorrow (wednesday) I intend to tinker with steering, see if I can make any of the stock components work or if I have to get fancy with it. Anyhow, this bracket hugs the engine crossmember in every dimension I could, so, hopefully the stresses are going to be distributed across the entire surface. Every part of it is bolted as well as welded, so, even if my welds fail I will have some grade 8 hardware to perhaps give me enough time to get to safety, but... I don't think this has any chance of failing under any reasonable circumstances. It is so much stronger than the stock attachment points that it's just ridiculous. I could have done this with much less steel and much less work, but.... at the end of it, I feel safe with this and I would feel comfortable sending someone else off in this van. I'm going to do a little heat treating on it before it gets painted, stress relieve the welds and maybe do a little bit of differential hardening on the pivot points so they will not wear through. Anyhow, all of this is just what I chose to do, the only thing a person has to do is get enough clearance for the axles and there are several ways to do that, I wanted as low of a ride height as I could get, and I think this is it, at least without seriously modifying the engine crossmember and I had visions of insurance company lawsuits in my head if I did that
lol
*edit* I want to add, that this could be done without a lift... could be... but it would be pure hell. I don't think I would have made it without a lift, everything had to come on and off so many times, there was lots of welding/torching/plasma cutting going on overhead.... If you could make this bracket from a set of plans or just buy it, this would be nothing, two guys could have it done in an easy day, but, to make it from scratch like this has taken me 2 weeks, however I didn't have any help so that made it much much harder/longer. Anyhow, I'll post a build thread just as soon as I see if it will steer and not kill me haha. I will not be doing the transfer case and driveshafts for a couple of weeks, so, for now it will just be a 2wd van with a 4x4 front end, but, I am sure this was the hard part, cutting/welding the fuel tank may prove tricky, but since I don't have a TIG welder, I may just drop it off at a shop that does.