I made a new tailgate - aluminium frame and polycarbonate - much lighter, no rust, and the visibility increase was amazing!
When I made the new side bars, I trimed the 'curve' off the side of the front guards and removed most of the support rib.
The guards now bolt to the sidebars for support.
New sidebars...
I've tried several methods of reducing friction in the spring packs.
I put in 3mm UHMW strips, but found that they kept getting 'squeezed' out.
I found that there is a self adhesive UMHW - 30 thou thick (so reduces spring pack height) - plus stays in place a lot better
Only comes in 75mm so I had to trim it after sticking it on...
When I made my new bottom plates, I moved the bottom shock mounts at the rear back up to the axle housing. So I needed to lift the top mounts as well.
The old bottom plates were surplus so I just welded them on. Crude, ugly, but works well
I made up some new bottom plates to increase the clearance under the springs. The first ones were 3mm steel - much too thin - they bent as you can see...
Next were some with 6mm edges and more bracing - these were better but still bent.
I've now got 12mm edges and they work perfectly - no movement at all.
This is the clearance with the old bottom plates....
And the new ones.
