[boots4]

Originally Posted by GLTHFJ60

The rockers look great! Have any pictures of the undersides?

Didn't end up taking any good pics of the open rocker. I'm not done with them so I'll get some decent ones in a week or two.

[pjohnson]

Looks good.

Are you going to close up the underside of the rocker to keep rust producing crap out?

Phil

[brokenparts]

Looks good Mike... you comin Sat. to bend up some tube?

[boots4]

Originally Posted by pjohnson

Looks good.

Are you going to close up the underside of the rocker to keep rust producing crap out?

Phil

I'm going to seal the seam that is under there and probably the holes for the pillars but that's about it. I will coat it and that should be fine.

Originally Posted by brokenparts

Looks good Mike... you comin Sat. to bend up some tube?

Yup, I'm still planning on it and it even looks to be a dry day! What time can I swing by? I might need to use the welder a little too.

[brokenparts]

no problem... the lil'welder is good for tube too. How's 10:30-11 sound?

[boots4]

Originally Posted by brokenparts

no problem... the lil'welder is good for tube too. How's 10:30-11 sound?

Great. I'll leave by 10am. I'll probably just bring my trailer.

[Drofen]

Whew, just finished reading--what a great thread. Seeing some of the issues you've had to work through has been a good thing. I definitely need to have stuff together before starting--lots and lots and lots of research to do yet.

Have you thought of using a water injection kit to keep your EGT's manageable when towing in the mountains?

[boots4]

Originally Posted by Drofen

Whew, just finished reading--what a great thread. Seeing some of the issues you've had to work through has been a good thing. I definitely need to have stuff together before starting--lots and lots and lots of research to do yet.

Have you thought of using a water injection kit to keep your EGT's manageable when towing in the mountains?

I'm glad I wrote this all down because I wouldn't be able to remember it all! It's fun to go back through and see the things I've done so far. Anyways, I have thought about water injection but for me that would be after I've finished tuning. I'm still trying out different power settings, chasing my mysterious boost leak, and playing with timing. All things that can have an effect on EGTs

EGTs got hot in the mountains towing for a couple reasons:
towing with 38s and 4.11s (4.56s would probably be better but this is part of my compromise to have one rig do all these things)
restriction in the exhaust (solution was to move that baffle from the down pipe)
I certainly could have slowed down some but I was impressed that little engine would pull that weight at 70mph with my setup.

I still have only 1 fan hooked up (it's winter so I haven't really needed even that one)

So I'm trying to say I've got a few things to finish/tune that can help with the higher EGTs while towing. Removing that baffle helped and if I could keep all that boost I'm trying to make going into the cylinders that would also help. Since I've been chasing those leaks I try out stuff and than work on other projects so that's why it seems like it's dragging on.

Currently as of FEB 2009

EGTs run about 800F on the freeway at 70-75mph. If I drop down to 55-60mph they go to ~600F. This is without towing. I haven't really towed anything heavy for a while so I'll have to see how changes I've made since then help whenever I get something heavy to tow. I'm peaking at 21psi of boost when I've got my foot to the floor which is only when I'm getting on the freeway. Gauge is still fluttering (much less now so progress is being made) and my end goal is upper 20s-30psi. That should get me about 180-200hp which will be more than enough; torque should be over 400ftlbs at those levels. It's the goal and the goal can change if it looks like that won't be reliable. Anyways, thanks for reading.

[brokenparts]

I beat you to the pics Mike.... here's some progress on Mike's sliders from yesterday:

Tube being bent... the cheapo hydro actually works pretty well



Outrigger bent up:



Mike welding up the slider arms:



not too shabby for his first time with a mig:



This is how Mike looks on a regular basis:



Sorry we got caught a little short today for time but at least we'll have idea of what were doing when we start your front bumper.

[boots4]

Thanks Zach for posting the pics and thanks a TON for letting me bug you yesterday, it was lot of fun. That bend tech program and your bender really make putting shapes in tube fun and easy. Glad your wife saw us using it. I enjoyed playing with your MIG welder and am amazed how fast your plasma cutter rips through steel (no wonder you don't like going back to grinding!) You are a great host and I look forward to our next fab day.

[brokenparts]

Originally Posted by boots4

Thanks Zach for posting the pics and thanks a TON for letting me bug you yesterday, it was lot of fun. That bend tech program and your bender really make putting shapes in tube fun and easy. Glad your wife saw us using it. I enjoyed playing with your MIG welder and am amazed how fast your plasma cutter rips through steel (no wonder you don't like going back to grinding!) You are a great host and I look forward to our next fab day.

me too my friend.... it might be a bit harder for the next month or two because of my daughter's soccer but we'll get in another day sometime soon to work on your bumper.

[kling-on]

Originally Posted by brokenparts

:

Tube being bent... the cheapo hydro actually works pretty well .

SO DOES THIS MEAN YOURS GETS ROUND OUTRIGGERS NOW

[brokenparts]

Originally Posted by kling-on

SO DOES THIS MEAN YOURS GETS ROUND OUTRIGGERS NOW

Yes it does... Mike was kind enough to be my guinea pig.

[boots4]

Looking forward to being the bumper guinea pig too.

I got the outriggers tacked on and three supports per side done too. Hoping to get some paint on it tomorrow.

[Dirtgypsy]

looking good guys!! can't wait to see the final product!

Clint

[mrqtipp]

killer build

[boots4]

Here are my side of the pics from last saturday fabbing with Zach.

Loaded my stuff on the trailer. Put on a "flag" so people wouldn't skewer themselves on my tube. I thought the hearts were a nice touch.



Zach getting the bender set up.



While the jack may be slow if you had to bend tube for a living I thought it was a perfect speed and really allowed you to fine tune the degrees.



I have some pics of the degree dial on his bender but I guess those didn't get transferred to my hosting site last night so I'll edit this post and get those on here.


Here is the work from this week.

I borrowed this fun little tool from Zach to get my bird mouth angles transferred onto the outrigger supports.



Here's the lines being transferred. Then I just cut out a V with cut off wheels and used a grinding disk to carry out the curves.



Now the supports are also tacked in. I didn't weld it up because I didn't pick up any new batteries for my welder but here's what they look like. The outriggers have a slight upwards slope to them.





Once I get them welded up I'll paint them and then work on attaching them to the frame.

My cuts up old kids clothes she gets off of craigslist and I use those as rags. I grabbed this one to wipe the coating off the tube before I tacked on the supports and saw an interesting pic. I cannot read it but I don't think thats needed to understand what it says (hope it's not offensive writing). No wonder she cut up this shirt!



Kind of hard to get decent pics of the rockers but I hope this gives an idea of what they look like inside. I finished my cuts, cleaned them up, sealed the seam, and slapped the first coat of Rustbullet on them. I'll put another coat on it before I weld the sliders on.

Front looking back





Front fender area. Because of the rod and the welded well it actually has good support and it doesn't flop around. I might put a screw in it but probably doesn't need it.



I retimed the engine to 14.4 degrees (from 15.3) because I was eating a little too much oil and a little too loud. It did quiet down a couple dBs and we'll see about any economy improvement with a couple of tanks.

I think I'll take another look at my boost signal line to the gauge and see if I have connection/pinch issues. I wonder if the line might be too small.

[brokenparts]

those look great man... good work!

[brokenparts]

hey mike... what is your frame height (ground to bottom of frame)?

[GLTHFJ60]

That's what the inside of the rockers look like. Nice.

Excellent sliders!

[boots4]

Originally Posted by brokenparts

hey mike... what is your frame height (ground to bottom of frame)?

Once I get done adding all the extra weight from protection it might be a tad lower but right now I'm at 25" from bottom of the frame under the driver side door to the ground. My tcase does hang down a bit lower (~5") and I haven't fabbed up a skid plate yet.

[boots4]

Originally Posted by GLTHFJ60

That's what the inside of the rockers look like. Nice.

Excellent sliders!

Yeah, once I saw Zach's (brokenparts) and then cut mine off there isn't much that needs to be sealed so doing the work to cap them seemed like diminishing returns especially since it will be covered up with a slider anyways. I just sealed up that seam in the middle and will run some rubber plugs in the holes at the bottom of the pillers. The one area I need to look into further is the hole at the rear wheel well. I'd like to get a flashlight in there and see where it goes to see it's worth dealing with (maybe just a piece of rubber glued in to keep things out).

[brokenparts]

Originally Posted by boots4

Once I get done adding all the extra weight from protection it might be a tad lower but right now I'm at 25" from bottom of the frame under the driver side door to the ground. My tcase does hang down a bit lower (~5") and I haven't fabbed up a skid plate yet.

Gracias.

[Tapage]

Originally Posted by brokenparts

Gracias.

practicando Castellano ..?

[brokenparts]

Originally Posted by Tapage

practicando Castellano ..?

poco.

[Dirtgypsy]

Those are bada$$ mike.

please tell me you are NOT going to put those boggers on your truck

Clint

[boots4]

Originally Posted by Dirtgypsy

Those are bada$$ mike.

please tell me you are NOT going to put those boggers on your truck

Clint

Those will be spare tires. I still need to get some 6 lug 16s to mount those. Right now they are on 8 lugs.

[boots4]

I seem to be taking my sweet time with these sliders but they'll get put on soon.

This was my battery condition for my welder. I had one boil over so I knew it was toast (charger didn't get the right signal so it kept charging) and then the other had a post that was loose so I decided to just replace both of them.



Trojans are pretty good batteries but I decided not to fork over the extra difference and just got house brand. These are group 27 deep cycle batteries. They are new and if I have any problems in the next three years I'll be bringing them back to their shop.



I cleaned off the battery tray with baking soda, plopped in my new batteries and hooked them up.



With new juice supplying my welder I burned in the outriggers, cleaned up the metal and put my first coat of Rustbullet on. With the warmer weather coming up I'm hoping it will be easier to paint since I'll need a second coat on the sliders and the rockers. I'm getting low on Rustbullet too so I'll need to get some more ordered.



I've been tracking down a coolant leak that wasn't dripping. I ended up having a couple pinholes on my return heater hose so I got some new stuff and replaced it. It was also time for an oil change so I made a mess on the driveway and got that finished. After the rubicon trip this summer I should have over 10K miles on the swap.

[GLTHFJ60]

That's awesome! I can't wait to buy one of those Ready Welders!!

[boots4]

Thanks, I do plan on making a new cart, something more vertical with a place to wrap the cabling for the gun and grounding clamp. Plus those skinny wheels don't do so well on soggy grass so probably some wheels with more "floatation". I've been eyeing this big-wheeled radio flyer cart at Harbor Freight that I could modify.