Bay to Blue Ridge Cruisers Fall Crawl (1 Viewer)

[smtyblt]

Well I know some of you guys and some I dont. We are having our first annual trail ride since we were accepted into the TLCA as a chapter.

Octoper 13th-15th at Paragon Adventure Park

Raffle to be held on saturday night at the Red Ground campground.

Lots of fun and hopefully lots of people.

Please reply to this thread https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?p=1363525#post1363525

 

[smtyblt]

anyone interested from CLCC

 

[76FJ40]

I'm interested.

 

[Felix]

I, too, am interested and I'll see if I can't drum up some others at our meeting tonight.

Felix

 

[smtyblt]

So what is the word

Our meeting is wednesday night and I am trying to get a head count

 

[76FJ40]

I'll be there if I can get off from work!

 

[Felix]

I know John Smith is planning on being there. I'll try to get a rough head count for you today.

 

[Blue77FJ40]

If I get my front locker working and a skidplate for it, I will be there.

 

[Felix]

Speaking of skid plates, how stupid is it to wheel without one? Keeping in mind my lowly (get it? ) 32" tires and shackle lift. Would you say it's a "just be extra careful and you'll be alright" kinda thing, or a "you're a moron if you do it" kinda thing?

I recently had to cut mine off since a po welded it to the frame.

 

[Blue77FJ40]

Anyway you can get strips welded to the sides to drill the holes (to match stock holes) and remount it?

Skidplates are a real good idea. If you stay off the rocks, you most likely won't be hitting anything. If not, ....

 

[Felix]

yeah, I should probably just do that, huh. At least until I can spring for a beefier one.

I suppose I already knew the answer. Sometimes I just need told what to do.

 

[kulangot]

Felix,

On my first cruiser, all of the bolts for the skid plate were busted off in the holes and the skid plate did not come with the truck.

I took two stock skid plates, welded them stacked together and then welded a strip of heavy angle down the lower inside edge of the frame and bolted the two skids to that.

Before I did that, I went up to stony creek and while stuck on a rock I backed up and peeled the backing plate off the ebrake dust shield and farked up the e brake drum. Also smashed up the bottom of the transfercase pretty well.

You could make some card board templates and go Arlington Iron works and have them bend up what you need. Ive found that if you go there with fullsize card board mockups of what you want, it's cheaper and faster to get what you need cut/sheared and press brake bent that trying to explain to them or even show them drawings. I'd use 3/16's minium, ideally 1/4 cold rolled steel.

-Stumbaugh

 

[Felix]

Felix,

On my first cruiser, all of the bolts for the skid plate were busted off in the holes and the skid plate did not come with the truck.

I took two stock skid plates, welded them stacked together and then welded a strip of heavy angle down the lower inside edge of the frame and bolted the two skids to that.

-Stumbaugh

I kinda like that idea. Did you weld the two stock skid plates together or just bolt them both on?

 

[kulangot]

I welded one inch long stich welds every 6" inches or so around the perimeter and then every so often punched a hole in one and plug welded it to the other with a small roset weld. Just make sure you clean the areas you are going to weld so that they are clean, shiney and bright. The plug welds need to be in places where the two actually touch.

Very easy project and works well. This is an old school mod from way back in the day when all you could get for your cruiser was exteneded shackles and add a leafs from Downey so you could run 31's or 32's. Armstong Tru Tracks was I had back then. Kind of crazy to see what is "required" for wheeling these days compared to back them.

Do the prep work and I'll weld them up for you for a cup of coffee. I have a pair of new welding machines that I want to play with. You can probably get the broken bolts out with a lot of free time and some good extractors. Get the snap on set with the left hand drill bits, often the drill bit turning in the direction of unscrewing the bolt (unlike a normal bit that tightens it) will help in getting them broken bits out. You can buy the kit online from snapon.com.

-Stumbaugh