Finally added a stout to the fleet

[Ditcherman]

First time caller, subscribed.

 

[mesa man]

Very uniquely cool, following along!

 

[Ditcherman]

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20hr turn and burn I have the donor chassis, definitely getting a little too old for a long haul like that.

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The chassis itself is good, the suspension not so much. The cantilever setup is all wrong and even with 160psi in the bags it can’t lift because it’s pushing down right at the pivot point. I’ll be ditch it anyways to be able to have a functioning bed. The front isn’t as bad but still geometry isn’t correct, plus I need to move the steering rack behind the centerline to clear the front sump of the oil pan and there isn’t a viable way to rear sump it.
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And just like that the old pickup body is off. I grabbed my worse body to figure out fitment on the chassis assuming I was going to need to cut out a lot, but outside a little cutting around the control arms it fits really well. The 20s hit the inner fender and keep the body from fully laying rockers but once on 18s it should have no problem.

Drastically different build that normal for mud, but if you guys enjoy it I’ll keep sharing on here.

I was studying the chassis picture and was thinking there was no way that could even lift itself! Then I scrolled down and saw you wrote "it won't even lift itself". I'm really curious, why would someone build something that highly engineered and beautiful and it not be right? And the solution looks so simple, to just shorten the forward pivot point pushing down down to the lower link.

 

[Builtbybudski]

I was studying the chassis picture and was thinking there was no way that could even lift itself! Then I scrolled down and saw you wrote "it won't even lift itself". I'm really curious, why would someone build something that highly engineered and beautiful and it not be right? And the solution looks so simple, to just shorten the forward pivot point pushing down down to the lower link.

Your guess is as good as mine. A lot was done right far as chassis design but suspension on the other hand left me puzzled. Im looking forward to diving down the rabbit hole of suspension design.

 

[Ditcherman]

Your guess is as good as mine. A lot was done right far as chassis design but suspension on the other hand left me puzzled. Im looking forward to diving down the rabbit hole of suspension design.

I had no plans to do that in my build, and when it dawned on me I had to it was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done. Spent a lot of time in the link calculator and rolling under measuring, and it’s one of the best parts of the build IMO.

 

[Ditcherman]

So at 160 psi, that airbag should have in the neighborhood of 8000 lbs lifting force.
The arm the airbag is connected to looks like it has about a 3:1 reduction in force, but it’s still putting 8000 lbs of force on the pivot bolt, and 2680ish on the lower link.
Then if the lower link is 36” long and the force is applied 3” back there’s another 12:1 reduction in force. So if I’m doing the math right that ends up being 222 lbs of lift. Obviously guessing at the lengths here.

It wouldn’t take much (once again IMO) to rebuild that upper arm, shortening the front end, lowering it, reducing the need for its huge bulk by reducing the forces in the whole system necessary to do the work, at a much more workable pressure.

I’m not sure how antisquat plays into a slammed vehicle, I’m thinking 40 psi would be nice to ride on, quick to get to and quick to dump, but if the antisquat numbers aren’t right you might slam the rear down on a launch.
Not sure how much has to give to get a bed on it?

I’ve never been into slammed or even lowered vehicles, but after working out all the geometry on mine have great respect for those builders.