New Trail Rig

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FL cruiser

FL cruiser

10 Year 15 Year 20 Year
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Threads
96
Messages
1,766
Location
St Petersburg, Florida
The Battle Wagon isn't going to get cannibalized or compromised for the new rig.
BTW the Battle Wagon is back on the road again many months after a machinist lost the axles I gave him to work on.

I've been planning and accumulating for the past year or so for a new lighter, nimbler trail rig.

Found the exact truck I wanted. A 94 2WD Xtra Cab, a 2.3 Turbo SVO engine and parts to build Cruiser/hybrid axles

T-CL-2a.webp
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The plans for a light weight mini on 38's slightly changed as I ran into some deals on other parts.

First a set of used D60 axles with all, and I mean ALL the goodies narrowed to 63" and 61". P
60GEDC0442 em.webp
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erfect for a Mini
 
Then the 2002 Chevy Z71 donor truck. A fiend convinced me a V8 was the way to go by giving me this truck.
Not perfect as the 5.3 had three thrown rods. The truck was good for the wiring harness, computer, transmission and I cut the firewall trans.
tunnel out of it.

My first time ever tearing into one of these LS/Vortec engines. I can see why they are so popular. What a bell built, designed, light but strong engine. I was impressed.
W-CL-5-BB.webp 5.3 GEDC0448 em.webp 5.3 GEDC0462 em.webp 5.3 GEDC0467 em.webp
 
Mike in Orlando hooked me up with a set of five 40" MTR's
Sold enough parts off the Chevy truck to buy another 5.3 with 87K miles out of a 2002 Tahoe.
MTR-bb.webp 5-3-em.webp
 
Old 22RE pulled, truck in staging for new engine.

I haven't started a build thread because it doesn't fit in anywhere. R.I.P. Florida Cruiserheads and FATT Shack.
I might post up
Red wo eng bb.webp
at Pirate when more progress is made.
 
It fits here!
 
@cruisermatt clued me in to this thread. This is gonna be fun.
 
Subscribed!
 
Lots of test fitting. Engine, transmission and transfer sitting in there. Now test fitting the front axle and figuring out the links.

It appears some fender trimming will need to be done.
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Just let the rocks trim the fenders for you ;)
 
Awesome Steve.. One of these days I will drop by and check out your build. Cheers
 
Updates?? @FL cruiser
 
It doesn't look like much progress, but I've been spending an enormous amount of time positioning, measuring and repositioning over and over.
Finally got the motor mounts and tranny mounts done and engine is sitting where there's room for both suspension, driveshaft and exhaust.
The engine is sitting a ways back now. The front suspension will be 4 link.
floor1-bb.webp floor2-b.webp floor3-bb.webp
Got the front axle stripped down now and making a truss and link mounts and working on interior floor and firewall.
 
Dual triangulated or parallel? Seems like you'd need to have a pretty high lift to clear a dual triangle.
 
Dual triangulated.
Normally there would have to be lots of lift, but with the engine moved back into the firewall, that changes everything. The upper links come up nice and high between the engine and frame. The only compromise is the upper link separation at the axle will have to be 11" which isn't perfect, but not bad either.
 
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