Builds Spyduh's Crawler80 Build (1 Viewer)

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Lock to lock is 8.5 inch. If I use my 8inch ram I will lose .25 inch turning radius each side.

Hmm...


Edit.....
Nevermind. Ram moves 8.25. So I lose 0.125 inch each side. Not worrying about that little amount. Its never good to full lock to one side with front locker engaged anyway. Hydro will make it real easy to grenade my birfs.

Edit 3...
Need to buy 3/8 thick plate so I can fab my own brackets to weld to the axle housing

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Flex test with the new @Delta VS 6 radius arms.
I gained 1.5ish more lift.

Still running the 3in + 30mm tourflex springs.

Front tire contacted the fender and then the rear tire lifted. Will need bump stops and some fender cutting to gain a little more flex.

Note to self 4inch lift with 6inch radius arms is too much caster and caused death wobble. Not as bad as my old mini truck crawler but still skethcy. Waiting for the Dobi 6inch lift to come in now. Edit: I think my toe is way out of spec that probably cause my DW after the caster change. It's too far toed out right now. I'm going to need to do an alignment but need to change out my TREs first. Will do a DIY string alignment to get it 1/16 toe first. Then I'll install hydro and then wait again for 6" lift to do another alignment. It's not a daily and not my first death wobble. Was sadly all too common with my mini truck and I got use to driving it with DW. You get use to it after awhile.

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Lock to lock is 8.5 inch. If I use my 8inch ram I will lose .25 inch turning radius each direction.
Something seem to be amiss.
Lock to lock on my reg is 95/8" and I am running a 9" ram, it's all documented in my build thread.
When I was setting my up there was a thread on hydro assist and most of the guys were coming up right around 91/2" +/- lock to lock on a 80
I was thinking just like you that full lock turn with the locker on is hard on the birfields so I went with the 9" ram instead of a 10" ram that would need to be shimmed down to 95/8". With the 9" ram I adjusted the steering stop down and lost 5/16" of steering each way, It does not seem like a lot but it was noticeable difference. I could not imagine going down to a 8" ram these fat Ladies need all the truing they can get.
I have my Ram mounted in the same area that you are mounting yours. Pay close attention to the oil pan clearance. I was running a 4" lift and 1" bump stop spacers and I still managed to put the Ram into the oil pan. My Ram now sits in the center of the axle and in front of the tie rod. Again all in My build thread.

I am also very curious as to how much lift you well get from the 6" Dobinson springs. Across the board member have posted 1to 2" more lift with there Dobinson springs then advertised.
I'm running there 2" lift spring and I'm getting 31/4" lift from them in the front even with armor, winch, and 55lb battery. @Beach80 posted that his 4" dobinson springs are giving 6 to 7" of lift. 🤷‍♂️
You are the first one I have heard of to try the 6" springs.
One last thing your build is looking great, Keep the post coming. 😉 Cheers

 
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Something seem to be amiss.
Lock to lock on my reg is 95/8" and I am running a 9" ram, it's all documented in my build thread.
When I was setting my up there was a thread on hydro assist and most of the guys were coming up right around 91/2" +/- lock to lock on a 80
I was thinking just like you that full lock turn with the locker on is hard on the birfields so I went with the 9" ram instead of a 10" ram that would need to be shimmed down to 95/8". With the 9" ram I adjusted the steering stop down and lost 5/16" of steering each way, It does not seem like a lot but it was noticeable difference. I could not imagine going down to a 8" ram these fat Ladies need all the truing they can get.
I have my Ram mounted in the same area that you are mounting yours. Pay close attention to the oil pan clearance. I was running a 4" lift and 1" bump stop spacers and I still managed to put the Ram into the oil pan. My Ram now sits in the center of the axle and in front of the tie rod. Again all in My build thread.

I am also very curious as to how much lift you well get from the 6" Dobinson springs. Across the board member have posted 1to 2" more lift with there Dobinson springs then advertised.
I'm running there 2" lift spring and I'm getting 31/4" lift from them in the front even with armor, winch, and 55lb battery. @Beach80 posted that his 4" dobinson springs are giving 6 to 7" of lift. 🤷‍♂️
You are the first one I have herd of to try the 6" springs.
One last thing your build is looking great, Keep the post coming. 😉 Cheers
I too have dual batteries, delta vs bumpers, skid plates, sliders and winch. I've had very little "settling" after a couple off roading trips. Still at a 6 to 7" lift from dobinsons 4" lift package.
 
Something seem to be amiss.
Lock to lock on my reg is 95/8" and I am running a 9" ram, it's all documented in my build thread.
When I was setting my up there was a thread on hydro assist and most of the guys were coming up right around 91/2" +/- lock to lock on a 80
I was thinking just like you that full lock turn with the locker on is hard on the birfields so I went with the 9" ram instead of a 10" ram that would need to be shimmed down to 95/8". With the 9" ram I adjusted the steering stop down and lost 5/16" of steering each way, It does not seem like a lot but it was noticeable difference. I could not imagine going down to a 8" ram these fat Ladies need all the truing they can get.
I have my Ram mounted in the same area that you are mounting yours. Pay close attention to the oil pan clearance. I was running a 4" lift and 1" bump stop spacers and I still managed to put the Ram into the oil pan. My Ram now sits in the center of the axle and in front of the tie rod. Again all in My build thread.

I am also very curious as to how much lift you well get from the 6" Dobinson springs. Across the board member have posted 1to 2" more lift with there Dobinson springs then advertised.
I'm running there 2" lift spring and I'm getting 31/4" lift from them in the front even with armor, winch, and 55lb battery. @Beach80 posted that his 4" dobinson springs are giving 6 to 7" of lift. 🤷‍♂️
You are the first one I have heard of to try the 6" springs.
One last thing your build is looking great, Keep the post coming. 😉 Cheers
When I measured the full lock right to left. I marked it with the truck off. I didn't have extra help yesterday to hold the wheel on full lock and squeal. So thats probably why I'm off a tiny bit. I just did a rough mockup since I knew I needed metal to fab a bracket for the housing side.

I'm thinking of welding the bracket for the stationary end of the ram an inch away from the diff housing. Thinking about putting it parallel with the drag link rod. I was worried too about the oil pan however on my old mini truck hydro. It also hit and left some dents. It still drove fine and lost maybe a couple ounces of oil cap.
 
Ordering a 80 series power steering frame reinforcement kit since I'm pulling the box anyway to install my redhead hydro and PSC ram kit and weld knuckle gussets.
Couldn’t find a steering frame reinforcement kit online. Where did you purchase this?
 
Nice progress so far! I'm not sure if you'll be happy with those super tall springs - could get very tippy on some of the trails you plan to run. I too live in the area and drive to & from these trails as well, so road manners are a big focus for me.

By far the best improvement I've made to the 80 was 3-linking the front. Drives great on the freeway and makes the truck feel much more stable off road.

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2nd best improvement was 4-linking the rear and redoing the entire suspension. Not necessarily for more flex, but for better road manners. The oversteer is really bad on the stock setup once you start to get over 4". Another benefit was being able to rotate the pinion up with a DC shaft. That, along with the longer and triangulated rear lower links means I hardly touch the driveshaft anymore while wheeling. My stock driveshaft was getting destroyed. Now most of the damage will be taken by the lower links which are 2.25" 3/8" wall DOM. Those will NEVER bend.

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This picture shows the before & after of the rear link lengths and angles:

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And my last recommendation that really helps transform the 80 into a decent wheeler - rocker panel chops. It's a a lot of work but cheap to do if you have the tools and can weld. You gain a ton of free clearance where it really matters, under the doors and behind the rear bumper. I think I measured a good 5"+ difference in low hanging sheet metal once it was all cut away. After that I was able to build some high-clearance sliders that shoot straight off the frame using a 2x6" plank.

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And this one really highlights how much room you have under the truck once you cut the rockers away.


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Looking forward to your journey and maybe I'll see you on the Rubicon one of these days!
 
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Thanks for the info. I been following your build thread. I've seen you on the Con probably 2 or three times before. Not sure if you saw my mini truck before. It's been through 2 cabs and 2-3 colors and like 4 wheels. lol. Hope to see ya at the Con this year. I'm always at the Rubithon and Roundup event.

That's my worry about being tippy. I did have a giant ass 37 on my mini after I relocated my tire. It didn't feel too bad with all that weight. But I have zero experience with an 80 on the Con. Worst case I go back down to 4s + 30mm.

I'm trying the easy route with the Delta Radius arms first but I'm leaning on linking it may be in a year/two. I did just order some spidertrax 1.5" spacers to give me a little more (3" wider) width so it offsets the 6" tippy. Yeah I know about bearing wear and all the downsides of spacers. With all builds, it's a work in progress and ever changing.

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Before Trip @ Loon Lake
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After @ Caddy Lookout Point. I relaxed too much and lost focus for one second and went to fast and smashed my door into a V notch. Had to get a new door and glass. Door would not open and I was getting in and out Duke's of Hazard style. That really sucks on big rocks trying to get in and out.
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Couldn’t find a steering frame reinforcement kit online. Where did you purchase this?
I bought Rampt Custom's version. They also have a lot of cool 80 parts prefabbed. I could make this myself, but it'll take to long to fab. They ain't cheap cause it comes from AUS and shipping is killer expensive. But I don't mind paying for quality stuff if it saves me time. I got too many projects to do and not enough time left before KOH in under 2 weeks. I really want to take the Crawler80 and wheel it at JV. If I don't get it done in time, then I'll just cruise down in comfort and speed the Turbo80 to watch the races. Just threw down a reservation too for an RV this year. Not roughing it in a tent is a nice change.
Maybe it’s not an issue with your geometry, but I put that same front E-locker guard on years ago and it made contact with the tie rod when turning hard driver.
Not an issue with mine. I looked and made sure it didn't contact the drag link rod. I had a LROR locker before and that thing works well for regular mini's but it didn't fit my Turbo80. The one I'm using now is made by Marlin for the front 8" locker. They don't paint them red anymore and use the standard zinc coating. It fits from what I can see.
I found this one on the interwebs, but not sure where spyduh is getting his.

That one works. I almost bought this one but the Rampt is better and contains 2 additional plates and gussets for the panhard as well as the longer hardware needed when you go thick boy plates. Here's a vid of the install for the Rampt one

I found that one too, labeled as a repair kit. It might do the trick though. Thank you.
It'll work and it's slightly cheaper too!
 
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I bought Rampt Custom's version. They also have a lot of cool 80 parts prefabbed. I could make this myself, but it'll take to long to fab. They ain't cheap cause it comes from AUS and shipping is killer expensive
Thank you. It looks like a complete kit. How was the install?

 
Thank you. It looks like a complete kit. How was the install?

Not installed yet. Hopefully this weekend or next. Getting my hydro ready before I pull it apart on the 80.

Would be my first install for an 80. But I've welded 3 toyota pickup/4runners already.

They all the same really. Clamp tack weld in hot.
 
Not installed yet. Hopefully this weekend or next. Getting my hydro ready before I pull it apart on the 80.

Would be my first install for an 80. But I've welded 3 toyota pickup/4runners already.

They all the same really. Clamp tack weld in hot.
Where'd you order the rampt full kit? Their site is giving me an error if I enter my US address.
 
The Ram that I got from West Texas 4Wheel&Offroad (RNR1.5X9 )was part of a kit. I did pay for a upgrade for the bigger Ram $ 60.00 there kit come standard with a 1.5X8" ram.


Pictures installed
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