The Chronicle's of Wade (2 Viewers)

[Ditcherman]

Based on all the measurements I’ve made, yes. But I have a few more to do. It was late last night, and it’s been a long 4 day. I’m back to work this evening, so I’ll get some more measurements before I leave.

Guess I’ll be setting the cab back on before the finish welds and drivetrain placement is final. That’s all part of the next 4 day.

I had a guy helping me for a while who would go to whatever lengths necessary to completely weld everything, even as we were just trying to set the body on, ‘sorta kinda like’. Doing all kinds of contortions and bad welding trying to reach into places instead of waiting til it came back apart (again).
He finally stopped when I made him grind his welds off instead of me doing it after he left for the day.
I am so new at all this I am scared to weld anything completely.

I am also sure I don’t want any of you looking at my welded frame, at least checking for alignment.

I think I heard the frame welder say that the link suspension guy would fix the frame misalignment. (both me)

In all seriousness though, could your 1/2” problem be mitigated with a link suspension?

 

[Firemedic831]

I had a guy helping me for a while who would go to whatever lengths necessary to completely weld everything, even as we were just trying to set the body on, ‘sorta kinda like’. Doing all kinds of contortions and bad welding trying to reach into places instead of waiting til it came back apart (again).
He finally stopped when I made him grind his welds off instead of me doing it after he left for the day.
I am so new at all this I am scared to weld anything completely.

I am also sure I don’t want any of you looking at my welded frame, at least checking for alignment.

I think I heard the frame welder say that the link suspension guy would fix the frame misalignment. (both me)

In all seriousness though, could your 1/2” problem be mitigated with a link suspension?

Technically yes you could set the axles square with links

 

[Zukrider]

I had a guy helping me for a while who would go to whatever lengths necessary to completely weld everything, even as we were just trying to set the body on, ‘sorta kinda like’. Doing all kinds of contortions and bad welding trying to reach into places instead of waiting til it came back apart (again).
He finally stopped when I made him grind his welds off instead of me doing it after he left for the day.
I am so new at all this I am scared to weld anything completely.

I am also sure I don’t want any of you looking at my welded frame, at least checking for alignment.

I think I heard the frame welder say that the link suspension guy would fix the frame misalignment. (both me)

In all seriousness though, could your 1/2” problem be mitigated with a link suspension?

As Ditcherman said, yes. Aside from any body to frame connection issues that arise, the axles can be squared to the body and track correctly.

My initial hesitation with trying to fully correct it, is that the whole length of the frame is off. This morning I had my daughter hold the tape so it would be more accurate. From the back of the front bumper (it’s the same distance forward from a certain hole in the frame on each side), measure a bunch of points, they all gradually get longer and longer. But the first point I measure, the center of the front shock mount at the frame, is 1/8” different. And it seems to grow an eighth every 3 feet or so.

Seems like a trap. And I’m already pretty frustrated. And again, it drove ok.

I could just do a little shifty shift at the spring perches. Hmm. Decisions.

I need to do a bit more digging and see which axle is crooked, that might help the decision.

 

[Mike Shull]

It sounds like what you are up against is the decision of whether you want to take the body back off at a later time, because it seems that you have come to the conclusion that something is wrong with the front frame rails. Vehicles can dogleg themselves down the road, but with only 8 miles or road experience, you may not know what would have happened if you hit a patch of San Juan August ice or loose gravel with a deer jumping in front of you. The odds are pretty slim.

It seems more logical that one side got crunched in a crash, shortening and/or bending that frame rail, though it doesn’t really matter if you have plans to cut those rails anyway.

It might not be in the cards to install your 3-link at the moment, but you might consider replacing the frame rails now and reattaching your spring mounts, though I am assuming that your rails will be higher to achieve more axle travel, which would mean that you would have to build some sort of temporary setup for your spring mounts. Plus doing so would mean that your fenders would need to be moved or removed, engine mounts replaced, etc. The suspension work might not be the majority of the lift for the front end.

 

[Ditcherman]

It sounds like what you are up against is the decision of whether you want to take the body back off at a later time, because it seems that you have come to the conclusion that something is wrong with the front frame rails. Vehicles can dogleg themselves down the road, but with only 8 miles or road experience, you may not know what would have happened if you hit a patch of San Juan August ice or loose gravel with a deer jumping in front of you. The odds are pretty slim.

It seems more logical that one side got crunched in a crash, shortening and/or bending that frame rail, though it doesn’t really matter if you have plans to cut those rails anyway.

It might not be in the cards to install your 3-link at the moment, but you might consider replacing the frame rails now and reattaching your spring mounts, though I am assuming that your rails will be higher to achieve more axle travel, which would mean that you would have to build some sort of temporary setup for your spring mounts. Plus doing so would mean that your fenders would need to be moved or removed, engine mounts replaced, etc. The suspension work might not be the majority of the lift for the front end.

The decision making is as hard or harder than the actual work.
One decision leads to so many possibilities.
I’m basing my build on my best judgement of ‘what can I get away with, vs what will I hate myself for down the road for doing/not doing’ and sometimes it’s a total guess.

 

[Mike Shull]

The decision making is as hard or harder than the actual work.
One decision leads to so many possibilities.
I’m basing my build on my best judgement of ‘what can I get away with, vs what will I hate myself for down the road for doing/not doing’ and sometimes it’s a total guess.

Decision fatigue is a real problem. I like @Zukrider ‘s motto. I have a feeling that he is going to make a decision and go with it. No turning back.

 

[Zukrider]

I have strategically decided to avoid the 40 this round of days off. I need a break and some rest! I am currently welding together my tube bender. And will be assembling my SWAG press brake after that. If those don’t take all my time. I’ll swing the cab up on the frame and start mapping the drivetrain cut out for the floor. Flat belly will be awesome.

Have to wait until next Fridays check to order some stuff to make any further progress. So knocking out the little stuff that will stop or slow down progress once the time comes. If time allows, and motivation is found, I’ll start working on attaching the rear portion of the cab as well.

I have seven 4 day weekends left until SAS8. That’s 5 working weekends, and hopefully 2 testing weekends with 8 days of driving to work.

Wish me luck!

 

[Zukrider]

So I totally forgot to update my contribution from the last 4 day I said I’d skip working on it!

So I did get my tube bender built. As well as my press brake. Then sat in my old driver seat and stared at it all until I just couldn’t anymore! That led to deciding to clean up the cab door posts and eventually get to prepping the rear portion. But as you can see here, the plan changed!

That damn thing was just determined to piss me off! So I said F it, and it will now turn into garage wall art.

So I immediately went with “Stop thinking, start doin’!” So I got some 1x2 out and started making a pillar connector. I am currently undecided on how it will be finished out, but I’ll likely duplicate that bar, at the bottom, and then just sheet the gap.

Now, what a 4 day this past 5 days has been. I didn’t snap to many pics, being the work was slow and tedious, but here is an update.

I decided to shorten the driver side rear connection point to help with the being out of square issue. You can see the gaps I had available to me, so I just cut the one side that was touching until all the gaps came in.

And now back together. At this point, the frame had been welded together fully, and was once again one piece.

More to come.

 

[Zukrider]

Next, I focused on the inside scab plates to finish the frame. I also started planning out the transmission and transfer case crossmembers so that I made the scab plates in the right spot.

That led to making the front set quite long to take on both crossmembers. The plug welds are between the factory inner plate holes. Plates are 4” .250 plate.

The rear scab I just used a premade setup from Barnes 4wd. These are also 1/4”.

Here you can see the beginning of the crossmembers design. The frame side is just general 1/4” tabs from TMR, with 9/16 holes.

 

[Zukrider]

The transmission crossmember is 1x2 .125 wall tube. The ends are 1.75”, .125 wall DOM with Barnes builder bushings and thick sleeves. You will see in later pics that the crossmember is rather crooked. Turns out, the engine mounts were put in crooked. It’s high on the driver side. I swear, if I find this builder, oooof! Guessing it was for the steering shaft if intentional. The Magnum crossmember is identical in materials, but designed a bit different to get around the tcase output. Once this one was “done”, I realized I didn’t take the driveshaft into account on the trans, so it got redone.

 

[Zukrider]

Here we have the oops fix.

This brings us to current.

Turns out my Magnum is either the wrong one, or machined wrong, so I have an email out to ORD to sort that out.

The last bits to do on the frame are outside scab plates, full belly skid skeleton, and sliders. Also tying in the cage. And it all kind of ties into one another, so it’s gonna wait til the cab is back together.

With the drivetrain height I chose, and the 205 being flat, I only have an 8-10” section of the very bottom of the transmission hanging below the frame rails. So current plan is to make a 1x2 skelton that’s in a couple pieces for ease of removal. And it will be sheeted, so heavy. But it will peak down in the center an inch, to make certain the trans is safe.

Next off days is straight to capping the cab, and cutting the drivetrain hole out of it. Then cage work. Then drivetrain tunnel.

Wish me luck!

 

[Zukrider]

Well let’s see. I have the frame in one official piece again. Still need to finish weld all the bottom stuff, add the outside scab plates, build sliders, and install the rear/middle crossmember I cut out.

-Scab plates are waiting for me to be motivated to do them. Lower welding happens with these.

-Sliders are waiting for completed cab.

-Crossmember needs rear driveshaft in for clearance.

I finished the rebuild of my NP305 and installed the Magnum to it. Drivetrain is now finished, and hopefully not coming back out for a long time.

I’ve also started more work on the cab, which led to the starting of the cage. Not in love with the current look, but k think it will get there.

It has to!

 

[Zukrider]

 

[EWheeler]

Moving right along at am impressive click!! What is the purpose of the round stock welded on the outside at the neutral axis of that transmission crossmember?

 

[Zukrider]

Moving right along at am impressive click!! What is the purpose of the round stock welded on the outside at the neutral axis of that transmission crossmember?

Do you mean this?

If so, they are 1.75” DOM with Bushings.

 

[Zukrider]

Moving right along at am impressive click!! What is the purpose of the round stock welded on the outside at the neutral axis of that transmission crossmember?

Oh!!!! You mean the 5/16” round bar? It is a “connection” piece to tie all the welded pieces together. Some are separate pieces, in lieu of folded. Essentially the same idea as a fish plate. Not real attractive, but cheap and simple.

 

[Mike Shull]

This is looking great! That running gear should be pretty versatile. What are your transfer case ratios?

How do you like your Rogue bender?

 

[Zukrider]

This is looking great! That running gear should be pretty versatile. What are your transfer case ratios?

How do you like your Rogue bender?

Love the Rogue. Very versatile. Capable of bending within a bend. A quick video of its capability.

So I have a Tremec TR-4050 5 spd with 6.16:1 1st. The doubler is 1:1 or 2.7:1. The NP205 is 1:1 or 1.96:1. All with 4.10 gears currently.

1st/hi/hi - 25.26:1
1st/hi/lo - 49.5:1
1st/lo/hi - 68.19:1
1st/lo/lo - 133.65:1

I also have it twin sticked. So I can run the front and rear independently. Front digs are awesome!

 

[Mike Shull]

Love the Rogue. Very versatile. Capable of bending within a bend. A quick video of its capability.

So I have a Tremec TR-4050 5 spd with 6.16:1 1st. The doubler is 1:1 or 2.7:1. The NP205 is 1:1 or 1.96:1. All with 4.10 gears currently.

1st/hi/hi - 25.26:1
1st/hi/lo - 49.5:1
1st/lo/hi - 68.19:1
1st/lo/lo - 133.65:1

I also have it twin sticked. So I can run the front and rear independently. Front digs are awesome!

Nice! Our setups are very similar and I think that you will like this. I tested out my lo/lo last weekend and it’s a crawler! I can’t wait to see this thing on the road/trail.

 

[DangerNoodle]

I love my Rouge bender. Not the cheapest, but very easy to use and make compounding or hard to bend parts with, or just a lot if em lol.