Someguys 04

so the torque box does not appear to be an issue, and can be left intact i believe, but i'm gonna tap the outer seam down flat against the end and round off every edge and corner. my cut is about a 1/2" off the end of it and angled out, if i straighten it up some i feel fairly confident the opposite wheel could be at a deficit and the tilted wheel will still not contact.
i can reestablish a nice radius on the corner with "blank corners".

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UHMW sheets are great for letting heavy things slide. I used to use them for that in my previous working life.
 
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UHMW sheets are great for letting heavy things slide. I used to use them for that in my previous working life.
i almost dumped the front end cycling it with the TB attached and 1 wheel on the pavement. scared the shit out of me and i got really lucky 1 stand hooked in and kept it from a full collapse. stupid rookie mistake.
 
today, i started to clean out the pass side corner of the evap brackets. and do some rust removal. the torque box has a nasty ol edge facing the wheel, i cleaned the area and folded the edge back and tucked it tight. it's sitting in an acid bath to kill what rust is left.

i just barely have the room to fit a 12" travel ORI, in the wells. a 14" would have a mid point of about 3" longer than this and have to be placed in front or behind the axle to accommodate it, since up into the tub is not really an option.
 

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to me, ideally the support would come from the strut pushing down directly on the axle tube, but i'm finding lots of examples of the CO's being offset of the axle (mounted behind the front axle or in front or behind the rear axle).

@mrblaine if i were to pull the mount to the front of my rear axle to gain some extra travel (a 14"), is this an option to me/acceptable? it would impart a permanent influence on the axle. and is in front better than behind or does it even matter?

@toximus are you on top of both axles or beside 1 or both?

if i pull the mount forward and put it next to my LCA, i could fit that 14 and pull the hoop out of that tight rear tub corner some.
 
to me, ideally the support would come from the strut pushing down directly on the axle tube, but i'm finding lots of examples of the CO's being offset of the axle (mounted behind the front axle or in front or behind the rear axle).

@mrblaine if i were to pull the mount to the front of my rear axle to gain some extra travel (a 14"), is this an option to me/acceptable? it would impart a permanent influence on the axle. and is in front better than behind or does it even matter?

@toximus are you on top of both axles or beside 1 or both?

if i pull the mount forward and put it next to my LCA, i could fit that 14 and pull the hoop out of that tight rear tub corner some.
The axle or the strut doesn't care or know that it isn't directly on top of the axle tube within reason. A shift to the rear of 6" to move the lower end down and back will have no detrimental effect and will have many benefits. Longer shock, better angle for moving it out of the higher contact points in the tire's articulation shadow, etc..

I prefer behind because you can lean the shock back some to clear the tire easier. It looks odd to me if you put in front because you have to lean it forward.
 
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so i mocked up a tube with hole centers at 28.5" which is the ORI 14" strut at it' mid point in the travel length.
if i go with a tower instead of a hoop i have more room, it's not topped out as close to the tub up top, and just above mid axle tube on the low end. this would allow me to stay pretty tight at the low end and only be off the axle about 1.5".

this is the old tower i had made for shock relocation and to accommodate the strut it'd need to be remade a little bigger. the angle is set to allow the strut to be 90* (front to back) at full compression and maintain a modest lean into the body slightly.

i have reconsidered the torque box rework and will complete it to accommodate either mounting method. but i 'm kinda leaning toward the towers now.

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well my ambition to try to exceed proven link lengths has put the strut mount crammed into the rear corner, it's giving the appearance of almost LA links. so i took 1.5" off of the link lengths.

and silly me, forgot the front end has an extra 1" of lift right now. this has to be compensated for in the rear, so i got the rear tires 1" off the ground (that'll even out when the front end comes down 1"). i was wondering why it seemed i had more room than others under there.

7" up, now puts me 1/8" off that cross member, with plenty of room over the upper axle joints.
new pics: the plywood is ground level, and has 7" of blocks on top of it. and it looks much better in my fender wells, that extra inch made it appear more than what was needed.


expect an update later. took a vaca day to burn, if i leave the Co. they won't pay whats left over, so i need to use them.

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so the tower is still working out better than the tube hoop, to get the hoop to fit as i like and not rub the body, i'd have to drop the bottom end more.

this is minimal room above, but should clear. and it bottoms at mid tube on the axle. it has a 4* lean back at full compression and a 5* lean in. and is tucked just behind the LCA bracket.

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alright i think i'm gonna settle here. the hoop is out in favor of the tower mount.
i dropped the low end about a 1/2", this gets me plenty of room up top. i tacked a peg to the axle, because i'm tired of trying to balance all this crap. and it's hits both the static and compressed holes perfectly.

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i drilled out the plug welds so i can get onto the torque box shrinkage, once the ends are open i can get those body mounts secured. then i'll use mrblaine's method of reinforcing and retying the end and stiffening the body panel.
 
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well y'all know i like options, so i have a slew of pieces to help decide on the lower mounts.
and i remade my towers to be close to what i have up front to keep things sorta uniform (they'll get holes just like up front to cut some weight and have an airflow around the struts). lots of fitting to make it reality, but i'll manage.

this is holding up the whole rig so no 3/16" here, all 1/4" even a couple pieces of 3/8" in case i don't end up boxing that bottom mount.

i'll add a few pics later if i have time to mock things together.

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got 1 side propped up in there. not to bad. it'll all need trimming, but should work.

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so i got a boxed axle bracket made up that should work (1/4" all around). it's 4.75" off my axle flange, i tried 5.5" and had plenty of room so i came out another 3/4" and still have plenty of room between strut and tire at full compression.
and got 1 of the towers bent just a enough to lay flat on the frame and angle out so it cannot rub the body, and the ears trimmed to hold the strut top.

tomrw if it doesn't rain all day i'll get into those torque boxes.

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got the torque boxes trimmed back, working out the tub tie in and end patch.
but while it's open i need to get those body mounts secured. so today at lunch i grabbed a couple scraps off the laser and made up a big flag nut. 10 x 1 1/4 x 1/8 with a heavy pattern nut, and i gave it a slight bend to hold some pressure.

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Good to see some serious progress being made!
i get the towers done and installed, and i'll be getting somewhere.
i'm having a hard time pushing myself to order the struts, those bastards are expensive..........JensenBros has them for 100$ off right now with free shipping, so i'll be ordering them in the next day or 2.
then it's just get it all put together. i took another vaca day fri so i'll be working on it this wkend.
 
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well i left about an inch of the torque box on each side, and i drilled additional holes into the rear plate (under the gate) to plug weld in 10" x 4" x 1/4" plates. i notched out 1 corner about 2"L x 3/4"D, so it'd fit inside the remaining box and fit tight to it's rear wall. this allows the 8" x 4" to be used as a tub stabilizer up to the edge of my cut. and all those holes i drilled to bust the factory welds got filled into that piece of 1/4" backer.

i slit the leftover 1" top off the box and bent it upward against the body, then overlapped it with with an angled plate that is drilled through the tub and then plug welded to the inside upper edge in the box, to hold all that together.

while in the midst of all this crap it dawns on me i need to figure out some tailgate hinge (CJ), i don't want to use nutserts for this really. so i made up more nut plates that slide up in the box and spread the load area. the holes are pretty low so the gate come down about even with the threshold ridge.

i'll get better pics once i get the t, box capped and it's all tied together.

and i been packin up some stuff slow but sure and stashin it in the garage, under plastic. it's been raining and it's always wet, so i broke down and put a new roof on it this wkend. total tear off down to the rotten wood, sistered up a few joists that needed some help and dropped a new OSB decking over the old planking, followed by new tar paper and rolled roofing.
i had just got the deck down when the sky started fallin again, so i scrambled to get at least the tar paper over it, and got soaked to the bone, last run at the top of the roof and it just stops............MTHR-FKR.

i gotta figure out something on the towers, i didn't leave a lot of meat where i need to add holes to pass the big ass 5/8 bolt through. so i gotta get those holes in them and possibly add meat.

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well i bit the bullet and got my order in to Jenson Bros., they say they have a pair not accounted for yet on their Nov. shipment, so i got my name on the list for them.

i got the strut towers all mocked up, and they'll be all welded up and painted tomrw, ready to go on anytime the weather allows. ORI struts won't be here until late Nov.

underneath it's all pretty much set. i just need to do the welding on of the axle truss, the axle strut brackets, and the link ends.
 
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alright, i was able to get the new gate fixed, in an acceptable manor.
with some small 7/16"x1"x1.5" UHMW blocks i was able to place spacers on the gate frame to catch the CJ latches tight and keep the gate and body all nice and flush.

the towers got another coat of paint on the backside, i'll never be able to reach this area once installed so it has to be covered forever. probably gonna hose it with some clear coat as well.

since the gate is handled it was safe to button up the open ends of the rear torque box.
it's a 1/8"x6"x3" plate bent in 1/2, and then bolted through the tub and spot welded to the inside top of the t.box.
the piece of 1/4"x3"x10" protrudes from the t.box out to support that flimsy body panel, it's plug welded to the t.box and the body corner and to the t.box end cover.
the t.box end cover is 3/16" x3.5"x3" with about a 1/2" bent leg at the top. it's welded to the body tie in, the 1/4" plate and the perimeter of the remaining t.box. i left a hole in both ends so i could have an airflow and point of inspection and point of entry for frame conditioning products. since that area is all clean in there i may shoot it with some internal frame coating.

i remeasured the axle end strut brackets and made a minor adjustment to the angle the passenger side hung at.

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Looking great. I'm in a holding pattern until I get some heat. High today is 35*. But this coming week it's suppose to get back up into the 50's.