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[minimatt]

Are you going to have your rig done by KOH? Mine is still not done and I will be working on it till I leave.

I am ready - mostly.... I need to put a lower shock bolt in and re-torque all the stuff that comes loose when wheeling. Then I will be ready to go. Brthr, Othr Brthr and Jim did an outstanding job on the cage re-do. I have adequate headroom now!!! They even installed my new Trail Gear 89-95 steering box. Now it actually turns from stop-to-stop, whereas before it would only turn to the stop when turning left. Thank you guys!!!!

I will need to bring a hat since we didn't have time to get the roof panel put on. And I will try and refrain from rolling it at KOH.... 

[minimatt]

I ran this fuel pump from summit. It is part number: SUM-G3138 for $81.95. Between the pump and tank I ran an accumulator to take care of any air that might get sucked into the line while in unusual attitudes. The part number from summit for the accumulator is: PRM-81794 for $39.88

[minimatt]

Are you going to have your rig done by KOH? Mine is still not done and I will be working on it till I leave.

It is out of my hands.... It is all in God's hands.... Actually it is all in Other Brother's hands. They are having a work party to finish it up this Saturday or Sunday. I guess everything is bent, but still needs to be final-fit and welded into place. I will be taking it home with me Tuesday night, regardless. I will bring my new steering box and pump to KOH and install them if i have time.... Yeah, right!!!! More like if they break.... 

[88jp]

 Are you going to have your rig done by KOH? Mine is still not done and I will be working on it till I leave.

[minimatt]

if the shocks didn't bottom out, then what caused the failure?  i ask b/c i was about to buy those shock towers but now i'm thinking maybe not.  i saw some pics from the Xmas party but do you have anymore from the flop?  keep the pics coming!

Over extending the shocks, and welding the shock tower to the side of the frame without additional support. The shock tower didn't fail. The frame failed. If you use the F250 shock towers, just be sure to attach them on two planes, like the top of the frame and the side of the frame and they should be ok with moderate use.

[Robinson]

if the shocks didn't bottom out, then what caused the failure?  i ask b/c i was about to buy those shock towers but now i'm thinking maybe not.  i saw some pics from the Xmas party but do you have anymore from the flop?  keep the pics coming!

[minimatt]

Brad, this is the fuel cell we used in my buggy. It is RCI Racing Brand Part No.2171A and is $239.95 from Summit Racing. It is 17 gallon capacity, has three -8AN fittings on top (feed, return and vent) and the dimensions are as follows: 30"x7"x17" high. They make a 15 gallon and a 19 gallon also. Hope that helps.

[minimatt]

Since Othr_Brthr decided to do a pirouette in the buggy at the Christmas party, we are redoing the entire roof structure. We cut the tubes at the base of the windshield, and will completely remove the tubes form the "B" pillar hoop and then tie back in at the "C" pillar hoop. We will be using DOM instead of ERW this time and will see if it holds up any better.

[88jp]

 Mine did not bend at all so hope you have the same luck.

[minimatt]

Matt I got the same rim. They are soft. It bent in two places. On the rubicon it was so bad that I had to beat it back into place so it would hold air. On the speed limit I balanced mine and they took very little wheel weights. I have driven it at 80 mph on the street with no vibration.

Good to know Rich. Thanks. Did they bend on the inside bead, or on the beadlock side? It seems like the beadlock ring would protect the wheel from bending on the outside, but I could be wrong...

[minimatt]

The new Trail Gear front springs worked so well, that I tore one of the F250 shock mounts off on the Rubicon. The following week, Othr_Brthr made the other side match in Moab. It didn't break the mount as much as it ripped the a hole in the side of the frame. It was not bottoming out the shocks, as both side were pulled down when they came off. I have 14" shocks, but I ordered and installed a set of the 12" hoops from Trail Gear. The reason I did this is because I had to lower the bumpstops to keep the tires out of the firewall/inner fenders, so i didn't need more compression travel. I needed all of the droop I could get, so using the 12" hoops effectively gives me 2" more droop than the 14" hoops would. Lance welded plates onto the side of the frame before installing the hoops to patch the holes and to reinforce it. Again, I do not have any pic's of it completed, but here are a couple of the hole left after the F250 mount was ripped off and a pic of Lance welding the patch plate on.

[88jp]

 Matt I got the same rim. They are soft. It bent in two places. On the rubicon it was so bad that I had to beat it back into place so it would hold air. On the speed limit I balanced mine and they took very little wheel weights. I have driven it at 80 mph on the street with no vibration.

[minimatt]

I finally had enough of losing tire beads, so I talked to a bunch of people and did some homework on beadlocks. I settled on the Longfield steel beadlocks for $85 each, including hardware. I mounted them to some new 15x10 Cragar wagon wheels. The beadlocks added about 5/8" to the wheel width that the tire sees. They came with no instructions at all, but it is pretty self-explanatory. The Longfields come with an anti-conng ring, so you have to make sure to install it "up". To index them as close to the center of the wheel as possible, I used a flathead screwdriver between the outside of the ring and the wheel rim. It isn't perfect, but is plenty close enough for the speeds I usually run (35mph or less). After I tacked the rings on, I welded about an inch on each opposite quardrants, then and inch between each of those. Then I just burned an entire rod (yeah, I stick welded them), then jumped to the other side of the wheel and burned another complete rod, and repeated until it was completely welded. One thing that surprised me was how high I needed to set the welder. The wheel and ring are pretty good heat-sinks, apparently. After I welded them all together, I went over the tops of the welds with a good layer of an adhesive marine silicone that is designed for deck hardware. Then it was just mount the tires and install the 24 bolts per wheel. The anti-coning ring makes torquing the wheels pretty easy. Once you get the ring seated against the anti-coning ring, you can pretty much just go around the wheel and tighten everything up, without being too concerned about keeping an even sequence. I torqued them all to 20 ft-lbs, then went around one last time to check they were all the same. I filled the tires with air, and none of them had any leaks. We went on a 5 day snow run between Christmas and New Years and lost inner beads on all four tires at various times, but I attribute that to air pressures lower than 4lbs. When i got home, I put 12 lbs of air in them, and they hadn't lost any pressure in 4 days.

I have no complaints at all, so far. Total investment was right at $600 and 8 hours labor.

I don't have any pic's of them completed on my computer yet, but will post them up when I do.

[minimatt]

Just took a look at most of this thread...nice slow build like mine Buggy looks great

Right now the plan is to go back together with the stock knuckles, but use the Magnum (ARP) studs. I'm doing this in order to get it back together before Tin Benders I'm sure somebody had told about the steering arms previously, but it didn't penetrate my skull too well.... 

I am running the ARP studs too in hopes of avoiding the expense of six shooters...though  I might do the fifth stud mod as a little extra insurance.  looks like it might be something you are considering too.

Curious how much the 5" springs settle up front on your rig.  I put the 5" in the rear of my trekker hoping they would settle a bit more but after 6 months they are holding their arch better than the norma T-G reputation...haven't even ate any bushing yet

The front springs have not had any discernible settling yet. However, if I had it to do over, I would go with the heavy duty front springs instead of the standard duty. This buggy has quite a bit more weight on the front than a pickup or 4Runner. It has 9500 lb winch, plus all of the tubing fenders and bumper. It is still bottoming out, although not nearly as bad as before. I will be adding the Trail Gear rear springs soon, so it should level it out a bit.

As for the ARP studs and six shooters, etc. I have been doing a bit of an experiment for almost a year now. I installed the ARP (Trail Gear) studs in the passenger side only. After every day of hard wheeling, I retorque the nuts to 100 ft-lbs on the passenger side (ARP) and 80 ft-lbs on the driver side (stock). The driver side is almost always loose, and the passenger side is seldom loose. I'm not sure why this is the case, but I suspect the stock studs are flexing/stretching more than the ARP's. I will swap out the driver side studs the next time I pull the knuckles apart for maintenance. It seems like the key to keeping the steering arms where they belong is to keep those nuts properly torqued, which requires a bit of regular maintenance. I understand that this pretty much becomes a non-issue with the six-shooters.

[THE GENERAL]

Loren save me those old springs off the front.  I'll use them on the Sami build for Rachel.
also throw a come a long under the front axle to the skid place to flatten out those springs some.