"The Branger" in for a re-do.

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More progress.

Cut the 4'' of frame horn/front bumper mount, and beveled the bottom corner for better clearance, and hopefully it will bump off the rocks more than it will dig right in and stop the truck's forward momentum.




Grabbed a good 60 from a friend of mine, and cut up the longside. Going to shorten the D60 4'' to match the 65'' Wms rear. Started to clean it up aswell.



Sectioned 4'' out of the rockers and made up some 2x3 sliders to replace the material removed, 2'' of clearance was gained. The sliders only stick out as far and the widest point6 of the body.



Got a sheet of this for free from a cabnet shop down the road, So i can Mock-up the skins on the new rear bed. Its 3/16 pressed cardboard without that corrigated layer inbetween. Its stiff, can be cut with tin snips or big scrissors. u can drill holes in it and they hold their shape, and mock up lights ect.




Sitting at full bump, ride height will be 4-5'' higher. Starteds to bend up some tube and trimming sheet metal for the front porton of the exo.





heres the bare bones of the new box. doved, a 90* departure angle, big enough inside to comfotrably hold a 44'' tsl laying flat in the bed, and have lots of room to spare. cut the back half of the ranger frame off, just under the cab. Not going any further on the tube box until the rest of the exo is finished, and tacked. The exo and bed will be removed from the truck, flipped upside down in the shop and all the underside of the cage welded. Ill add gussets at that point aswel. After i can cycle the rear suspension and check clearances, Ican make the skins for the side of the box.



Liilte update.

Grooved the tires


shaved the diff


made a simple truss.

cut out all the link tabs and drilled alot of holes, extras to give room for adjustment.


all put together


1/4'' wall square lower links, going to run them on the "diamond" edge. notched for the DOM sleve and bushing.



since i had all the ugly 1/2 ton mounting brackets on the frame welded good, I decided to rip the bottom 2'' of the frame rail to gain more ground clearance and get rid of all the brackets aswell. The frame was boxed and braced when origonaly put the truch together, so After sliding tubing the whole way down the rails', And tying it into the backhalf. I welded it solid inside the frame and them capped the bottom with 3/8'' hot rolled.



links mocked up. frame still needs more clearancing around the lower links. and ride height was dead on, with 200lbs sitting the bed to simulate weight of propane tanks, tool box jackall ect.






Bought a toyota IFS steering box and a tapered toyota pitman arm. Ford steering boxes are on the inside of the frame rail, toy's are on the outside. Mounting the box on the outside of the frame rail will make the drag link longer, Because im doing a 3link inthe front I can then make my panhard bar longer.



the Exo still far from done but at least its looking like something. I have a shit tonne of welding to do now.

Good Lord, that is some nice work, I don't know where you are from, BUT if you lived in East Tennessee, I would be more then happy to give you a helping hand.




Robert

Amazing build!!!!!!!!!!!!1

nice work, its really coming togather....with the tripple cases your going to have a crazy crawl ratio

what gears are you going to be running in the axles?


better hurry christmas is getting close

Robert_1967 said:

Good Lord, that is some nice work, I don't know where you are from, BUT if you lived in East Tennessee, I would be more then happy to give you a helping hand.




Robert

Click to expand...

I'm betting he is from Quebec, Canada.......

and agree that is some awesome work ya have accomplished.....

and as Slo-Vo has said.....Christmas is commin' up fast.....

l8r, John

Cant wait to see your front setup. I like the way you ran the square tube on its edge, mixin things up is good sometimes.

Love everything you have done so far, old setup looked great, new should be even better.... triple cases is looong. Looking forward to seeing it all put together.
16 more days, get goin.

Wow...Amazing work!

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Wow! nice work!