‘94 4x4 Swap/Build

[gaz]

@DRanger024 ,
I very much feel your pain, I despise the idea of riding on 29" rubber with a delicious 4" lift, extended radius arms and dual shocks on all four corners but I bought a 3:73ls 8.8/d35 set up before the well dried up, knowing I could regear, rebuild the axles to better than new, then install my favorite tire ..(

 

[DRanger024]

Mine is perfectly drivable empty but even putting the topper on for winter, I notice the extra weight. I’ve been planning on going to 4.56 with the thought of the next set of tires being 35’s.

 

[Northidahotrailblazer]

That was one thing i really hated about my D30. the small ring and pinion. When I narrowed the D44 I put 513s in it and I now wish I would of went 538s. With the 513s and 37s i still run 75 down the freeway. I get your issues tho, some people say even with 488s the ring and pinion get small on the D30. After the more time I spent dealing with my D30. It just made much more sence for the D44. Ill run it forever, I should of done it in the first place. I had 35s and 410s for a long time, I will tell you go as deep as you can. You will be much happier with it.

 

[DRanger024]

That was one thing i really hated about my D30. the small ring and pinion. When I narrowed the D44 I put 513s in it and I now wish I would of went 538s. With the 513s and 37s i still run 75 down the freeway. I get your issues tho, some people say even with 488s the ring and pinion get small on the D30. After the more time I spent dealing with my D30. It just made much more sence for the D44. Ill run it forever, I should of done it in the first place. I had 35s and 410s for a long time, I will tell you go as deep as you can. You will be much happier with it.

For what I use the truck for, the D30 should live a long time even on 35’s. If I break the 30, a 44 will happen. The way I see it is setting the truck up for a Jeep axle opened the door to do almost anything with the front. All I have to do is buy a truss for an XJ in whichever flavor of axle I decide to go with. Then it’s nearly a bolt in swap. I won’t go any lower than 4.56 in the D30.

 

[DRanger024]

Welp…..




I bought yet another plow. This one is for parts.

I have yet to pay more than $100 for a Meyer plow.

 

[DRanger024]

Finished up the the push frame for my plow today. I wasn’t willing to drop the pivot bracket on the truck down any further so I modified the frame from the parts plow to meet it without the crazy angles.

The cross brace between the uprights was an after thought and there was enough weld contraction to pull the pivot blocks in 0.25”. Had to get creative on pushing them back apart.

Just have to wire the controls and wait for snow.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Snow removal just got better in your world.

Pretty cool!

 

[DRanger024]

Snow removal just got better in your world.

Pretty cool!

Nice warm cab and a hot cup of coffee sounds pretty good to me!

 

[sgtsandman]

Lucky for me, maybe, is I don’t have enough driveway, nor the room to use a plow. So, it is either a 2-Stage snowblower or a single stage, depending on the need. Of course, we don’t get the snow you do either.

The down side is that I live in a suburban neighborhood on a hill. So I do have to clear a spot on the street for parking or swapping vehicles in the driveway. A plow would be nice for that. Especially after I spent quite a bit of time clearing that spot and the township truck comes by and plows it right back in.

 

[DRanger024]

My driveway isn't really anything too special. 35-40 yards long with a turn around and a 3.5 stall garage with gravel in front of the end stall. I don't need a plow truck per se but where it comes in handy is with the drifting and straight line winds. I have a two stage blower thats saved my hide a few times when the four wheeler feels its too cold to work.

 

[DRanger024]

Discovered the other day that I bent a frame horn winching a tree out of the way I believe. If my measurements are correct, the end of the drivers side horn is bent down 3/4". I had a sneaking suspicion it was bent a while back but never took the time to pull a tape on it. Currently trying to hunt down a chunk of I-beam to push it back with. Pics when I find an I-beam and get that rig set up.

 

[DRanger024]

Frame is straightened out best I can get it. Drivers side horn is still down 1/8” at the very end. Good enough. Ended up using two hydraulic jacks, a 6’ piece of 4”x4”x1/2” angle iron and a chain. Had to push close to an inch past where I needed it to be to get it where I wanted it.

and because why not, I tore the front end off to fix the core support. Unfortunately it’s too far gone to mess with so patching it up is out of the question.

One thing lead to another and I tore the whole front end off. Plan is to build a support out of square tube like PlumCrazy did on his truck.

Better look at the rot.

 

[DRanger024]

This is as far as I made it today. Got the upper radiator mounts done and the EDIS module mounted so the truck is moveable. Little different design from what Seth did on his. I need to add some tube for the body mount ears yet and get the mounts squared away so I can put the fenders back on. After the fenders are on, the height can be set for the hood latch bracket. Then the header panel can be bolted on and the rest of the brackets bolted up. I’ll be making a lot of angle iron tabs.

 

[DRanger024]

New core support is done enough to put the header panel back on. Need to get the fender gaps on the hood straightened out but everything is fitting together nicely.

 

[DRanger024]

And it’s back on the road. Need to put the bumper back on and figure out a couple small, fairly unimportant brackets.