Project 4x4 Commuter Mazda

[legoms013]

Christmas gift:

 

[legoms013]

New tranny mount:

Limiters in:

 

[2004xlmiller]

looks clean man i like it

 

[stiluv]

i need me a set of limit straps. my cv's bind and full droop. looks good

 

[legoms013]

They got used today. I went up to Eagle Lakes and did the loop with dad, and a couple spots I was pretty twisted.

Also, most of the little lakes there are frozen solid. I drove out on the ice about 10' and not so much a crack appeared anywhere and seemed to be solid! Pretty cool...I probably could have driven out to the middle but I didn't want to chance it yah know.

There were sloshy mud puddles that had frozen over and we drove through them...thats hella fun wheeling right there!

 

[escort_gts]

Driving out on a lake would scare the crap out of me.

 

[kris97ranger]

its so fun. only thing you really worry about is the beginning getting on the ice. its also hard to tell wheres open water or where is just clear from the wind blowing. it all looks the same

 

[legoms013]

Started working on a mount for my new compressor and air tank. I need my on board air back.

 

[-Nathan-]

nice, that is the exact spot I had my air tank in the first Rangebe.

 

[legoms013]

Since my 33" spare(s) won't fit there, it is a good spot of real estate for on board air components



More fabbing of a mount today...hopefully mounting it up and having it ready for paint this evening.

 

[legoms013]

Waiting for paint to dry. Rustoleum, Y U NO DRY FASTER!??! lol

I got bit by a huge bug this week. It has made me sick in the head and irrational....


























...The SAS bug. Probably gonna pick up a HP Dana 44 this week or next to work on as a side project. Estimated swap date: Early 2013.

 

[88_Eddie]

i dont even have my D35 swap done and i'm already thinking about a SAS swap lol

 

[4.0B2]

you're all quitters!!!
you, dustin, everyone!

all these people telling me ttb was the way to go...don't sas. now yall are sas'ing!

 

[legoms013]

you're all quitters!!!
you, dustin, everyone!

all these people telling me ttb was the way to go...don't sas. now yall are sas'ing!

Its not that I have lost faith in the TTB, its that I am tired of not having anything to work on in my spare time and the fact that TTB steering still pretty much blows offroad.

For freeway driving, my steering setup works awesome, no bump steer, no funky handling, good tire wear ect ect.

But offroad the steering flaws come to life (short tie rods that don't pivot the same as the axle beams) and I am not about to spend another $500 on another steering setup to remedy the issues so I don't have to fight the steering wheel. Also the gawdaweful bumpsteer and excessive steering input it takes to keep the truck straight on a side hill is retarded.

Now, don't get me wrong, this nuances are ten times better than they were when I had other steering setups, and would be much less apparent of I lowered my lift height, but I am not about to do that.

I can live with it for now. And it works pretty awesome for what it is, but I want to run a larger tire, on a bulletproof setup, that can take some pretty hairy trail (nothing extremely extreme though).

So here are some thoughts for what I want to do:

narrowed HP 1.2 ton or 3.4 ton D44
Arb
high steer (duh) ( ihave all the joints already )
Warn hubs
Start with 5-760x's see how those last...graduate to CTM's and chomo shafts
James Duff long arms
custom tranny mount
Bilsteins (maybe reuse current ones?)
EB or F150 coils
5.13s (35's?) or 5.38's (37's?)...not sure what tire size Ill be running yet
Depending on what axle and how complete it is, I may go with Reid knuckles

Some of this I will be poor boying so itll be a while but a fun build IMHO....maybe make it so I have everything ahead of time and swap it in on a 3 day weekend. I'll wanna commute it at first...will be getting another commuter however probably this year.

 

[4.0B2]

For my purpose the modified superrunner will be fine tho. If I wanna graduate to sas I'm gonna get a dedicated wheeler b2!

You're whole minibook you just wrote made me think one thing.... What is Nathan gonna use for steering on his ranger custom d54 ttb for steering..