The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob

[kris97ranger]

or else

 

[Kage]

bah im sure it wont look that bad. ive never really seen too many ugly exos on rangers if you follow the body lines they all end up pretty good

I'm not a huge exo fan, but after having one on my XJ, it was very liberating to wheel with it. Wheeling is nicer when you can lean into a tree and not worry about blowing out your windsheild

Seeing as how there isn't a flat surface on this truck, getting the tube to follow the body lines is a pain in the ass. It would be very nice to have a tube roller on hand for this job (which I don't have).

It also doesn't help that I tend to suck at making things look 'pretty'. I can assure you that it'll take the hits just fine if my last exo attemp is any indciation

Nice pics, bud! That looks like a rad park.

I say body damage is all good, so long as everything still drives well enough to get me home, it's a success! Can't wait to see the exo, and a flop pic!

Yup, its an awesome park, I'm looking foward to getting back down there again.

I'm not real worried about body damage, so long as I can open/close my doors, and keep glass in it life is good. I think I'll hold off on the flop until I get back from our trip in September. No reason to risk the wife's wrath over bending up 'her' pretty truck

pics NOW!

or else

Bah! No real pics for now (They're all still on the camera). My time line for getting the cage done got pushed back a little. I was looking my shock mounts over some since I have the bed off, it looks like my socks are setup to act as the bumpstops in a true verticle motion (some dumbass can't measure apparently ) I'll address that here pretty quick, and keep rocking on the cage after that.

But to tide you over, here's where my head is at for the cage (really shouldn't call it a cage, as its pretty small tube, but whatever). All built out of 1.25" x .120" wall DOM. Same stuff I used on my last cage, it seemed to hold up just fine.

The main structure of the cage will look like this (the flare hoops are going to be a pain):

Then I'll add some cross bracing (not sure about the yellow one, may put vent windows in the back, so that tube would be in the way):

Try not to be too jelous of my mad MS paint skilz

Everything is subject to change depending on time and budget constraints. So we'll see what it winds up looking like in the end

Thanks for following along!

 

[Josh40601]

If you ever decide to part with those H2's.... I call dibs

 

[Kage]

If you ever decide to part with those H2's.... I call dibs

I think I'll be holding onto them for a bit longer

Short update coming soon, I should have the Exo done this weekend (if the weather holds).

 

[Kage]

Rear Shock Mounts v2.0​

Since I had the bed off to work on the exo, I took a look at the rear upper shock mounts. It turns out some dummy didn’t really set them up right, so with a load on the back of the truck , the shocks were acting as the bump stops (D’oh!).​

With the truck sitting static, I had about 2" of shock up travel left (They were mounted vertical) . The problem is my bump stops allowed for 4" of up travel.​

As luck would have it, the Torchmate at work needed some maintenance, so I cut a few ‘test pieces’ while I was working on it.​

Here’s the old setup:

Hacked those mounts off and slapped on the new ones:

The new mounts leaned the shock forward about 2" more, and moved the mounting hole up about 1.5". I now have about 3.75" of shock shaft showing. If my trig is right, I shouldn’t have to worry about the shocks acting as the bump stops anymore. But I'll double check it just in case ​

 

[4.0B2]

and yet... still no pics. what are you thinking sir?
of the exo that is.

 

[Kage]

and yet... still no pics. what are you thinking sir?
of the exo that is.

That I wanted to Hide my ugly cage for a few more days?

 

[Andres629]

Exo peeektures nao!

 

[4.0B2]

yeah.. what he said!!!

 

[Kage]

Exo peeektures nao!

yeah.. what he said!!!

Goodness, Patience kids!

 

[Kage]

Ugly Exo

Let me start out by saying that I’m no pro when it comes to bending tube or making cages, so don’t copy my design or work, or else it might kill you. That said, the last exo I built (for my now defunct XJ) held up amazingly well to the abuse I threw at it so I don’t doubt that this cage should survive my abuse.

Also, as this is built out of 1.25”x.120 wall DOM, it might be better to view it as more of a ‘tree guard’ than a true cage, though it will work at least as a one time use cage in the event of a hard roll (dumping it on its side doesn’t worry me, it’s the endo’s ).

Onto the build! Here was the blank state I stared playing with:

I then fired up the MS Paint to start getting something figured out.

Main cage:

Bracing (I wound up leaving the yellow bar out, and the on directly below it out for now, they may go in later):

I had a few false starts with the hoops over the extended cab (didn’t get it tucked up close enough):

I reworked the B/C hoops to tuck them in more:

I then had a few false starts with the A piller :

A little cuttin’n and slugg’n and we were back in business:

Added the A pillar drop down, cowl bar, and windshield bar:

While the cowl bar looks a little funny, I’m actually pretty happy with how it worked out. It ‘just’ clears the wipers and the hood and isn’t really in my field of view when driving:

Added the header bar:

Then I pulled the bed off (yet again) to work on the roof and cross bracing behind the cab. I’m pretty happy with how the roof turned out:

Raised everything up to get some welding done on the back side of things (Hind sight is that I should have built the roof as its own entity so that I could have pulled the whole thing off the truck ):

Set it all back down and started working on the rear bracing, I know I should have added a vertical support, but that bar would just annoy me looking at it, so I’ll live without it:

Stuck the bed back on and worked on bending up those sides:

I then cruised over to Robs house to bend up the fender flare loops which turned out pretty nice:

Added the cross bracing to the front:

Added the braces to the rear:

Added bracing to the extended cab (I might add a bar over that window and another horizontal bar):

Tail light savers:

I had a friend add make up some little loops for me to use as tie down points for the few times that I need to strap something down;

Cleaned/sanded the tube, and got to painting:

Somewhat painted (Couldn’t keep the plastic out of the paint, so I need to do a lot of touching up):

And done for now (need to paint it again, might go a shade darker):

At this point, I still need to bend up and burn on my stinger. I’m holding off on that as once I put the stinger on, it’ll make it hard to walk around the truck while its in the garage. So I’ll put off that job until I get my Motor mounts done and the rear end sorted out.

As for this project, it doesn’t quite match what I had in the mind as I definitely hit a wall where what was in my mind, I could not make happen in tube form with the abilities God has given me. It is close enough that I’m happy with it (and most of my goofs are on the passenger side). As I said earlier, if my last attempt at an exo is an indicator, this one should hold up just fine to my abuse. If not, I’ll save my pennies and pay someone else to put one later down the road. For now I’m happy this portion is done as it sucked up some serious time!


Edit:

I played around with the color some more, now its too dark Looking at the photos, I think I nearly preferred it to be the brigher color. I'm a wee bit tired of painting tube, so it'll stay this way for awhile. After all, its just going to get scratched up on the trail. So I'll just try again later.

Current Pics (6/29/11):

 

[CHKNFKR]

holy crap you work fast! killer rig man! someone ought to sticky this build thread as a guide on how build threads should be done. it makes me want to delete mine and start from scratch just to get what little progress i've made organized

 

[RangerSVT]

Kage, is it me, or does it look like your tubes are pretty close to the body?? Looks like it may rub the body if you contact a tree or worse and put it on its side...
SVT

 

[4.0B2]

Everyone knows it'll "self clearance" as needed. Lol

 

[4.0B2]

Oh and how about hindges and a latch on the exo for tube doors? Could use them with or without the stock doors