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

[Kage]

Ha ha, half inch is some pretty serious material.... but at least you know it won't break! And yeah, welding upside down kinda blows. I have a good leather apron, long armed welding gloves, and a beat up old carhartt that do a fairly good job of protecting me. If you don't have an apron, I strongly suggest getting one. Mine has saved me from having to buy new clothes quite a few times. And my girlfriend says I look sexy with it on

I’m a slow learner I suppose, I just go out there in whatever “rags” I have laying around. I’ve got more than a few ‘welding’ shirts with built in A/C Grin and bear it baby!

I’m done with the welding on the front part (I’m working on getting that up tonight). I still suck at making pretty welds upside down, but I have yet to have one of my welds break, even the ugly upside down ones. So I must be doing something right (maybe some of the stuff the old guys at the shop told me stuck some).


My wife just tells me I "smell like fire" when I'm welding, guess you lucked out..

You talk about 63 or 64s leafs what are you refering to? length?

I’m talking about the Chevy leaf swap for the rear of the truck. I don’t know which ones I have offhand (haven’t measured them) but yes it refers to the length.

Here’s some more reading for ya:
Chevy Leaf swap info in the tech section (Linky)

Work sent me on the road for a bit, so progress slowed down a little. And I've got a bum finger now so that's slowing the typing down if nothing else. But I should have an update done tonight.

Thanks for the comments guys!

 

[Kage]

Front SAS – Plating the Crumple Zone:

This is one area I wanted to document as best that I could as there seems to be varying opinions on how much to plate over this area. I’m of the belief that the more the merrier since you’re turning an area that wasn’t designed to be a load bearing area into a load bearing area.

That said, even with the crumple zone as it is, that area will take a fair amount of abuse before it crumples.

What is the crumple zone? It’s the area that is meant to give way during an accident to absorb some of the impact. We’re going to modify the heck out of it, so do so at your own risk

Before:

Most of the plating consists of some 3”x3”x ¼”angle iron, ¼” plate, and 3/16” plate with some additional angle and plate to span some of the gaps.

Some of the Plates:

Cleaned off as much rust as I could and tacked the plates on (I had already welded on the 3’X3” angle so that I could mock up the front leaf mounts):

I then burned the plates home and added some additional support to finish boxing in the front further. Probably a bit overkill, but I figured the more metal the mo-betta it is

Disclaimer: Welding upside down sucks… Also, I will add some guessets to the front leaf hangers, I just haven’t decided yet if they’re going to be part of the bumper or not. Same goes for the front cross member. One is going on, I just haven’t got that far yet (need to figure out how my winch is going to work out in there).

I'm pretty happy with the outter frame rail platint. on the inside, it should be more than beefy enough, but if I find myself pulling the radiator out (and power steering box), I'll probably add some more plating in the inner frame rail areas just for a little more peace of mind.

Up on deck next is the finial welding of the rear leaf mounts, then some rust repair one the rad core suport! Yea!


And since I’m on a roll with PSA’s (You’d think I’ve never welded anything or ground on anything before with the way I’m hurting myself here). Grinders will cut through gloves, fingernails, and flesh very quickly. I’ll spare you the gore, but do know that a little duct tape goes along way. So I’ll be typing a little slower for a little while....

Thanks for the comments guys!

 

[86 slo-vo]

its looking pretty good, will be a nice rig

 

[Viva*the*Ranger]

Gota watch them grinders... they'll getcha!! Looking great man. Makes me want to say F my the lift kit, and do a SAS. Ha ha

 

[Josh40601]

Subscribing to this one. Looking great so far

 

[Bennybooster]

Show the gore!!!!!!

 

[Kage]

its looking pretty good, will be a nice rig

That’s the hope, thanks for the compliment. I’ve been lurking in your build thread, and you’ve been giving me bad ideas about tube beds. How much junk do your rear tires throw at the back of your cab since there isn’t a fender over them?

Gota watch them grinders... they'll getcha!! Looking great man. Makes me want to say F my the lift kit, and do a SAS. Ha ha

After playing with Unibodies for so long, it nearly feels like cheating when working on this truck. This seems to be an easier job than throwing a lift kit on an XJ anyway But as with any build, figure out what your goal is going to be in the end, then work your way toward it. Otherwise, you’ll be amazed at the amount of money that gets lost along the way…

Subscribing to this one. Looking great so far

Thanks!!

Show the gore!!!!!!

NO! I get to look at the darn thing enough right now (plus the nice pain reminder every time I type). Thankfully makes it feel better


Thanks for the comments guys!

 

[Kage]

Front SAS – “K” Member Trimming:

As with most SAS’s, the K member needed to be trimmed up some to make room for the high steer linkage as well as some clearance for the pumpkin under full compression. Since I’m running full width axles, I don’t think I’ll have to get too crazy with the trimming. While I had the axle out of the way, I figured I’d take a whack at it to get started on it as it was easily accessible. I won’t know if I have to trim some more until I can really put some weight on it and flex it out fully.

Before:

Light Trimming:

The brake line is going away, so no worries about cutting it up :icon_twisted:

If I wind up trimming more in the future, I’ll update this post.

 

[Kage]

Front SAS – Final Leaf Mount Burn in:

Well I passed two milestones tonight, the leaf mounts are fully burned on. And I somehow managed to lay some decent beads upside down

Locating the mounts was a bit of a pain since I’d moved (or removed) just about every item that I could use as a good reference point on the frame. So it took a few tries to get it right. So if anyone is looking for numbers in the future, here’s what I wound up with…

Front mounts – Center of the hole is 3.5” from the very front of the frame horn, and 2.25” down from the lowest part of the frame (the bumps in the crumple zone):

Rear Mounts – The center to Center measurement of the holes is 44” (I’m using stock Waggy springs, so your spacing may need to move). The center of the hole is 2-5/16” below the frame (Measured perpendicular to the frame):

Font Mounts:
I’ve already shown the majority of the front mount welding in a prior post, so I wont rehash that here. I’ll update this post when I finish the gussets on those mounts though.

Rear Mounts:
I tacked them in place to make sure everything was happy..

Then I cut out a few more gussets (Cutting gussets by hand SUCKS!):

Then it was time to burn everything home: (Don’t forget to move your brake lines and fuel filter! They live on the other side of the frame rail in the below photo).

And I’m semi proud of this. I actually managed to lay down some pretty beads upside down. Maybe practice pays off?

Now I’m waiting on some odds and ends to put the axle under the truck for good this time, so it may be a little bit before the next big update (I hope not though!).

 

[Josh40601]

hey buddy, not trying to tell ya how to build your Ranger or anything, but i personally had to cut more out of the engine crossmember. If you look in my build thread, you can see the pics where i still have the factory crossmember, but its just cut way down. I also kept my brake line running in it too, just had to make custom ones. Just my 2 pennies.

I really like your build up though, will be EXTREMELY helpful to anyone else who plans on going this route.

 

[86 slo-vo]

That’s the hope, thanks for the compliment. I’ve been lurking in your build thread, and you’ve been giving me bad ideas about tube beds. How much junk do your rear tires throw at the back of your cab since there isn’t a fender over them?

it throws quite a bit if you get into some deep mud, but wouldnt be hard to add some fenders.

that was at the end of the day on a pretty muddy trip to turkey bay

 

[kris97ranger]

are you going to run the bedsides over the tube bed? just to keep the slower police offericers off your tail? i dunno what its like where you are but around here theres mto stops on most of the main roads most of the time

 

[bull90]

are you going to run the bedsides over the tube bed? just to keep the slower police offericers off your tail? i dunno what its like where you are but around here theres mto stops on most of the main roads most of the time

hes from the states... kris theres no Ministry of Transportation of Ontario there to keep the pigs away from your muddy rig. make sure you clean it after every outing.. or els they will want to inspect your awesome mud! since you know pigs do love mud soo much!!!

someone needs to start making after-market full width friendly rims... max backspacing i can put on my rig is about 6" my mechanic says 5" would be perfect but everywhere i look its 4.5" MAX... stock 7" rims i have on my rig and they stick out 3" in the rear and about 4" in the front.. they cant say much about the front since all that road splatter goes onto my truck.... and not the car behind me.. if you read Ontario law its 3" Max of tires sticking out... but pigs have more things to worry about then my tires sticking out 1" extra...

my roll cage has panels to keep the mud off my cab... made out of alum. + my removable bed/fenders

 

[kris97ranger]

meh i figured that they would have thier own version of it lol.

 

[Kage]

hey buddy, not trying to tell ya how to build your Ranger or anything, but i personally had to cut more out of the engine crossmember. If you look in my build thread, you can see the pics where i still have the factory crossmember, but its just cut way down. I also kept my brake line running in it too, just had to make custom ones. Just my 2 pennies.

I’ve gone through your build thread (and just about every SAS thread I could find as well) prior to pulling this thing in the garage. And you’re right, I will most likely windup hacking off a bigger chunk of the K member, later on. I guess I was just feeling a bit gun shy about hacking more off than I did last night . Comments are always welcome, especially from people that have gone down the SAS road before.

I really like your build up though, will be EXTREMELY helpful to anyone else who plans on going this route.

Thanks!

it throws quite a bit if you get into some deep mud, but wouldnt be hard to add some fenders…..that was at the end of the day on a pretty muddy trip to turkey bay

Thanks for that photo Slo-vo. While I dig the look of your bed like that, I’m going to try to bob what I have as I need the truck to still be able to carry some stuff. Though with my poor body skills, we’ll see what road I wind up going down in the end.

hes from the states... kris theres no Ministry of Transportation of Ontario there …

meh i figured that they would have thier own version of it lol.

“For the most part” we don’t’ usually get hassled in my area so long as you’re not being a nuisance. Hopefully it stays that way

Thanks for the comments guys!