Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project ;)

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Modified the oil pan to clear the front axle for the new years snow wheeling trip. I now have 3-4 inches of up travel, not as much as I might want, but more than I had!

Also some snow time!

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

I got "tired" of the spare tire rolling around behind the back seat, it has been a slow project but I did get a spare tire carrier built, used the Ruff stuff spindle and hacked up an old roll bar for the main frame. It uses a spring loaded pin as a safety catch to keep the tire from hitting the body when it is opened and as a secondary catch to hold it closed. The primary catch is a door latch modified to fit this application. The actual tire mounting location is all dana 44 from the knucke out. It includes a spindle, wheel bearing hub, outer axle, and lockout hub. When the hub is set to free the tire can rotate, setting it to lock locks it up. That way I have an extra set of parts for the trail.

Took it out in the snow, seems to work just fine

[904Bronco]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Very Nice

Like the Old school Plates too!

[earlybronco72]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

That looks really good. I like the spare parts also.

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

In the name of completeness for this build thread...Last winter I was playing in the snow, and there was a loud thud, like I had hit a rock under the snow, not such a big deal since I recently obliterated my steering stabilizer there isn't much to damage under there. Then I hit another "rock" in a place I knew there weren't any rocks, after getting out to look I found that one of my radius arms had broken in two!!! I am running a set of Lars Bars, they use 2" DOM, 1/4 wall and are fish-mouthed to fit into the existing radius arm fronts. A close inspection showed that the DOM appeared to fail right behind the weld, it appears they failed fairly recently because the crack has very little rust on any parts. Based on appearance it appears to be a fatigue failure because the steel isn't necked down at all. It looks like the failed starting at the top and worked its way down. The failure either began because of proximity to the weld or because of a stress concentration caused by the end of the remaining portion of the original radius arms.


After looking into the problem a bunch I think I understand the factors that caused the failure and have some solutions. The failure was certainly a fatigue failure caused by a stress riser resulting from:
1. The abrupt ending of the original radius arm, this caused a step change in the stiffness that created a stress riser
2. A large single pass weld (stick welded this side) that was allowed to cool, and therefore shrink, all at once. The result was inherent strain in the DOM right beyond the weld.
3. Axle wedges that I think are slightly too large, and do not allow the front axle to rotate. When the front end flexes it puts excessive stress on the radius arms. The housing I have is a 9" from Curry, I need to measure but based on how hard the C bushing were to install and how squished they are not I think there is an issue there.

My solution has a bunch of parts to address each of the problems outlined above.
1. I inserting a 20" piece of 1.5" DOM 1/4 wall inside the existing DOM (easier said then done) and welding it back together. The ground down the end of the original radius arms to smooth the transition and added Ruff Stuff tube reinforcers, they are wrapped all the way up the inner C and through to the weld-in Johnny-joint fitting.
2. I then heated them nearly red hot with a weed burner and allowed them to cool slowly overnight.
3. Put in a set of WH C bushings, as I stated earlier I now don't think that is part of the problem, may have to go back and modify the wed on wedges on the axle.

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

I need better shocks, on large bumps and whoops the bump stops hit pretty hard, it sucks. I have been interested in raptor rear shocks for a while because they are relatively cheap and have an internal bypass feature that results in different damping zones in a nice compact package compared to external bypass and they are tuned for a solid axle leaf spring configuration. So I picked up a set of used raptor rear shocks on craigslist
for $340. I am new to shocks, previously I have either run auto parts store white shocks or some crappy emulsion ones that were given to me. In comparison these Fox shocks are MASSIVE both in size and weight. The issue is that they seem to be a black box, there is no information about what their damping rates are or even where the damping rates change (internal bypass) over the travel range. Got some info from the previous owner, in stock configuration they are installed 35 degrees from vertical and have 6" of shaft showing. So by installing them vertically I end up with 22% more damping then stock (1/cos(35)=1.22). As you compress the stocks by hand (quite hard with 7/8 shaft and 200 psi nitrogen = 120 lbs) you can feel the internal bypass kick in when there is 4" of shock travel left. It appears that higher damping rate applies to both the compression and rebound.

With that in mind and knowing I have 3-3.5" or so of up-travel, I removed and reinstalled the stock mount with 5.5 inches of shaft showing, that way I have about 1.5 inches of up-travel in the softer portion and the next 1.5-2" are in the stiffer damping zone. So far only the drivers side is done, but I took it out on a trial trail run so see if it made any difference...it was AMAZING! So much smoother especially on the big bumps where the suspension drops and then come back up, before it would always smack the bump stops, now it only does on really big ones. Really night and day difference, before the front and rear would get out of control at about the same time, now the front is way more planted and you can feel the back end getting all weird. And that is with one installed, with both in it should be.

The only issue I don't like is how my shock mount is installed, I am using the F250 mounts turned 90 degrees so the piggy pack on the shock points backwards. I am worried about the shock mount failing, it appears to want to twist when it is under load...and I think the loads will be much higher because of the increased damping rate and because I want see how this horse flies now! Any ideas for a better shock mount? I was considering integrating a hoop into the F250 mount to add strength, or other ideas??? I can't find an off the shelf shock tower that allows a piggy back shock to be mounted sideways.

[gddyap]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

The WH extreme shock hoops have the mounting bolt the way you need it but it's hard to tell if there's enough space for the piggyback reservoir because the hoops mount the shock shaft to the hoop and the shock body to the axle. You could tie in your F250 shock tower into the spring mount and maybe make one of those braces that goes over the engine and ties the two shock towers together.

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Got both sides sorted out, built a hoop out of an old roll bar, it really firmed up the mounts. I tried it out yesterday, seemed great but there were kids in the car so I couldn't jump it Definitely need to get something better for the back end now, it appears that my "shakedown" runs have caused one of the rear shocks to explode .

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

New shoes and a Rubicon trip!
Picked up a set of 36" bias Iroks on aluminum beadlocks, just in time for the annual Rubicon trip! They almost fit might be time for just a touch more lift or adjusting the location of the fender flares. The trip was lots of fun and the tires did great. Looking forward to trying them out in the snow this winter.

[earlybronco72]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Looks like fun. Man, I can barely see that orange bronco behind you, it looks soooooo narrow.

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Looks like fun. Man, I can barely see that orange bronco behind you, it looks soooooo narrow.

I know, my mirror should say: "Objects in mirror may be narrower than they appear"

[71BRONCO71]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

New tire combo looks great!

[crawlin68]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Hey Pippin, the tires look great! How did they perform vs. your told tires? Looks like you had some really nice weather on the Rubicon too.

[pippinmader]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Finally getting some work done on the rear shocks, the front Raptor shocks are so amazing I had to get a set for the back. I tried using fairly simple shock mounts that fit without modifying the body, but sadly it wasn't to be, the one side I tried started to bend on the first speed bump and the shock body was way to close to the tire, it was bound to rub the first time I flexed the suspension. Out came the angle grinder and the "death wheel", that and an amazon order for a steam pan! There was a short delay while I went to the ER to get the grinder spark that burned into my eye ball removed, but a short 4 months later I have finished this quick one day project! The worst part was cutting the color matched raptor liner that was such a PITA to spray, but the results are good. I have over an inch of clearance between the shock and the tires, some day I would like to go back to a radial tire and that should help because these 13.5 bias IROKs are about as wide as any tire I can imagine running. I built the mounts so the shocks could be mounted as they are with the reservoir down or at a steeper angle with the reservoir pointed up to reduce the damping. An added benefit of getting the shocks mounted is it leveled out the bronco, the ass was kind of dragging but these gave me about an inch of extra lift! Next: take the bronco to the "airport" and see how it flies!

[crawlin68]

Re: Pippin's Pricey Perpetual Project

Hey Pippin, good to see back! Now your Bronco has everything including the kitchen sink! LOL. Seriously though, nice job with the rear tub modification. Those shocks look great! So where does one get a set of Raptor shocks anyway?