Nice work. didn't moving the spring hanger 7 1/2" closer vs. 6" cause your ride height to be taller? idk much about leaf spring set-ups but it seems that your flex and height would have been effected by that.

 

It did effect the height, the spring eye sits 3/8" lower where i mounted it than it would have at trail gears specifications. So it effectively lifted it another 3/16", but at the same time i now have more shackle angle negating that. The instructions called for mounting the new frong hanger 6" in front of the old one, and mounting a new shackle hanger 2-3" back from where the factory one was. I wasn't liking the angles i had at that location, plus figured every bit i can take out of my wheelbase will help, so i just bumped the front hanger forward and left the other one in the stock location.

 

so are you trying to get more or less angle out of the shackles? I set mine up to have alot of angle, so I would be lower, and have better ride. Hey nice welder I have the same thing, got it from home depot and love it. Looks like you are running yours flux core as well.

My truck has settled a ton!! inches!! you should throw some weight in the back and drive it around. Ive had it out twice since the sas and and the first time I settled about 1.5 inches, and the second time I settled another .75 or so, thats on top of probably 1.5" from just sitting there. SO basically you need to come wheeling with us on sat the 29th at the badlands

here is a shot of what my shackles look like as of about 10 min ago.


here is how it sits, it doesnt sag like it looks, when Im in reverse and brake he nose goes up....and stays there....these springs have memory its escpecially fun around turns and then straitening out. these are on my little street tires (35"s)

 

Im sure they will settle and end up close to what yours are like. I was going for a bit more shackle angle, but wasnt sure how much the springs would settle so i didnt go to far with it.

And i would go next saturday, but i have to work. Im off sunday's now, so if you want to hit the badlands or cliffs on a sunday ill be game. I should have my winch mounted up soon as well, i just need to get the time to do it.

 

I finally got a day off work with no house or school work to do, and it rained until about 1:00. So that killed half my day, but, i was still able to get my winch installed. I am relocating the radiator and switching to an electric fan, but i wanted as much approach angle as possible while mounting the winch as low as i could. So here is what i ended up doing.



I started off by pulling the radiator, cutting the ears off the top of the crossmember that were used to mount the stock bumper to, and i cut out the core support.



I got everything ground down smooth, finished welding in my front crossmember plate and test fit the winch plate i got from budbuilt. I could immediately tell that i was not only going to have to cut alot more of my core support out, but that my steering box was going to be in the way of the winch.



So i went ahead and cut out a bunch more core support, tacked the winch plate in where i wanted it, and test fit the winch. Its a tight fit, but its in there, and the best part is that its not sticking out a mile.



Approach angle is still looking good, but unfortunately that will change soon.



I went ahead and welded the whole thing up all the way arround, and since its supposed to rain for the next 2 days i hit it with a quick coat of paint to keep it from rusting.



No more speed holes.



And here is just how tight of a fit it was. Theres about a 1/4" between the box and the winch, but luckily that gap will double when i pull the box off to plate the frame.



All mounted up, i still have alot of work to do with the radiator relocation, mounting of the selenoid box, and adding gussets to the winch plate. But, i already have run into an issue.



The roller fairlead may not last very long, as it sticks out way to far. I'll run it for now and see what happens, but i may be switching to a hawse fairlead to regain some approach angle and for more durability when nosing into some rocks. Yes, a bumper is in the works, but it wont stick out very far, definately not enough to protect that fairlead. I guess ill just have to see what happens with it.

 

Looking good Joe. I would switch to a hawse.

You going to put the fans back in the front...or are you moving the radiator to the rear?

 

Radiator is staying up front, but it will be roughly 3" back from stock. Im going to attempt to run the fan behind the radiator, but ill have to see how much space i have when i get the new fan in. As of right now i think ill have 1/2" of clearance between the pulley's and the fan itself based on the measurements in the jegs catalog.

I just went back out and mocked up the stock bumper, and that fairlead really doesnt stick out much farther than the bumper did, it just looks like it does. The winch itself sits completely behind the grill.

 

I like how you tucked the winch in close...that will be great

 

I caught a break today. It rained most of the day on and off, until i left work at 5. Usually its nice while im at work and the weather sucks when i get off. So, i got home arround 6 and went to town. I got new mounting brackets made for the radiator and got it reinstalled. Using one of the new brackets, i also mounted the solenoid box for the winch behind the grill. I had to cut even more sheetmetal to do it, but oh well. I finished wiring the winch, and got it working.





One last shot showing the winch completely behind the grill.



The winch itself is an older HS9500, but this one has sat on a shelf for about 2-3 years. Foxfab bought it, never even took it out of the box, and just stuck it in the corner. He tried to sell it last year on Pirate, but got no takers, and i PM'd him about it when i saw him offer it up in the wanted section. He ended up selling a brand spanking new HS9500 for $700. I personally love these winches, and wish Warn still made them. 62 feet per minute line speed, no integrated solenoid to deal with, and the good 4.6hp motor. Its a shame that to get that kind of line speed now you have to either get a 9.5TI or 8274, neither of which is cheap.

 

nice I got my hs9500i last year, and love it. mine was used once by a construction company to lower a man into a hole, then it sat. I got the whole thing plus the acc. for $450 shipped from oregon!!!! Sorry joe. However, mine was a freak deal and almost didnt go through.

 

Joe,
Do you have any pictures of the clearance between the engine and the radiator/fan since they were relocated back? Thanks

 

Figured i would update this thread. I wheeled this truck alot, especially after the winch got installed. Flopped it a couple times, and bassically destroyed the body. By the end it didnt have any glass left in it, and i realized that i missed having a milder streetable rig already. The truck wheeled great, when it ran, and when i could get it to fit. It was to long, had to much overhang and breakover, and i could not for the life of me get the weber to run properly on extreme angles. So, i decided to start over. And i mean start over, the remains of the pickup were hauled off to the scrap yard today.

Last week i brought home a 1985 4-Runner. Has some rust but not bad, 261,xxx miles, but is in overal great shape for the age and area it lived in. Friday night i started the teardown of the pickup, and by sunday i had both trucks on jacstands. Last night i got the 'runner on all 4 tires again, and should have it driveable by tommarow. I will miss the black pickup, thats for sure, but i think in the end the runner will much better suit what i was orriginally going after. Yes, it will still get trailered to the trail, but i am going to try to keep it streetable enough that if i want to i can hop in, drive a couple hours to the trail, wheel it hard for the day and drive home. Watch for some interesting threads from me, including a bob job and, get this, rust repair.

So, thanks for reading, and RIP old buddy:

 

I know what you mean, I dont think I could enjoy this sport if I couldnt drive my truck everywhere. Just got back from a 600mi trip, and I wheel with an I-pass in the window (for the chicago toll roads, for all you non-illinois people) IMO anyone can dig something out of a junkyard, beaf it up, throw it on a trailer, wheel it til it breaks, and throw it back on the trailer. But the real adventure begins when you go everywhere the trailered rigs go and you drive it 300 mi home. Sad to see a good rig die though.

Let me know if you need a hand, my plasma is hungry for steel.

 

Actually most of the cutting and welding is already done. I have until Friday morning to have the runner wheelable, obviously it wont be even close to being done. Ill get the drivetrain in it, possibly the sliders on and it will be good for my trip to Silver Lake. And obviously the fenders trimmed.

And while it was sad to see it get hauled off on the flatbed, this new runner should be better in almost every aspect.

Here is how she sat as of yesterday, i hope to be able to drive it to work tommarow.

 

i read the entire thing from start to finish yesterday. When it got to the end it was like wow thats it its over? Anyways great job that u did.

 

I almost fell out of my chair becuase I also read this thing from beginning to end yesterday, except I didnt quite make it to the end... I stopped right about where you started playing with the winch, and then finished it today, and I was like wow...hauled off...just like that, its over...I realize we missed 4 months of real time, but it jumped from then till now in the posts....but the runner looks like it will be fun!!

 

Any updates?

 

Wheeled the runner the weekend i finished it up. I took it up to Silver Lake sand dunes for the weekend for our anual run up there. It did awesome. It drives great, the only thing i miss is the power of my old 22r, it definately made more than the 4-runner does, it was alot snapier too. But, i'll trade the ability to run at angles over power on flat ground any day.

Since the trip progress has been slow. I got the 1" body lift on, have been working on the motor a little, figuring out what i want to do for a cage, and have been building a set of axles for it. I have an ifs rear in the garage torn appart and another front axle in pieces. The one in the 'runner is bent at the knuckle balls, and dented from rocks. So the new one is getting fully trussed, shaved, and getting diff armor welded to it. Once i get it complete i'll swap my knuckles, shafts and third member swapped and swing it under the truck. The rear i plan on ditching the spool for a detroit, so i will most likely assemble the whole thing with a different third filled with a detroit, and then just swap them complete.

Tommarow i will be finishing the sliders up, i have to get some body armor on it before this weekends badlands trip. I may build a simple winch mout for it by then as well, and then build the front bumper arround it.

But anyway, heres a quick pic of it in the dunes:



And the group i was there with:

 

good to hear its still coming along keep up the great work