Hey everyone. Thumper is in Oakdale! Thanks to Dan for driving it down and Clint and Chet and all those that helped with fuel costs. Thanks to Mike and crew for helping unload it.

So, what next? This is an open question to Mike, Dan, Clint, and those who are planning this out.

Thanks to all who in the past helped by contributing time, talent, and treasure to the project.

Let's get it racing!

 

I guess I'll start off

This week i'm going to find some time to get the rear shackles taken care of in order to level it out, once level, I'll get a better idea for the tranny crossmember (it needs to be modded for clearance for the front driveshaft) but once the rear is level, I can see if the stock position will sit the engine correctly, or if it needs to go up or down...hopefully we'll be in good shape and just need to rework it for clearance.

I just noticed we have a 4wheel drive shop in town, so I'm going top drop in there and see about a draglink setup for the steering...beings that the oince d\Dan scored is a good brand name aftermarket one, it might come in handy for trade bait with them.

So, basically short term goals are getting it to sit level, get the tranny bolted in and get the steering done. I'm not worried too much about finishing up the engine yet (needs PR's, rockers and accessories intalled, which should be just a days work).

The only thing to set me back is if i get the funds I need soon to get restarted on the transfers, as soon as i get money for that, i'll be devoting all my time into making it work ready.

2nd thing is, between now and mid May, all my Saturdays are booked up with Softball plus a few Sundays for Horseshows. I know Dan is booked up too for the next w\few weeks, so I'll try to get all the welding and cutting stuff done in the week or so.

 

I can be there for moral support and a second set of eyes on Thursday. If you need me. I'd also be glad to be a gofer to fetch wrenches and such.

 

Looks like I'm going to be busy this week on my nephews truck, but the bright side to working on it will get the front of the shop cleared up, and when we're done with his truck, we'll have a spot to put Thumper close to the torch and welder.

I did some quasi-measurements on it today, looks like we need another 4 inches of lift in the rear to set it level...I'm guessing all the stuff in back has it sitting down a bit..but regardless...

Question...do we want the truck level when empty, a bit of rake in the rear?

Personally I'd like to see the rear of the truck (sighting the body lines) about 2inches higher when empty, but that's just me.

I need to get some 3/16 inch flatbar to make up the shackle mounts...damned AJ used up all my good stuff ..., I have plenty of 3/16th sheet, but would rather just used the chopsaw to make all my cuts.

 

I think the rear should be about 2 inches low for weight transfer reasons and traction. However, it should have a set of air lifts in the rear for off roading and getting the balance just right imo. They are about $100-150. Just a thought. Oh yeah, Mike's right we used the flat bar for the fairlead mounts, light mounts and driveshaft support. Ooops .... I'd be glad to replace it.

 

You talking about air shocks? If so, I'd be concerned about snagging a line...and if airbags, then we'd have to get a compressor/etc.

Whatcha talking about fool?

 

Air bags. Airlift in particular. They run 10lbs empty and up 35psi fully pumped up and give 3-4 inches of lift and 1000lbs of carrying capacity. No on board compressor required. A cheap $10-15 12V compressors plugged into a cig lighter will do.

I used to have air shocks on my Pathfinder and they road rougher all the time. Just a bit. With air bags in there now with 10 psi I get about 1/2" of lift and no noticable change in the ride. I can pump it up to about 20psi and it makes it about 1.5"-2" of lift and slightly stiffer. Nothing you expect out of order with a truck. Then if I put 30psi it has about 4" of lift. Way more than I'll need for any load behind the Pathfinder. Even with 500lbs of tongue. Had 300lbs of tongue on her (race car and trailer) and it was simply beatiful.

I see many possibilities with this. Extra Weight in the bed on Thumper for traction then pump it up or leave it low psi and use weight transfer getting out the hole or both.

We bought a kit for Rick's pickup which uses leaf springs and it works great too.

These are just some of my thoughts on it.

Here is a link to summit and one that might work for it. They are a little more for a Full Size PU. Only $86 for my Jeep. But, these include some brackets that I do not need with rear coils. Rick had leaf spring on his and used the Air Lift 1000 but, I didn't know how much he paid for his. These go from 5psi-100psi and can add 5000lbs of carrying capacity. But, this kit is very similar to the one I'm thinking of in the 1000. I think they might make a Air Lift Load 1000 for around $150 for us. That should be enough imo.

Air Lift Load Lifter 5000 Air Spring Kits - summitracing.com

 

I'm gonna check the link and get back to you

 

I wonder if we could get away with running them instead of shocks? I'd bet we'll need some shocks anyways, and these may kill two birds with one stone...


My Transfer has airbags (similar) and no rear shocks, but tough to compare it with a 3/4 ton PU.

 

Air bags are good - but we are building a truck, not a hanger queen. Lets take what we have and get it on the road. We are far over budget, and almost a year late. If we want air bags we can add them later.

I hate the waiting but the steering must be done, the rear end mounted and the engine must be located with new motor mounts and a tranny mount on a special built cross member. Once that is done we can all jump in and finish.

I guess if someone wants to work on an engine stand, we can assemble the engine while we wait. I expect we will have problems (time and expense) with the push rods. We can't do the exhaust until the engine is located, but it has to be done before we mount the fenders.

We also can build the push bar ('roo bar) while we wait, and will need to come up with a super strong hitch on the back that a tractor can grab and pull us out of the mud. It had a super hitch on it, but I expect it will need to be modified.

We never decided on the radiator location - but it does have a heavy duty 4 row stock, and we can relocate it later. When we start up a steep trail in 100 degree heat, we will
need good cooling.

Also, with all the axle changes, do we have a locking gear set with both the front and rear the same ratio? I am not sure about front and rear both being locking as you lose steering control when the front wheels start spinning. It does give you better traction, tho. If we don't have at least the rear locking we might as well have stayed 2wd.

I will know more what is needed after I look at it - it has been a while since I seen it!

.

 

Clint - I think we're a little further along than you think. I quote TigerDan from the " Where is Thumper 2" thread:

"The engine and tranny fit just fine, the problem was with the transfer case. The case I had was designed for a later truck with the frame rails further apart and there were interference problems between the T-case and frame as well as betwen the T-case and the bottom of the cab. All that has been solved by the NP205 T-case that Mike found on CL. Engine, tranny and T-case are all in the truck right now".

I so wish I was back at work! I'd donate the shocks and air lifts. I really think that will be key along with locker in the rear and LSD in the front or manual locker in the front for traction and actually winning.

To answer Mike. Unless you have a heavy load on there it will bounce a lot without the shocks imo. Not good for mud drags or wheeling.

I know we're over budget. But, I should be able to help out a little more in the parts department soon ..... or at least I hope. It's the least I can do for all you guys have done for me. I just can't commit right now, sorry. I wanted to put that out there before but, you know.... the cash isn't there right now. Wife read me the riot act for the headers that were only going to be $200 that ended up being $500 tonight. It wasn't pretty. But, what are you going to do when your truck is disassembled all over the city. Doh !!!

I really feel bad that I can't do what I normally could do in such situations. I'm sorry.....

 

Clint,

It's just the tranny x-member we need to modify and locate.

I already bought the correct PR's...I had taken the engine up to Dan to get it mounted before the PR's arrived, that's why they were never installed...should be quick though, just lift the VC's, drop them in with some lube, and bolt the rockers down on top of them.

You're still welcome to come on up and look it over this week, but as mentioned I won't have time to fiddle with it, but it might give you a better perspective of where she's at.

 

PS...I thought ifhe bags would work like shocks and if we needed new shocks, we might go that route....oh, and air bags are not just for lowriders anymore

 

The truck had a set of rear air shocks when it left here - but I don't know if they were working. Of course, if we add lift we will need to relocate them anyway.

Do we want air lines run along the bottom of a truck that will be deep in the mud, or maybe driven over the top of brush on some trail? Can we protect them?

I understand the need to lift the rear to match the front (with a 2 or 3" rake) - but can we do that with just shackles? If you extend them too much the vehicle gets unstable on the highway. Highboys have a block between the bottom of the spring and the axle to do this.

Also, don't forget we need to limit the travel of the springs to avoid drive shaft problems. We don't want the drive shaft to fall out when we bounce up, or to jam it into the tranny when we bounce down.

 

Dan installed the highboy blocks already, but the rear spring shackle thing we're working with is some kind of "smooth ride" ? setup with a double pivot, I think when we looked at Karls truck, we could see the difference...I'd hit up PnP and see if we could find shackles, but problem with that is they are riveted in, and the PnP's don't allow power tools or torches in the yard, just too difficult to chislel the rivets off of them.

I think I'd stay away from airshocks anyway...plus, we'd still have to do the shackles too, or the shocks would be carrying all the load in it's leaf spring setup.

Good point on the travel limits, the bump stops on the spring risers will work just fine for bottoming out, we can probably get by with bolting some chain to the frame and then to the springpad area on both sides of the truck, or something similar.

PS..Yes, we can easily raise the rear with new shackle mounts, when you see it, you know what I'm getting at.