Thats gonna be a ton of drop. Is that rather thin wall square tubing gonna be enough to support the stresses of vehicle recovery? I am concerned the springs will just tear the hangers right off.
What kind of plans do you have for your shackles?
What are the triangular pieces for?

 

what is that 1/8" or less thick? man i wouldnt trust that sheetmetal aint much thinner.

 

maybe its just the picture.. but its only a 4"x4" box frame and its 1/4" thick.. the cell picture is kinda distorted.. 1/4" isn't thick enough?
dont know how to describe it but my idea was to have the frame across the front and then use the triangular pieces as reinforcement along the sides, along the frame rail.. i thought that would tie the hanger into the frame better and give me more surface area for mounting rather then just the 4x4 framing
as far as the shackles go i have some ideas...dropping the shackle mount down 4" is what im considering right now.. id rather not have some mile long shackles

 

1/4" is good - but I'd make sure there's some sort of vertical support in the middle of that tube.

I wasn't sure where you were going with the angle cuts before - but it is making more and more sense now - carry on

 

vertical support.. you mean like the truck came stock with along the top

 

I was talking more about something IN the 4x4 tube to keep it from crushing under vertical (compression) load - or trapezoiding under frontal load.

BUT - it is a good idea to tie the top of the frame rails into the cross member as well - like the stock one had.

Mount the stock ones back up using boss' through that 4x4 tube and long bolts (I'd up the size to 1/2") and it will be strong!

 

ohh.. hmm yea i didnt think about putting anything inside the tube... what would you suggest?

 

the boss' for connection to the frame brackets like I suggested above would help.

Running a piece of 1/4" plate inside the length of the tube (slit the tube like 1" every 3-4" top and bottom to weld in the vertical plate) will do it as well.

On mine my hitch/receiver and recovery points (in the design phase - pics soon) will help with the crushing.

 

OH ic ic. that makes sense..
hopefully tomorrow night i will get more done and have pictures.
good luck

 

Love all the pics guys!!! I want to do something similar but I plan on using 4x6 box tubing similar to the stock 78-79 setup, just making them longer, then tying that into a front mounted receiver hitch. I saw this once on one of the ttc '09 contender's trucks and wanted to use this style, just not as big. I know I saw a picture of this setup on this website once...just cant find it now.....anyone know what I'm talking about? Either way doing this yourself just makes for a better feeling in the end!!!

 

I got a TINY bit of work done last night.

I started cutting out the clevis mounts for this thing. I then spent 1.5 HOURS waiting for my hole saw to cut through the 1.5" of steel...



I should get back to cleaning them up a bit tonight.

I am also waiting on a buddy to machine something for me. It figures - my mill sits here for a couple months when I am trying to sell it and I never need it, but as soon as it's gone I have 3 different thing/projects I had to take over to my buddies shop so he can run them on his mill....

 

I FINALLY had a good/productive night last night

I got to the shop before my buddy was gone for the day and since he hadn't gotten to my parts he let me use his mill and run them


I then sand blasted the rectangular tube because it had surface rust and I'm **** like that


Solid steel fitted and clamped for tack welding


Both sides tacked in


Test fit


And then I started throwing some welding rod at it



I got a bunch welded and will do more tonight.

I am also finalizing and test fitting the design on the platework for the spring hangers (you can see some of the preliminary design on the paper next to the solid steel in the 1st pic). I will do more test fitting tonight and hopefully get the parts CNC cut soon!

 

Did a bunch of welding last night. Not much else though - I was distracted by my buddy working on a motorcycle - so I spent a bunch of time flappin my jaw over there



Anyways - the boss is outta town tomorrow and my work load seems light so I'm gonna buy some materials and another set of transfer punches (to make a "stubby" set to fit in smaller places) and then get a bit more work done before heading to my dad's for the weekend.

 

Finally got back in the shop and back to work although I was drilling holes through 1.25" solid again - so it was slow going as usual.

I got a couple of the 6 mounting holes (stock rivet holes opened up for a 1/2" bolt) drilled, and I got the templates for the actual leaf mounts worked out.

I've got a meeting tonight and I am also helping a friend move this week and weekend so probably not going to get a ton done but I am inching closer to wrapping this up

1st mounting holes done - and marking to drill more. I'm using 3 of the 5 stock holes per side


Look ma - no clamps - or jack stands, milk crate, etc...

 

<style>.wysiwyg { PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BACKGROUND: #f5f5ff; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 5px 10px 10px; FONT: 10pt verdana,geneva,lucida,'lucida grande',arial,helvetica,sans-serif; COLOR: #000; PADDING-TOP: 0px } .wysiwyg A:link { COLOR: #22229c } .wysiwyg_alink { COLOR: #22229c } .wysiwyg A:visited { COLOR: #22229c } .wysiwyg_avisited { COLOR: #22229c } .wysiwyg A:hover { COLOR: #f40 } .wysiwyg A:active { COLOR: #f40 } .wysiwyg_ahover { COLOR: #f40 } P { MARGIN: 0px } .inlineimg { VERTICAL-ALIGN: middle } </style>I got a bit more work done tonight. Well, spent another entire night just drilling holes that is...

It was a short night cuz Suzy was here and she wanted out of the shop so I quit early.


Kinda sucks because Tuesday and today were the only nights I had in the shop all week


I got a little done, but not as much as I wanted. Unfortunately I have to help friends move this weekend - so I doubt anything will get done until Monday. I want this thing done and it is not happening

Drilling more holes


Almost done with the mounting holes


Here's a shot of the back of the thing showing the hitch receiver goes all the way through


Since Ed (75f350) gave me a little grief earlier in the thread and asked if I was smart enough to run the receiver through the back (that's not how he asked - but I like givin him cr*p) I decided to give it even more attachment.

So here ya go Ed. This trick little detail is for you


I thought I was careful enough with the center drill in the hole saw not to mark the receiver tube, but I just barely nicked it - d'oh!

And here we are all welded up



Ok - time to do one last revision on my cad files so I can send them to my buddy for CNC plasma cutting - then it's bed time!






You makin any progress on yours 71 Hightoy?