1995 Ford F150 DD prelander

[the_fablab_]

I am working on something for Bruce right now Tommy. I'll share it with you later today if I can make some decent headway

 

[85Yota]

OK got some miles on this thing today st the prerun scouting mission for the clean desert nov 2 cleanup. Drove from Apple Valley Speedway via dirt up to start finish in Barstow. Then took some dirt along outlet center drive to get some Barstow del taco. After Barstow del we went up to the college hills to scout for more trash. Marked some spots on Son's of Smokey app for people to pickup. Also found a nice pile or clean nail free wood so we loaded it into my truck to bring for the Saturday night trunk or treat bonfire on Nov 2nd.

 

[85Yota]

Video of the run from start finish to outlets. Was going 55-65 and hit the drop offs withiut lifting. Worked awesome with the revalve I did yesterday and added 3/8" preload to the rear.

 

[85Yota]

Well took the truck out to the clean desert Barstow cleanup. Truck worked awesome. I filled the back up with trash 5 times. And i have no photos of the truck out there. Post up if you got any while i was out there.

 

[Kellyex1450]

Hows that camper shell holding up? hopefully you have better luck than me. I went through 3 fiberglass campers before I threw in the towel and built my own. one camper only barely made it around the old Barstow course B before it got the jiggly cracks and tried to remove itself from the truck. I built a camper out of 1.5" .065 DOM and paneling that's survived 12 years of abuse so far and the weight ended up being basically the same.

 

[85Yota]

Rear of the shell is cracked and bottom of door ontop of the bed is sliding apart. I'm going to clamp and squeeze shell back into place then I'm planning on building a tube frame inside the shell with multiple bolts through the shell to hopefully hold it together better. If this one is too bad I'll shop for another one and build a solid inner structure before bolting it onto the bed to hopefully hold that together like it should. If it fails then I'll build myself a camper. Possibly cut the shell to bolt the top and sides onto a frame to keep it the shape it needs to stay in.

 

[85Yota]

Successful Thanksgiving trip. Didn't take any photos. Camper shell rear window and frame around it deleted itself, luckily it fell off and landed in the bed and glass didn't break. Truck worked awesome, super smooth when cruising, it's like my offroad couch. Shit mpg I need to get used to, 8 mpg. Water temp would randomly climb so gonna flush coolant system, since it's brown full of rust and changed the heater core since it's plugged and not flowing any water through it. Once those are done the truck will have a full new coolant system so I shouldn't have anymore problems. Also living 45 min from camp some of the friends dropped off their rigs RV and trailer at my home so it's closer to drive to get out to the hammers for gambler cleanup next weekend. I now really want to get a beater crawler to have fun with the boys going slow too. Saw the petroglifs and Checked out lava lubes as well on our run from Cougar Buttes out to Newberry Springs and back on Friday.

 

[DesertGoat]

just rebuild La Tortuga.
you guys made quite the rock crawling pair.
in case you forgot:

 

[85Yota]

Oh it's on the future build for sure. Just need to finish other projects in the shop and around the house before that one goes under the chopping block.

 

[85Yota]

Ok took the truck out a few times now and over Thanksgiving for some more miles. Truck works really well but the rear frame started flopping around more than originally did. I then noticed where the factory frame bottom C channel is rolled down for shock clearance it started to crack on both sides. So I put on lift and then into stands and frame and bed gap went back to stock. I then started the tear down to cut bottom roll off frame and plate that in along with adding a few tubes to that area to keep it all solid. We'll when I was unbolting the parts I had my finger in the wrong spot and hit the impact and it aucked my finger between the wrench and metal pinching off the skin and finger nail, and fracturing off the last 1/8" of my bone. So progress stopped immediately when I went to emergency room. They got it cleaned up and referred me to an orthopedic surgeon to final dress it and get it so it'll heal correctly as it can. Of course this was Saturday between Xmas and new years so no appointments are open and now waiting die my appointment next week. Then back to progress on this truck to finish it up and then the more on the double cab tacoma to get that fab work closer to being done.


Well here's the cracks on the frame. Pass side had a small crack I welded up from stock a bags and overloaded.

 

[85Yota]

I also need to get with @ADSRACINGSHOCKS to calculate correct spring rate for the rear since now with my 300/450 springs I have like 2 or so inches of preload and it is still sitting a little lower than I want.

 

[Kellyex1450]

I like the bracing you have keeping the structure under the bed, I would not of thought the frame would crack that way with the structure you added. what do you plan to add to prevent future cracking?

 

[85Yota]

Update. Truck worked awesome over Thanksgiving and gambler 500 cleanup at Johnson valley weekend after. A few small problems with the truck. I fixed the overheating from unbled cooling system and alternator charging wire coming off. Big issue I'm working on now is the factory frame cracked where the bottom frame rail was rolled down to clear shocks. I cut out that portion and am plating it back in and gusseting the frame a little more in that spot to keep it all stiff. Also camper shell rear window blew out and then the corners of camper shell started to crack so I removed it to fiberglass that and build a tube frame to keep it all stiff for future. But for now running no camper shell until I get my bed platform drawers in and needed for sleeping in when camping. Also still looking for some 12" 2.5 or 3.0 bypasses or smooth bodies.
Also when working in the rear i smashed and de gloved my middle finger breaking end of the bone as well. So now waiting for that to get better to finish this job. Also my friend Mikey @the_fablab_ is gonna come out and help me get it done before KOH this year since I'm 45 min from lakebed and need a truck to spectate.

 

[the_fablab_]

I'll even kiss your boo boo when I get there

 

[the bodj]

No glove, no love!

 

[85Yota]

I was using my impact and a wrench. Finger got slammed between wrench and frame. Like an Idiot I had finger in bad spot didn't think it would've slammed wrench at all but it did.

 

[Baconcreekmetal]

Ouch

 

[DesertGoat]

shiiiiiiiiiiiit
how was that ride to the hospital from your house in BFE? glad you're alright dude

My nightmare is being in the shop alone & getting hurt so bad I can't get myself out. this reminds me of that.