88’ Raingutter Ranger

[Turboyota]

I have respect for the guys who spend weeks doing steering geometry by hand, with a million holes and suspension cycles later.

Spent the day chasing issues but finally at a point where I am content to move along and make the small changes when its getting assembled. With a 14" Coilover in the front, the truck is hitting 30" metal to metal. I don't even think that's possible but regardless its getting strapped well short at around 23-24"

Was able to "eliminate" bumpsteer through ride height and full bump, have about 1" of toe in at full droop but should be negligible where I end up strapping it at. Deciding on using 2x4x.188 rails from the firewall forward to mount everything. I tossed around the idea of having all the suspension/steering tie into tubing and sheet metal work, but with my luck I'll need to adjust mounts afterward and would rather have the ease of a square frame to do it on.

Definitely a lot of time on the computer, but I am appreciative of being able to reverse a timeline rather than cut half my truck apart on a mistake I made (ask me how I know)

Awesome work!! The time put into all the mechanism design and constraints in Fusion is impressive.

The 30” travel number doesn’t sound too far off… the old Herbst chevy beamed prerunners had like 28” of front travel.

Without a bypass, my Ranger cycles 25” travel on a 14” coilover, and it’s only like 80” wide—so your numbers seem legit

 

[Pictafiedesign]

I have respect for the guys who spend weeks doing steering geometry by hand, with a million holes and suspension cycles later.

Spent the day chasing issues but finally at a point where I am content to move along and make the small changes when its getting assembled. With a 14" Coilover in the front, the truck is hitting 30" metal to metal. I don't even think that's possible but regardless its getting strapped well short at around 23-24"

Was able to "eliminate" bumpsteer through ride height and full bump, have about 1" of toe in at full droop but should be negligible where I end up strapping it at. Deciding on using 2x4x.188 rails from the firewall forward to mount everything. I tossed around the idea of having all the suspension/steering tie into tubing and sheet metal work, but with my luck I'll need to adjust mounts afterward and would rather have the ease of a square frame to do it on.

Definitely a lot of time on the computer, but I am appreciative of being able to reverse a timeline rather than cut half my truck apart on a mistake I made (ask me how I know)

Saves a ton of time in the long run working in the computer lol. I'll never go back haha. Looks good so far man!

 

[MTSuarez]

Hey everyone, been a little while. Back on the ranger trying to do my best to finalize tubes. Had seen a post from Morgan Clarke discussing different wall thicknesses throughout his builds (.12, .095, .065). Found out that .095" chromoly is the same strength as .12" in DOM. I will not be doing chromoly, so ruling out the .065". Anyone have any input on my current chassis in regards to .12" mains (red) and .095" secondaries (blue)? Entire main chassis will be 2" DOM. Couple tubes missing near the rear window.

 

[exp24]

I would recommend 4130 for the cage, if it's a little more just bight the bullet. The amount of time and energy to cut, bend, notch, prep, weld, and paint the tube to save on DOM isn't worth the reduced strength.

 

[the bodj]

If you’re thinking of ever racing it, see what different orgs require

 

[MTSuarez]

I would recommend 4130 for the cage, if it's a little more just bight the bullet. The amount of time and energy to cut, bend, notch, prep, weld, and paint the tube to save on DOM isn't worth the reduced strength.

If you’re thinking of ever racing it, see what different orgs require

Everything will be getting laser cut and bent, labor wise is fixturing and welding. This truck wont be racing, I wont be able to afford all the stuff I break I'll see what the difference in price is but I'm sure it'll be close to 3x as much.

 

[asjadkhan]

Yeah it’s definitely on the wide side, still figuring out if I’ll keep it that way or narrow things up a bit once it’s cycling.

 

[the bodj]

If you’re not racing then just go DOM to keep it affordable so you can actually build it and use it this century. With any decent motor I don’t think you’ll notice much weight difference between DOM and Chromoly. If anything, do a mix of both.

 

[DP_Tundra]

Do you plan on heat treating the 4130 cage after you weld it up? If not, what benefits do you intend to gain over dom??

 

[MTSuarez]

Do you plan on heat treating the 4130 cage after you weld it up? If not, what benefits do you intend to gain over dom??

Negative, hence why I wasn’t planning on doing Chromoly. Keeping it simple/affordable. Just wanted to see if my current combo of .12” and .095” was fine or if it should all just be .12”

 

[the bodj]

Chromoly is significantly stronger than DOM. Get a piece of each in the same size and try manually bending it. I don’t believe any major TT manufacturers heat treat the entire chassis? Maybe I’m wrong?

 

[Turboyota]

Chromoly is significantly stronger than DOM. Get a piece of each in the same size and try manually bending it. I don’t believe any major TT manufacturers heat treat the entire chassis? Maybe I’m wrong?

^^^Correct.

Jason Elvis Heard (or whoeverthefuck it is that owns diy Offroad) heat treats his chassis, but my guess is it’s more or a stress relieve process…. Other TT manufacturers might heat treat. Everyone should start arguing about MiG welding vs tig welding and stress relieving 4130 welds below…

 

[MTSuarez]

Chromoly is significantly stronger than DOM. Get a piece of each in the same size and try manually bending it. I don’t believe any major TT manufacturers heat treat the entire chassis? Maybe I’m wrong?

^^^Correct.

Jason Elvis Heard (or whoeverthefuck it is that owns diy Offroad) heat treats his chassis, but my guess is it’s more or a stress relieve process…. Other TT manufacturers might heat treat. Everyone should start arguing about MiG welding vs tig welding and stress relieving 4130 welds below…

You guys can argue all you want, this poor girl is gonna be used and abused in DOM. If someone wants the files when I'm done designing to cut in Chromoly, have at it. Here's some more work from today, starting to figure out the firewall and incorporating the frame rail into the chassis.

Ignore the 2" too wide frame rail, gotta fix that. From what I can see so far, should have the ability to have 32' of steering angle even at full bump, which I doubt I'll ever need, see, or use. If anyone sees anything major to change, let me know!