Not much left Tacoma left... 4500 koh build

[Hambone]

So I notched the tube around the center section and lowered it some and placed the ram at an angle. I honestly have no idea what I’m doing just using some pictures as a reference. Tomorrow I’ll measure how much steering I have on my other truck as it’s identical besides the knuckles on it are stock dodge ones. But that’ll give me an idea of how much steering I’ll get and if I need to move the ram closer to the housing to get the shaft inline at full steer.

If anyone has any input I’m all ears. I’ve never set up a double ended ram before.

 

[Hambone]

No real updates. Dropped the Ram on my foot last week and broke a toe and it wouldn’t fit in a shoe.

I sold my truck camper a month or so ago and been looking for an enclosed to add a bathroom and kitchen and beds and finally found one so bombed up to Reno/Sacramento area on Thursday right in a break between snow and grabbed this 32ft haul mark edge gooseneck. It has so rust I didn’t find till I got home but should work good for my needs

 

[Hambone]

Finally some more progress on the Ram. Rebent the tube on the front for more protection and extends a little farther out. Drew and cut a plate to mount the weld blocks and will probably weld a nut incase the blocks ever strip out. Needs a few more gussets on the back and a cap plate and some more plating and it’ll be done. Kind of wish I put more a bend in the tube to cut the back side and have it flow into the housing vs how I did but with a plate to cap it, it’ll be good.

 

[Hambone]

Ended up welding the truss on and tacing all the steering brackets back on so I could get the axle under the truck. I’ll wait to fully weld the steering till I make the tie rods and figure out the drag link. I also took the time between welding the truss to fix the passenger motor mount to clear the upper link and ended up fully welding the upper link mount. Still only tacd to the housing though.

I also cut a bunch of triangle supports for the back of the plate the ram clamps bolt to along with a cap. Should look pretty good all done.

Not a huge fan of how I terminated the tube in the passenger side. It wasn’t till after I made all the braces and support that I realized I should have bent that side more and notch the back side for a cleaner look. With another plate or two and some paint I don’t think it’ll be noticeable though.

 

[Hambone]

The way I made the frame left a decent hole where the a pillar needed to land. I took the time today and boxed that in and super happy with how it came out. Clean and simple. I added a center brace incase of a rollover so the tube isn’t landing on an empty box. Should be plenty strong and think it cleans up the corners super well.

Thinking I’ll finish the steering next to get a panhard mounted to find full bump while I wait to order shocks and hubs.

 

[Hambone]

Hoping to drill the steering arms tomorrow. If my math and research is right, should be roughly 8 in from the center of the kingpin for the tie rod to mount to. The drsglink I’ll wait till I figure out pitman arm length and as that should determine the hole in the arm location.

Plan is 1 in back and centered side to side. Should leave plenty of meat and I’ll dual shear the arm.

 

[Hambone]

Going the steering arms drilled and mounted back up. Threw them in the mill and angled the head 10 degrees forward to match the angle built into the arms and get the bolt to lay flat.

Made some tie rods and got a drsglink mocked up. Pretty happy to see at full lock the tie rods are straight with the ram shaft which means I somewhat know how to read a tape measure. I’ll need to space the tie rods down but I can make spacers later. I need to get a mockup panhard in to make sure the steering box location will work. I started with the drsglink the same length as the pitman arm from the kingpin but ran into clearance issues. I’ll have to do some more checking but it should work on the same hole as the tie rod.

I’m guessing the final pictures are close to full bump but I won’t really know till I get the hubs ordered and a tire on. I have the truck sitting a little higher than ride height so maybe I’ll adjust it down and do some measuring to see if I need to get it higher.

 

[Hambone]

Transmission showed up. Was a gift from my parents for Christmas. My dads been a huge help just answering questions and helping when he’s here

Th350 reverse manual valve body with a 2800-3200 stall. Bottom part of the torque converter is billet.

Now to decide on an atlas ratio. Thinking a 3.0 with 5.83s or a 3.8 with 5.43s. The 3.8 will be more friendly for play wheeling which is what I’m leaning towards.

 

[4xFoorOffroad]

Are you going with 12 or 14 inch coilovers? Just wondering if 1st gen guys that have an engine cage with 12's could possible reuse them when converting to LT arms to solid axle...

 

[Hambone]

Are you going with 12 or 14 inch coilovers? Just wondering if 1st gen guys that have an engine cage with 12's could possible reuse them when converting to LT arms to solid axle...

I’m limited to 14s by class rules so I’ll use those. I have 14s on my white truck and put 14s on the red 4door I built as well

 

[Hambone]

I wanted the heim on the pitman arm to be centered in the arm to get a little more travel and needed that same heim to be angled down towards the knuckle similar to the genright twisted pitman arm. Cut a quick mount of 1/8 for mockup and angled it down to 10 degrees. My dad has the genright arm and he measured 17 degrees on his so I’ll end up adding more as the heim still binds towards the bottom of travel.

This arm/design is purely for mockup. The final version will be out of thicker material and tons of gussets

 

[Hambone]

Next step now that the steering was all tacd together was to get the panhard mocked up.

I made several versions starting with the axle end on the tube but realized there wasn’t going to be enough room for two shocks so moved the mount onto the center section. The final version I ended with tonight had the frame side sticking about 3 inches off it which would put the panhard same length as the draglink.

My dad jeepster is very similar and he added a sway bar recently and had to add a big bend in the sway bar arm to clear the panhard mount so I’ll probably go back to the shorter frame side mount and just live with the panhard being about 2 inches shorter than the draglink. Shouldn’t be a big deal as the other two rigs I built were both shorter but I’ll cycle to see if there’s any bump steer.

Next I’ll make templates and cut some real mounts to get everything atleast tacd and start cycling the suspension. Probably end up cutting the upper link off and clearancing it some more too. And I need to make the spacers for the tie rods as well.

 

[Hambone]

Played with the panhard more. Drew some stuff in cad. The frame side panhard is pretty much set and I moved the axle side some. Ended up moving it 2 inches more inboard to clear the shocks and give room for a bump stop making the panhard 2.5-3 inches shorter than the draglink but degrees are within .02 which I’m happy about. May put a small bend in the panhard to get a little more uptravelover the ram once I notch the frame.

 

[Hambone]

I had 10ft of 2” dom left and I needed to start on the cage to do the engine cage to start figuring out shocks. I made a mockup piece to determine how much material the bender uses and started on the main hoop. It’s pretty close and should work good. I’ll have to get some more dom this week and start on the other side to match.

 

[Hambone]

Few more pictures of the cage. Not sure how I like the gap. It’s 2 inches at the widest but most is 1.25-1.5 gap between the door frame. Not sure if it’s worth wasting 10 more feet to try again lol

 

[Hambone]

No build updates besides grabbing more dom. My dad came down for a week and we started on adding a bathroom and living quarters in the new trailer. I ended up finding a ton of rust which took longer to fix than I thought but the framing and tanks and drains are all done and rust is fixed. I’ll finish the electrical and plumbing in time for koh hopefully

 

[Hambone]

Trailers almost done. Plumbing and electrical all work. Few small things to finish up and get a mattress. Probably paint the hole inside and outside come spring