I built my truck in college as my principle vehicle. It had to get me to school 3 hours away and back once a month or so and it also had to be my sleeping quarters during wheeling events as well as wheel at these events. As she looked prior to BlazerFest 08:
I frequently look back at this picture and have to ask myself why I changed anything, sigh.
In any case, within 30 days of that photo I managed this:
Little bit of sheet metal wrinkledge and a broken window. All in all, not terrible. The issue is I saw this as the tip of the iceberg. I'm certain, and now convinced well over a year later that the truck was headed down a path that just a cab wasn't going to cut.
In pretty short order I made a decision and order 200ft of tubing (100ft of 1018 1-3/4 .120w HREW and 100ft of 1020 1-3/4 .120w DOM), LED tail lights and made arrangements to have Mr. Graham pickup my bed for Mildred.
Loaded up redneck camper style.
So with materials in hand and a bed gone I started redesigning the rear of the truck:
I bent up the two main halos for the cab.
Then began dropping down tubes and triangulating the main hoop.
Frame landings were done on plates to disperse load.
To manufacture the rear winch tray integral for the rearmost cross member and what would work as a bumper I pulled dimensions from my SolidWorks model and drew out the pieces to be cut with the plasma.
I had the shackles I designed and the end plates cut on PacificFab's CNC plasma table as a result of the holes and more so the arcs.
I bent the plates, dimpled the hole, cut and cleaned some 2" .250w 1020 DOM and welded them together.
You must be registered for see images attach
I frequently look back at this picture and have to ask myself why I changed anything, sigh.
In any case, within 30 days of that photo I managed this:
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Little bit of sheet metal wrinkledge and a broken window. All in all, not terrible. The issue is I saw this as the tip of the iceberg. I'm certain, and now convinced well over a year later that the truck was headed down a path that just a cab wasn't going to cut.
In pretty short order I made a decision and order 200ft of tubing (100ft of 1018 1-3/4 .120w HREW and 100ft of 1020 1-3/4 .120w DOM), LED tail lights and made arrangements to have Mr. Graham pickup my bed for Mildred.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Loaded up redneck camper style.
So with materials in hand and a bed gone I started redesigning the rear of the truck:
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
I bent up the two main halos for the cab.
You must be registered for see images attach
Then began dropping down tubes and triangulating the main hoop.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
Frame landings were done on plates to disperse load.
You must be registered for see images attach
To manufacture the rear winch tray integral for the rearmost cross member and what would work as a bumper I pulled dimensions from my SolidWorks model and drew out the pieces to be cut with the plasma.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
I had the shackles I designed and the end plates cut on PacificFab's CNC plasma table as a result of the holes and more so the arcs.
You must be registered for see images attach
I bent the plates, dimpled the hole, cut and cleaned some 2" .250w 1020 DOM and welded them together.
You must be registered for see images attach