Mn Mountaineer V8 SAS

[johnny499]

Last night i stopped out at my parents and drove it up on a pile to check the bump stops finally. With it on the bump stops the rear leaf was perfectly flat. I'm not sure how much negative arch is acceptable so flat is what i shot for.
Now for the bender mount pics. I used a piece of 5" channel left over from the rear bumper of the one ton to make the mounting base.

I taper cut the end of the tube to level the bender on the stand.

Here it is leveled and welded. I also pre drilled pilot holes if i decide i want to mount it 90 degrees to its current layout.

Here you can see one of the nuts i mounted on the side to lock it in place.

I mounted it up last night. you can see the ram to the right of it.

You can see that it sit's nice and level on the stand.

The next step is to get the ram mounted up and it will be ready to rock. I am so excited to get it up and working but i need to make sure i get it built right so it's reliable.

I found i hadn't uploaded a few pics of the led lightbar output comparison. Here are the high beams parked.

The high beams and led bar.

Low beams, fog's and lightbar on wall.

The lightbar definitely helps and will be remounted on the new bumper for sure.

 

[BKennedy]

The only thing I don't like about the LED bars is it makes the headlights look yellow. Now, I need to upgrade the headlights to match. It never ends....

 

[johnny499]

The only thing I don't like about the LED bars is it makes the headlights look yellow. Now, I need to upgrade the headlights to match. It never ends....

I hear you on that. I picked up a new set of head light buckets to do a future HID projector conversion with. That will make the headlights perform better along with making them more of a true white. On the flip side i plan to put HID projector fog lights on it that are actually yellow which helps in the snow in my neck of the woods. More future mods.

 

[99SportX]

Thanks for the reminder, i forgot about anything i was trying to plan for the summer when i lost my best friend in a small plane crash a few weeks back. He was going to be one of the people i wanted to go with me for that event and other excursions.
Being with the GF has limited my project time to a few evenings a week. I did manage to find more materials to get the bender mounted up this weekend and spent some time messing with and learning how to use the bending software. Some of it is Greek to me and some of it makes complete sense. I will get it figured out. So far the Assembly option seems the most useful for building bumpers and cages. It's funny that it has the most functions within it but is the easiest for me to understand, if that makes sense.

I am very sorry to hear that. That is just horrible.

It looks like you are making great progress on the bender so far. I am excited to see what you can build with that thing!

 

[johnny499]

I am very sorry to hear that. That is just horrible.

It looks like you are making great progress on the bender so far. I am excited to see what you can build with that thing!

It's been rough but I've got great friends and family to help get through it.

I have a couple of different ideas to mount up the ram for the bender. We'll see which one sticks or if it's a combination. Then on to the creativity with the bumpers. My plan is to start with the rear bumper then probably the sliders and the front bumper last. I am also kicking around doing a swing out tire rack on the back as well. The absolutes are receiver for hitch, led back up lights, trailer light jack and tow points of some sort.

 

[bronchole]

You should probably start with the sliders first. They are the simplest so you can get use to your bender.

What are "trailer jack lights"? I'm thinking you are missing some ,,,, there

 

[johnny499]

You should probably start with the sliders first. They are the simplest so you can get use to your bender.

What are "trailer jack lights"? I'm thinking you are missing some ,,,, there

Normally i would agree with doing the sliders first but i need it to be able to tow a small trailer sooner than i think i will need the sliders.
I think you miss read "trailer light jack" from my earlier post. It's the jack or receptacle for the trailer light wiring plug. I will be installing a seven pin "rv" style with the flat four connections built in also. I want to recess mount it so it won't be easily damaged. I will probably be installing a brake controller also.

 

[bronchole]

OMG! I am always doing that. Whenever there is 2 ways of taking something I usually take it opposite of the way it was meant....

I hear you on the 7way - 4 way thing. That is exactly what I am planning for mine.

 

[johnny499]

OMG! I am always doing that. Whenever there is 2 ways of taking something I usually take it opposite of the way it was meant....

I hear you on the 7way - 4 way thing. That is exactly what I am planning for mine.

I've been there, I think I have the T-shirt in fact.

I started on the mount for the ram, I have a plan and just need to make up a couple of plates then i can weld it all together and test it out.

 

[SWIGIN]

Every day I see you post in here I'm expecting to see your new custom bumpers..... STOP TEASING ME!

Just joking and the stand looks like it will work great.

 

[Kage.]

So now that you've put a few more miles on it and everything should have settled out, can you grab a couple of measurements for me? I'm curious as to how tall the coils are with weight on them, and what your belly height is (bottom of frame by the T-case would be sweet).

Thanks!

 

[johnny499]

So now that you've put a few more miles on it and everything should have settled out, can you grab a couple of measurements for me? I'm curious as to how tall the coils are with weight on them, and what your belly height is (bottom of frame by the T-case would be sweet).

Thanks!

The coils are at 16 1/2" and the frame by the t-case is 21 1/2" from ground. cross member is lower than that.

 

[johnny499]

Every day I see you post in here I'm expecting to see your new custom bumpers..... STOP TEASING ME!

Just joking and the stand looks like it will work great.

I hear ya, I really want to start on them but my schedule has gotten much busier since i started dating the girl friend.
I have made time to pick away at the ram mount for the bender. I started by cutting the tube to length and then splitting in lengthwise. The ID of the tube is a little smaller than the ram so i opened it up a little and applied some heat to help it hold open.

Here is the manual handle for the bender.

I decided to utilize the tabs that already had bushings in them from the manual lever.

I installed them and a spacer to help center the assembly.

Then i made a couple of plates up to use for the clamp and spaced them apart with a couple of 1/2" nuts during the welding process.

Welded them on, should hold sufficiently.

I used a piece of 2" square tube to hold the tabs parallel during the welding.

The clamp is complete but still too hot to install the ram.

Once it cools down i will remove the square tube and hit it with a coat of paint. Slide the ram in and start working on the rod to arm adapter. Then finally be able to do a test bend and gather the bend data for spring back.

 

[Kage.]

The coils are at 16 1/2" and the frame by the t-case is 21 1/2" from ground. cross member is lower than that.

Thanks! That's helpful for my own figuring

 

[johnny499]

Thanks! That's helpful for my own figuring

No problem, i was looking for the same info when i built mine but just went for it when i couldn't find anything specific.

 

[johnny499]

I got the ram mount painted, the ram installed and made the rod adapter.

I set it up with a cut off 5/8" bolt for a quick pin for easy break down and storage.

Stored.

The much awaited first test bend.

I ran it to an indicated 90 degrees to get the spring back numbers.

It indicated 5 degrees spring back.

The first official bend. The actual measured spring back was 3.6 degrees when measured with the electronic angle finder.

 

[SLAYERMIKE]

That's a nice looking set-up!

 

[johnny499]

That's a nice looking set-up!

Thanks!
The bender seems to work really smoothly this way. I like being able to move it around the garage for use and storage. It also really helped being able to get the 20+ foot tube out of the bender after the single bend. Fingers crossed i am going to try working on the rear bumper this week.

 

[johnny499]

Well another step towards making the rear bumper last night. I started removing the lower section of body behind the rear wheels by removing the plastic cover panel.

Then i taped off what i cared about.

I used the super accurate sawzall for the sheet metal removal.

Then i put in cuts on the wheel lip and the rear brace to allow folding the new edge.

Then i folded the rear brace back to allow folding the outside under.

I used a wide set of pliers to slowly bend the new lip under. Of course the paint cracked.

I'm not sure how crazy i want to get doing body work on the folded lip. The rest of the body isn't going to last that long here in Minnesota. I do plan on doing a re-body and probably engine rebuild some day. Now i can pull the bumper off, make measurement's and start designing the new bumper.

 

[SWIGIN]

Very nice to see you back at it!

Can you tell us what diameter tube you are using for your bumpers when you get around to building it?