Front end work

[Burns]

Oh yeah i think that would be a good idea

 

[mounty71]

Maybe i'm missing something, but why would you extend the radius arms 2"? Can you do that without moving the beams forward and extending the driveshaft?

 

[CopyKat]

i've seen a lot of beams with square corners, but i'll try to make all my pieces rounded

well i gave some thought, and now im thinking about cutting off the "tabs" of my radius arms and welding some new ones on, at the same time spacing it so that i would lengthen tha arms a bit to move the front wheels forward maybe 2"s

the arms are just stock extended so i want to just weld plates on top of them and it would make up the 1/8" difference from the plating on the beams. do you get what im trying to say?

All the high end ones I have seen all have rounded edges or tapered edges.

I advise against the adding length to the rad arm ears. The MOST you can push the axle forward would be 1" I've done this to mine. On full compression the passenger side axle shaft is about 1/4" from the head of the pivot bolt. Keep an eye out for that. I had to reverse the bolt direction from factory to get more clearance. The bolt head was shallower than the nut.

 

[R.J.]

copykat, i looked at that when i had drop brackets and noticed that the axle clearance was pretty close. but with stock pivot brackets and it should clear no prob. i know the racer guys push their axles forward like 7"s. im just gonna check how much drive shaft i have and see if i have enough to push the wheels forward or not. the idea i have in my head should work fine and be plenty strong on the radius arms, but it'll be kinda funny that they're stock in hte middle and and custom on the ends.

 

[R.J.]

Maybe i'm missing something, but why would you extend the radius arms 2"? Can you do that without moving the beams forward and extending the driveshaft?

i want to extend the radius arms to move the beams forward. do i have enough drive shaft? i don't know

 

[Dannyboy]

Are you doing this to get the front wheels out of the back of the fenderwell? I can see getting 1-2" forward and I agree this would help. 7" though? How does that manage to still pivot without binding up at the axle pivot?

by the way, I'm not questioning anything you are doing, this is a great ttb buildup, probably one of the most custom we've seen her on Explorerforum (cause you know Paul kept his under wraps until it was unveiled in his last buildout). Keep up the good work.

 

[R.J.]

why so much as 7"s? don't know. but yes i want to keep the wheels out of the firewall. when i was looking at built trucks in the McNeil shop, the wheels were waaaaaaaay far forward! i guess its to keep the wheels from hitting things and give a little more wheelbase for stability???? i actually have my wheels pushed forward about an inch, but i still want them farther forward, i hate the look of them reall cloe to the back fender well.


where is paul's buildup anyway? did he write a build thread on it or even show case it at all? cause i've searvhed and i can't find anything about it. all i can find is pics in the "past run photo" threads. pauls and the zimmermans are the two best build ups of ttb's. i guess next after that is kris (with the navajo i think) and then somewhere after that is 410fortune and me. well thats how i order them.

 

[CopyKat]

pauls and the zimmermans are the two best build ups of ttb's. i guess next after that is kris (with the navajo i think) and then somewhere after that is 410fortune and me. well thats how i order them.

One day I might make a list.

 

[Dannyboy]

No, Paul is keeping his buildup under wraps. He showed pics at Truckhaven in Oct., lucky for him, he's a busy guy so he doesn't have time to post pics and then need to listen to all of the 3rd base coaches here telling him what he is doing right and wrong.

his front end isn't changing at all until things start breaking (kinda like what I'm doing as well) but I would like to widen, coilover, and run a 37" BFG project but I only kept this front ent after I developed an appreciation for Autofab and the ass kicking I put on it. I don't want to change it too much because I don't use it too often and don't want to ruin what is working.

His feature isn't up to date even though the title says coilover, but I do think it's the most impressive TTB setup I've ever seen. Plus I didn't see until now, his truck has a supercharger!!! http://www.explorer4x4.com/ocl.htm

 

[CopyKat]

No, Paul is keeping his buildup under wraps.

Search works fine

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186453

 

[Dannyboy]

What I was referring to is that this truck will be one of, if not the most exotic explorers you will ever see, it's been under the knife for almost a year and not one pic of it has been on here.

 

[R.J.]

DOH!!!! i forgot about the other board member doing a sweet ttb build, COPYKAT!!! another good ttb build is 4x4junkie. seems like the b2 guys like to to do cool builds.


i know pual's doing a lot of work, but his front end has been done for a while and has beenona few trips. i wanna know more about his front end and steering. whats getting built right now better have huge write. i saw it in person a while back and the plans were insane. (in a very good way)

copykat, you rank right above kris with the d44 knuckles

 

[Dannyboy]

do I rank? i heard a rumor once at truckhaven you got a little frustrated cause my rig gets beat like it owes me money and I have yet to shuck a hub on it

I was totally over the TTB but autofab has made me a believer again.

And I like what I've seen on Copykats rig, It's given me more motivation to keep the ttb, which I used to hate and am starting to love again.

 

[Burns]

Man rj i have never seen anyone blow more hubs than you. Its truely a talent

How are the guys pushing them forward 7 plus? Are they moving all the brackets?

 

[FROADER]

Plus I didn't see until now, his truck has a supercharger!!! http://www.explorer4x4.com/ocl.htm

He took that off a while ago too. It wasn't doing any good.

I've got a bunch of pictures of the new build, but can't show them off. I think they'll have some more pictures out at the Truck Haven run again.

 

[R.J.]

well i was told that they move them up 7" but maybe only on the 2wd but they move em forward

danny your front end is store bought : obviously its a good front end but im sure one day you do a few thing to it that'll make it really nice

and your the one thats jealous of me, because im threatening your hub breaking record! and i also want to try to set the distance record.

froader, what are you doin to me man???!!!! come on that i know you have pics its gonna be killin me not to see! of course i could just drive to his shop and check it out

 

[Dannyboy]

I think you got me beat, I think I either have 7 total hubs or 7 warns, 2 autos plus 1 Dana 44

 

[Paul B.]

Will bring some updated photo's on the cage work and maybe just maybe some photo's of the rock crawling front end look, since it will have it's own look separate from the street legal look. Also a demo on the Active Sway Bar system, and if you don't know what that is, you will find out. By the way Dannyboy, this project is starting it's third year! I was told last nite that the sheet metal will be starting to be put on soon, so that's a good sign Who know's maybe it will be ready to hit the trail's by Fall.

 

[CopyKat]

DOH!!!! i forgot about the other board member doing a sweet ttb build, COPYKAT!!!

copykat, you rank right above kris with the d44 knuckles

You don't know me that well. I've been known to take ideas from things done 5 years ago and say I was the originator of the idea.

But it keeps me motivated that guys are watching my build and it's motivating others to get off their ass.

 

[Dannyboy]

Will bring some updated photo's on the cage work and maybe just maybe some photo's of the rock crawling front end look, since it will have it's own look separate from the street legal look. Also a demo on the Active Sway Bar system, and if you don't know what that is, you will find out. By the way Dannyboy, this project is starting it's third year! I was told last nite that the sheet metal will be starting to be put on soon, so that's a good sign Who know's maybe it will be ready to hit the trail's by Fall.

Haha, Paul I didn't want to offend anyone, and about a year ago my job kept me tied up about 65 hours a week so there was essentially no explorer forum for me. But when I came back, well, about 3-4 of the guys I wheel with had rolled their rigs and plenty of other things changed. I had a feeling this project was going on for over a year, but I know it can be a sore subject when you talk about long term builds. FYI, my truck went into the shop the first week in Dec. At that time I was told it would probably be ready for the truckhaven run on MLK day, it's still in there. The old "I didn't want to do anything without your consent" line keeps getting tossed around, plus the old "we keep adding to the original design" and from what I've seen on your truck, I can imagine that there is plenty of mid-play audibles being called by the quarterback. Your truck is going to be a gem when it's done, just over build that thing to so it never has to be retired. I'm putting so much extra tubework into my truck and tying it in to so many places on the body that even if I rolled it down an embankment 5-6 times I could take a sawzall, trim along the floor outside of the cage and weld a new body on there.