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the big link project


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so, another weekend at tellico, another round of ugly body damage.

 

so, the decision was made, and apporved by the wife, that the bed was coming off.

 

It's getting tubed in the rear.

 

I figured, what the hell, I might as well link the rear too.

 

 

So, who's done it, care to share numbers and experiences?

 

Right now I'm looking at a triangulated 4 link, probably going to go with a 20 gallon fuel cell in the bed.

Crossmember will hold the links at the frame side, I'll likely be using ruff stuff link brackets and some 2x6 box to make the crossmember.

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paging Dr. Pingpong......Dr. Pingpong......

 

(and he'll need your rear frame section when ya cut it off... :brows: )

 

Jeff

 

Gonna keep the rear frame section.

 

It's about the right size to put TJ coils under the rear wheel arch.

 

I will of course be plating the frame rails though, and cutting off about 20" from the rear of the frame and making new crossmember/bumper to tie the frame rails together in the rear.

 

I don't trust my welds enough to make a whole new frame section, and I'm too poor to pay to have it done.

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yeah, I've been looking at pirate.

I've got the 4 link calculator.

 

right now it's looking like I'm going to have to sacrifice some link length in order to get the separation I want.

 

Ideally I'd like to make the rear suspension use the same length links as the front when I longarm it. So I'm really designing two suspensions right now.

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A 36" lower link should work good, just triangulate the upper and lowers as much as you can.

 

For the front 36" lower links are about as long as you can go.

 

I'll try and find some good real link set-ups I've saved.

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MY advice to you is buy the best joints you can afford. Watch out for some companies that offer fancy brackets with designs... I have some.. and lets just say theri plasma cutter must have needed a new tip that day, or the operatot didnt set the CNC right.

 

 

Also over kill on the lower links is key. I know a couple of wheelers in the local club who have bent 2.25x 3/8 lowers... now they are running 3"x1/2 :eek: (granted this is behind a healthy v-8 with a driver who has the attitude make it or break it)

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MY advice to you is buy the best joints you can afford. Watch out for some companies that offer fancy brackets with designs... I have some.. and lets just say theri plasma cutter must have needed a new tip that day, or the operatot didnt set the CNC right.

 

 

Also over kill on the lower links is key. I know a couple of wheelers in the local club who have bent 2.25x 3/8 lowers... now they are running 3"x1/2 :eek: (granted this is behind a healthy v-8 with a driver who has the attitude make it or break it)

 

 

I was going to use ruffstuff brackets.

nothing fancy, just good 1/4" thick pieces.

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/cat ... s-c-2.html

 

I was thinking johnny joints for the link ends.

I'm not sure I like the idea of spending big money on rod ends and they're not rebuildable.

 

I was seriously considering 2x1/2" links.

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There are a lot of rebuildable joints out there.. I am going to use the ballistic 2.63 joint... I see they just came out with a 3" one that will take a 3/4 bolt :D They are rebuildable as well

stronger than JJ?

 

school me on rod ends/joints. I've not really looked into that yet.

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I did my research thourgh looking thru Pirates vendor section and talking to different vendors. The joints I got use a 9/16 bolt.. not sure what the JJ's use. Also the threaded end on Mine are 1.25, when you buy the threaded insert measure 1.5, which means you have to buy stupid big tubing which cost stupid amount of money. Thats one of the thing holding Pong up from being done.. the cost of the tubing.

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yeah, tubing is stupid expensive right now.

 

I'm going to have to investigate joint options.

 

I wish I could just order whatever I wanted, but the realistic budget for linking the rear is probably going to be about $500.

 

hence doing it myself. I figure I'm going to spend half that on joints, and the rest of it on steel.

 

going to link it first, then do the bed when I have money for more steel.

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This my be a stupid question and stupid heavy but has any one thought/using solid cold rolled steel and having the ends milled out to fit you thread insert. I thought maybe if you had a friend in the machine shop that could do this for you it might be cheaper.

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I thought about it.. but to have a solid piece of steel that is 2" would be stupid heavy. I think each link would weigh around 75# then.

 

I would say over half on joints... if you do a captured coil set up like I think you are BTF has some nice stuff, but they are over priced if you ask me

 

I want to do coilovers or air shocks.. so another 400- 750 for my set-up....

 

 

By the way if you keep the stock 4.0.. I can tell you to instal a fuel cell, a new inline pump, and associated fittings is going to be another 400-500 bucks

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I thought about it.. but to have a solid piece of steel that is 2" would be stupid heavy. I think each link would weigh around 75# then.

 

I would say over half on joints... if you do a captured coil set up like I think you are BTF has some nice stuff, but they are over priced if you ask me

 

I want to do coilovers or air shocks.. so another 400- 750 for my set-up....

 

 

By the way if you keep the stock 4.0.. I can tell you to instal a fuel cell, a new inline pump, and associated fittings is going to be another 400-500 bucks

dan over at ruffsutff has all the stuff to do captured coils.

 

You really should take a look around his site. He's got beefy, no bling stuff at good prices.

 

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/cat ... p-203.html

 

two coil bucket hold downs is $45.

 

 

The fuel cell budget is a different beast.

I'm allotting money seperately for that, so I can better keep track of how much each upgrade is gonna cost.

If I run out of money I'll just put the stock tank in the bed for a minute.

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That looks like just the coil hold down... it don't actually look like the bracket to go to the tube or the frame...

 

Like this

 

BTF version

http://bluetorchfab.com/store/product_i ... cts_id=130

 

 

Ballastics version

http://ballisticfabrication.3dcartstore ... -1179.html

http://ballisticfabrication.3dcartstore ... -1478.html

 

 

Thats for frame side and axle side on Ballastics stuff

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yeah, I was going to make all of the other stuff for the frame and such. I've got a buddy with a plasma cutter, so I buy him some gas and go to town making buckets and such.

 

 

looking at QA1 rod ends, summit has them for a good price.

7/8 shank stong enough?

the 7/8 joint takes a 3/4" bolt through the eye.

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Speaking from experience, by the time you buy the steel to make brackets, and pay for all your consumables, and figure your time... you will be money ahead to buy premade brackets Unless you have a large piece of 1/4 or 5/16 steel laying around.

 

 

I can't tell you if that joint is going to be strong enough for your rig.. it has a lot to do with shear strength and tensile strength

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what if you were to just make the bottom two out of soild steel that would add some wieght back there or am i :nuts:

 

yes, but it would be unsprung wieght in the suspension.

 

I'm going to stick with DOM, it's just easier to deal with.

 

freaking expensive though, a 22 ft stick of 2x1/2 wall is 3.50 a foot.

I figure one stick should be enough for the links, I'll need some 2x6 for the crossmember, 3/8" wall stuff there.

 

and I need a ton of 2x4 channel to plate the frame.

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