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I should have said ride height, not ground clearance. Although I think beams will give me a little more ground clearance, I'd like a taller ride height than A-arms can give me. The BTF kit would take care of all of that custom stuff you mention, and most likely at a much lower price. Here's a thread for the truck that BTF developed the kit for:http://www.dezertrangers.com/vb/threads ... trac-re-do

Went on one last trip this past weekend with my current front end. From the city of San Francisco to snow in Tahoe to the desert in Reno, we covered a lot of terrain. Unfortunately a vacuum leak resulted in no heater when we needed it the most, being stopped at a chain check through Donner Pass for 3 hours. Snuck through the chain check and inched our way through a white-out down the hill safely, and had an otherwise problem free weekend. Wish I could say the same for some of the Raptors in our group.

A little video my friend put together:
https://youtu.be/ueLmPt9A0BM

Anyway, been continuing to gather parts, have almost everything except for a few bigger ticket purchases still. I'd still appreciate some input from you guys on the D44 outer parts I have, pictured a few posts back. Also have a guy pretty much confirmed to buy my current front end once it's off my truck, plus a few others very interested. I have a little less than 5 months until our Rubicon trip and have a ton of work ahead, including another head gasket repair. Gonna be a busy summer.

Got some work done on the beams this weekend. Used my friend's mill to drill out the stock bushing pivots and tacked in the uniball cups.


The beams had been repaired a couple of times by the previous owner when a couple of cracks formed in the top of the passenger beam, so I ground down the welds and then made an overlay plate on top to hopefully prevent that from happening again.

Started on rock sliders yesterday. I'm using the frame plate kit from Chassis Unlimited that will have 4 frame attachments. I will be plating in the top with a dimple died sheet, and the ends still need to be trimmed down and capped too.

Making slow progress on the sliders. Have the passenger's side completely welded up and painted, and just need to weld it on the frame. The driver's side was a little tricky working around the parking brake cable, but it's just about done and ready to be painted and mounted too. Probably going to Pismo next weekend so it will be a couple more weeks till they're on.



Also finally got all my D44 outer parts from a junkyard '86 Bronco. It had standard Warn manual hubs, and I was planning on switching them out to the Premiums, but a friend recommended sticking with the standards as an easily replaceable weak link, rather than an axle, u-joint, and ring and pinion, and I kind of like that idea. It seems like most people make the upgrade, but since I'll be using the D35 pumpkin what do you guys think? Thinking about it now, I'd rather do a 5-minute hub replacement on the trail than a 1-hour axle shaft/u-joint replacement.

Digging this. I'm all about ttb swaps into anything.

I've considered it a number of times for my 2000 Tacoma. I even have the correct drivers side drop tcase.

Thanks, I hope it turns out half as cool as the TTB Tacoma being built on DR right now. I'm loving your Tacoma build too. I was recently looking for a new DD and was hoping to find pretty much your exact same truck and do the exact same build as you, but I wasn't that lucky.


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Things cool! Subbed

S00TLYFE wrote:Things cool! Subbed

Thanks!

Got the sliders done last weekend and one welded on, just need to weld on the other side.





Also went to Pismo a couple of weekends ago.

You were in my back yard!

Finally making some progress on this thing!

Got the 4wd 4r70w transmission swapped in and then the BW4406 manual t-case.


Had to tear out the front half of the interior to cut a hole in the floor for the shifter, which took way longer than expected. That center console has what seems like 700 screws holding it in. Added a shift boot and got the center console back in with only a small handful of leftover hardware haha.



And finished off this weekend by cutting out the stock transmission crossmember in order to mount these. Trying to come up with a way to add a new crossmember that still allows room for the front driveshaft and exhaust. It's going to be tight!

Awesome!

Beefy!!

Trans crossmember done! First I loosely assembled the new front end so I could get an idea of where the driveshaft will be. Bolted up the front driveshaft and made the crossmember to have clearance at max u-joint angle. Also have the radius arm brackets welded on.

I love it! Nice work! How's it perform in the sand being 2wd?

Thanks. It does just fine with a limited slip and aired down, although I have been stuck plenty of times. A rear locker would be a nice addition. But even once the conversion is done I will probably keep it in 2wd most of the time until I need 4wd.


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Actually that has me wondering, do most of you Bronco guys run in the sand in 4wd high? I think everyone I know keeps their trucks in 2wd until they need 4wd in certain situations.


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Yes, I run in 4 high in the dunes and don't even bother with 2wd. I have been driving my Bronco in the Glamis dunes for more then 24 years. Most of that time I ran a Detroit locker in the rear, stock open diff up front, 4.10 gears, 35" Bfg AT's and a 302CI motor. It always did great, but the 302 was a bit under powered on the long uphill sand hills like Oldsmobile Hill. It did just fine at Competition Hill which is shorter. Definitely fun in the big bowls.

David...

Wrightracing.net wrote:Yes, I run in 4 high in the dunes and don't even bother with 2wd. I have been driving my Bronco in the Glamis dunes for more then 24 years. Most of that time I ran a Detroit locker in the rear, stock open diff up front, 4.10 gears, 35" Bfg AT's and a 302CI motor. It always did great, but the 302 was a bit under powered on the long uphill sand hills like Oldsmobile Hill. It did just fine at Competition Hill which is shorter. Definitely fun in the big bowls.

David...

Cool, sand will be the one place I would try running 4-hi all the time since the front diff I have has a locker. I'm also planning to do hydro-assist right off the bat so that will help too.

And no turning back after this weekend:

Going well so far:


Dual sump Mustang oil pan is in along with the oil filter relocation adapter. I had to notch the inside of the frame and inset the steering box for clearance for hydro-assist lines. This past weekend I took apart the steering box to drill and tap it for hydro-assist and to reseal it. I simply plugged the ports for now and will deal with the hydro-assist later on.






I finished up a bunch of welding too and got the crossmember in its final position and tacked into place. Beams are mocked up and tacked to the frame at approximate ride height with the wheelbase set at 113" vs. the stock 111.6". Started on the radius arms too! This is with a 35" tire but I will stick with the 33s I've been running for now.