Camel Joe Bronco 78

[[HBW]22]

Looks good, I love that style corner gusset btw.

Thanks man they take a little longer but they are well worth it.

We are all done welding the top portion of the cage now and it is time to transfer it onto the bronco chassis. Almost done drawing up the rest of the cage work on bend tech and than we will start fabbing that up.

Top portion of the cage


And mocking up the cage and playing with ideas for the body.

[Rmc]

Starting to look like a rock racer now.

[[HBW]22]

Starting to look like a rock racer now.

Yup going for better visibility and trying to be as narrow as possible for the rock sections in the races.
Got the new cage all tacked on to the bronco frame today. plan is to get the side bars on tomorrow and start building the boat sides.

Spare tire mock up

[Rmc]

Coming along nicely! You planning on koh?

[[HBW]22]

Thanks man, and yes I am planning on KOH. Building it to be race legal in the stock mod in ultra4 and the dirt riot races. I plan to race dirt riot first to work out all the bugs before doing KOH. Only downfall to racing this class is I will have to mount my shocks on the axle now so I will be losing a lot of travel in the rear, but we have some ideas to get a good amount of travel still!

[Rmc]

I'm sure 16-18 inches is plenty, look at that the short course trucks go through.

[[HBW]22]

Yeah we are planning on putting the shocks at a 45 degrees at bump to get a good amount of travel. Valving will be fun for sure if we angle the shocks that much. The limiting factors to this class are you can only have 14in stroke shocks mounted on the axle and you cant have bigger tires than 37s.

[Rmc]

Yeah we are planning on putting the shocks at a 45 degrees at bump to get a good amount of travel. Valving will be fun for sure if we angle the shocks that much. The limiting factors to this class are you can only have 14in stroke shocks mounted on the axle and you cant have bigger tires than 37s.

Keep the pics coming it looking great guys.

[ChaseTruck754]

cool to see the progress! Lookin good.

[[HBW]22]

Thanks for all the positive feedback! I got both of the sides tacked on tonight and started building more bracing. I still have to build a vertical tube for the side bracing and than I will start the boat sides.

[[HBW]22]

Been working on the bronco quite a bit lately. Got the boat sides all tacked on last night and decided to start over on those due to lack of room for the exhaust. Got the rear axle off for clean up for trussing and shock mounts. Just trying to get the cage work all done so I can start the interior and wiring it.








Started the back half and spare tire location. Going for as low as possible.

[[HBW]22]

Here are some updates. I have been super busy lately, but have been getting some work done. Installed the new c6 and started getting the back half all done. Hoping to start doing the shock mounts this week if I have time. Also getting my ruffstuff truss all set up!









My buddy taking pix with his new go pro while we are working on the bronco and his long travel yota.


Also started building a 50inch light bar mount for a buddies mid travel ranger. Not done yet but its getting there.

[Rmc]

That thing is nearly finished huh?

[[HBW]22]

That thing is nearly finished huh?

I wish still have a lot to do. Mount pedals, build the floor, shock mounts and the list goes on haha.

So plan is to get the rear half of the car done so it can sit back on all fours again. After the rear back half is complete I can focus on shock mounting and a sway bar. I was thinking about getting the tk1 sway bar, has anyone had good experiences with them? if not what are some other sway bar options that work well for rock racing?

Tire strap hooks



Back half supports, still need to plate it and most likely do some dimple dies.

[300]

RuffStuff Specialties has sway bars. Not sure how they stack up against the others:

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/SWAY.html

Was at their new facilities last week and they really have a nice setup now. First time they have moved into a new place that wasn't already to small. Warehouse, manufacturing and R&D are all seperated from each other now instead of on top of each other. They have new products out evey time I look.

[[HBW]22]

RuffStuff Specialties has sway bars. Not sure how they stack up against the others:

http://www.ruffstuffspecialties.com/catalog/SWAY.html

Was at their new facilities last week and they really have a nice setup now. First time they have moved into a new place that wasn't already to small. Warehouse, manufacturing and R&D are all seperated from each other now instead of on top of each other. They have new products out evey time I look.

Thanks I have been looking at the Ruffstuff sway bars and they look nice. My buddy is in the middle of installing one on his ultra4 style jeep. Ruffstuff is a great company they make great products.

Been really busy with school cause finals are coming up, but still getting some progress done. Finished tacking everything on the rear axle and than started shock mock up. I ended up getting 15" out of it with the shocks set at 90degrees with them leaned inwards. Everything cycles good so far without the bypasses on. Trying to figure out if I want to lean them forward to try to get some more travel out of it. What do you guys suggest? I want it to be fairly easy to tune the shocks, but want the most travel as possible. Its going to be crazy going from 26" of travel to 15! Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

progress pix

[Rmc]

That's crazy. I had forgotten your forced to work within class restrictions. I first thought was why the hell isn't he using the bolt holes in the lower links then I remembered.

So are you only limited by the lower mount being on the axel? I wouldn't worry about the valving as much as the biggest travel number possible. If the rules state 16" max travel its a different deal but less headache I think.
I would do both top foreward and I'd do verticle not bottom wider than the top. Reason being the farther inboard the greater travel numbers in articulation. That combined with a little foreward lean may get you more than a 1:1 ratio but not by much. Also I'd see if you could put the mounts on the front edge of the axel it may gain you another 1/2 inch of travel.

[Rmc]

I really don't know what's best for the application though. It will be high speed rock racing? Or slow and fast sections?

[[HBW]22]

That's crazy. I had forgotten your forced to work within class restrictions. I first thought was why the hell isn't he using the bolt holes in the lower links then I remembered.



So are you only limited by the lower mount being on the axel? I wouldn't worry about the valving as much as the biggest travel number possible. If the rules state 16" max travel its a different deal but less headache I think.
I would do both top foreward and I'd do verticle not bottom wider than the top. Reason being the farther inboard the greater travel numbers in articulation. That combined with a little foreward lean may get you more than a 1:1 ratio but not by much. Also I'd see if you could put the mounts on the front edge of the axel it may gain you another 1/2 inch of travel.

This is the suspension rule straight out of the ultra 4 rule book

"Shock absorbers of any make/model/type are permitted and may be installed in any location and orientation, with the following limitations and exceptions:
Only two shock absorbers are permitted per wheel/tire (not including
spare tires). Shock absorbers shall not be larger than 2.65" in diameter (outer diameter of shock-body) and shall not be capable of any more than
14" stroke. Shock absorbers must be connected directly to the axle assembly and chassis and shall not be mounted in any way so as to yield any type of mechanical advantage, unless factory-equipped (mounting shock absorbers off-vertical is permitted and shall not be considered a mechanical advantage), or equipped with any type of independent suspension (and then
shock absorbers may only be mounted to as to yield a mechanical advantage at the wheels/tires that are independently suspended)."

The type of racing is exactly like king of the hammers. Terrain varies from high-speed desert sections, high speed rock sections and slow crawling. When we decided to turn the bronco into a rock buggy we originally wanted to make the shocks forward 45degrees at bump to get the maximum amount of travel. After thinking about it after awhile I decided that running the shocks at that angle would be really hard to tune and possibly not work at all. The poison spider stock mod buggy ran the shocks at a 45 though and it looked like it handled great. What are your opinions on this idea? I know 45degrees at bump is a crazy angle, but would it possibly give me that edge in this class with the rules I have to follow.

[hobbyturnedobsession]

Its hard to tune the shocks but it does work. However I'd worry about the possibility of shock temps at speed for an extended length of time if your only running on shock per corner. You'll need to up the compression and rebound quite a bit in comparison.