I'd just like to give a thumbs up for service at Wheeler's Offroad in Oregon. They called me cause UPS is sometimes weird about our address here at the airport where the office is, and while I had them on the phone, I asked if their 3 leaf overload pack I'm getting has square or round u bolts included in it. I already have my u bolt flip kit from Sky, but I figured if I could get Wheeler's to change out the square, which is what I expected them to be, to round, I'd have some in case I have to do 63's in the rear of my Runner. Well, they don't have the round ones, but he said if I don't need the u bolts, they could leave them out and take $29+change off the price.

Maybe it's just cause lately I've been dealing with Gov't "customer service" lately, but I really like that they did this for me without me having to ask them to do me any favors. Just thought it was cool and I'd share a good vendor experience.

 

I always feel really happy with good customer service.

One of my best was DiamondRax. Their rack is amazing awesome and the dude was super helpful. I want them to make more products so I can keep buying from them.

I've only bent it a bit standing on the outside corner of it jumping around. I'm 260lbs, that thing is tough.


I looked up their website.

Now I want new lugnuts and a power wrench.


http://www.wheelersoffroad.com/4runn...lackalloys.htm

 

That's great guys. Hey Jumper, I havea conferr, diamond took over their design when they started, awesome stuff, love how they do the crossbars different... do the diamond crossbars go left to right or front to back like a loadwarrior?

Here isthe con-ferr.......

 

Same as the one pictured. The crossbars are like a C-Channel with and extra bend inwards at the lip. They are quite wide as well.

The frame is not square though, it's offset like a diamond.

They look very similar to your photo in shape. I'm really happy with it. It would be even stronger if it didn't have a panel you can take off for opening a RT-Tent.

 

Yeah, they wanted their own design in some ways. ... They even mention the Con-Ferr Portal, like above.

Awesome, but not sure wut u mean on the last part about stronger, etc.. ? RT ...... tent topper setup?

 

Oh I can take off a side of the rack so I can open my roof-top tent. So If I have the tent up there and all 260lbs of me is standing on the corner it bent, just a little. If there was no opening and had two bars supporting like the other side does which is not bent it would be stronger.


Basically anyone who has a normal one can beat the hell out of it worry free. I have not babied mine.



Oh and the little portals, they have them too but diamond shaped.

 

Ha, probably should be too embarrassed to post pics of this, but this is why I'm having someone else do the welding on my sas

Here was my first attempts

Cleaned up a little

Well, went to move it, slipped out of my hands and fell. The welds broke. That won't do at all. Figured it was maybe because I didn't get the metal on the hanger clean enough, so I removed all the boogers and cleaned it up with fresh metal showing, and set the welder to the correct speed as well(faster).
This is that result


Looks better, right? Not good, but I obviously got penetration and it's more even.

Nope
This is what's being left on the hanger



But it's sticking to my 3/16" piece of angle iron I'm using for the spacer just fine



Anyone who's good at welding, feel free to chime in on what I'm doing wrong here.
It's a Miller 110v wire feed with gasless flux core wire. Different wire and use CO2 instead? Is the Sky hanger some alloy and maybe my piece I cut from the angle iron is just plain steel? I'm pretty welding retarded, so spell it out in Crayon for me if you have any advice.

 

Miller 175, new ones are 180, 220V is the smallest welder you should use on structural welds. 035 solid wire with argon CO2 mix. Do not use that welder for your truck. Or if you do let me know so I can tell my wife to stay off the road.

 

That welder is good for sheet metal work with argon CO2 and maybe 023 wire.

 

I like the rest of your build though. I would recommend to google welding videos.

 

Alright, it's not the one being used and this isn't structural. My buddy that's doing the welding has a 220 and knows what he's doing, which I obviously don't.

We do have some .035 wire around and I have argon CO2 also. Think it'd stick?

This is just to hold this piece I cut to the top of the hanger so there's not a huge gap between the frame and the hanger. The welds along the long edge to the hanger will all be done with the 220, as well as this piece being welded to the frame crossmember.

Your wife will be safe from me, I don't trust my welds for life and death welds. My welding experience pretty much ends at making custom fire tools. If they break, we grab another one.

Haha, thanks for the compliment on the rest. Everything but welding has been within my skill set. Aside from wiring, I've had as much as possible wiring done by other people or had Crayon instructions that anybody could follow.

 

Ok, switched wire, turned on the gas, gave it a shot after watching a couple short videos. Here you can see the gap I'm trying to fill part of

Then again, after looking at it a bit, the bottom of the front crossmember looks to be frowning, so maybe I should just get some square tube to replace it since I'm now going to use it to support the car.

 

Well things are looking up from yesterday afternoon. Went down to the saloon in Lone Pine for a buddy's birthday and play in the pool tournament last night. He got smashingly drunk and I won the tourney. All went as planned.

Today my Wheeler's mini packs were supposed to show up, and they did. Big Brown usually comes about 1:30 here, so I delayed lunch til they got here.

Can't say review yet, but first impressions:
Comes with the spring keepers/retainers, slip pads, new pin and nut, and normally u bolts, but I don't need them, so they omitted.



Overload springs being replaced on top, compared to mini pack


Then decided a little stiffer would be preferable to bottoming out, and with the reputation that RUF's have of being soft, I replaced the mini pack's lowest spring with the original short overload


So the assembled product


I think what I like most is that they aren't arched big time so they won't stress the original leaves where they meet, and also with less arch they hopefully won't create a ton of lift. Now it's just whether they're stiff enough, cause I don't have any other leaves around to add other than the long overload and the smallest one from the mini pack. Maybe not the long overloads, if I try to modify them for an anti-wrap spring.

 

Drooooool! Hurry up! Haha. ... jk, looks great. .... Niiiice on the smackdown of the drunken monkey of a homeboy! Lol

 

Show me some pics of the welds. Did it work well?

With that piece on top of the front spring hanger I would measure out from bolt hole to bolt hole, drill, and measure the gap, replace with the thickness of the plate steel(3/16, 1/8) can't remember. Then pass the bolts through the cross member and the plate and into frame. Then weld all of it together.

Sorry for rude remark.

Keep up the good work!

 

It's all good, I'd say the same thing if I saw welds like that and someone saying sas at the same time. I'd also assume same as you, that that person planned to use the 110 for all of it.

I'll get a pic real quick of the weld. It looks worse, actually, but is holding. What pressure should I set the gas at? Haven't really seen anybody talk about that and no guide for it on the settings chart inside the welder.

The reason for wanting to cut it that short and not drill through it is our drill press at work is wobbly, hard to make any sort of precise hole, and we all know it just sucks drilling a 1/2" hole through 3/16" plate with a handheld drill, even a decent corded big one. You're right about it being a good idea, though, so I guess I'll just remove this. Still thinking about replacing the crossmember. I have a couple pieces of 3/8" wall 1.5" square tubing that are just barely too short for sliders, was gonna use them anyway and use some round tubing to extend it slightly and form the step, but since I'd rather overkill the crossmember than the sliders, I'll go see how much work that'll be.

Thanks for the tips man!

 

I'll show you the better of the 2 welds


And apparently my coworkers don't know how to guess tube size...it's .250 wall 2x2, but the crossmember is 2.5x2.5, roughly, so it doesn't really help much.

 

Jonny, Jonny, Jonny, ........ OHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Jonny, .... what the? >>>> hehehe... JK, ... I just thought I'd add, ........ WANNA SHOW ME WHAT YOU KNOW ON WELDING? .... it'd be more than I know now! hehe.

Gonna be SICK, Buddy.... And hey, never heard back from ya on the "which one of these switches" texts I sent ya pics of.. Need em sent here or email? I Posted them in the Classified ad too... You can see them toward the top.... Just need to know which of two type connectors you need. Shoot it to ya tomorrow or monday, k?

Keep up the great work, man... This thing will be one to be envied! It's already nice, don't get me wrong, .... just sayin...... Gonna TEAR UP THE SIERRAS!

 

Man, I apparently don't get picture message texts from you. Haven't gotten anything since the night you told me you found em. I'll take a look in your ad. I saw em, just didn't pay enough attention.

Edit: it's the 7 round pin style. I almost have a buyer for those Aisin hubs, but I think it might be a kid down in San Bernardino, he didn't have a Paypal account and was worried what he would do if he paid by check or something and they didn't work when they showed up. Not sure if he meant application or operation for reason they wouldn't work...I might want to be insulted if he was worried about the operation of em.

When I'm done the Sierra club will have wanted posters with my Runner on em! Dang hippies.

 

15 max psi for the argon. Mig welding is kinda like using a glue gun you will get it. It took me a long time to learn how to weld good it won't happen overnight. Even now if i don't weld for awhile i allways do a test peice to set the machine. To test welds cut them in half or grind them to look for pin holes. Keep the nozel clean from spatter and use anti splatter in a spray can.