Major bummer but oh well... maybe you will get to meet Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond from the bbc top gear!! I love that show!!! Anyways atleast uknow that the truck is in a safe place and will be waiting on you when u get back!!!

 

My wife and I at the 7 min mark making the pass on the other truck in our class...

 

Yall were a hell of a lot smoother thats for sure!!

 

I'll be sorry to not see more races but I'm really glad you got this one in. Thanks for sharing and good luck over there.

 

Well, it should be up on blocks tomorrow afternoon and hopefully all cleaned up. Then put the wheels back on, push it in the garage and start tearing down the front end. Gonna yank the motor out this weekend and probably pull the entire from suspension off too. That'll give me a chance to do a good visual inspection on everything and hopefully catch anything that needs any attention, maintenance or change. Then I'll slap the front suspension back on and address the motor mount issue. Hoping maybe a week or 2 at the most with the motor out to prep the whole front end, fix and make better mounts and get it back together. Then I'll tear the rear down, inspect the leafs, finish up a few open ended projects back there I didn't get a chance to do and get it back on the ground. I've got one project underneath to still knock out along with a couple electrical things to play with in the interior and I want to get some storage spaces figured. Right now we've just got things strapped down here and there but I'd like to get some ammo cans mounted for real storage use. Should be ready to rock late Feb/early March for whatever comes next with the truck and then I can tear into my hooptie next!

 

Woo hoo!! So are yall gonna get another race in this season??

 

Jason and me need to talk but the truck definitely won't just sit and collect dust too much. We all know that's one of the best ways to have a vehicle develop issues. It's amazing the dumb things that can fail from just sitting around too long. My intentions are to use my personal truck to play with 9 outta 10 times. That 10th time I'll take the race truck out to splash some oils around inside, blow off the cob webs and spin the tires and bearings. We also need to talk a little but I think right now we're leaning towards me possibly racing it maybe later in the fall and possibly hit up a race or two per year with it till he gets back. I'm hoping maybe he'll be able to pull a annual vacation stateside that coincides with a race weekend even down the road. That would be best case scenario with the way the cards have been dealt. We've already joked about what it'll take to move the steering wheel to the wrong side of the truck for him! LOL

 

Well starting tear down for fixing and full prep. At first glance it looks like virtually the only piece I didn't do any work to is what failed. The frame horns for the motor mount area, I plated those and put some extra strength in them. I built my own motor mounts which I wasn't 100% happy with but those looked to have held up too. The stock metal bracket that bolts directly to the block and the motor mount itself though looks to be what failed. If that's the case I guess I'll be putting some extra metal in that.










Motor should be out of the truck tomorrow and hopefully down to just bare chassis by end of the week. The interior is already 100% out of the truck and I will be making some minor wiring changes in there and also be working on some storage areas for tools and spare parts.

 

I guess you need linger jack stands lol the front looks like they are extended all the way and the rears are supporting axel not frame!! I love this truck!! Glad yall had a good race and go figure theone part you didnt modify is what broke!! Oh well.. honestly though this truck looks almost as good stripped as it does put together nice job!!

 

I actually have taller ones and another set that's in between what you see there. These just happen to be what I'd grabbed to use...

 

Motor came out last night and I verified that literally the only piece on the whole front end of the truck that I didn't plate, gusset, or reenforce in some way or another is what failed... Figures!!! I guess in the future I'll make sure to add more metal to every darn part on the whole truck! LOL

 

Argh!!! Oh well one broke part and 7mins past time on first race is a good mark in my book!!

 

yep for sure!

 

Couple more quick vidds to share...

Another look at our finish line celebration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex9a7...ature=youtu.be

And our first time being passed by a trophy truck, at the hands of a 17 year old no less:

 

well you have to give it to the kid, it seems he did a good job of picking a good time to pass yall and not try to run you off the course lol

 

Well, hoping to maybe have the motor butted back up to the transmission tonight instead of on a stand next to the truck. Then hoping to take a spin around the block maybe on Sunday and pull it back in the garage facing the opposite way it is right now so I can tear the rear apart and get going on it. If so, I think the major part of the post race repair/prep will be behind me after this weekend. Still a lot of work to go but at least the rest is all relatively easy stuff I should handle no problem hopefully...

 

Awsome!! I was about to you lol what all have u been busy doing?

 

Fixing... Pulled the motor out to fix the broken motor mount brackets. Replaced my home built motor mounts with a set from Trail Gear which I don't recommend cause of their customer service alone and lack of knowledge of their own product. Also finished a couple welds, installed remote oil filter setup, prepped entire front suspension system, replaced all front suspension bolts with longer ones that I had to cut down to custom lengths so that the shank of every bolt goes completely thru all the mounting tabs rather then having the bolt threads in there too which causes a weak point. Also changed fluids in the front shocks as well while they were off the vehicle.

Will get the front end hopefully buttoned up this weekend. Then I need to tear apart the rear suspension. I want to pull the leafs completely apart and inspect them and cycle the rear suspension one more time again. I'm going to mount some secondary fail safe bumpstops and then reassemble everything. At that point all that's left is building the transmission crossmember, mounting ammo cans for storage, couple minor wiring changes and putting the interior back in it. Top off all fluids and it's ready for whatever's next...

 

Holy crap you stay busy lol

 

LOL, funny cause I said I'd have the front end done this weekend... Well, that didn't happen. I made a ton of progress on Sat and then played couch potato yesterday and seriously watched the walking dead from the time I walked out to the living room in the morning till the time I went to bed! LOL So now the front end will hopefully be done by tomorrow night. Oh well, I think this is the first time I've done absolutely nothing for a day in at least 9 months!