ravencr

Here's some pics of the tank:







Chris

BruceTS

that looks like how I'm planning on doing my tank

Albuquerque Jim

Flyg,

It's the cross member that the spare hoist is attached to, I think.

ravencr

Yepper! Sorry, that would have been the easy way to describe it! Thanks for clarifying for me! One nice thing about the design and dimensions of my design is that it takes roughly 48" of material to make, not including the side pieces.

Chris

ravencr

Just a quick update! The crossmember has been welded in place, and I'll have pictures loaded later tonight. Stay tuned!

Chris

Napoleon047

are you putting any internal baffles?

ravencr

Should I?

Chris

ravencr

Well, yesterday I starting prepping the c-channel frame supports, removed the stock hitch assembly, drilled the holes that will mount to the frame, positioned the rear cross tube, and it looks like the only hangup we're having is determining how to get the nuts in place for the two forward most bolts. Everything went smoothly until then, but I think we finally figured it all out. I haven't been able to take any pictures yet, because I've been doing it all at night.

Chris

ravencr

Hey guys,

Here's some pics of the c-channel, where the rear cross tube is going to be mounted, and how I did it:

Here's how we welded the crossmember together:


You'll notice that I primed the tube, except for the ends for welding, because it would be hard to cover the top of the tube once installed. There's 1-1.5" of clearance above the new crossmember:


Here's another shot of the supports that hold up the crossmember:


Here's a shot of the passenger side installed and primed:


Here's another shot of the passenger side from further back to show exactly where it's mounted on the frame rails. You'll notice that it's considerably further back than the stock crossmember. This is due to the new gas tank design being supported by the new crossmember:


Here's a shot from the rear. You'll notice how it tucks up in there real well:


Here's a similar shot of the driver's side:


Here's a shot from the rear with the cross tube mounted. You'll notice there is approximately 3/4" between the top of it and the rear door. It will rest on the top of the c-channel, and then the c-channel will be cut at an angle, bent up to seal it up, etc:


Here's a shot of the driver's side gap:


And a shot of the passenger side gap:


These shots didn't come out well at all, but this is a shot of the c-channel on the driver's side to show that it's all one piece of 3/16" thick c-channel:


This is a shot of the passenger side inside frame rail with the c-channel installed:


I don't think this came out at all, but this is supposed to be a closer shot of the notch needed to clear the new crossmember:


This is supposed to show the clearance between the top of the c-channel and the weld that holds the body mount:


That's it for now. It's amazing how tight up against the rear of the vehicle this thing it. In fact if you take a 4x8' sheet of plywood to check the rear departure angle, it hits the bottom end of the frame before it hits the rear bumper tube. So, needless to say, this is one high clearance bumper, that's for sure.

Stay tuned for the hitch tube notching and mounting, the shackle hanger installs, etc!

Chris

Napoleon047

well, with your design you may not need to. your tank is wider than it is long, so you probably wont feel the effects of moving fluid when you start and stop as much. on sidehills though, a sudden change in motion could easily throw all of that gas to one side of the tank very quickly. its low enough it probably wont cause a roll, but to be safe i would divide the tank into 5 sections.

_____________
| | x |....| 'x' marks your fuel pump
|____|___|___|
| |.......| <---this is the tapered rear part of your tank
|______|_____|

(the .... do not mean anything)
picture this as a top view of your tank. at the bottom of your baffles you only need a 1/2" hole to let the gas flow through.

ravencr

Man, I'm really having a hard time picturing that, but it could just be me. Let's move this gas tank discussion to another thread, okay, and let's keep this focused on the rear bumper for now.

Chris

Napoleon047

as for your bumper:


i would box in the ends of the framerails with the bumper. this means you would either have to use a tall peice of tube or have a nasty gap. i would go with the gap and just use the tire carrier to cover it.

taper the ends etc. i understand that you want it to sit really high and everything, but personally, i prefer this method simply for the strength

my $.02

ravencr

I sure wish I could do photoshop the way you do to show what I'm talking about, but I'll just have to wait to show you with pictures, I guess. The hitch is going to be notched into the top 3x2" tubing as I drew out on the initial page. There won't be a tire carrier, and the main tube is the 3x2" tubing. So the lowest point on the 3x2" tubing is going to be the hitch tube. From the bottom edge of the 3x2" tubing, I'm using 3/16" flat plate angled back towards the bottom of the frame rails, and the side pieces will be somewhat similar to Trail Carnage's design on the sides. Does that help?

Chris

BruceTS

I just installed my 1 1/2" body Lift today, if it don't rain next weekend, I'll get my front bumper mounts reworked and add shackle points . I then will continue with the rear bumper project. Hopefully in a few weeks, I'll be able to post some photo's with some real progress.

Napoleon047

something like this?

ravencr

Yep, pretty much! But, the hitch tube wil hopefully be higher up recessed into the 3x2 tubing, but I'm afraid it won't be able to because of the hole for the hitch pin. In addition, I'm going to have a sheet of 3/16" that runs from each frame rail to the next, nd I'm undecided on the how I'm going to blend it into the side pieces yet. So the frame rails will be covered up. But, damn you're good with whatever program you are using to draw on my pics. That's awesome!

Chris

P.S. I bought the 2" flat stock I needed for the two bolts that are closest to the front of the vehicle on the frame rails. They are basically 1/8"x2" flat stock with the rearward end bent up so you can easily grab if with a coat hanger or whatever you can feed into the frame rails to grab the lip. The nuts will be welded to this piece just like stock. The only real reason for replacing this was because my stock ones broke because they were so rusted out.

Napoleon047

depending on how far you want the pinhole back, you could mount the reciever flush with the bottom and flush with the face of the bumper and just put the hole behind the main tube.

thanks, considering that im just using paint

ravencr

Yeah, I've got to experiment with it, because I have to make it work with the sheet being angled down too, so we'll see what happens.

Chris

ravencr

Well tonight we're working on the rear bumper again, so stay tuned for more pics later tonight!

Chris

ravencr

Well, here's a few pics of the progress we made tonight:







Tonight, I notched out the 3x2" tubing for the hitch tubing. My buddy finished up the inserts that go inside the frame with two welded nuts to attach to the c-channel. Everything went very well, and I can't wait to get this thing done. It's a lot of fun! Any questions or comments, I would love to hear them.

Chris

doink

looking very nice chris. hopefully mine will be lookin that good soon

ravencr

Thanks man! Last night we did some more work on it, and it came out real well. We worked on the shackle hangers, which are probably different than what most people do, yet again. Instead of just welding them to the surface of the tubing, we cut square holes in both 2" sides of the tubing, resulting in a weld on the back side of the tubing, and a bunch of weld on the front side too. If these things break, something else has definitely broke too. Here's the pics:

Here's a quick shot of the spots that's holding the hitch tube in the 3x2" tubing. I'm taking the whole bar in Monday to get a custom bent support brace made that will increase strength tremendously:


Here's just a straight down pic of the square hole we cut out of the tubing to slide the shackly hangers in:


This is a pic of one of the shackle hangers. We did some grinding, because the guy that made them for me kind of sucked, but after my friend Paul grinded them down a bit, they are perfect:


Here's a pic of the backside of the tubing. I beveled the edges of the tubing along with a big bevel on the end of the shackle hanger. I did this so I could grind the excess weld off, still have a super strong weld, but look like it wasn't even welded once painted:


This is just a top view of the shackle hanger with just a couple of spots on it:


And here's a pic of the finished product:


Hopefully, if everything goes as planned, Sunday we'll be doing some more work on it. Stay tuned!

Chris

Hyperlite

My main rear bumper bar is 2"x2" and I want to add shackels, can I weld them direckly to the rear or should I cut it like you? I like your new crossmember, mine is gonna be lower with just 2"x2" siting on the frame rails. I am gonna have two bolt holes so I can connect the rear bumper to that for overkill
I am gonna use 6" 1/4 plate steel for the sides. I don't want to put the spare under the truck or build a tire carrier. I have a speaker box in the rear so interior room would be limited

BruceTS

I actually got some of these for my shackles, just grind a bevel at the base and weld them directly to the tubing. I seriously doubt you'll be able to pull them off if your welds are good. After I raised my front bumper, I added them to the TJM bumper mounts.

customcruiser

we bought some 1x2 solid stock to make these recovery points, almost exactly like the rockstompers