The old girl is wore out--time for a change.

[crash]

Cycled the suspension to check link clearance all was good. This is just the start of a very tight packaged rig thats for sure...

[crash]

So for years I have wanted a front/rear winch. I do allot of trail work and I quite often go out solo (I am always very well prepared) so I wanted to be more versatile. So I bought an 9.0rc which is built with the smaller drum and I also got an m8000 winch. I have been a ramsey guy for years so these warn winch's are new to me

So I wanted a full size drum on the front and the narrow drum on the rear so what ya do is simply swap the drums from winch to winch. So the m8000 that will be in the rear now has the smaller drum...

[calcagno45]

Went to sleep and woke up to an almost built rig. Very nice sir! Great fab and welding skills there.

[crash]

Originally Posted by calcagno45

Went to sleep and woke up to an almost built rig. Very nice sir! Great fab and welding skills there.

Ya I am playing catch-up to where the rig currently is. The time line is I pulled the toy into the shop 2 days after x-mass and have been working hard ever since....

thanks--there is lots more to come

[crash]

So with these chassis there is a "perfect" spot for the fuel cell. It has always been my belief that you build the cell around the rig, not the rig around the cell and with these types of builds you use every available space...

So I added a couple supports to give a cell someplace to sit and built a mock up tank..

The cell that I built for my old toy was 22 gallons. I am shooting for 16-18 gallons on this rig since my old TBI was not very fuel efficient and my new motor should do WAY better on gas I can cut the amount down..

Thats the idea anyways..

[crash]

So onto the rear of the car and time for the rear winch. I wanted it sunk down into the chassis for a couple reasons..

[crash]

Time to get the seat mounts done. These damn seats are soooo comfy so much safer than those damn plastic seats I had for years,lol...

[crash]

Time to grab some more parts out of my stash.. Battery trays and trans cooler..

[crash]

So the battery mounts took some thinking... I needed them as low a possible to help with the COG but they also need to be accessible. I carry a welder(ready welder) with me and I use it quite a bit helping others get off the trails. I typically run it at 24 volts so I need to access the battery tops to jumper them and hook the welder up.

[crash]

So next was to figure out where the trans cooler will fit. There is a sweet spot above the batteries that will let it flow and still be able to access the battery tops. A plus side is I really wanted to run a cross support between the shock mounts....

[crash]

Cross support and mount done...

[crash]

So first I went and dropped the chassis on the shocks for full stuff.

So I knew I would need a 2 piece driveshaft so I threw together a moch up shaft to get the needed measurements...........

[crash]

The rig is finally sitting under its own weight on rubber

[clm]

Man, you do more overnight then anyone I know ;)

I love the build!

[crash]

Originally Posted by clm

Man, you do more overnight then anyone I know ;)

I love the build!

I am like that damn bunny

[crash]

Some clearance testing with the tires on it. Its pretty close but the whole damn rig is that way

[crash]

Time to get the front bumper/winch mount all done up...

[crash]

So I toyed with some hood options. This was the first version using all first gen toy sheet metal.....

[crash]

So the grill was the only thing I saved from my old toy. I narrowed it up and it actually turned out pretty decent and I never realized it had a slight curvature to it.

I also got the version 2 of the hood done and my hid headlamps mounted.

[crash]

Since the radiator is soo close to the winch I went and made a small shield to protect it...