Mountain Expedition Yota.

[Bananaclip]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Neilus, I bought the A&M set, mounted it all up and then sold them. Even had to buy a new frame because I had drilled out the rear shackle mounts, which I didn't like doing in the first place because it makes the frame rails very thin at the bottom and the steel shackle screws eat away at the aluminum frame. There has to be a better way than that, but I haven't had time to look at what I might do to avoid this drilling or prevent steel on aluminum wear. The way the brackets are shaped, they also kinda capture the leaf springs which hinders suspension flex. IMO the forward spring mounts should have much less material hanging down around the leafs, but still need to be strong. The way that the inboard A&M kit mounts, if I cut/ground away the material to free up the springs from rubbing on them, they would have been too weak.

Other thing with the A&M kit is that the steering linkage isn't right after the mod. I'm running tie-rod above the springs with forward steering on Yota1 axles. If you use Yota2 axles with BTA it might be ok, dunno. I didn’t want to go back to tie rod below the springs. I don’t want to sound too negative as A&M is doing cool parts and seems like nice guy, parts just weren’t working for what I wanted to do.

I haven't messed with the RC4WD shackle reversal setup either. I've got many projects and my TF2 wheels very well, so I put it all back how I had it before the shackle reversal.

Travis, great to hear that you're doing well and just working on home stuff! Sweet, looking forward to that, when you have time!

Hmmm, havent' seen the new A&M +4 options, off to check it out. Wish he made his webpage easier to find, search doesn't like it for some reason and I don't do Bookface.

Nate with all being said I think the A&M +4 should be the only front hanger offered by them. The version from them fell short. I’m not knocking the company whatsoever. I truly appreciate small companies that support our hobby and I feel they have been fantastic overall with all their offerings for this amazing platform (TF2). The material and amount used isn’t the issue IMO. I actually used slightly thicker material to prevent any deflection and prevent possible binding. I due think the inner L shaped mount is the culprit. The size of the holes and size of the hardware combined with the L inner mount (in my experience) is the issue. It allows the inner L to shift causing the bind. I discovered this early during assembly and remedied it with welding the cross brace/rad support/bumper mount to hold everything together. My brackets are the same both inner and outer. I understand the reason they produce theirs this way. It allows for a stock front bumper to be mounted. Will be in touch.


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[Bananaclip]

Little update to report. I finally got some paint on the yota, new Marlin grille and spent the last hour or so welding up a new front bumper. I’m liking the clean look and cannot decide if I need to add a 2 bend stinger of sorts.











At this point all rock protection is done. Need to focus on the interior and adding the electronics!


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[Natedog]

I like simple design, but maybe side wrap on bumper and lower triangulation pieces? My 1:1 Toyota had narrowed and reinforced Smittybilt double tube front bumper with addon lower ramp like pieces that tied in to front spring perches.

[mthomson]

Guys, quick question. Like this thread points out: there is barely enough axle stub sticking out for the nylon of the axle not to get a bite on. Are the Axial hexes a direct swap? How much thinner are they?

thanks,
mark

[Bmelch]

Originally Posted by Bananaclip

Nate with all being said I think the A&M +4 should be the only front hanger offered by them. The version from them fell short. I’m not knocking the company whatsoever. I truly appreciate small companies that support our hobby and I feel they have been fantastic overall with all their offerings for this amazing platform (TF2). The material and amount used isn’t the issue IMO. I actually used slightly thicker material to prevent any deflection and prevent possible binding. I due think the inner L shaped mount is the culprit. The size of the holes and size of the hardware combined with the L inner mount (in my experience) is the issue. It allows the inner L to shift causing the bind. I discovered this early during assembly and remedied it with welding the cross brace/rad support/bumper mount to hold everything together. My brackets are the same both inner and outer. I understand the reason they produce theirs this way. It allows for a stock front bumper to be mounted. Will be in touch.


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Appreciate the feedback. That bumper looks great by the way.

We make the kit as versatile as possible. Hence the inside "L" brackets. They have to accommodate the stock bumper cross members. If that wasn't there, we would just supply two outers and be done. On our class 1 rig we run a scale winch behind the grill. It mounts ontop of the cross member. Once the cross member is in, everything locks in place.

We leave a bit of material on there to help protect the leaf. It could be smaller, but I like the fact that there's plenty of strength. Binding is rare. And if there is any binding due to an extreme leaf setup, they can be bent out a touch at the back.

The original shackle kit works well with the kit, 4 door and blazer. But for the marlin or anyone looking to stretch the front out, we have the +4 option. This is also what we use as the base for our comp bumpers.

https://aandmgarage.com/shop?olsPage...ackle-reversal

Again.. appreciate the feedback. And killer bumper! nice work!

[Bmelch]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Neilus, I bought the A&M set, mounted it all up and then sold them. Even had to buy a new frame because I had drilled out the rear shackle mounts, which I didn't like doing in the first place because it makes the frame rails very thin at the bottom and the steel shackle screws eat away at the aluminum frame. There has to be a better way than that, but I haven't had time to look at what I might do to avoid this drilling or prevent steel on aluminum wear. The way the brackets are shaped, they also kinda capture the leaf springs which hinders suspension flex. IMO the forward spring mounts should have much less material hanging down around the leafs, but still need to be strong. The way that the inboard A&M kit mounts, if I cut/ground away the material to free up the springs from rubbing on them, they would have been too weak.

Other thing with the A&M kit is that the steering linkage isn't right after the mod. I'm running tie-rod above the springs with forward steering on Yota1 axles. If you use Yota2 axles with BTA it might be ok, dunno. I didn’t want to go back to tie rod below the springs. I don’t want to sound too negative as A&M is doing cool parts and seems like nice guy, parts just weren’t working for what I wanted to do.

I haven't messed with the RC4WD shackle reversal setup either. I've got many projects and my TF2 wheels very well, so I put it all back how I had it before the shackle reversal.

Travis, great to hear that you're doing well and just working on home stuff! Sweet, looking forward to that, when you have time!

Hmmm, havent' seen the new A&M +4 options, off to check it out. Wish he made his webpage easier to find, search doesn't like it for some reason and I don't do Bookface.

Finding a way to mount the shackle to the chassis without drilling took a while. We needed a 3mm to 4mm collar with a shelf that would make up the space. Without that, we went with the drill option. It's been done for many many years and we had a few engineers look at it in terms of strength. We never saw it as an issue.

Since December 2018 we've been supplying small spacers, different hardware and instructions. No more drilling. It took a bit of time, but one of our partners was able to get the parts made.

Sorry you had to replace the chassis. PM me if you need anything. Happy to take care of you on some parts. Bert.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Bmelch

Finding a way to mount the shackle to the chassis without drilling took a while. We needed a 3mm to 4mm collar with a shelf that would make up the space. Without that, we went with the drill option. It's been done for many many years and we had a few engineers look at it in terms of strength. We never saw it as an issue.

Since December 2018 we've been supplying small spacers, different hardware and instructions. No more drilling. It took a bit of time, but one of our partners was able to get the parts made.

Sorry you had to replace the chassis. PM me if you need anything. Happy to take care of you on some parts. Bert.

Hey Bert,
Good to hear you've updated the design, I like the spacer setup much better, the +4mm is a sweet option too!

It happens, appreciate your generous offer, but I'm good. Looking forward to seeing more cool TF2 parts from you!
Thanks,
Nate

Brotha Bananaclip, good day to you! Is your front bumpah done yet?

[Bananaclip]

Nate.... front bumper is done! Lol. Sorry for the neglect on posting updates. I’ve been in the middle of multiple builds. I am happy to say that the TF2 is done minus a few scale details and some paint in the box.



I pulled the seat and driver out to run the electronics so I will have to toss those in for some pics.







I’m also going to pull a leaf out of the pack to drop the overall height. Oh I need to slap on the inner fenders a buddy of mine printed for the rig. More to come.


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[Natedog]

Looks great, love the bumpers too!
Have you wheeled out with the +4mm front spring reversal setup?

[Bananaclip]

Thank you Nate. This rig has never been ran but I have ran the extended reversal on a few of my TF2’s. It works very well. I want to get my ride height down a tad on this one and it’s ready to role!


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[Bananaclip]

I took the TF2 out for a shake down run. The little truck did very well in fact. I chose 1.55 Berserkers with dual stage CI foams mounted on 1.7 Steelies for the testing and again was super happy with the pitbull traction. The suspension took no time to beak in and that is my next focus. I will most likely add another leaf to each pack.

Few pics.









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