I think that if I keep chipping away at this project a little each night I just might be able to get this completed in a reasonable amount of time. Tonight proved to be one of those time where I felt like I was just starting to chip away on a couple different areas of the build.
Tongue
Tonight I took the opportunity to cope the ends of the front most frame rail. Each end was cut at a 30* angle. I also coped the front ends of the main frame tubes at a 30* angle. This will give an included angle of 60* at each weld joint. With any luck my calculations on the angles and everything turn out to be correct. I ended up just mocking up this front frame piece using the drops that came from trimming the tube to the correct angles. Unfortunately I didn't get the time to pierce this section of rectangle tube for the receiver hitch tube to pass through. Next time.
Trailing Links
I also worked a bit on the trailing arm links tonight. I started by heading over to a friends place and bending a couple lengths of tube. Earlier on in the day I sketched a few different ideas about the geometry of arms. Just trying to get an idea of what I wanted to end up with.
With the bent tube in hand I headed for home and started mocking up the trailing link. I had called one of the industrial supply houses looking for some 9/16" all-thread rod to help hold the two joints into alignment, but was informed that they didn't stok all-thread in that diameter. Hmm, what to do in a pinch. Well, since this was just the roughest of mock ups I grabbed a length of para-cord, doubled it up and ran it through the first joint, a spacer made out of 1" tube, and then the second joint. A bar to hold one end in place and another bar on the other end was used to wind up the para-cord, and in turn draw the joints and the spacer together. Which, by the way, worked fairly well.
Initially I tried the bent tube in one orientation with the bend closest to the suspension joint. That didn't look right to me though.
So, I flipped the bent tube end for end, and did a little adjusting and I'm a lot happier with the results. I also narrowed up the spacing between the two tubes a little as well. If I remember correctly this now measures right at either 15" or 16" wide from the outside of one joint to the outside of the other.
I also trimmed the tubes to length to give the trailing arm a 36" length from the center of the mounting bolt/suspension joint to the center of the axle spindle. Speaking of which, the spindles and the wheel mounting hubs were ordered today and I hope to see them show up tomorrow. If that's the case, then I just might have to get going with fitting the spindles to the 2" square tube and then integrating them into the trailing arms. Wish me luck!
Mike