Project "Autonomous" F-350

[rayra]

wth did they do, leave a loop in the slack cable and just winched it tight, kinking it? I'd bill those dummies. That's $50-150, well less than they would have paid a tow rig out there. Unless the race organizers had a wrecker on duty for 'free'. THey used your **** and wrecked it, they owe you a replacement.

 

[Paul B.]

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[pricey]

Similar thing has happened to me recovering a number of unprepared vehicles (and owners) over the years. I've had a mug drive over my snatch strap and destroy it by tangling it around his axles! Another wrecked my winch cable too by going around a tree and hooking back to the cable with no tree protector. Very frustrating!

Great build and photos by the way. Love the off road racing shots :drool:

 

[pappawheely]

They hooked the cable to the rear end housing. The weight is in the front. All they did was spin the truck around so you would have to block the course to pull it back over. No bueno! I told them I had to jump in my truck and drive 50 miles north to try and catch the field 100 miles down course. No time to teach them recovery work.

 

[pappawheely]

Great build and photos by the way. Love the off road racing shots :drool:

Splatt!

 

[EMS WJ 2000]

All new front and rear drive shafts from JE Reel! I watched and took photos of the whole process for an article I am doing. It takes more than knowledge, there is skill involved when building these; I was really impressed. At 2400 rpm's the rear shaft was balanced at zero! :Wow1:

Pappa will they build one for any vehicle?

I ask because I only saw Jeeps and Toyotas on their website.

 

[pappawheely]

Pappa will they build one for any vehicle?

I ask because I only saw Jeeps and Toyotas on their website.

Yes, Their website is probably not up to date like most small businesses. They build all kinds of shafts for custom trucks and race vehicles. Just give them a call.

 

[superminoh]

cant take it any more

re read this again for about the 10th time. wife hates the 89 f 350 ride. gonna get the plasma cutter out and the mig and build the shackle reversal . do the springs stay in there currant layout.?from the center of axle forward is 24 " and center to rear is 28" so to start with i want to keep springs just to see how much benifit rsk gives me. then wife dont like height so planning on putting automatic rv steps under both front doors. hope it goes well .JUST LOVE ALL THE INFO HERE.GIVE ME A NUDGE ,IAM JUMPING OFF THE CLIFF.

 

[pappawheely]

re read this again for about the 10th time. wife hates the 89 f 350 ride. gonna get the plasma cutter out and the mig and build the shackle reversal . do the springs stay in there currant layout.?from the center of axle forward is 24 " and center to rear is 28" so to start with i want to keep springs just to see how much benifit rsk gives me. then wife dont like height so planning on putting automatic rv steps under both front doors. hope it goes well .JUST LOVE ALL THE INFO HERE.GIVE ME A NUDGE ,IAM JUMPING OFF THE CLIFF.

Well, you are heading down the custom fab road. You can do whatever you like. With that said, anything you change will effect everything else on the truck. If the centerline of the front axle moves forward or backwards on the frame your drive shaft and steering linkage will move. You also need to have clearance around the front x-member; it's tight. To keep it simple I would keep the axle centerline as close to the stock location as possible. Does that answer your question?

 

[pappawheely]

 

[superminoh]

thanks for reply

i am still confused as to the proper placement of the spring eyes. they seem to have a different wrap on each end.if I leave springs on the axle and reverse the shackles they will be ok ?

 

[pappawheely]

i am still confused as to the proper placement of the spring eyes. they seem to have a different wrap on each end.if I leave springs on the axle and reverse the shackles they will be ok ?

Leaf springs will have a military wrap on the front eye for safety in case the spring eye on the main leaf fails. Run the springs with the same eye in the front after you swap the mounts.

 

[underdrive]

Leaf springs will have a military wrap on the front eye for safety in case the spring eye on the main leaf fails. Run the springs with the same eye in the front after you swap the mounts.

The military wrap is not always on the front, it's on the side of the hanger that is bolted to the frame. For rear springs that would indeed be the front end of the spring, but in case of Ford front axles with the shackles way out front the military wrap is on the rear end of the front springs, as that is the end with the frame hanger. When we did our front suspension it didn't look like there will be enough clearance in the factory shackles to keep the military wrap. It's easy enough to check with a tape measure anyways, don't just take my word for it. If aftermarket or custom-built shackles are to be used, anything can be made to work.

Our truck doesn't have RSK (didn't want the lift that comes with it), yet it rides nice. What we have is soft factory springs to locate the axle combined with air springs to support the weight of the truck - I gather that's apparently a pretty common setup for trucks with big plows up front, only we don't have a plow (yet). If you have a diesel truck you can pull it off easy enough using springs for a small-block or 300 I6 engine. If you have a small-block or 300 I6 engine, then idk, maybe pull the lower leaf off and build some traction bar so the axle doesn't wrap during hard braking or when using 4x4 in low range???

 

[underdrive]

i am still confused as to the proper placement of the spring eyes. they seem to have a different wrap on each end.if I leave springs on the axle and reverse the shackles they will be ok ?

With truck parked on a level surface, take a good look where your front spring eyes fall now with respect to the frame rails (mark it with a vertical line on each frame rail from the spring bolt straight up, also write down the distance from each bolt up to the bottom of the rail).

If you keep the front spring eye bolts in their factory location, IIRC when you move the rear eyes down 3"-4" from where they are now (courtesy of shackle length) your axle will move like an inch forward of its stock location. That can be handled by the steering linkage and the driveshaft slide-splines no problem (our axle sits right about there), the trac bar may need some readjusting though. Oh and you'll probably need new tapered shims between the springs and the axle to correct the pinion angle, but those get done last as you need to know where you stand before deciding on the amount of taper.

 

[pappawheely]

You're right, I forgot. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Underdrive.