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87 Dodge Raider - Beadlocks & Grabbers

Welds aint to shabby there bud! Looks good keep up the good work.

Thank you very much sir!

I think I shouldn't SAS this until the K5 is on the road but you never know. I often follow my fancy despite better judgement.
 
IMO that thing screams yoga axles but a bronco 44 would probably fit well. Hell even an hp Dana 30 from a jeep if you're not gonna go over 33s.
 
What would you use for axles?

Martin

My original thought was yota axles but I think a Ford 8.8 out back and a high pinion dana 44 up front would be the better choice. Not sure if I would want to do Explorer/Eary Bronco width or full width on the axles.
 
My original thought was yota axles but I think a Ford 8.8 out back and a high pinion dana 44 up front would be the better choice. Not sure if I would want to do Explorer/Eary Bronco width or full width on the axles.

Full width is going to be insanely wide under that truck and completely defeat the purpose of not having a full size rig in anything but rocks. IMO the 63" WMS to WMS is perfect stability/ narrow-ness for a mini truck.

You can get that out of waggy axles.
 
Full width is going to be insanely wide under that truck and completely defeat the purpose of not having a full size rig in anything but rocks. IMO the 63" WMS to WMS is perfect stability/ narrow-ness for a mini truck.

You can get that out of waggy axles.

Yes, but I AM a rock guy so it's tempting to go full width and have those tires almost completely outside the wheel wells. I guess it all depends on what kind of deals I can find when it is time to do the swap. Waggy 44s would be fine by me too. The axles I wind up with will probably also dictate the tire size. I don't want to go any bigger than 37s on the full widths or 35s on the narrower widths. I think 35s would be a great all around tire size for this rig. It is after all supposed to be DD friendly.
 
Would you want to daily a rig with the wheels outside of the wheel wells?

Martin
 
Did some work on the rear bumper today.

Mocking up some tube to see how I am going to do this.

Successfully made 2 of 4 plates to attach the bumper to the frame. Left enough room on the top tube to go up to a 35" tire on the back hatch should I ever do an axle swap and run a bigger tire.

These brackets took a while to make but they turned out damn good.

I plan on plating between the two tubes down the length of the bumper. The tie-plate will go right against the bracket edge in the center of the tube.

Ideally I would like to kick this tube up to hug that bottom body lip but I am not sure if I will be able to pull it off. I might have to kick the tube and then bend a 90 in it afterwards instead of bending the 90 and then kicking like I would normally do. Plan B will be to suck the tube in under the very bottom lip.

Lastly started making legs to tie the sliders into the frame.

Plan for tomorrow is to bend a bunch of tube up and get some stuff tacked together. Sliders and rear bumper are priority right now since I am waiting on a 9k winch and 20" led light bar for the front bumper to show up on Tues. When they get here I can get back to work on finishing the front bumper.
 
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Well, plans changed so I didn't do any tube bending today but instead did a much needed garage cleaning and then worked on my 35 spline axle upgrade for the K5 more. Got the spindles and hubs rebuilt and driver's side reassembled. Passenger side knuckle still needs to get wire brushed and painted before reassembly and I need to get some drive flanges to seal everything up when I am all done.

Tube bending may have to wait until next weekend since my winch and light bar come in on Tuesday and I will likely want to work on the front bumper center section.
 
Got the winch and light bar today!

After drilling the holes for the winch and cutting out the slot for the fairlead I threw it on with just a couple bolts to see how it was turning out.

Light bar is just mocked up right now. Holes are drilled but the bolts that came with it aren't long enough.

I will get a pic of the backside of the bumper center section once I take it back off to show how the fairlead slot turned out.

Couldn't have packaged this much tighter. That 1" body lift helped out immensely.

Just enough room to sneak your hand in to turn the engage/disengage lever
 
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Well, my garage is a bit of a freaking mess again but I did make some progress on the front bumper and sliders today. Oh, I also tested the light bar earlier this week and it is blindingly bright from a couple hundred feet away. Very pleased with that $40 purchase. I recommend it to anyone.

Got these D-ring mounts welded in

They are pass-through style so they are welded inside and out of the 1/4" bumper

Got my tube bender back together. I had disassembled it for paint and while doing so I noticed some marring on the pivot bushings so I used a drum sander to clean up the holes and used axle grease liberally upon reassembly.

I am using white lithium grease as a lubricant for the follower and that seems to be working pretty decent. Spraying the tube down with brake cleaner and wiping it with a shop towel to clean it before it goes into the follower.

Finally, some actual tube bending being done. Did some back to back 90s for the sliders. They will get notched in the bend to keep them tight to the rockers. I did those with push through method since that is what I am used to doing as an electrician. The short pieces in the pic are the "wings" for the front bumper. They will angle back towards the fender from the bumper center section. These are just rough cut for now so they are longer in each direction than finished product.


Hoping to get the wings fitted and tacked on and the sliders tacked together on Tuesday. Also started on the rear bumper tube and may be able to get that fully bent and mocked in place on Tuesday but I am picking up a roof rack for the Raider earlier that afternoon so we will see how much time the wife lets me spend in the garage.
 
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Camera died as I was taking pics so you guys only get two for tonight.

Bottom tube is in with only minor hiccups along the way. The stub of the 90 is long on purpose and will be trimmed to match the wheel well angle like the sliders.

Top tube is going to kick up slightly like the bottom tube and wrap around the rear body corners while sitting on top of the bottom tube.
 
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Good friend of mine is into the monteros (same as a raider but sold by mitsubishi). We've been many miles in his when it was bone stock with 31s. Real capable rigs even when stock.

My friend's currently has a 3" body lift and 35s with a propane fired 350. The stock axles are pretty tuff but the cv joints don't like the v8 and big tires, especially with welded spiders so he's currently in the middle of a 1ton swap.

Yours looks like a lot of fun the way it is
 
Good friend of mine is into the monteros (same as a raider but sold by mitsubishi). We've been many miles in his when it was bone stock with 31s. Real capable rigs even when stock.

My friend's currently has a 3" body lift and 35s with a propane fired 350. The stock axles are pretty tuff but the cv joints don't like the v8 and big tires, especially with welded spiders so he's currently in the middle of a 1ton swap.

Yours looks like a lot of fun the way it is

Yeah, I think I was recently admiring the pics of that one in one of your posts. If it wasn't you it was someone else on here. Anyway, I generally take something practical and build it to the extreme, I just can't help myself, but on this one I am really trying to keep it DD friendly. I am going to make this more of an expedition/overland style build, keeping as many stock parts as possible and just doing body armor and accessories.
 
Got the driver's side slider tacked together.

This is pretty much exactly what I was shooting for.

Just the right amount of protection.

I have these so tucked under the rocker that I could only roll them up a few degrees so there was no door clearance issues at all.

The legs are fully welded to the outer tube. Now that the outer is tacked to the inner I can fully weld that too. Then its just a matter of tying into the frame.

Also got my 3/4" shackles on the front bumper.

Since I am only running 4.75 ton 3/4" shackles I was able to order these Daystar kits that come with poly washers and isolators to snug everything up and reduce the annoying ping pang shackles are known for offroad.

Also grabbed some day time pics of the rear bumper from further back to show clearance.

Ordered two more through-mount d-ring clevis mounts for the rear bumper.

Still planning on plating between the two tubes and then running the clevis mount through the plate like the front.
 
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