'89 R3500 Crew Cab 2wd to 4wd conversion & beyond

[mrk5]

I saw a JK do that right there. I kept telling him to go driver, he wouldn't listen.

Truck looks good.

In my defense the tires are turned driver in that picture......

Was that coming down the v-notch at the 2nd obstacle? I went down the middle section right there and it was much more predictable. Glad the damage was minimal.

How much traffic was up there?

It's a spot before the v-notch. We had just come down that before this happened. We were within sight of the old mine buildings at the start of the trail.

Sad your so far away . . I got a pair of rear doors with 20k miles on them .

Its missing a foot step also on LR if i had to guess .

I just have the one swinging step. I make the kids climb into the back seat. Haha

If only you had a set of doors stashed a few miles to the south...... oh wait.......

Yeah, I was thinking about those.

It was a quick recovery, not sure it felt that way to the driver.

I was just eager to rip the bandaid off and see what the damage was. I pictured WAYYYYY more mangled sheet metal.

 

[mrk5]

Glad y’all are okay. Truck looks fantastic.

David

Yeah, I was very glad no one was hurt. Although my son now has off-camber trauma. He was holding tight every time the truck leaned again coming down the trail.

 

[mrk5]

Since it flopped, I don't know if changing the vent set up on the NP205 did anything for the rear leak. However, when it was on it's side fluid came out of the old line from the catch can which tells me I've been getting fluid pushed up there. So I'm debating about adding a second vent. I have the side tube I could tee off of.





I have to add that having the sight tube on the NP205 and Magnum are great. Especially since I've had this leak issue, it makes for an easy way to verify I still have enough fluid in the cases.

 

[bp71k5]

Since it flopped, I don't know if changing the vent set up on the NP205 did anything for the rear leak. However, when it was on it's side fluid came out of the old line from the catch can which tells me I've been getting fluid pushed up there. So I'm debating about adding a second vent. I have the side tube I could tee off of.



View attachment 386488

I have to add that having the sight tube on the NP205 and Magnum are great. Especially since I've had this leak issue, it makes for an easy way to verify I still have enough fluid in the cases.

If you can find a way to drain the catch can back into the case, that could work. It’s how I sent mine up since I was getting fluid spit out of the vent.

 

[rderosier]

Ran Wheeler Lake this weekend. Last time was about 10 years ago in the K5. There are a couple more challenging spots than I remembered. We camped at the lake and did lots of

I have to say I like the electric fans way better. Fuel mileage is back where it should be. Also much quieter on the trail. I did notice when we were driving up to the big pass on I70 coolant temps were about 5 degrees higher than I ever saw it with the mechanical fan. So there may be something to the benefits when towing. Now that I've swapped back to electric fans, I know I can easily swap back and forth in an hour or 2 tops. So I'm planning to put the mechanical fan back the next time we tow the camper.

Can anyone spot any serious damage?

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Would it surprise you to know that this had happened about 7 hours before the picture above?View attachment 386424

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Here's the damage that's not readily apparent in the first photo:

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The rear door handle and back of cab dented in, a little denting on the front fender, and a tote cracked the window. On the factor tinted windows with 2 pieces of glass, you don't see the damage from the outside. The new bed wasn't even touched. I can't believe the damage is so minimal.

It was complete driver error. I climbed to high up the rock on the right, then the left front dropped in a hole. It was one of those slow motion flops. I was just watching the rock keep getting closer and closer and then we came to rest on it.

I like this picture with my youngest son peeking out the window of his door.


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I'm glad we had seatbelts on or he would have been tossed right onto me. I would have been laying on the rock.

The only fluid I lost was some out of the little temporary vent hose I put on the NP205.

Thanks to Jason and Nate for quick action to get us back on all 4 tires.

Looks good even on its side. I'd be pretty thrilled your mirror survived.

 

[mrk5]

Looks good even on its side. I'd be pretty thrilled your mirror survived.

When I was sitting there holding myself up, I was looking at the mirror thinking "Damn, can't believe it survived?!"

 

[mrk5]

If you can find a way to drain the catch can back into the case, that could work. It’s how I sent mine up since I was getting fluid spit out of the vent.

I'm kinda thinking it will be more of an expansion tank than a catch can. Have the tube come in the bottom and put a breather filter on the top. Been reading up on people making something like that with cheap aluminum water bottles.

 

[skunked]

I'm shocked that dirt nap didn't result in more damage. Well done!

 

[imiceman44]

I'm kinda thinking it will be more of an expansion tank than a catch can. Have the tube come in the bottom and put a breather filter on the top. Been reading up on people making something like that with cheap aluminum water bottles.

It's like may incident in moab, had a little more atf leak but the damage was limited to a scratch on the front fender and on on the back corner. No damage to TAIL light or mirror.
It's laying down in slow motion.
I am surprised by the damage to your door

 

[mrk5]

It's like may incident in moab, had a little more atf leak but the damage was limited to a scratch on the front fender and on on the back corner. No damage to TAIL light or mirror.
It's laying down in slow motion.
I am surprised by the damage to your door

I had forgotten that happened to you. I think pretty much most all of the weight was on that back part of the cab. Also maybe the sliders because I heard them crunching on the rock when they winched me over. I'm surprised the door handle was pushed in and didn't break.

 

[mrk5]

Right before the flop, the lid on one of the tool boxes popped open. Of course that meant when I flopped, stuff fell out. I think this happens because the side with the latches can bow out when the stuff inside shifts. It's not hard to bend and I had already bent it a little to get the latches to clear better.



I realized I could put a spacer in between the center tube and the tool box side to hold it more rigid.





That's a 3/4" thick piece of scrap plastic. You will notice the front is still bowed, but that's where it needs to be to clear the latches when I close the lid despite the trimming I did. I actually do like the latches on these tool boxes, they just take some modifying to clear properly. The lid overhangs the side by at least 1/2" which is why there's room for the bowing.

I also noticed I did get a little rock rash on the bed from the flop.

 

[skunked]

Alternatively, you could add a support on the inside of the box that keeps it from bending out.

 

[mrk5]

Alternatively, you could add a support on the inside of the box that keeps it from bending out.

I've actually been thinking about adding adding some divider walls to help with the organization. Didn't occur to me they would serve a dual purpose of holding the box from bowing out more.

 

[skunked]

I've actually been thinking about adding adding some divider walls to help with the organization. Didn't occur to me they would serve a dual purpose of holding the box from bowing out more.

that’s my plan as well.

 

[mrk5]

I'm still working on driveshaft angles. I realized some time ago the drivetrain runs downhill. The tcase output was nearly 6° down.

When I replaced the busted aluminum shims I got the rear driveshaft at 1.7° up from the pinion which is right where you want a CV shaft (1.5° to 2° up from pinion angle). However, the intermediate shaft was running uphill from the tcase output. So the 2 pieces of my driveshaft were kinda doing this: /\, obviously not to that extreme.

I have room between the tcase and the floor so I decided to raise the trans mount crossmember. I could correct the intermediate shaft angle and gain a little ground clearance.

Moving the crossmember up only just a bit over 1/2" changed the intermediate shaft angle from about 2° up hill to about 3° downhill.

Here you see the difference in how much the crossmember moved up. New frame bracket on the left.

The crossmember on the right is to support the back part of the skid plate. I still need to raise it up to match the trans mount crossmember.



This is part of the reason I like gaining a little more ground clearance.



That's the rear crossmember for the skid plate. I noticed the bend a while back. I think it happened on Steel Bender at Blazer Bash last year. You can see the 3 bolts that hold the crossmember and it bent where the skid plate ended.

I'm hoping to use the press to straighten it and then add something to stiffen it.

 

[mrk5]

Finished up the crossmembers today and my son was with me. He gets bored if I don't have a task for him. I thought of something he could do that I didn't think I'd have time for anytime soon.





He painted the sliders and front bumper tan to match the bed. Learned a lot about over spray.

I'm super happy with the driveshaft angles after the reworked crossmembers. The guide I found for 2-piece shafts says 1.5° max on the intermediate shaft as compared to the tcase output and that's where I'm at. The rear section should be 1.5 - 2° up from the pinion angle for the cv joint and I'm at 1.6°. Real curious how it runs now.

 

[max 02]

Looks good!
Stout and capable is what it presents!

 

[mrk5]

Our little flop-scapade has me thinking more about how I have stuff stowed. If the rear seat area hadn't been barricaded with 2 camping cots, we would have had a much bigger mess. I've been wanting to pull out the middle seat for quite a while. It's a super cheap suspension seat and it's in really bad shape. Plus I don't think anyone has ever sat in it.

Made an aluminum pan and bolted in place using the holes from the seat.





I bolted tie downs to the side, but it occurred to me that they could bend since it's just pan formed aluminum sheet (.080" thick). I used all-thread to tie the 2 sides together.



Actually you can see my first method was an aluminum strap, but I didn't like it as well.

The rivet nuts in the aluminum pan are for this:



Which holds this:



And there's room for a cooler in front of the box. I can put the random stuff that floats around in the back seat in that tool box. I usually have a 2 gallon water jug that just sits on a seat or the floor; if I hadn't had the cots in there it would have surely busted out a window when we flopped.

In the future I'm going to make a cargo basket for the bed that I can haul the tent cots in.

 

[Truckman4life]

Needs cup holders in the front part for rear passengers.

 

[mrk5]

I've tried giving them cup holders but they never use them.