Crossmembers with Poly suspension?

[Mudbone]

I was watching the Extreme 4x4 show on Spike the other day and they were showing an episode from the Urban Gorilla build or maybe its the Surburban Gorilla. Anyway, for those not in the know, they are spending a dump truck load of money to over build a Suburban. I am guessing its gonna be over $100,000 by the time they are finished. They are taking an old Suburban frame, putting on an aftermarket Hummer body, I don't recall the axles but its probably a D60 and 14BFF. The drive train has got to be over 35 grand. They are using a crate Duramax with a one off custom Banks dual turbo set up, an Allison 1000 that is custom overbuilt, an a 203/205 doubler. The entire drive train looks like its about 15 feet long.

Anyway on the show I saw, they were working on the frame. They boxed it and put in suspension and drive train mounts. They lifted in the Duramax with the Allison on it, minus the TCs, to fab up the mounts. For the tranny cross member they did something I haven't seen before. They took a piece of tube, 1.75 or 2.00, and gave it a slight upward bend on each end. Then they notched the ends and welded in short pieces, ( 2 to 2.5 inch long), of tubing for bushing eyes. They used Prothane poly bushings like you would use in a spring eye. Then they welded two tabs to the inside of the frame on each side, keeping in mind, the frame was boxed. Then they just bolted it in and the Allison sat on top of it. There was no word if the cross member was bolted directly to the tranny or if they used an additional poly mount in between.

I know a ladder frame is supposed to flex, this is why the crossmembers are riveted in and not welded. But isn't this too much flex? It appears they left the stock engine cross member intact, but I assume they are going to do the same for the crossmember(s) they use for the doubler. This means that even tho they boxed the frame, there isn't a crossmember that directly bolts to the side rails from the engine cross member all the way back to the one that is just in front of the rear axle. An it looked like they were taking that out at some point. Any comments or thoughts on this design?

 

[sled_dog]

they are beefing that frame up big time just by boxing it. I'm pretty certain they replace one forward crossmember as well. Even if they didn't, if they box the frame they have to weld the crossmember in place, which is going to significantly strengthen it up.

Making a crossmember like did is a very common thing nowadays. My S10's transmission crossmember is the same way. As are a few other folks with doublers as well. I don't care for JUST puting the bushings out at the frame end, it puts leverage on the bushings and bolts, I'd rather see bushings in the center and out at the frame. A transmission crossmember isn't what I would use to stiffen a frame(stock ones aren't exactly beefy), unless it was part of a x-member.

 

[goldwing2000]

I think they're using front and rear D60s (brand new, of course).

Or maybe that was the Ranger build.

I dunno. It must be nice to have more money than God, though.

Oh... no opinion on the x-member. It looks like it'll work but I'll wait till I see what it looks like when they're done.

 

[Mudbone]

I dunno. It must be nice to have more money than God, though.
quote]

The sad thing is they probably don't. Some body gave them a good deal or comped them the Durmax, (it well over 10K right?), all the Banks stuff is free in exchange for a couple of guest appearances and one hell of an on air plug. The tranny, which would be well over 5K to you and me, I checked, is probably at a discount, also for a plug. You should see this thing. I have seen Allison 1000s before. This one looks like its been anodized blue. The double is a known quanity but I bet they are going to cable it. Other wise the linkage is gonna be about 4 feet long or they are gonna have to get in the back seat to shift.

 

[sled_dog]

I bet Bank's gave them the engine too. Since they seem to be testing the twin turbo setup on it.

 

[mikey_d05]

Whoever ended up donating the parts to the project should be able to write them up as advertising tax deductions as well. Having one part on the show is probably the equivalent of spending 10x the cost in commercials.

 

[dyeager535]

On the crossmember issue, GM did similar on some of their 80's A/G-body cars, if not others. (thats the RWD Monte, Cutlass, etc) for the diesel cars, they used rubber mounts at the frame to crossmember, but didn't eliminate the one on the tranny either. I'm assuming this was to dampen vibration as much as possible. I'd suspect comparatively, those cars were fairly stiff body wise compared to our trucks, stock.

 

[miniwally]

The cross member is just another way to skin the cat so to speek.

I mounted my engine with poly mounts, and am hanging the doubler from crossmember that runs above the drivetrain. I have no transmision mount.

Everybody has a different way of thinking things through and I don't see any problems with the way they are doing the build up.