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Mr. Clean's dune cruising 71' K5 "Oprah" beams, links, and turbo ls powwwa

Overview Gallery Discussion
folkenheath said:
I don't know, I see 2WD and a D44 housing and I feel like you are now getting the worst of both worlds, the weight and ride quality of a SFA and the traction of 2WD. If you really want 2WD and don't want to spend money on a IFS long travel then maybe you should cut the inner Cs off and weld them to a 3" piece of DOM and put a small truss on that. Would save a lot of weight for not a lot of cash, and you could eliminate those funky ford bushings too and go straight arms. Then again, if you are doing that, might as well....:D
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I would have to disagree. I think that sounds like way too much work for a gain of probally loosing 100lbs maybe if that, but destroying a d44 at the same time. Like stated previously i would like to re use this setup in my k10 so cutting it up is out of the question. The truck has already proven itself to work well in 2wd with the d44 upfront amd carrying around the np205.

The plan that i have layed out is the best the plan to enjoy the blazer in the mean time and the following winter go ahead and continue with the new front end build.



It really seems theres alot of haters on my setup....It just makes me love it that much more :pimp: i guess all you guys are just gonna have to keep on hatin until you come to the dune party and all get proven wrong by oprah:thumb:
 
Deuling said:
That's a waste of work if it would just get ripped out next year anyways.


I don't see how the current axle would weight that much more with no guts, bare housings really are not that heavy.


Plus that's a lot of work. "just cutting the c's off and welding them to a tube" sounds like an awful lot of work to me when everything under the truck works just fine.
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My back will tell you otherwise.... :doah:
 
Nate and Dueling are two of the most logical dudes on here. They both play reasonably hard, and work reasonably hard. Not doing so much of either to get them in trouble!

Nate, your plan is solid! You know it. The truck is fun "as is" right? You can play with it right now right? Bam! You boys are extremely wise to know when modifying something doesn't necessarily pay off to mean more fun. We all want an ultra 4 truck or a trophy truck or whatever. But what I always try to remind myself of is how much fun I had in my first truck that was all stock and worth about $1000. Cool as Heath or Wade's truck? Hell no! But did I have way too much fun? Hell yeah!

Anyway, I know you don't need a pep talk, but props to you anyway for doing exactly what your doing.
 
Thanks Mitch:thumb:

I'm glad Mitch can see for me its not about spending the most $$$'s or the most time in my garage, or even building the coolest one off fabbed parts for my blazer. For me its all about driving it and having the most fun I can with it. I know that the way I do things appears to be not thought out and logical but in actuality everything I do is very thought out and meticulous to get me to whatever it is i'm trying to achieve. Which most of the time I like to keep a secret until its happening. I know my blazer and myself are not very "by the book" in how things are done, and i'm okay with it. Actually I love it. It's just my style to be a little different. The day Martin says he understands my logic will be the day I have failed myself to be different.:haha::haha::haha: So i'm gonna take my $2500 ,2wd ,heavy, slow, weak radius armed blazer and go enjoy the $#it out of it as you keep wondering why in the world I do what I do. :D
 
I never read the whole tearing the front apart in a year thing. Obviously it's not worth the time to replace the housing with a tube if you are tearing it apart.

And I agree, that thing works better than I expected from looking at it. Do you know how much it weighs? I am very curious about that.

On a side note, if you run around for a season with an empty housing, I doubt that housing will be useable inside when you are done unless you seal the ends off somehow.
 
The loaded front axle makes for a more even weight distribution due to when you launch off the dunes your front end is usually pointed up and that weigh low to the ground helps get the front end back down and set you up for a more proper landing on the other side. The front pumpkin splits the air so it glides more easily over the rear axle and the air then follows the front drive shaft increasing the distance you are in the air and giving you a cushion when you land. When the pumpkin impacts the sand it helps create uniform ruts in the sand with the tires and allows the sand to bulge up in between helping the vehicle run out without creating deep furrows which translates to less stress on the front suspension components.

Can you tell I have been reading about global warming, I mean climate change, I mean temperature swings due to coal pollution, I mean fracking, I mean damage to the ozone layer...
 
70jimmy said:
The loaded front axle makes for a more even weight distribution due to when you launch off the dunes your front end is usually pointed up and that weigh low to the ground helps get the front end back down and set you up for a more proper landing on the other side. The front pumpkin splits the air so it glides more easily over the rear axle and the air then follows the front drive shaft increasing the distance you are in the air and giving you a cushion when you land. When the pumpkin impacts the sand it helps create uniform ruts in the sand with the tires and allows the sand to bulge up in between helping the vehicle run out without creating deep furrows which translates to less stress on the front suspension components.

Can you tell I have been reading about global warming, I mean climate change, I mean temperature swings due to coal pollution, I mean fracking, I mean damage to the ozone layer...
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anotherload.gif


LOL, that cracked me up. :haha:
 
Yes!!! Exactly that. Minus the ugly color scheme, the linked rear and the solid front axle.......:haha::haha::haha:

No i want rear to stay leafs and i dont want a solid axle upfront. And i want it to stay poop brown in color.
 
Well its been a while since I've updated this. Life has just been super busy lately mainly work. Been at my new shop for 9 months now and I've been promoted to 3rd shift supervisor back at 6 or 7 months being here I don't remember. Its been great being in charge of a shop even tho its 3rd shift but I enjoy it for the time being so I don't mind. A few guys didn't take to well to the youngest guy in the shop(24) whose only been there for 6-7months being their new boss. No one held it personally against me I got along with all the guys. Just for some reason they felt since they had been here longer and were older then me they'd just assume the position that opened up, but wasn't the case so had a few guys up and quiet. Which means I've been working 60+ hr weeks to try to keep the work going while getting new guys in. Lights finally at the end of the tunnel as i'm only planning on working 50 hrs this week which is the norm for me here. Which means more blazer time. Spring is coming.


Speaking of blazer. I have been trying to work on whatever I can whenever I have time and have made progress on a few things just haven't had the time to post.

I started prepping the rear of the frame to be taking some more abuse. I wanted to fish plate this section as its going to have shocks, bumps, and a cage tie in all relatively close.




I also am starting to prep for finishing my cage. Needs to be tied from body to frame. So i'm ditching all the rubber mounts and am bolting in solid mounts as I am doing a solid cage. So ordered ORDs 1" body lift and am using that as my new body mounts.


Since I'm going solid cage I wanted to attach my window frame to the cage as it was starting to crack at the base from thrashing around with no support. So made these guys. One on each side and welded the frame to the cage.



I finally found the exact paddles and rims I have been wanting to run and got them at an awesome deal. Since the ford is still stored for the winter I have to take the neon to get them. The car is so small had to put on in the front passenger seat. :dunno:





Said paddle tires on Oprah and looking awesome. I'm going to be doing a gear swap. Gonna go 4.56s. The generals I have are 33"s and the new paddles are 33"x16.5"s





Then last but not least finally pulled the trigger on some bumps. So shiny:D Cant wait to start getting these mounted. Hoping this weekend to tear down springs so I can cycle and start mounting.

 
y5mgisi said:
I cant wait to hear how you like cruising with the paddles!
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Yah im excited to run them. Ive only experienced what it is like to run a paddle on a d bike up there. Which makes a night and day difference and is a different experience. Im hoping that a truck running paddles is the same type of experience.
 
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