need advice on how much to cut off....

[Hogback Fabrication]

Stephen's advice is very close to what I have right now.

I don't know how wide mine is but I didn't move the seats and I have that third pedal

I was going to keep the windshield and windshield frame but that makes everything quite a bit wider and that would be the first thing to hit a rock, so I decided to ditch it and the wipers. I've run mine in the rain and a little snow, its doable. Wipers would be nice but the stock setup will be difficult to adapt unless you're using the stock windshield.

My firewall is cut pretty narrow, the fuse box mounts had to be modified and the heater box had to go.

My initial intention was to keep the stock wiring and firewall to keep things simple and to reduce the work involved, that didn't really end up being the case.

I had to rewire the truck from scratch shortly after tubing out the truck, maybe it was a fluke I used a kit from ez wiring. As for the firewall, its support comes from the sheetmetal on the sides which I (and you will probably) cut away. This leaves the firewall flopping around, I ended up welding it to a piece of tubing that runs across the chassis.

I'll try and get some width measurements later but I'm sure they're very close to Stephen's and Fox's rigs.

Keep the rocker tube as high as you can while clearing the seats (make sure you can still comfortably get into the truck). If you add as much tubing in the door area as me (or Stephen or Fox) make sure you swap to a removable steering wheel, it makes getting into and out of the truck a million times easier. Leave at least two inches of head to tube clearance and use four or five point harnesses.

Make sure you incorporate fuel tank, cooler, tool and spare storage in your tube design.

 

[RockinChevy]

Stephen's advice is very close to what I have right now.

I don't know how wide mine is but I didn't move the seats and I have that third pedal

I was going to keep the windshield and windshield frame but that makes everything quite a bit wider and that would be the first thing to hit a rock, so I decided to ditch it and the wipers. I've run mine in the rain and a little snow, its doable. Wipers would be nice but the stock setup will be difficult to adapt unless you're using the stock windshield.

My firewall is cut pretty narrow, the fuse box mounts had to be modified and the heater box had to go.

My initial intention was to keep the stock wiring and firewall to keep things simple and to reduce the work involved, that didn't really end up being the case.

I had to rewire the truck from scratch shortly after tubing out the truck, maybe it was a fluke I used a kit from ez wiring. As for the firewall, its support comes from the sheetmetal on the sides which I (and you will probably) cut away. This leaves the firewall flopping around, I ended up welding it to a piece of tubing that runs across the chassis.

I'll try and get some width measurements later but I'm sure they're very close to Stephen's and Fox's rigs.

Keep the rocker tube as high as you can while clearing the seats (make sure you can still comfortably get into the truck). If you add as much tubing in the door area as me (or Stephen or Fox) make sure you swap to a removable steering wheel, it makes getting into and out of the truck a million times easier. Leave at least two inches of head to tube clearance and use four or five point harnesses.

Make sure you incorporate fuel tank, cooler, tool and spare storage in your tube design.

Thanks for your response, Chris.

I've incorporated so much into the 4 seater design (2 kids). Space is always an important issue for a lot of reasons. so this is the reason for me starting this thread so I don't cut too far to get stuck with more problems or even feel cramped when sitting in the seat.

 

[CK5]

Here is a pic of the UAV buggy, I simply grabbed a manual brake pedal pad and cut my auto tranny brake pedal (much wider) down to the size of the manual tranny brake pedal and slapped the manual pad on, this will give you the outside clearance you need. My foot kept getting stuck behind the wider brake pedal.

 

[RockinChevy]

Another great idea. Thanks for the pic, Boss!

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

One more piece of advice:

Lift springs for a K5 will not work well once you lighten everything up. My old BDS 4" lift springs worked awesome on my full bodied K5, they were terrible once it was cut up. Very little flex, I was pulling tires all the time.

IIRC 4" BDS springs are ~350 lbs/in. Now I run ~200 lbs/in in the front and 165 lbs/in in the rear (which are too soft, closer to 200 lbs/in would be better).

My rig weighs just over 4000 lbs. for reference.

 

[RockinChevy]

One more piece of advice:

Lift springs for a K5 will not work well once you lighten everything up. My old BDS 4" lift springs worked awesome on my full bodied K5, they were terrible once it was cut up. Very little flex, I was pulling tires all the time.

IIRC 4" BDS springs are ~350 lbs/in. Now I run ~200 lbs/in in the front and 165 lbs/in in the rear (which are too soft, closer to 200 lbs/in would be better).

My rig weighs just over 4000 lbs. for reference.

I won't be keeping the leafs, will be going 4-link front and rear. However, I will leave the leafs in so I can still roll the truck on the trailer. Been busy with my job, I haven't cut much off lately, just makin' a whole mess of marking my measurements.

 

[pauly383]

My Pro Comp fronts are ok so far , its my rear that lost the most flex going truggy , since its the lightest part .