Polishing a turd: Homebrew truss

ok gents i'm polishing the turd. before some say its dumb and weak, i already know that. basically what it comes down to is budget, and i have the material already so essentially all this will cost me is time. plus, i am only running 33's, so a strengthened 30 should work out ok.

so here we go:

mocked up some cardboard:





I was originally going to make this out of 2x4x.25 tube, but after mockup figured that i wouldn't be left with a whole lot of material on top of the pumpkin after i cut the bottom off of the tube to weld to the axle tubage. now i am looking at fabbing this thing out of the only other material i have: 10ga sheet. i know that may sound thin at first, but its actually pretty close to 3/16 material.

now for a problem:
after mocking up the cardboard i discovered i have a problem. the driver side UCA mount would be inaccessible in this configuration:



so now to a question: what is a possible solution to this? should i just chop off the control arms and make my own much like the TNT truss? do you guys think that the 10ga would be a strong enough base to attach a UCA arm to? i also have some 1/4 material in smaller pieces that i could use to reinforce the area around the uca possibly.

just for reference, here is the TNT truss (Note: obviously their UCA mounts are raised up a few inches has this been problematic at all for anyone?)

I think you want your control arms to be parallel in a 4 link is my only thought on the UCAs. How thick is the stock mount? If it is 3/16, 10 ga should be fine if boxed in and braced.

10ga is only .015 thicker the 1/8 in... Not very close to 3/16'' but do your thing looks like its going to be pretty cool

Why don't you just modify your truss so it's not in the way of the UCA mount? Looks like you could drop it down so it's almost flush with the top of the housing.

Cut off all 4 control arm mounts.

Build your truss.

Put new LCA brackets on so the bottom of the bracket is flush with the bottom of the axle tube.

Put new UCA brackets on the truss and increase their height by the same distance that you raised the LCA brackets.

Stock geometry retained, better control arm angles, and no more dragging the LCA brackets over rocks.

Chili Palmer said:

Why don't you just modify your truss so it's not in the way of the UCA mount? Looks like you could drop it down so it's almost flush with the top of the housing.

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well i would like as much material to go over the pumpkin as possible for the sake of strength.

MoparManiac said:

Cut off all 4 control arm mounts.

Build your truss.

Put new LCA brackets on so the bottom of the bracket is flush with the bottom of the axle tube.

Put new UCA brackets on the truss and increase their height by the same distance that you raised the LCA brackets.

Stock geometry retained, better control arm angles, and no more dragging the LCA brackets over rocks.

Click to expand...

this is a pretty good idea, and i would love to do it, but i dont have quite that much material. if i do cut my uppers off i may be able to use the 1/4" tube though i have to do some measuring though. so we'll see. i will keep this thread updated.

oh FYI: i have the TNT y-link, so the keeping of the uppers and lowers paralell is a non issue

dgrigorenko said:

this is a pretty good idea, and i would love to do it, but i dont have quite that much material. if i do cut my uppers off i may be able to use the 1/4" tube though i have to do some measuring though. so we'll see. i will keep this thread updated.

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if you dont cut off the PS UCA mount, dont bother with a truss. it is NOT worth it to save it and work around it and try to tie a truss into it.

run 2x4 .250" rect tubing from the passenger side of the center section to the coil bucket. just tie into the side of the housing and leave the stock DS UCA mount. box and gusset the LCA mounts and coil buckets. build/buy a better UCA mount. gusset inner c's. if youre gunna work over a 30, that should be about the about the mininuim truss work done.

foxwar71 said:

if you dont cut off the PS UCA mount, dont bother with a truss. it is NOT worth it to save it and work around it and try to tie a truss into it.

run 2x4 .250" rect tubing from the passenger side of the center section to the coil bucket. just tie into the side of the housing and leave the stock DS UCA mount. box and gusset the LCA mounts and coil buckets. build/buy a better UCA mount. gusset inner c's. if youre gunna work over a 30, that should be about the about the mininuim truss work done.

Click to expand...

i had every intention of cutting the passenger side UCA mount and remaking it, it was just mocked that way (good eye though i had forgot to throw that out there). i had thought about just trussing the passenger side, but i dont really like the idea of it ending at the pumpkin and being welded with high Ni electrode since it has a much lower tensile strength than steel. i am working on a full 2x4 tube version that i will test fit with the stock driver-side UCA. i will probably end up chopping it, but its just a big, committing step to do, and would like to explore all the options.

Here is how I did mine. I made it out of 2x4x3/16 box.

what's with the passenger side drop? is you're right side drive? is that from a cj originally?

xjtrailrider said:

Here is how I did mine. I made it out of 2x4x3/16 box.

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Not bad!! i like the ubolt plates as miniskids! did you do a writeup at any point, cause i searched the hell out of it and never found this!

thechief86 said:

what's with the passenger side drop? is you're right side drive? is that from a cj originally?

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aaahhh yep you found it... when i originally posted the pics i found that i had taken it upside down, so i just flipped it on photobucket making it look like a passenger side drop:dunce:. if you look back you will see that i fixed it... good eye!

dgrigorenko said:

Not bad!! i like the ubolt plates as miniskids! did you do a writeup at any point, cause i searched the hell out of it and never found this!

Click to expand...

Nope, no write up, nothing fancy about it. Just another polished turd

I also have Longfield shafts, 4.88's and a Aussie locker. I have been re-thinking the Aussie and might go full case just for extra insurance.

I'll be putting the axles in next week, they are still sitting in the floor.

Hmmmm....I've got some 2x6 3/16" box laying around from my rocker project. But a hobart 135 rig probably isn't hot enough, is it?

DeftwillP said:

Hmmmm....I've got some 2x6 3/16" box laying around from my rocker project. But a hobart 135 rig probably isn't hot enough, is it?

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It should be plenty hot enough. Just take your time and prep the metal real well to get the best penetration possible. More than one pass might help too.

I'm still fairly new to welding though.

I used my Hobart 125 MIG for my truss, the 135 is plenty big enough.

DeftwillP said:

Hmmmm....I've got some 2x6 3/16" box laying around from my rocker project. But a hobart 135 rig probably isn't hot enough, is it?

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sure it can... its all about joint preparation at that point. any material thickness can be welded as long as you prepare a joint properly and are willing to do multipass welds. i looked at the spec sheet for your welder and it says to you fluxcore for material that thick, and that is what i would also recommend. as far as preparation goes you will want to bevel the edge of the truss, and clean up the axle tubes really well. but be careful with what you clean with: read link in my sig

xjtrailrider said:

I have been re-thinking the Aussie and might go full case just for extra insurance.

.

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I highly recommend this. The Aussie is a great locker but the carrier can split in two under the pressure of the locker pushing out against the ends of the carrier. I am running a detroit and couldn't be happier with it.

Can a carrier be cryo treated like a r/p set?

DeftwillP said:

Can a carrier be cryo treated like a r/p set?

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I don't see why not.