THE BUILD - Part 2

Assembling the Front Axle

The reason we chose to go with this width is to gain a stable footing with the wider track and at the same time allow a strong linkarm setup that still allows us to turn 45 degrees.  Any narrower on the axle and we'd lose turning radius from the tire contacting link arms, frame, shocks, etc.

The first thing we started with was the Diamond Axle housing.  It is a fabricated housing with a unique design that allows us to gain under-axle ground clearance, while being easy to fabricate around and light weight.  The tubes were pressed in and welded at Diamond by Brian Ellinger and his crew.  I gave him the offset measurements that would stuff the housing on the far left side of the axle, giving just enough room for the lower link arms, knuckles, and shocks. The total housing width including the axle tubes but not the inner C's is  43 1/2".  Using the diagram below, the measurements are as follows:  A to B = 22.750"      B to C = 16"     C to D = 4.750"  Again, those measurements are the tubes and housing only...unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the housing with tubes but not inner C's for the diagram.

With the Dedenbear inner C welded on, that left 2.5" of tube to work with on the left side so the inner C takes up 2.250" of the tube when pressed on.

To get things ready to check, the races and bearings were installed into the knuckles and the kingpin was installed on the inner C.  The knuckle was then place on the C and bolted together with the high steer arms.

The first thing to check was turning angle. I do not believe the Ackerman argument applies in rockcrawling, I had Bender grind the steering stops on the outer knuckles to a point where the knuckle could turn 45 degrees in both directions.  While doing that, Bender found he needed to clean a tiny amount of the front of the inner C off as well to get the 45 degrees I asked for.  We are NOT worried about the loss of material affecting strength as these parts are ultra beefy and won't be hurt by the loss of that small amount of metal.  It is hard to see in the picture but the area where he had to grind on the inner C is just above the lower horizontal section on the front.  It looks white in this picture.  Also, you can see how the steering stop was ground on the outer knuckle.

Next the BTF high steer arms were bolted on and you can see they are custom "double" arms that extend forward and backward from the knuckle.  The Dedenbear knuckles use a 5th high steer bolt to add strength to an already strong setup so the BTF knuckles will be made to accommodate that extra bolt. We will have a trick steering setup on this axle so the double arm will be necessary but only on the right side.  The left will be re-done to a rear facing arm before the build is finished.

The suspension was then mocked up and we'll cover that in the Build 6 section.  With the suspension mocked, we were able to choose the pinion angle which is 3 degrees up at ride height to get the proper driveshaft alignment. With the pinion at the proper angle we used a digital angle finder to rotate the knuckles to get the caster angle we were looking for.  We chose 4.5 degrees at ride height because it has worked well for us on our other crawlers.  At full stuff, the angle changes to 7 degrees because of the link setup chosen to keep the driveshaft pointing where it should.

In the middle of all of this there was a ton of other stuff going on with the steering and suspension but I'm keeping those in the other sections of the build story so each step is in its own category.  Trust me, the whole thing is a big puzzle and you truly cannot do the build "one section at a time."  When everything is custom, it is best to mock everything up at the same time, never making things permanent with full welds until the entire picture is complete.

All along through the build, little stylish details are being added.  Check out the diamond cutout Matt drew up and cut out to accent the Diamond Axle housing!

Next, the knuckles were tacked in place at the proper caster, then the housing removed and placed on a high table for easier welding.  Dallas removed the tacks and brackets for better access for welding then Dan went to town with his TIG gun.

Also, I'll come back with the final WMS to WMS measurement once the outers are installed.

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