Ok. did anyone catch that little tech article in Fourwheeler about the rockwells.There was a place in Florida putting discs on the bearing hubs and using a 1/2 ton chevy caliper..Said it was a class IV rotor(...nice generic term to guard their trade secret I suppose)..Anyways, anyone have any ideas what machine work they are doing to attach these discs.i can forsee turning the holes out to fit the hub and maybe redrilling the rotor(hard to believe it would fit since the rockwell is a 6 on 8 3/4 and one ton is 8 on 6 1/2).I have seen pro truck pullers running 2 and 5 ton axles (with removable centers like 9 inch) running rotors welded to the hub..idea's anyone or does anyone have the scoop to this particular set-up....thanx in advance.:D

I didn't read the article in 4wheeler, but i have thought about this setup a little bit. There would be no way to do it with the hubs flipped in, unless you ran a 25" wheel, and found an extremely large rotor that would clear the knuckle. So , that's pretty much out of the question.
The way i think is the only possibility, is to flip the hus out. then macine out the entire center section of a chevy 1/2ton rotor. The dia. of the center section, would need to be the same as the dia. of the hub on the rockwell, about 6". Then build a bracket to hold the caliper. This bracket would have to go where the orig. brake backing plate went, bolted to the spindle, using the studs that hold the spindle to the knuckle. I think there are about 24 of them. then, set this bracket to hold the caliper just to the outside of the knuckle for clearance, and place it over the rotor. Then mark the exact position that the rotor needs to be in. And take it to a machine shop to have it welded on and balanced, and aligned. the rotor would now be attached via weld to the hub.

That's the only way i could think of to do it, but i would like to hear other ideas, if anyone has any...

I've never paid any attention to a 2 1/2 ton...What does the hub flange look like ? Is there any way you can use it as the rotor ?
post a pic, if possible.

Class 4 may be the gvw rating of the truck the rotor was made for..semis are class 8 I believe.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by elf_cruiser
[B]I didn't read the article in 4wheeler, but i have thought about this setup a little bit. There would be no way to do it with the hubs flipped in, unless you ran a 25" wheel, and found an extremely large rotor that would clear the knuckle.

That is what I was thinking to in respect to the hubs would have to be flipped..which I wanted mine flipped in for the narrower wms... and I wouldn't wan't a 25 inch rim:eek: .the more I look at the pictures of a rig in the same issue with rocwells on page 91 and 92 you can barely see in the photo on page 92 the back of the lug studs in front of the rotor suggesting the rotors are flipped to the wide track..good thoughts though...Anyone else?:D

http://members.aol.com/ok17roper/images/inthub.jpg

Pic of hub flipped in if this helps visualize!!!! :rasta:

oops i forget too BIG SorrY!!!!!

I was staring at the rotor I had for doing the pinion brakes and I decided that you could do wheel-mounted brakes in the REAR. With the hubs mounted the narrow way, you'd have to drill the holes in the rotor to match the bolt pattern on the end of the hubs, where the axle flange bolts on on the opposite side of the hub (I believe there are 8 holes). Then you could build a caliper bracket coming off the housing and you'd have wheel-mounted brakes on the rear. I'm not sure how you'd adjust for the balance between the front/rear if you still had the pinion brake in the front. An adjustable proportioining valve may or may not do the trick. I haven't got any bright ideas for the front, yet.

Somebody PLEASE edit that picture and make it go away :eek:

Anybody have the issue handy? What was the name/website of the place that did the conversion on the Rockwell? I have a buddy asking.

Originally posted by onetonwillysands10
...Said it was a class IV rotor(...nice generic term to guard their trade secret I suppose)...

I don't have the mag yet, but perhaps they mean they used a rotor off a class 4 truck (ie F-450, old style 3500-HD Chevy, the baby Freightliners).

Pete

The wheel brakes in that article are definately with the hubs flipped out. I hate to say that it isn't possible but I dont think there are any easy ways of doing brakes at the wheels on a front end with the hubs flipped in.

By the way, what do most people do when they flip the hubs in on the front? I was going to have recesses machined into the lug nut area on the backside so that the stud whould be recessed into the hub by about 1/4" or so...I was thinking that should clear if your using bolts to hold the spindle on.

Brakes at the wheel in the rear would be pretty easy, hubs in or not.

CJ

Yeah, brakes on the rear would definitely be easy. But how many of us want rear steer? I sure do.

See the picture above to find out how to flip the hubs. Just take them off, pound the studs out, pound them back in from the other direction. You'll have to take a 4" angle grinder to the studs to clearance them so they won't hit the bolt heads, but you can see in that picture that this is what has been done. Another way would be to machine the surface so the studs mount farther outboard but then you may have a problem with the shoulder of the studs sticking out too far. When we did it we used the 4.5" angle grinder and it worked great.

Anyone have a "bigger" pic than the one above, of the same area (one that shows more, not one that is 2 screens wide).

Was driving around at lunch today, and noticed that some UPS trucks (I would assume American Chassis) used a wide 6 bolt pattern. I've seen lots of other medium duty trucks that do too, including a lot of ferrin' ones. Even if the bolt pattern was a little off, if the general shape was right, you could drill the correct pattern 30° off.

Pete

Whats the dia. of the hub behind the flange ?
The racecar rotors with the separate "hat" ? have a pretty large hole and maybe it would fit over the bearing hub behind the flange, Just a thought.

I am thinking the bearing hub has an O.D. of about 6 1/2 inches which is the same size as the bolt pattern on a 8 lug wheel (8 on 6 1/2 normal ton pattern and 6 on 8 3/4 for rockwell)..thanx for the input..:D

Just a thought, but with the hubs flipped IN, could the hub body OD and the hub flange OD be torned down to work with a 1 ton sized disc ?

From a few of those pics, I looks like even the front could clear with a little work.

I have done CAD work on some large disc 300Z stuff for a local ricer supplier, but those silly cars just arent where the heart beats.

Somebody ship me some rockwells and I will get it figured out and post the results.

c'mon !

What about this...putting a cliper bracket inbetween the spindle and the knuckle, then finding a rotor that we can open the ID up to the OD of the bearing hub and drill the rockwell pattern into, then have the od turned down to work with the caliper bracket and to fit in a 10" rim.

CJ