I know I ain't on here much, but time has come for some BIG decisions.... Sold my axles over the weekend, and the Rockwells were delivered to a local shop Sunday....

End result will be safe and reliable, running 44" tires on Rockwells, retaining Scout motor(345FI), Tranny (727), Tcase (D300). Brakes will be pinion mounted, steering will be full hydro front & rear. Has to seat two. I would like to keep some semblance of a Scout in the mix, so plan on maybe using the tub & frame, but at least using fender skins & some type of narrowed grill/hood. Initially use leafs to keep costs down, possibly quarter elip in the back.

Option1: Keep stock Frame & tub (less windshield), knock out the cheezy 3" body lift, chop back end off, locate front axle forward of motor, retube front end to accept outer fenders. Problem is the tub is too wide I think, and the stock setup has too much hanging down. Our wheeling in the east is mostly trees and rocks, narrow, tight, and gnarly. No open spaces to preserve body work or keep rigs shiny. Probably like you guys have in the NorthWest.

Option 2: Keep frame, ditch body, tube up a skeleton, floor, firewall. Tube up front end to accept skins, as well as tube up rear. Section grill and narrow. Hood is easy enough. Result may be much narrower chassis, but lots more fab work and design work. Is the stock frame strong enough? Probably have to box the hell out of it. Pluses are mounting points for d-train, but will I end up using them anyway?

Option 3: Tube frame. Most expensive and time consuming, but will result in rigid chassis and total flexibility. Leaning away from this as I don't have a lot of experience designing crap. Have some guys that want to tackle this, but....

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.... I searched for tube frame Scouts and Scout chassis, but haven't come up w/a whole lot. All my heep buddies point to some of the chassis makers to save time and effort, but I can't see laying out BLING for that...

If you are worried about width then why Rockwells, even with a hub flip won't you still be pushing 90" with tires?

If you are looking for a tube frame Scout II look up Caines rig on SNORT. I've got to imagine moving the front axle out that far is going to require a lot of work approaching the cost and time of running a link suspension.

I would do as you are thinking and use the fender skins with new tube supports up front, and dove tail the rear with tube using only the QP skins.

Joe

Originally posted by jdjanda
If you are worried about width then why Rockwells, even with a hub flip won't you still be pushing 90" with tires?

If you are looking for a tube frame Scout II look up Caines rig on SNORT. I've got to imagine moving the front axle out that far is going to require a lot of work approaching the cost and time of running a link suspension.

I would do as you are thinking and use the fender skins with new tube supports up front, and dove tail the rear with tube using only the QP skins.

Joe



Many folks on this board have built very capable rigs, even extreme rigs, but have still maintained the Scout *Look*. It can be done.

Hey Joe,

I'm not worried about overall width, as I am with chassis/body width. Using 4wheel steer, I've seen guys snake through our tree-lined trails fairly easily, despite wide axles. My thought is to have the chassis fairly narrow and low to the ground, while the axles are wide. Gives good side-hill stability this way, and there's less to worry about getting hung up on trees w/a narrow chassis. If you've seen the side of my Scout, you'll know that trees come in to play fairly often.. :D

I've looked at Cain's rig real hard (even shot him an email, but he hasn't replied). It's well done, but I don't wanna just copy what he did. Some other folks on this list have been pretty dam helpful off-line too though..

Spoke w/a bunch of folks last night, one of which is building tube frame chassis fairly cheap. So I'm leaning that way. Will just use the skins I guess. Gotta budget everything out next and go from there. Getting used to the idea of parting out my Scout - even though it's been a fun ride for so many years. *snif*:(


Originally posted by jdjanda
If you are worried about width then why Rockwells, even with a hub flip won't you still be pushing 90" with tires?

If you are looking for a tube frame Scout II look up Caines rig on SNORT. I've got to imagine moving the front axle out that far is going to require a lot of work approaching the cost and time of running a link suspension.

I would do as you are thinking and use the fender skins with new tube supports up front, and dove tail the rear with tube using only the QP skins.

Joe

Hey Hoop,

I've been fighting the urge to go heep, all my buddie have been pinging on me to go that route .... "SB chev, turbo400, atlas, what do you need Rob?!?!" Hear that alot. Still like the Scout, and think the boat anchor motor, great tranny, and buildable t-case is all I need. More torque off idle than some of these other motors at WOT... gear driven timing... I'll do my best to maintain at least a scout look on the front clip. and it'll still have the heart of a Scout....


Originally posted by Hooper




Many folks on this board have built very capable rigs, even extreme rigs, but have still maintained the Scout *Look*. It can be done.

OK I thought width was an issue

Keep the 727 IMHO it's a better trannny then the 400, and you can bolt an Atlas up to it with a Heep tailhousing swap.

If it where me, I'd build a new frame out of 2x4 stock, move the engine back a few inches, relocate the rad to the bed. Now you've got room up front for the rockwell without needing to move the axle forward a couple of feet.

Out back I'd run a 3 link using upper A-frame, but that will be tough with the top loader pinion on the rockwell. Maybe bring the a-frame in below and the links above the axle. Run some junkyard coils and your good.

If you've got time I'd narrow the tub and dovetail the rear bed area, just bringing in the rear a few inches will make a huge difference on the Scout. Up front I'd try to slope the hood line down and maybe narrow.

Joe

My buddy Rueben has built his own frame ,coils front & rear and is narowing the front. Still retaining the tub the rear will be shortned 10" and the front will be narrowed, but his rig will still have the scout look.

We're keeping the 727 and the D300. Atlas is too rich for my blood. 4-1 kit if needed. Should be plenty.

After more asking around and research locally, I'm leaning more towards a total tube frame. Build my own (or have them built) mounts, move everything back. May relocate radiator to bed, but for simplicity will probably keep it up front, just angled back to improve visibility. One thing I hate about the Scouts is the fact you gotta memorized 20 feet of trail at a time...

Suspension is still leaves, but if I can get a good deal on help w/a tube chassis, I might have enough money for a coilover set up. Still working the budget out....

I am more and more convinced that keeping the body & frame (even narrowed which I was considering) is more of an obstacle than a benefit.

If anybody is interested, I guess I could keep track of costs and kinda do a "report" on how this buildup goes...

If your really on a budget and still want coil rears just spend don't buy zillion dollar coils.
This truck kicks butt and runs some $25 junk yard coils from some full size car rear end... Certainly not streetable but it doesn't sound like thats what your trying to build.

http://pics.montypics.com/chrispucci72/2002-10-30/coils.jpg

I have never seen him lift a rear tire unless he was jumping it...

Originally posted by robc10x

I am more and more convinced that keeping the body & frame (even narrowed which I was considering) is more of an obstacle than a benefit.

If anybody is interested, I guess I could keep track of costs and kinda do a "report" on how this buildup goes...

Take a good look at the IH motor, you won't be able to narrow the frame by much, unless you move the motor above the frame rails.

Right. I meant more the body than the frame. I initially was gonna split my tub down the middle and section it, then cut the tranny tunnel/firewall so I could move the engine back & tuck the tranny/t-case up (& lower the body back down - has a 3" POS BL on it now) to help w/clearance. I'll need all the ground clearance I get. Some of the obstacles I wanna run are truck tall w/pretty good sized breakovers....

But Fuck it. I'm just going to go the Tube Chassis route.

(Sounds of cash registers in background... Sound of door slamming as wife drags suitcase out the door... "Honey - I love you!!!... Don't leave!!!.... I'm making it a two seater!!!.....)

If it were me I would try to keep as much of the scout look as you can. If nothing else just to be unique. Plenty of tube creations running around to blend in with. Make something different and stick out from the crowd.:)

Here's another vote for retaining a Scout-like appearance.

JR's Bronco *LOOKS* really nice.. because it looks like a Bronco, even if it's really a tube-frame buggy in a Bronco's skin.. and the Bronco skin has been modified a bit, too..

But at the end of the day, it LOOKS LIKE a Bronco.

Terry Keuhl's Scout is pretty much a tube-buggy.. but the Scout body parts are all dzus fastened to the tube and it looks more Scout than mine does..

I agree w/both of you - I've been battling the effort to maintain a unique truck for a bunch of years now! Granted, the most recent iteration looks like shit, and only has the scout tub & windshield, I tried!

Don't think I'll have anything close to JR's bronco (freakin' sweet rig), but I at least wanna resemble a Scout. We'll see. Function may win out over form....

Hey Tom - links to pics of Terry's rig??! I'm going the dzus route too...