MOAR :smokin:

Sweet ride, Buck. Bit of a step up from the Defender 90 days. Diggin the hood and lines of it, looks good.

So in terms of getting the weight distribution percentages as described, either you're one solid mofo with legs like Ronnie Coleman, or you'll be sitting WAY forward of the engine/auto/LT230 to make it happen. Granted the plan is to have you feet forward of the front axle, but with the driveline, radiator/tranny coolers and size of the rear links weighing against you, the 45/55 split is gonna be interesting to attain. That's from just looking at these 3 pics, mind you.

Like it a lot, though. Nice fab work as always.

Mick

 

Granted the plan is to have you feet forward of the front axle, but with the driveline, radiator/tranny coolers and size of the rear links weighing against you, the 45/55 split is gonna be interesting to attain.

Not as hard as you might think. The Jimmy's, M&M, Jim's Garage etc. buggies have been moving the engine WAY back for several years with the driver's feet almost against the exhaust and achieving almost 50/50 distribution.

My SXOR buggy has the rear engine LS1 WAY foreward and weighs 1,600# front and 1,680# rear without occupants. (49/51) It has a 106" wheelbase. Adding the extra length should achieve the desired result. My buggy has had no problem with steep climbs and really shown no tendency to "flip over backward."

Well.......... except one time on the rock pile on Pritchett's at Moab.!!

Here it is on Helldorado Waterfall in Moab. I had just picked up the buggy from Brandon Johnson (SXOR) and didn't have any seat time. I was really worried it would flip on this obstacle. It made it look easy.

SXOR Buggy on Heldorado Waterfall Area BFE - YouTube

Rear engine buggies are more stable than people think. I also really like the lack of heat off of the engine in the summer!

Good luck with the build, David. I am definately subscribed to this one. You're gonna LOVE it!!!:smokin:




John.

 

Its cute looking, can I fit in it and go for a ride? LOL Seriously, looks good and looking forward to watching!

 

Lol. No. You couldn't get in there unless we took the roof off and you drove around with your head out the top! :grinpimp:

This is going to be interesting, David.
Curious to see how it will turn out.
:smokin:

All the best!

Thanks man!

Nice looking foundation. Those "V"ed B pillars look good and geometrically sturdy. Interesting layout tweak with the front end changes, looking forward to seeing it pan out.

Thanks!

Not as hard as you might think. The Jimmy's, M&M, Jim's Garage etc. buggies have been moving the engine WAY back for several years with the driver's feet almost against the exhaust and achieving almost 50/50 distribution.

My SXOR buggy has the rear engine LS1 WAY foreward and weighs 1,600# front and 1,680# rear without occupants. (49/51) It has a 106" wheelbase. Adding the extra length should achieve the desired result. My buggy has had no problem with steep climbs and really shown no tendency to "flip over backward."

Well.......... except one time on the rock pile on Pritchett's at Moab.!!

Here it is on Helldorado Waterfall in Moab. I had just picked up the buggy from Brandon Johnson (SXOR) and didn't have any seat time. I was really worried it would flip on this obstacle. It made it look easy.

SXOR Buggy on Heldorado Waterfall Area BFE - YouTube

Rear engine buggies are more stable than people think. I also really like the lack of heat off of the engine in the summer!

Good luck with the build, David. I am definately subscribed to this one. You're gonna LOVE it!!!:smokin:




John.

Thanks bud! I raced the car in the attached pic two years ago. I was surprised that it was 50/50 as well. I like it a lot, but I didn't like having no passenger and not much room for fuel.

So compared to your car, the engine and cab on this one is 8in farther forword and the wheelbase is 114. It's also a little wider for longer. However, I am carrying 22 gallons of fuel and I have a cast iron block. So thats another 50lb back there. Plus, those sticky treps and Trailready beadlocks make a damn heavy combination. I still think I can hit it though.

2 engines...holy hell that will be fast:flipoff2:

I'll add a third engine just to be be sure. lol.

 

This is going to put the driver and passenger feet in front of the front axle

This is going to be interesting, David.
Curious to see how it will turn out.
:smokin:

All the best!

 

Nice looking foundation. Those "V"ed B pillars look good and geometrically sturdy. Interesting layout tweak with the front end changes, looking forward to seeing it pan out.

 

Here is the plan:

Rear Engine
Solid Axle
Exceptional Visibility
Mid Engine
114 wheel base
40in tires
9in up front
14 bolt rear
4340 axles
LQ9

2 engines...holy hell that will be fast:flipoff2:

 

There are a couple things on this build that are a big departure from the norm. Like these two things:

NV4500 manual transmission. :shaking::flipoff2:

LT230 from a Land Rover

Let the flaming commence.....now! :flipoff2:

 

Curious- why the LR T-case? Any advantage to it other than having it laying around?

I love the NV4500 and like the manual trans for the reliability factor, but they hang down like giant donkey di*k.

 

Me too on the NV. Thats why I am running it. I destroy auto's. I am just done with them.

The t-case was not laying around. I had to go through serious shenanigans to get it on the truck. I had to mill my own adapter (I have milled a lot on this car because of Widia making that possible). Then I had to broach out the input splines to chevy 32 spline. Then take a dodge 2wd NV4500 output and broach that to 32 spline as well because it was the only one long enough. All in all, it was a lot of work.

So why? The LT230 is as strong as an atlas if not stronger (I'm going to get hell for it. I know. I won't even argue the point. I'll just rollover and play dead :flipoff2. It's light, has a 3.32 to 1 low range, and I grabbed the one with the 1.2 to 1 high range. It takes a little stress off the rest of the drivetrain and worked perfect with my gearing. It also has an open diff setting that is awesome for the desert. And I really like the offset front and rear diffs.

The negatives: Sucks for digs, no front rear split. You can weld up the spiders and get that, but I ain't no cone dodger anyway! Spiders have been known to blow apart. I have the upgraded piece for that. And when they break, usually it just locks you in diff lock. It's also tough to get in there. All in all, I dig these t-cases.

 

you are a tease Dave. This thing is much further along than you are showing.

 

This. Dave, you need to show the PBB some of that beautiful truss work etc.

 

I would go right to 300m for the shafts based on my experience racing and many others on here but it looks like a cool build. Perhaps with your connections you are doing something special to make 4340 last. Congrats on the out of industry sponsor!

 

looks great, im looking forward to watching this one come together

 

Please share pics of what you did to the LT230 to get it to accept a 32-spline input shaft!

 

I'll grab the "practice" gear I have and take a few pics. It's just edm'd to 32 spline. Plenty of meat around the gear too.

Here are another round of updates as I get caught up.

Axles getting slung into place. Ruffstuff 9in up front and a 14 bolt in the back:

You are going to see a lot of milled parts on this truck as Widia is pretty much the best milling a turning company out there. I have access to CNC work so I spent some time going over the top. Here is the axle extension piece turned to .002 under inside diameter:

Ruffstuff weld on dana 60 axle ends. I'm going to be running identicle hubs, brakes, slugs on all 4 corners for simplicity.

 

Trying to catch up to the build. So here is a pic dump. Lol. Better than being boring, right? :flipoff2:

Welded up:

I want to thank PSC for all the help. Lance is amazing and the new stuff is pretty:

Rear Axle is mostly done. The trusses are made from 1in cold rolled 1018 that was milled to honeycomb with .040 floors. Light and strong.

Happy 4th everybody!!!!!

 

whats the overall WMS on that 14 and the length of that longside if you dont mind?

 

WMS I can never remember. But it's 82" outside of tire to outside or tire with a 4in backspaced wheel. I'll grab the long side measurement for you.

Those are my old creepy crawlers :laughing:

Could have been I guess. Then these showed up. Thanks Maxxis! :grinpimp:

 

Those are my old creepy crawlers :laughing:

 

I'm sorry, but that is one mother fucking bad ass tire.

 

x2.

Honeycomb truss is art work, how long did that take to machine?

 

Keep the pics coming buddy!!!! :flipoff2:

 

A few updates;

Front axle coming together. Hope the 9in stays together in this application, but choices were limited based on the front driveshaft lenth.

There are a lot of milled parts going into this build thanks to Widia. One of the pieces I am pretty proud of is the winch fairlead. Made out of billet 6061

 

Sorry for all the delays. Fist day back home in a week.

Links have been finished. I have ran Taylors links on two cars so far. I love them and I really like Taylor. But, this time around his delivery was too far out, so I went about making them myself. So heat treated 4130 top and bottom. Tops are 1.75 x .120 and lowers are 2x.250 wall. Just as an fyi, if anyone has priced out 2x.250 4130 bar, Taylor has good prices!

Rear lowers. Tougher to get made than you would think.

Trailing arms milled from 3/8

Front at past full droop:

Rear at no important height:

 

Hmm,

Quiet in here. Lol.

A couple more of the mill work I have been up to. These are made from 3/8 1018. .040 floors. The weight nothing, but a lot of fun to make!

 

I like the old 90 better.

:flipoff2:

 

I loved that Rover.

Dang man. Looks awesome! nice patience and skill.

The honeycomb is real cool. Nice to see something different!

Whats your concern on the front 9? is that a Tru hi unit or a 8.8 geared unit?

It's just a standard 9 flipped because of the rear engine. All the parts are the good stuff to make it as stong as I could. My concern is just having 400hp going through a manual to get to it. The power soak is a lot less and the shock can be great if not shifted well. I had a custom clutch made for it that should allow me lots of slip without burning it up. The shock of a manual is a concern in general. We will see how good of a driver I am. :laughing:

Looks good man. Loving the detail. Its going to be hard to keep that amount of detail through the entire rig, but if you do its going to be impressive. :smokin:

It won't have that much detail throughout the build. For instance, the titanium plate was just way to expensive to pull off.

 

Dang man. Looks awesome! nice patience and skill.

The honeycomb is real cool. Nice to see something different!

Whats your concern on the front 9? is that a Tru hi unit or a 8.8 geared unit?

 

Looks good man. Loving the detail. Its going to be hard to keep that amount of detail through the entire rig, but if you do its going to be impressive. :smokin:

 

Man this car is looking good. I want one of those honey comb trusses real bad!:smokin:

 

Give me sketch of the OD and I can have one made for you for surprisingly little. I already have the tooling path all written. Changing the outside demensions are cake.

 

I'll keep that in mind, I have a feeling it would be quite overkill for the Toyota axle I am running, but it doesn't make me want one any less! It would be real easy to draw though so I may be in touch.

 

This buggy will fall apart first race no fancy Tig welded chassis.:flipoff2:















Looking real good.

 

This buggy will fall apart first race no fancy Tig welded chassis.:flipoff2:

The funny thing is... the last thing he welded fell apart... :laughing: