First some backround info. There are really a ton of other reasons I finally decided to start over. The front runners were to see what I could do fabrication wise. Back in 04 when I built my first from scratch chassis I owned a tube bender, welder and grinder. Original build thread. I took a few ribbings for some of my gussets and brackets but considering the tools at hand they did the job. The old 3 seater buggy was designed around a 4 cylinder engine and Toyota drive train which I quickly realized was a mistake. Our wheeling style was rapidly evolving with us tackling obstacles that were impossible to crawl; the writing on the wall said bigger axles were in my future. The buggy was eventually tore down and 1 ton axles replaced the old Toyota running gear. People joked the weak link in my drive train was now the crankshaft in my 1.6l power plant, I thought they were joking till I threw a rod while wheeling down in Mammoth Az.
Once again the chassis was tore down and modified, this time to fit a supercharged 3.8l, an automatic transmission and a Dana 300 transfer case. After that it was on! I soon realized just how much an advantage horsepower and an automatic was when shooting waterfalls.
Fast forward another year or so and with the talk of adding another kid to the family I started in on transforming the buggy into a 4 seater. The back half was cut completely off and the rear suspension reconfigured to fit a 36” bench seat. The second kid never materialized but the utility of the extra seat was much appreciated. The chassis was approaching 5 years old at this point. Somewhere along the way I completely destroyed the rear 60 by breaking it into 3 pieces after rolling off a waterfall. The front axle wasn’t far behind, weakened by being shaved it started to leak more and more. I was at the point of spending a lot of time and money to refurb the old rig.
Here's what pushed the build new option to the top of the pile: I had the axles and a drive train I liked so the new chassis could be built around those components. More importantly I had 5 years of wheeling experience in the same basic chassis. Armed with that knowledge I still came up with a wish list of things I wanted to change. Every option on my list would required major chassis revisions, the new chassis made even more sense.
Going back to 3 seats but more storage room.
Designed for a two piece driveshaft up front (no carrier bearing). Hoping to actually be able to use 4 high.
Belly is 3" higher than the last chassis despite the roof being an inch lower (The old Toyota 5 speed was TALL!).
Interior needs to be bigger, especially on the passenger side where the huge intake is practically in the passengers lap.
Passenger compartment will have a full floor (no open area under the seats)
Lower hood line for better front visibility.
More suspension up travel
Here's 5 years of tinkering compressed into 2 pictures.
Once again the chassis was tore down and modified, this time to fit a supercharged 3.8l, an automatic transmission and a Dana 300 transfer case. After that it was on! I soon realized just how much an advantage horsepower and an automatic was when shooting waterfalls.
Fast forward another year or so and with the talk of adding another kid to the family I started in on transforming the buggy into a 4 seater. The back half was cut completely off and the rear suspension reconfigured to fit a 36” bench seat. The second kid never materialized but the utility of the extra seat was much appreciated. The chassis was approaching 5 years old at this point. Somewhere along the way I completely destroyed the rear 60 by breaking it into 3 pieces after rolling off a waterfall. The front axle wasn’t far behind, weakened by being shaved it started to leak more and more. I was at the point of spending a lot of time and money to refurb the old rig.
Here's what pushed the build new option to the top of the pile: I had the axles and a drive train I liked so the new chassis could be built around those components. More importantly I had 5 years of wheeling experience in the same basic chassis. Armed with that knowledge I still came up with a wish list of things I wanted to change. Every option on my list would required major chassis revisions, the new chassis made even more sense.
Going back to 3 seats but more storage room.
Designed for a two piece driveshaft up front (no carrier bearing). Hoping to actually be able to use 4 high.
Belly is 3" higher than the last chassis despite the roof being an inch lower (The old Toyota 5 speed was TALL!).
Interior needs to be bigger, especially on the passenger side where the huge intake is practically in the passengers lap.
Passenger compartment will have a full floor (no open area under the seats)
Lower hood line for better front visibility.
More suspension up travel
Here's 5 years of tinkering compressed into 2 pictures.
Initially I went with a front mounted radiator but after a while the rear mounted just made more sense since it would let me move the engine further forward giving more room in the passenger cabin, allow for a much lower hood line, make shock mounting easier, allow better engine access and move the fans behind us so they are not blowing hot air into the passenger compartment.
