[Beaniam]

Tried to do this cheap as possible and not exactly safe as possible. Had an old harbor freight chop saw laying around that the switch went bad on and I had replaced a while back. Dug it out put a new switch in and made it into a handheld demo saw of danger.

Before. Complete with horrible smittybilt bumper that stuck out about 2 feet.

First cut.

Running the scetchy as hell saw.

Turned out the saw worked great and for $0. I'll stop looking at $300 gas powered demo saws on craigslist now.

Second cut.

Cut off the shackle hanger and the frame from the middle of the hanger back.

Boxed in with a piece of 1/4"

Hanger off the back of the frame

Came up with a new crossmember out of a piece of scrap 3" c-channel from work.

Made up a recovery point out of some 2" square stock and 1/4" plate.

 

[Beaniam]

Tied the c-channel into the stock crossmember with 1/4" plate on the bottom and just welded the top to it.

Positioning the back of the bed back on.

Welded. No filler here, just welding and grinding. There isn't a straight panel on the truck anyway, why waste time with filler.

All done.

They are new spring packs so hopefully they'll settle to a little better shackle angle.

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

Not bad!

 

[81NorCalYota]

bob looks good, dunno about that shackle angle in the rear tho

 

[bajaviking]

Holy suicide machine Batman, glad to see you still have all your fingers:flipoff2:
Bob turned out good:smokin:

 

[kdub0013]

Nice, that saw is scary as shit, but nice lookin bed. Makes me wanna take another 5" outa mine.

 

[montezuma]

Kinda reminds me of chopperman's build from a few years ago when he back halved his runner with a concrete saw.

Nice looking bob job.

 

[KarateDoc]

How about a side view of the truck now?

 

[DTCsk8er]

Looks cool! Only issue I see is if you ever wanted to extend rear bumper coverage, you'd have to deal with shackle movement. But otherwise, pretty damn cool.

X2 on a side view.

 

[Beaniam]

Hard to get a decent shot. Dark when I leave for work, dark when I get back. Front and rear shackle angles are now vertical. Hoping it settles some. The 3" trailgear springs are a good 1-2" shorter eye to eye than the old trailgear 4" main leafs I had in my old packs. Kind of a pain and I did not know this before hand. I really don't feel like cutting the front hanger off a second time and moving it again. One good thing though is the center pin in the new 3" front springs is about 1 1/2" further forward of my old springs.

 

[Penetrode Offroad]

Yeah that shackle angle is gonna kill ya.

 

[surftaco]

looks good man, the bed came out nice

You could trim the body mount a little and relocate the shackle frame tube further forward. Thats what i ended up doing to fix my crappy shackle angle.

It might not be any easier then cutting/moving the front hanger, just another alternative

 

[bam671]

good job on the bob and ur shackle hanger

thats a cool saw u made :grinpimp:

 

[Rock-Alliance]

what size tire are u running?

 

[Beaniam]

They are 39.5's. I'll see how it wheels and decide later what to do about the front springs shackle angle. I originally did the frame tubes with a hole saw and all I can remember is the complete nightmare it was. That's probably what I'll end up doing though. I'll probably make my own rear spring hangers with 3 or 4 holes an inch apart for adjustability.

 

[KarateDoc]

What is your wheelbase and how tall is it to the frame?

 

[]4RunnerKid[]

why not swap in the top 2 leaves from the TG 4" packs? i'm guessing you no longer have them...?

truck looks good though.

 

[Beaniam]

why not swap in the top 2 leaves from the TG 4" packs? i'm guessing you no longer have them...?

truck looks good though.

They were bent and kinked to hell not to mention the second leaf, the one that half wraps the main leaf wouldn't fit anyway.

 

[Beaniam]

What is your wheelbase and how tall is it to the frame?

28" to the frame at the crossmember, wb is right around 109"

 

[W.O.T.]

if you built a fence of some kind for that saw it would be full on legit for cuts like that and a lot safer. I actually use a metal blade in a worm drive saw for a lot of cuts and a chopsaw would be like the beam saw version of that.