Soooo - we need to talk about your old winch.....

Once you get the new one up and running.

Maybe, it may have a much harder future than the front of a bronco.

mounted to the front of a trailer perhaps......?

Perhaps

Some prep work, fabricated the internal frame supports from plate & channel steel, the trick is getting it to fit the smaller part of the boxed frame, I still need to weld on 1/8" spacers for wider part of the frame, when done it should be a gap free fit. Also cut the frame sections down and taking inspiration from a recent Gearz episode, I am mimicking his frame joining technique. Stacey David was shortening a frame not lengthening it, but the idea is to increase the welded area and make it horizontal with fewer sharp edges. I still have some planning to do before I cut my frame but I'm supper close. Total frame length will be increased by 24".

Also took a few more measurements on the drivetrain, I'm going to move the whole thing back 3" and combined with my 24" stretch I'll end up with the same length driveshafts. My sticking point will be the exhaust outlet from the turbo, I expected this and there are a couple of options for dealing with it, I'll choose one and post up the solution. The bonus to moving the engine back is I won't need to cut my front cross member down.

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I've been watching diesel prices for about a year now, basically since I decided to do my swap, and what a surprise to see this sign yesterday.

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I wish I could say I'm happy, but it just means the summer high gas prices have arrived.

Good thing there is more to the equation than just the price of fuel. What were you getting for MPG's? With the swap; mid to high 20's??

I bought my first diesel in 2003 when it was 30-40 cents cheaper. It only took months for it to skyrocket because petrol companies realized this diesel thing is more than just a craze. Still, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I paid $3.58 when i filled up in Longmont today. Good stuff, have to love having your pricing set by the trucking lobby.

I think its funny, diesel fuel costs less to make, yet the rat bastards charge more for it....because they can

I've often thought prices were driven by demand, but I've never done the research. Does the US use more gas than diesel (likely), does Europe use more diesel than gas (again likely), and what about production level of fuel types in each region? I'll have to do some light reading this weekend and report what I find.

I'll bet the use of diesel in this country would surprise some of us.. think of all the infrastructure that uses diesel.. trains, big rigs, construction etc etc etc.. however with whatever millions of cars on the road I would say gas consumption is used more overall but would be interesting to find out more :)

I would bet that the higher taxed diesel (not red diesel) is probably between 30 & 40% compared to gasoline. I could be wrong as the big rigs could throw a wrench into my figures. I know their gas mileage sucks!

Some significant progress was made this weekend. Hockeydad gave up some precious weekend time and helped me cut up my frame, it was nice to have a second set of eyes and another opinion on my ideas. Now to start the second most fun part, putting it back together.

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Yeeeehaw!!

Kirk, you are gettin' it done in warp speed !

Looking forward to seeing it in person.

Let me know if you need a hand sometime.

Another successful weekend, frame sections cleaned up and splice sections in place. One of the internal support pieces fought me, I ended up cracking my concrete floor, think "Hulk Smash." Hockeydad aka "self leveling laser eye" stopped by to confirm my measurements and do a final bit of alignment (thats the diagonal strap in the final pic) before I did a few spot welds. I've started drilling the 16 bolt holes through the 7 layers of steel for the bolts, that should only take me a week! But it is moving as one complete piece again with no jack stands. Very happy with the fit so far, final measurements put me within 1/16" in all directions & most were dead on.

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Keep it comin!

Looks and sounds great! I'm sure you already know but if you drill around a 1/4" hole where you want your hole then follow it up with a good stepper bit it will make things WAY faster and easier.

Gentlemen, it took both pieces of advice, I bought 2 stepped bits and made sure the largest step was 1/2". I've got 8 bolts in and 14 to go. I also picked up some fancy Grade G locking flange nuts for the final assembly, I don't want to mess with locking washers on the frame.

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Question to all, and yes I'm looking for personal opinions and I'll hold none responsible since the final decision is mine.

Should I add one more external plate over the S cut on the frame and should I weld it or just bolt it?

I've read just about every frame stretch article I could find on the web, from hot rods & 4x4's to big rigs. Most folks only add 1 maybe two layers to a frame stretch, heat treated frames use bolts only. I already have two structural 3/16" side pieces inside the frame & two 1/8" top/bottom U channel pieces in there as well. Those will be held to the frame with bolts and welds. The frames S cuts will be fully welded, so is all the above enough or should add one more layer?

Bring in the banter!

do you have any concerns with the bolt ends interfering with anything when you install the exhaust or other stuff under neath? just asking.. would thing if you could find some button end bolts (if thats what they are called) it would make things a bit smoother under there..

Are the internal pieces welded to the factory frame pieces? I assume so, but had to ask.

I think you are good. I cut my frame to get my Atlas to clock flat. I added some 1x2 tubing on the outside.


The trouble with this is if you ever add sliders or suspension brackets, they won't be symmetrical. I would think that adding one L-shaped steel piece inside each side would have been adequate and you've done double that.

Drop that drivetrain in!

As Landshark said, the extra steel plate is pretty cheap insurance. You are building a rig that will twist and flex and the stress will be on those welds. I added the extra plate and consider the bolts as insurance against the previously mentioned bronco taco


Now someone needs to find and post a pic of a taco'd bronco

I think a cross-member would be better for the twisting. But that can wait until after you have everything in.

Fellas, thanks for pushing me in the right direction, I knew it was meant to be when I pulled the perfect piece of steal out of my stash, 80"+ piece of 3" x 3/16 flat stock. I cut it down to eight 10" pieces and used brianut's drill press to punch 32 1/2" holes, thanks Brian.

And by the way, I finally got my Lincoln to shut down from use after 2 hours of welding, my fault since I didn't really give it a break and I had it turned up. So I gave it 30 min to cool off and it fired back up, I know it isn't rated at 100% duty cycle, but it's the 1st time I've ran it that hard.

Axles yanked so I can rotate the frame and weld the frame in an easy position.

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It wasn't too bad using a lift, but dang that thing is long now.

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One of the S cuts welded up, I setup my welder after welding a few test runs on a left over piece of frame & internal splice I built. I then cut through the pieces to confirm good welds. I've always read about doing this but this is the 1st time I've done it.

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Welds cleaned up to prep the area for the external plates to be fitted, no contamination or gaps and good penetration.

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Plates cut, drilled, corners rounded and bolted in place.

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Burned in.

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You should have called - I would have come over. Between the two of us we can flip that frame pretty easy. I did mine with one of the boys.

The welds and plates look awesome!

Now get her back together and lets hear that 4Bt start to rumble!

You got some purdy welds...