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I have been a busy bunny ......................



The previous thread showed the construction of the unit, and how built etc,
the entire unit is "Wider" than the normal 90 crossmember, as I have cut back the rear wings - when you do this the crossmember then shows itself as being too narrow.........

next was the fitting and fettling to finish the job,
as with all things this has taken far longer than I first thought and even when I had made the unit
I thought fitting it would be "A couple of hours". ...................................


Yeah




Anyway, 1st thread of the "Unit" build here :


http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=13122



Before I did fit it tho I needed some recovery points.
I had thought of to large "Loops" horizontaly welded each side of the chassis rail for real strength,
so I made up a bendy tool - this was some scrap steel and a lump of 90mm OD SOLID rod which I had "Hanging about" (makes very good 8mm thick wall tube )

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And then drilled holes through the whole assembly thus :

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The only problem with this was having done it I thought it looked pants .............
( As I said to Jon W "Looks as if me crossmember has grown T*ts " ..............
so removed them - and puddled welded up the 8 22m holes
then centalised the recovery point - redrilling yet more holes....

When a mate turned up the rear crossmember suddenly 'disappeared' when he picked up my plasma, ..............
so we then, with the use of trolley jacks, axle stands and several tape measures moved the new "Unit" into place :

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Where the old unit has been cut away left large gaps,
around 6 inches and then the "Tray" of the winch unit had to be reduced width wise to fit neatly,
but with minimal tweaking it was on. and the overlap to the chassis is HUGE !

The 4x body mounts were bolted on......... then the "Unit" jacked up and made to fit level / square and flush,
................then the 'body tub mounts' were tacked in place.

The trolley jack was removed
much 'Oooing' and 'arrring' took place,
few tweaks with a hammer, ...............then trolley jack returned ....(more there to support), ....and the welding began.

He welded ....I plasma'd sections, ....then we swapped, ......after about 4 hours continous we had a crossmember that was well and truly on.

The joys of having a 210amp welder with a decent duty cycle showed up here I cannot honestly remember the welding torch really being put down for more than a few seconds in 4 hours !

few pics of progress :


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The winch tray and main "Cross member" meant they were able to be welded into the chassis rail in several locations, once done the letter box was reloacted and welded up, .............nice to then find the towbar relocated prefectly. The letter box is also higher and wider than the SS Hawse unit, so in theory the rope can never touch the sides of the letter box under load, even so I linished it till smooth on all planes, and also polished the welds too. The letterbox was 5mm plate and links the tray to the crossmember adding massive strength.

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The welding and plate work continued.

The "Sides" and "extensions" are 5 or 6mm plate welded in so many directions and planes to give huge strength,
Oh how I love my plasma cutter
A quick test fit of the mile marker (RHS .75mm clearance !) (but the winch drum is centre of the chassis) made me breath a sigh of relief as my measurements had said it would be "Close"

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In for the day, then back out and some paint :

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The bolty up bits ..............oh and make up a braket for the air line for the air freespool, , oh and make a bit of ali to cover the hole in the tub above the crossmember, oh and modify the freespool bracket and weld up, oh and then tweak other bits oh and Plait a hook for the winch cable with a "Hand Saver" on it, oh then make up hyd hoses etc shove hook on and spool on ..........

and hey presto :

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Have worked out from start to finsih around 64 hours work !


So there you go, .............hope its of interest


OoooooooooooooooooooooooH.....and its quite quick too

1500 rpm 2nd gear (5th equals over twice as Fast)

MileMarker On Steriods

CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE FOR AN ICCKLE VIDEO



Nige

Proper job Nige.

Glad to see you didn't succumbe to turning it into a cheese grater!

Yeah fair comment !

After the original crossmember hit the floor and I could barely pick it up as it was full of mud I picked up the new one - it was lighter

SO on that basis I just fitted it !

Ta for your design and stress calcs help Bish - much appreacited.....


...........................as a mate said to me today - ........................................



"Nige - if that lot comes off you'll already be on your way to hospital "

Nige

Oi ............the vid is password protected .................



Very nice job indeed ................... however just one small comment ................. pictures 5 & 22 both show your welding helmet laying FACE down on the concrete ........... say after me............. when not in use............... hang it on the gauges.............. then the face plate viewing area will not get scratched.







Ian

very nice! but no way to treat an expensive welding helmet
tut tut

Top job there Nige very tidy!
When's it out for it's official test?

i got a right good lecture at work about that " NEVER never ever sit that on the ground"

Yep

You are all correct.



Like a kid with a 'new bike',
at 1st you look after it, treasure it and treat it like your 1st love.
Then at some later point yer just get off yer bike and let it drop to the ground

But you all have a point




I have redone the video linky , does it work now ?

Nige

Video works
crossmember looks very nice work as always.

Propper job, Nige I was having a chat with someone the other day about rear x-members and we both reckoned that something like yours will be lighter than a standard one item as there's a suprising amount of steel in them and so many mud traps!

Your right about the plasma. I've used one before and I'm seriously thinking about getting one as I believe I'm responsible for a shortage of 1mm cutting discs in the Oxfordshire area and I'm fed up with grindings everywhere!m

Ta for the kind comments Will...............yep it was lighter than what came off full of mud !.........



Re the plasma ..............for those who wonder


I've had the plasma for a while now, it has earnt its keep.

When I bought it I was stunned at how small it was, around the size of a PC Tower unit only smaller, and weighed about the same

I was sure I was being conned when told it would cut 12mm plate - it does.

Since I bought this they have come down in price, but do buy a biggie, so that you run it a half power - then it will cut all day long without tripping out, and get a BIG compressor, they EAT air, I have a 50 litre 3 HP comp and it can struggle sometimes to keep up

Mine is a SureWeld 40 (not made now in its form I have)

Oh and buy the "Family Pack" of 13 amp fuses, as it can eat them too when you hit the trigger as the same time the compressor kicks in

Just bought a plasma cutter a Sureweld 41 cuts upto 10mm, only practiced on 6mm and 2mm, first time I had used one...... oh how I laughed!
It just seems so unnatural to draw the handset across a piece of steel that quickly, very strange.

Andy

I've spent so much on bacon slicer disks for my grinder - I'd have been most of the way to paying for a decent plasma cutter !!

looking good nigel,

You think you could measure the pitch of the holes of the fairlead for me? I am doing something similar at the moment and trying to fit in a standard fairlead. and maybe the overal height of the fairlead as well, that would be great.

Regards, Daan

Tell me about it! At about a quid a time they're not cheap and they don't last long if you're cutting thick stuff. The worst part, though, is the grindings - all over the bench, across the floor, in your hair, up your nose (deeply unpleasent) and, more often than not, the cup of tea you put somewhere safe for when you finished cutting....

Very nice work Nige bet your glad it's done.

Oh yes am I ...its taken a while ! (not counting the 2 prev efforts of a rear winch mount )


The fairlead dimensions are

Overall length of round part 240mm overall height 70mm
Rod is 20mm solid Stainless, internal dims are 30mm high 200 wide
Bolts for mounting into the Milemarker are 254mm

HTH

Nige

If you buy ~50 at a time you can get them for ~60p/disc from H. Fisher, and they're good ones too - I found the Extol ones make more dust than they do any useful cutting.

Ok thanks for the dims.
Did you make the fairlead or did you buy it. Of who if I may ask?
Daan

'Twas made for me after I made a number of whining and begging noises to someone who had a bigger cutting OA Torch than me

I could tell you, .................but then sadly I would have to shoot you

nige

Or more M would shoot you

i didn't make that fairlead Will, although i might have had summat to do with Mr Barkers back end

That's a very bad mental image!