landy_andy

Well, sort of the only way for me now. Have seen them being mounted through & in front of the central cross member but that’s all over laid with 1/4” plate for the cage mounts, in front has too much cage in the way. Now looking for some clamp on mounts that’ll fit on the 2” dia. lower trailing arms, I switched out the axle end joints to a rubber bushing type that’ll resist the twisting the sway bar will try to introduce.

Made a start on the mounting brackets, a bit of CAD with a box of sausage rolls 🤣 Torsion bar bushings on route… just waiting for FedEx to arrive.

Decided to see if we can squeeze a Rock-Jock Anti-Rock sway bar into the back of my D100, with the flexy suspension it can’t not help with on-road manners. After a few emails back & forth with a tech at Rock-Jock the only option is the 36” long torsion bar, the shorter 32” bar won’t fit as the frame is 31” outside and the mounting tube is 30” long… and a 34” is not made 🙁 So, rather than use the 30” DOM tube they sell decided to make some end mounts that’ll bolt in place of the old shock top mounting brackets. This’ll allow the arms to be ~14” long before hitting the rear spring mounts. Will need to trim out the old tub support mounts but there redundant now anyway. Looking at one of the Jeep brackets, it has a counter bore for the bushing and a quick check shows 1.5” Sch.80 pipe will work for the short mounting tubes. Next to draw up some mounting brackets.

Well… I ordered some of the anti-rock mounting tube bushes. Time to start a new thread 😀

Yup… but they do cause a bit more vibration. Not a big deal on a truck that’ll not see much if any highway use.

So… I was thinking… I wonder if I can squeeze a Currie Anti-Rock sway bar into the rear now 🤣

And what’s left to do…. - Fit new 26” limit straps when they arrive. - Fit mini air compressor for the front locker & pipe up. - Refit the passenger side floor plate (out to fit airline for locker). - Last full nut & bolt check. Wait for the snow to go or go buy some chains & go snow wheelin !

New TW 1350 offset joints arrived, decided to clearance the slip yoke to be on the safe side. Unfortunately, due to the 1350’s having a lower maximum angle than the 1310’s and the short rear drive shaft it still binds at maximum droop. So, going to switch the limit straps out from 28” long to 26” ones as that bring things into an acceptable range. Just one of the compromises when trying to build a bullet proof driveline & keep a decent level of flex in the suspension.

We’ll, that didn’t go to plan… the slip yoke end was binding on the bearing cap U bolts, so have ordered a Tom Woods 1350 high angle offset UJ. The offset should fix the binding & offer more droop angle as stock 1350’s bind up at about 20 degrees…. The yoke can also get a bit of tickling with the die grinder too 😉

Hi, I used the existing ‘A’ frame mounting locations and just made new mounts that suited the Jonny Joints. The slight change in arm angle over the old ‘A’ frame due to the axle ends being separated hasn’t been an issue so far and I’ve seen this done on other D90’s here & in the US over the years. The lowers also got new mounts that locate into the stock trailing arm hole.

Got the rear 1350 thick walled drive shaft back from the fab shop today, a couple of coats of chassis black & on it’ll go.

Setup the steering link & ended up with about 1/8” toe out, will see how it drives once the roads not a sheet of compact snow & ice… is -12c tonight…. Brrrrr 🥶

Also have to bear in mind from my house to the nearest forest road is only 10km…. after that it’s dirt until the road runs out. The truck won’t be highway driven, got a trailer for that 😉

Argh… we’ll I don’t really have much option as it’s needed to clear the centre section. Lots of 1 ton axle conversations here are done the same way.

Next job, easy to pop an end off & make the adjustments… not like your doing it every day.

Front limit straps installed, added a 1/2” nut to the bottom of the front shock mount and they give me 95% full stroke. Brake lines all connected up & bled… next to finalize the link lengths, adjust the steering & start the tidy up jobs…. So close to being complete 😀

Got back on the truck now the preparations for winter are all done. Stroked out then rear suspension to full droop (now I have the limit straps installed) to measure the drive shaft length, checked at ride height and it falls about mid stroke on the slip joint.

Got the yoke finished & installed. Needed to have 3/32” taken off the heads of the cap bolts to clear the t’case casting. Shortened the spacers for the caliper to account for the relocated disc.

Finally got the rear t’case yoke back from the machine shop… there so busy with logging equipment repairs before winter hits, small ‘hobby’ jobs get pushed to the back of the line. No worries, people gotta make a living. Had the LR flange shrunk fit onto the 9” yoke, finished it with a TIG fused joint on the t’case side. Needed to cut a relief for the 7/16” nuts on the back side to hold the X-Eng disk in place, the socket cap bolts needed to be turned down a bit to clear the flange boss.

Use RV levelling blocks to get the whole thing somewhat level & some light trailer jacks to stabilize it. This type could have the tubular mount welded to the back of the lower box structure, there light & can either be stored horizontally or taken off until needed. Why carry heavy hi-lifts & ramps when there is a lighter solution. GVW is your enemy in the truck camper world, look for solutions to maximize it. Here is mine in the casino parking lots we overnighted in, put a single levelling block under the rear wheel, back jacks down to stabilize the rig… slept like a log 🪵

Here is another micro camper to checkout. Maybe a pair of trailer levelling jacks on the back would help with the stability. When we setup we drop our rear camper lifting legs to keep the truck from rocking, you can see them on this one on each corner.

I’d suggest you check out some of the NA truck camper layouts on the manufacturers websites, here are probably the top 3 brands I’d buy : Bigfoot Northernlite Articfox All are 4 season rated so ideal for winter camping at ski resorts. We currently have a Lance 825 that’s ideal for up to a fortnight but you still need to dump & top off water every 3/4 days. If your building in a fresh tank make it as big as possible, I wouldn’t go under 150L if you put in a wet bath. There are also a few groups on FB for people building there own campers & van conversations too.

Another awesome build from Total Composites, just need to retire now so I’d have the time to build one….

Snipped from a FB camper group… thought you’d all appreciate it. The box is manufactured in BC too.

Rear shocks & limit straps installed, checked the drive line angles and we have 18 degrees in total. So, a pair of 1350 HD Spicer Life joints will work just fine. Just got to finish off the t’case yoke, then we can get a new rear drive shaft built up. Decided to keep the beefy going and use a TMR HD kit that’s been machined to use 2” x 1/4” wall DOM tube.