I've been searching without luck for an overall length of the chassis (tip to tail); do you know what this is or can I bother you to measure it for me?
14' and a couple inches.
In between life and holidays I've been picking away at the front axle truss. It's a Goatbuilt kit, but it is universal, so I had to do some work to fit it all.
The main structure and internal rib had to have the tube copes opened up to fit the 3-3/4" diameter axle tubes, luckily it comes pre-scribed for that and it's just a few minutes with the plasma and a flap disc to do.
That done, I had figure out how much caster and pinion angle I needed to find where the truss would be plumb to. First order, find out the difference between pinion and caster on this axle.
Zero the caster:
Measure the pinion angle:
10.5 degree between them. Factor in the 3 degree offset bushings for the balljoint eliminators coming for the knuckles and aiming for 7* of caster I get 4* of caster from the mount with the truss at 0 and 6.5 degree of pinion inclination, which is good.
A peice of angle was clamped to the tube to set the angle, I found centerline and matched those as well, then I found the truss interfered with the pumpkin at the deepest point by 5/8". So I sat the truss on two 5/8 bolts to get it to site level.
To get the contour to cut, I grabbed a compass and set it to 5/8 and just traced the outline of the pumpkin onto any truss it contacted. A little time with the plasma again and a grinder and we had clearance.
The backbone of the truss was welded in the corners to secure its shape, then I welded the points of contact with the tubes, as it's all rolled steel and ER70 and a few hundred amps works fine. Before moving on I bolted the Ruffstuff cover on to try and add some more stability to the housing.
The trickier was then welding the housing to the truss. This is nodular iron and I can't fit it in bbq. I spent a while trying to warm it up with a Mapp gas torch, then cranked the welder up to 250a and laid a bead on the casting only of ni99 filler. This gave me a wide throat tying into the cast and made sure everything was very hot. With the initial pass done, I made a root pass, with ni99, joining the two peices at the same settings moving quickly to not blow through the 3/16" truss. Finally I laid a cover with more ni99, washing all 3 passes together followed by post heating. No cracks.
Somewhere amongst all that I trimmed the plates to fit the housing and tacked them all on, and in some places welded them to the pumpkin.
With everything tacked, I stitched the truss together to hold the shape and keep the tacks from breaking while I welded it out.
Welding process was a few inches at a time front and back, alternating as much as possible to bring it all up to temp. When I finally got the root done on it all, the plate to axle tube got an almost continuous cover pass, just er70, to increase the throat.
Ram mount is next up and I've already done the rough fit. Should have an update in a few days.
That's what I get for not leaving well enough alone. Oh well.
