| Well after many years of wheeling the DODGE I have seen the light. I love my truck but it really has it's disadvantages on the trails. It's 139" wheelbase can make it difficult to get over some obstacles. Being a dodge parts are not easy to find and when you do find them they cost an arm and a leg for them. It is also too wide for many of the areas I am starting to want to go. My weight at 7200lbs is also hurting me because there are not many that can get me out if I can't get out myself. I have also had to more body work on the Dodge than I care to admit so I have been looking at other projects to build the way want FROM THE GROUND UP and go from there. I will still use the Dodge as the tow rig and recovery if needed on my buggy but I more hoping to use it as daily driver and base camp for my future adventures. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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THE PLAN NOW
I intend to build a full tube chassis with the help of FEDERAL FUSION out of 2" .120 wall DOM. The Chassis will be a 2 seater but with cockpit seating and full hydro steering. I am still working with EXAXT to figure out how to run the 406's backwards to accommodate my rear motor. So looking at the picture above the front of the buggy is actually the left side. I have to redo the model as I found some weak spots in it. I am glad I did it this way first before cutting any tube.
Projected Dimensions so far. Chassis Length 160" Chassis Width 50" Chassis Height 94" Total Chassis Length 169" at tires Wheel Base 120"
Drivetrain 383 Stroker on propane, TH350 with a full manual valve body mated to a 203 attached to a 205 which routes the power to Unimog 406 axles turning 49" Iroks. WHY PROPANE? The reason I have chosen propane is because the more I find out about it the more I want to use it. LPG or propane is 110 octane. This means that the higher compression of my 383 stroker (12:1) will be perfect for the propane. This is a common fuel in Canada so I will not be looking for places that sell Racing Fuel for a weekend outing. I will have dual tanks that at least if I run on one tank until it dies I will be able to get back to where I started on the second tank. Also with propane there is no Fuel pump to fail out on the trail and the Mixer only has about 3 moving parts and can be easily repaired on the trail. Spare parts are very cheap and in fact I got all my parts for nothing. The other benefit to running propane off road is the fact that the fuel it pressurized itself there is no limits to running angle. In fact I could run upside down until the motor starves itself out of oil. There is also no risk of every getting water inside the fuel tank or spilling fuel over a hot motor if I was to end up on my roof. There are many more reasons but these were the reasons that sold me on using propane. Why Unimog 406 Axles. Well I have a couple Ideas I will share about these later but here are some info.
All
the axles are 1.76" dia. 21 spline at the splines The
steering joints are double cardan which allows them to steer very sharp.
There is no wheel hop like in a DANA axle and you are only at half of
each joints working angle at full lock steering. The steering joints are
bomb proof as long as they are not worn out. The only wheel joint I have
ever heard of breaking on these was severely worn out, and had been
neglected for a long time. Axles steer approximately 50* at
the stock steering setting. The U-joints measure ~ 4.5" across The
pinion flange to axle center measurement is 18". It could easily be
2" shorter, and with a lot more work could be a few inches shorter
yet. There are several different versions available some with disks front and rear and some with drum rears. All disk fronts are dual caliper and calipers are said to be in the price range of about $2000 to replace and have to be manually adjusted. Rotors are 18" Dia and thus requires a 20" rim to be used. For my purposes I want to find the ones that come with a 16" drum rather than the 18" disk brakes. The reason for this is because they are harder to modify to 8 bolt rims and they require the use of a 20" rim. The are more expensive than the 404 axle and harder to find but they are quite a bit stronger then the 404 version. The axle tubes are 4.5 inches above the center line of a regular axle which provides great ground clearance. There actual weight rating is close to 4 TON. And should be much stronger than a Rockwell. Air
locker stock with forced deactivation. 406 TEASER Pages |
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