FrankenJeep or "My Last Ever (Maybe) Truck?"

[Ta2Doc]

HOOP, 'der it IZZ!! TOLD you we'd have a use for that pretty aluminum we cut off the bed. And the hoop? Gotta start that cage somewhere, right?

 

[Ta2Doc]

And due to the time warping ability of post-construction writing, BAM!... Just like that, we have the externals of the the cage...

 

[Ta2Doc]

Well, what the heck is that thing for anyway. It's way too tall to carry a bunch of crap up there... Yes, you're right! While we've all seen crazy amounts of stuff loaded way up high, that really a bad idea on off-camber situations. This design carries the preponderance of its weight at the belt line or below (kinda like me these days)
This was the general mad-scientist idea...

 

[Ta2Doc]

All in all, she's not falling too far afield from the final design drawing from approximately 8 months ago...

Drawing...



And current state with all the big heavy parts together...

 

[Ta2Doc]

She's tall, and she carries some weight up top, But seriously, who doesn't like tall buxom redheads with long legs? Besides, with those full-width military axles, her track is wide.
Should be plenty stable... I mean, as stable as any redhead CAN be, right?

 

[Ta2Doc]

Now it's on to plumbing, wiring, interior and charge-air-cooling routing. Stay tuned for more in January '19...
~doc

 

[Damil]

I am a fan of sticking to around that 110" WB mark if possible, but I am a little confused about axle placement on the rear end. Did you end up making the bed longer than originally planned? Looking at the CAD, it looks like you originally had the rear end sitting dead center of the bed, but in the photos, looks like the rear end is now sitting a bit ahead of the bed. What is the current wheel base?

Appearance wise, It doesn't matter because it looks great. I was just thinking more along the lines of balance and obstacle clearance.

 

[Ta2Doc]

Good eye... Some of that is due to the angle of the pic, but we did have to shove everything on topside back a bit. The wheelbase came in about 115 3/4". This was sort of accidental, though we were originally shooting for 115. We decided to set the engine back as far as practical. I wanted to do that to help with weight distribution (the Cummins is going to come in about 775 lb once all the plumbing is on it), plus I was a little worried about having enough room for the intercooler. That caused us to move the tub mounts back about 3 inches and everything else on top just scooted back with it. Also took the cross for the cage down in front of the bed instead of through it, which took another 2 inches from the bed. Wound up building a rail system to fit the frame with the bumper as part of it... then just cut the bed down to fit it in length and width.

The weight seems fairly neutral right now. It carries most of the weight centered, due in part to the "secondary outboard frame", as we've started calling it.

Not sure where she'll wind up departure angle wise, but there's 32" under the bottom of the bumper right now. Working on the main fuel tank next week,


which will be strongly beveled, but

 

[Ta2Doc]

Wow... been a while since I've updated. Went through a couple of iterations of radiator sizing, two different intercoolers and finally found "the ticket"! I started with the Mishimoto performance alu rad for stock TJ... after carefully mocking it up, realized that (DOH!!) the innies and outies were going to make for a really ugly plumbing job to connect to the Cummins. After a couple of weeks of looking, I happened to be BACK on the Mishimoto site and accidentally clicked on the link for MMRAD-WRAV8-87X ... a Mishimoto unit for an LS-swapped TJ. WTH?! Why didn't I see that one to begin with??? More green paper traded for shiny aluminum. The REALLY nice shroud I originally got with the first Mish kinda-sorta-mostly fit the 87x. Ok... now what to do for an intercooler? I kept seeing the name CX Racing come up in my intercooler searches... Ultimately, after MUCH measuring and cursing and remeasuring... one of their IC-0015-25 Univeral ICs is snuggled up nice and tight in front of the rad... Yeah, the stock AC condenser is still in front of the IC, but dang it makes for a nice and relatively compact package that leaves lots of room to change the serpentine belt. Like everything else on FrankenJeep, the core support is caged and overbuilt, but its a cool "cassette assembly" that sits on pins on top of the frame rails with just enough room to close the hood.
Now, if I could just get the steering column and hydro-steer guys to get their stuff in gear and get those parts made!

 

[Ta2Doc]

Note... if you're going to do something similar with this particular CX racing IC, it's VERY wide. The inner fender well WILL make sacrifices to the intercooler gods in the form of a lot of trimming and cutting if you have it mounted as far forward as shown. When we first dropped the cummins in, I thought "man that thing is setting WAY back". It caused some headache with mounting the turbo exhaust bend. Now, I'm really glad it wound up that way because if it were any farther forward, changing a serpentine would be a real PIA.

 

[Ta2Doc]

Since the belly armor was dropped in order to get up in there and do some exhaust routing magic (90 down out of the turbo, 90 back with a little massaging to the left to run up over the driveline to the drivers side), I thought I get a pic. Its probably the best this bash plate will ever look! This is rear-looking-forward. The little hoopty-hoop on the right side is where the front drive shaft will route.

 

[Ta2Doc]

A pic from overhead of the engine bay / intercooler piping. Leaving the condenser out front of the intercooler is not optimum, but makes for a damned nice install. Once everything started bolting up in there, I was more worried about being able to get to the S-belt and the front of the engine than wringing every possible degree out of the charge air.
Still more plumbing to do, but it's starting to look more and more like an engine bay than a "window to the garage floor".

 

[Ta2Doc]

Meanwhile... on the other end... The exhaust is tucked up NICE and tidy. If I manage to snag-and-demolish it where its routed, it'll be a really bad day for the entire rig!

 

[Dominic OB0158]

The build is looking great!

 

[avgjoe624]

looking pretty sweet, cant wait to see this "thing" when its all said and done.

 

[Ta2Doc]

Thanks for the kind words and Thumbs Up from everyone. Thought I'd do sort of a batch update.
Current status: everything is blown back apart, final welding on frame/subframe/cage is complete. Did a 3-part coating on all of those hard parts (rust preventive, undercoat, frame enamel) and now at 22 months the big jigsaw puzzle is going back together!

 

[Ta2Doc]

Back down to the rolling frame (or frameS, if I'm being persnickety). The second one reminds me of my old cassette tapes in the 70s and 80s... "TDK... So real... "

 

[Ta2Doc]

a nice look from the side shows why we're calling it a "double frame". Any point along the 2x4 outboard rub rail will support the entire vehicle weight, so no need to search for somewhere to put the high lift.



Old man steps to crawl to the top of the cage... a necessity as "a pirate looks at... umm... 50".

 

[Ta2Doc]

Top view of rear corner to show the beastly perimeter frame and triangulation. For those coming late to the thread, I'll say it again, to the tune of MJ's (the first, not the second's) "Billie Jean"... "Those welds are not my... welds..." But I'd definitely claim them. POR does hella work. Top Truck Challenge worthy. Yeah, they've done that.



Frame ties and a look at this redhead's derriere... hefty tow points to hook up a... err.... snatch block. (can I say that on a family forum?). Hey, that IS what it's called. I didn't invent the word.

 

[Ta2Doc]

I know... I know... it looks teeny, but I SWEARZ it's a 14 bolt rear end!




The "almost made me cry" shot... remember this came AFTER the earlier "Hey, that looks like a real vehicle" pictures.