Grizzly Trucks

[diamondtguy]

The Grizzly report.....Worked all week again so not much time with the truck...Painted (POR 15) the outside of the frame rails and reassembled everything.All the wire harnesses are covered in that black plastic tubing and I actually don't like the stuff and am removing it all.I started on the left front harness..
I also hung the clutch pedal and figured out all the holes.Took some thought as available space was limited.The cummins uses a hyd clutch pedal.The brake and throttle pedal are too close to the floor and I will raise them slightly.
Lots on the go right now....

My little 67 won first place in last Mondays car show....

 

[075]

How is that airbag on the end of your front spring going to work? On a normal suspension when you hit a bump your axle moves up and down vertically. On your set up it seems like it would move fore and aft messing with your steering. Especially if one wheel hits a hole and the other doesn't . I would think you would have terrible bump steer problems. I am interested to see if this will work well. I know it works on the back axle because that is basically how a coil over suspension is set up. But the front?

 

[diamondtguy]

A relevant question....As the air bag mount is bolted to the leaf spring there is no place for the spring to get longer or shorter.Also the rise and fall of the air bag pressure will change driveline angle and change the castor angle...I gave great thought into ditching the front bags and putting conventional suspension in the front but in the end I chose to leave the original setup in it...

I drove the truck home from the Island and it actually rode nice.I am just going to have to try it and see..I will probably never 4x4 it in the bush and it will never be a rock crawler...I cant see those springs bending much.I suspect the day to day ride will fall into the lap of the air bags...

None of the mounting studs on the bags were broken nor were any bracket bolts so it hasn't suffered from for and aft movement.The truck how ever did have a easy life.I don't plan on being hard on it...

If I have problems I will convert it over to conventional spring and shackle...At least it will be easy to take apart..

 

[hvy 1ton]

Normal leaf sprung axles move fore and aft when the suspension cycles, that's why they need a shackle. The spring gets longer as it compresses and shortens when it droops. Sorta reminds me of low leaf.



Edit: i guess i should specify i'm talking about length eye to eye.

 

[diamondtguy]

I think that's 075's question...If the front spring compresses where is that energy going to go...Truck will have cross over steering on it when I get it together so I don't expect it to do anything funny but suspension travel could be hard on the airbag studs and the airbag brackets to leaf spring bolts.

 

[walkerv]

The air bags are flexible normal spring shackles dont move all that much this set up by grizzly from what I gather the air spring is acting like the shackle

 

[DBDLS]

Check out Hendrickson's AIRTEK or Kenworth's AG130 front suspensions if you are interested in how it can be done as another option. Don't abandon air ride in the front of the Grizzly without a fight.

 

[diamondtguy]

I wont be giving up..I have always suspected the air bag takes up the for and aft movement.Jean used to put a water tank in the back so I know the rear did some moving around and nothing was broken.Just don't know how much..
I am going to look at the Airtek and Kenworth stuff..

 

[diamondtguy]

Check out Hendrickson's AIRTEK or Kenworth's AG130 front suspensions if you are interested in how it can be done as another option. Don't abandon air ride in the front of the Grizzly without a fight.

I had a look at both of those systems...Nice stuff.....May a retrofit on the next Grizzly refit(I didn't just say that did I)

 

[diamondtguy]

A week of little things....Steering parts will be here in a few days..I pulled the seat out which turned into a adventure.Seat was bolted to the risers with overly long bone dry Gr.8 bolts with stover nuts and the risers to the floor were the same.Two of them had to be zip cut off..The seat risers are well made out of .125 thick steel and are very heavy.I wanted to raise the seat a inch so I just made new risers out of aluminum.I have a band saw and big tig machine at home so its pretty straight forward.I also made new brackets for the seatbelt reels and new radiator uprights...

The floor is well covered with some sort of ashfalt/tar paper that is impossible to get off..For the most part it has preserved the floor..I only removed the outside two inches where water leaks were starting to take there toll..I cleaned it up and put POR 15 paint on it.I will leave the bulk of the coating in place..The floors are in good shape as seen from the underside..
Truck has a bolt in tunnel on the floors and I will dig it out and remove it and replace the hardware with stainless..
I have started disconnecting the auto trans as well...

 

[Blk prince]

Slow going of course but every inch works into a mile. Many of us like the detailed info you post. Thanks Corey

 

[diamondtguy]

Thanks..I am glad people are following the build..It has its moments but I am still enjoying the work on it and look forward to driving it.
UPS says my steering parts will be here tomorrow...

 

[diamondtguy]

Well ....I guess these guys didn't notice the Grizzly in the yard.They came buy for some apples at dinner time tonight...

 

[Hank R]

They know they are protected with a Grizzly near by.

 

[diamondtguy]

Waited till the heat died down today and finished the steering off.It all went fairly straight forward.Had to ream the pitman arm for a bigger tie rod and reset the steering stops but that's about it.Steering rods are 1.25 dia,.25 wall DOM tubing threaded L&R for the tie rod ends..Steering arm was CNC'd for the truck.Tie rod ends are large 1ton stuff..I also up graded the upper king pin bushings...

Truck is now back on the ground and I have to figure out tires and wheels.Truck has a dually dana 70 in the back and I may go the dually route...

One oversight on my part....The steering arm runs right into the brake line as it enters the caliper.I have parts and pcs on order to reroute it and change them to braided..

 

[drillrigdoc]

Hey man, I've followed this thread since the beginning you're doing a hell of a job! Imho I would go dually. Greetings from w wash.

 

[diamondtguy]

Thanks...my brother (owns a tire business) is dropping off some dually rims next week for me to fit
The rear axle is a narrow dually rear end and the front axel is 2.75" wider per side than the rear.The front is also pushing the limits on the width of the fenders...Using dually stuff will solve both problems...I do not like tires that stick out beyond the shelter of the fenders....

 

[diamondtguy]

I got the running boards and rear bumper back from epoxy coating...The running boards are badly pitted from the water sitting under the rubber coating that was applied..They are coated in epoxy now and I may do something with them later..Checkerplate steps are orig Grizzly stuff..I just glass beaded them clean..
Truck is probably 5 to 6 inches higher than when I started on it and I think it looks much nicer at this height and as a 4WD..
I will put the rear bumper back on this week end...
Time to get going on the front fenders..

 

[diamondtguy]

I decided I wanted a winch on the truck but I had to retain the original bumper and didn't want to space it off the truck any more than it was...I found a Warn 12,000lb winch that would kinda fit..Spent a few nights on it and it all worked out.Solenoid box will probably get mounted under/on the right fender..Bumper will go for blasting and coating next week..
Bumper was originally attached with four 1/2 in bolts..I have changed it to 5/8 Gr 8

 

[Blk prince]

All things are looking nice and neat Corey. You will be rewarded soon