hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
5BrothersFabrication said:
There may have been some damage done... laughing1 I didn't build it to be easy on it. :driving:
SXOR single seater build
- Thread starter hokie_yj
- Start date
Help Support Hardline Crawlers:
There may have been some damage done... laughing1 I didn't build it to be easy on it. :driving:
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Well the first trip was this weekend and it was eventful to say the least, but a good time was had. Overall I have to say I’m happy with the buggy, but there is still some work to be done.
This thing absolutely feels like a rocket ship when you get on it low, but at only 27:1 it’s a little too “racey” in the rocks and high range is pretty useless except for flat ground. Stall seems to be ok, it just needs a little more gear to be smoother and more controllable in the rocks. Axles are currently 5.13s, probably going to try to get in the 6.xx range. Hopefully that will be better in low, and also make high more useable.
Here it is on the Waterfall Friday morning, the first obstacle ever.
https://youtu.be/4DHTGNzZoC4
Mechanically everything seemed to work well. Temperatures stayed in check. The highest water temp. I saw was 208*, that was running up to Whitetail giving it hell in low 2nd, the rest of the day was a constant 185 with the Volvo fan on low. The highest transmission temp. I saw was 155* and that was when I forgot to flip the fan back on after we stopped before Lower Profanity, the rest of the time was a pretty constant 125* measured in the output to the cooler.
It’s going to take some seat time to really get used to a rear engine rig, but I’m pretty happy with it. It did pretty much everything I asked of it.
As far as damage, let’s just say I really broke it in right. Haha! Friday afternoon I took a pretty spectacular roll off the top of Crawford’s Cry. It basically stood up and did a 180* pirouette and landed on the left side sliding down the hill. I got a pretty good scrape on my elbow, but the window nets kept it from being any worse. It actually tore a hole in the window net from sliding on my elbow. It dented the tube around my light bar a bit, scratched the roof a little, knocked one of my RaceMirrors off, killed to storage rack, cracked some body panels, and broke my pride. Haha! We rolled it back over and other than a little oil in the intake and a little smoke it started and ran fine. We headed from there to Whitetail and ran it without issue.
Saturday morning we had some late arrivals coming so we headed to the waterfall to play around until they got there. I had already climbed it once, and I circled back around to do it again. I guess it’s a good thing I did, because if this happened anywhere else on up the mountain it could’ve been a really bad day.
https://youtu.be/n_9cqfG2JGM
Just before that video I had tried it and didn’t make it, apparently when I slid back the right side upper link tower started bending. If you look close as I’m pulling up to the waterfall the link tower is already bent a little bit. Then when I hammered it and bounced it folded up. That caused the whole axle to shift left several inches and the driveshaft actually hit my engine skid and snapped the pinion shaft off.
Thankfully I have good friends that helped me get it off the waterfall and thankfully it happened where it did. I was able to go get my truck and trailer and drive right to it to load it up.
It was just a failure on my part to gusset the link mount properly. It was just too tall without enough support. Since the housing was already a little warped to begin with and I’ll have to cut so much off to fix the link tower I’m going to replace it with an aftermarket housing using all my parts from this one. I actually found a Trail Gear housing on Facebook today and made a deal on it. It may be a little slow, but I will fix it and it will be back better than before
This thing absolutely feels like a rocket ship when you get on it low, but at only 27:1 it’s a little too “racey” in the rocks and high range is pretty useless except for flat ground. Stall seems to be ok, it just needs a little more gear to be smoother and more controllable in the rocks. Axles are currently 5.13s, probably going to try to get in the 6.xx range. Hopefully that will be better in low, and also make high more useable.
Here it is on the Waterfall Friday morning, the first obstacle ever.
https://youtu.be/4DHTGNzZoC4
Mechanically everything seemed to work well. Temperatures stayed in check. The highest water temp. I saw was 208*, that was running up to Whitetail giving it hell in low 2nd, the rest of the day was a constant 185 with the Volvo fan on low. The highest transmission temp. I saw was 155* and that was when I forgot to flip the fan back on after we stopped before Lower Profanity, the rest of the time was a pretty constant 125* measured in the output to the cooler.
It’s going to take some seat time to really get used to a rear engine rig, but I’m pretty happy with it. It did pretty much everything I asked of it.
As far as damage, let’s just say I really broke it in right. Haha! Friday afternoon I took a pretty spectacular roll off the top of Crawford’s Cry. It basically stood up and did a 180* pirouette and landed on the left side sliding down the hill. I got a pretty good scrape on my elbow, but the window nets kept it from being any worse. It actually tore a hole in the window net from sliding on my elbow. It dented the tube around my light bar a bit, scratched the roof a little, knocked one of my RaceMirrors off, killed to storage rack, cracked some body panels, and broke my pride. Haha! We rolled it back over and other than a little oil in the intake and a little smoke it started and ran fine. We headed from there to Whitetail and ran it without issue.
Saturday morning we had some late arrivals coming so we headed to the waterfall to play around until they got there. I had already climbed it once, and I circled back around to do it again. I guess it’s a good thing I did, because if this happened anywhere else on up the mountain it could’ve been a really bad day.
https://youtu.be/n_9cqfG2JGM
Just before that video I had tried it and didn’t make it, apparently when I slid back the right side upper link tower started bending. If you look close as I’m pulling up to the waterfall the link tower is already bent a little bit. Then when I hammered it and bounced it folded up. That caused the whole axle to shift left several inches and the driveshaft actually hit my engine skid and snapped the pinion shaft off.
Thankfully I have good friends that helped me get it off the waterfall and thankfully it happened where it did. I was able to go get my truck and trailer and drive right to it to load it up.
It was just a failure on my part to gusset the link mount properly. It was just too tall without enough support. Since the housing was already a little warped to begin with and I’ll have to cut so much off to fix the link tower I’m going to replace it with an aftermarket housing using all my parts from this one. I actually found a Trail Gear housing on Facebook today and made a deal on it. It may be a little slow, but I will fix it and it will be back better than before
ridered3
Not Rigless
That was one heck of a shakedown run...
Buggy looks good though despite the various issues.
Buggy looks good though despite the various issues.
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Thanks guys! I was pretty pleased with it despite the problems. I’m thinking probably going to either 6.20 or 6.50 gears.
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jeeptj99
Well-Known Member
It's so awesome to see these builds that i've been following for a while and see them actually hit the trail. Hope you get it fixed soon. Can't wait to see it in person. :drinkers:
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Thank you!
ridered3
Not Rigless
Nearly a year later, got any updates?
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
A year and two days actually since I tore it up. Lol.
Updates?
Found out we were going to have a baby two months later.
Got engaged in October.
Case Benson Bellamy showed up in April.
Getting married this October.
I think that’s about it.
Oh, you mean the buggy? Haha. Nope. Literally haven’t laid a finger on it since the day I drug it home. I pulled the axle out that day and it’s still sitting exactly like I left it. I did put a battery charger on it and start it last week, but that’s it.
I have the parts to fix it. I just haven’t had the time. Life got even more busy. Lol. I’ve been thinking real hard lately about trying to get it fixed and putting it up for sale. As bad as it would hurt me to do it, I think that’s probably the best thing to do. This thing has always been my dream rig. But when I started building it I was a single guy living alone, working 800-1000 hrs of OT a year with nothing else to do.
Now having a single seater just doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore. I need to just make the time to get it fixed and try to sell it or trade on a decent 2-3 seat buggy. I still have the beater Juggy here in the shop too. It just needs a little TLC. But it could be wheelable with a couple days work. This stuff has just taken a backseat lately, and I’m ok with that. I miss being in the woods with my friends, but I wouldn’t trade these days for anything in the world either.
Updates?
Found out we were going to have a baby two months later.
Got engaged in October.
Case Benson Bellamy showed up in April.
Getting married this October.
I think that’s about it.
Oh, you mean the buggy? Haha. Nope. Literally haven’t laid a finger on it since the day I drug it home. I pulled the axle out that day and it’s still sitting exactly like I left it. I did put a battery charger on it and start it last week, but that’s it.
I have the parts to fix it. I just haven’t had the time. Life got even more busy. Lol. I’ve been thinking real hard lately about trying to get it fixed and putting it up for sale. As bad as it would hurt me to do it, I think that’s probably the best thing to do. This thing has always been my dream rig. But when I started building it I was a single guy living alone, working 800-1000 hrs of OT a year with nothing else to do.
Now having a single seater just doesn’t make a lot of sense anymore. I need to just make the time to get it fixed and try to sell it or trade on a decent 2-3 seat buggy. I still have the beater Juggy here in the shop too. It just needs a little TLC. But it could be wheelable with a couple days work. This stuff has just taken a backseat lately, and I’m ok with that. I miss being in the woods with my friends, but I wouldn’t trade these days for anything in the world either.
Beerj
Sonzabitches!
Congrats man. I don't think anyone here would honestly hold it against you if you sold it. That said, you'd better end up with a 3-4 seater after the fact. Your family will thank you later.
TBItoy
Well-Known Member
hokie_yj said:
thumb.gif
I'm right there with ya.
pplblazerdude
YESUMM
Welcome to the good times brother
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Thanks Clint!
smbroady82
Well-Known Member
congratulations on the little one !
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Thank you!
ridered3
Not Rigless
Got any updates on the single seater?
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately no, still sitting exactly how it was the last time you asked. :(
This little guy gets all my time and attention right now, and that’s fine with me.
I’ll be back at it eventually. He’ll be 8 months old a week from tomorrow. Before long I’ll be able to take him to the shop with me and maybe get some stuff done.
This little guy gets all my time and attention right now, and that’s fine with me.
I’ll be back at it eventually. He’ll be 8 months old a week from tomorrow. Before long I’ll be able to take him to the shop with me and maybe get some stuff done.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Good for you on the kiddo time vs shop time!
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
I guess this thread deserves at least an update 4.5 years later. It still sitting on jackstands. A very small amount of progress has been made. Not much, but it's something.
In early '21 we found out we were going to be having our second boy. As that time got closer we decided my old shop/house that we were living in just wasn't going to have enough room for two kids. So we listed it, and had an offer $15k over asking price in 4 days. We ended up finding a nice house, with a nice shop with a lift, and some land in a more convenient location for us.
So I had to at least get the buggy movable. I already had the new TG housings and SuperDuty unit bearing cups for the rear axle, so I got started laying it out and getting it tacked together so I could load it on a trailer.
I decided to do completely new axles for a few different reasons. First was these axles were built off flimsy factory 9" housings, and the rear was already warped from trussing it. Second was the width, the rear is only 57" wide and the front is 60". That's just too narrow for my liking. I like my rigs low and wide. The new axles will be 67". And the third and final reason was when I started tearing the rear axle down I found the end of the driver's side spindle completely trashed. I don't really know how but the bolt on drive flange for the double spline shaft had been rubbing on the end of the spindle and completely destroyed it. The spindle nut is basically welded on now. All I can figure is I didn't have a race seated in the hub properly or something. Who knows. So new axles it is. I've thought about once I get the rear done slapping some spacers on the front and wheeling it that way while I build a new housing for the front. Wouldn't be ideal, but it would work.
Apparently I failed to take any pictures of it but I bought a 7' long piece of 1.5" polished shaft material to use as an alignment bar and some chunks of aluminum and had them machined to fit the carrier bearings, the ID of the axle tubes, and the UB pockets. Looking back the DIY route on that was not cost effective, but I never could get the guy that sold alignment bar kits on Pirate to message me back so I was out of options.
The upper link towers are Rockwell brackets from Barnes4WD. They were the only off the shelf bracket I could find that was tall enough to do what I needed. The lowers are from Barnes4WD as well.
In early '21 we found out we were going to be having our second boy. As that time got closer we decided my old shop/house that we were living in just wasn't going to have enough room for two kids. So we listed it, and had an offer $15k over asking price in 4 days. We ended up finding a nice house, with a nice shop with a lift, and some land in a more convenient location for us.
So I had to at least get the buggy movable. I already had the new TG housings and SuperDuty unit bearing cups for the rear axle, so I got started laying it out and getting it tacked together so I could load it on a trailer.
I decided to do completely new axles for a few different reasons. First was these axles were built off flimsy factory 9" housings, and the rear was already warped from trussing it. Second was the width, the rear is only 57" wide and the front is 60". That's just too narrow for my liking. I like my rigs low and wide. The new axles will be 67". And the third and final reason was when I started tearing the rear axle down I found the end of the driver's side spindle completely trashed. I don't really know how but the bolt on drive flange for the double spline shaft had been rubbing on the end of the spindle and completely destroyed it. The spindle nut is basically welded on now. All I can figure is I didn't have a race seated in the hub properly or something. Who knows. So new axles it is. I've thought about once I get the rear done slapping some spacers on the front and wheeling it that way while I build a new housing for the front. Wouldn't be ideal, but it would work.
Apparently I failed to take any pictures of it but I bought a 7' long piece of 1.5" polished shaft material to use as an alignment bar and some chunks of aluminum and had them machined to fit the carrier bearings, the ID of the axle tubes, and the UB pockets. Looking back the DIY route on that was not cost effective, but I never could get the guy that sold alignment bar kits on Pirate to message me back so I was out of options.
The upper link towers are Rockwell brackets from Barnes4WD. They were the only off the shelf bracket I could find that was tall enough to do what I needed. The lowers are from Barnes4WD as well.
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
ridered3
Not Rigless
Glad to see an update to this thread and looks like you have a great supervisor in the shop with you.
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Then in October '21 we moved. And the buggy sat untouched again for almost a year. The new house has a 30x42 shop with a lift. It has a 100amp service to it, but it only had 1 double gang 120v receptacle in the whole shop and the lighting wasn't great. So I spent a lot of time wiring the shop. It's still a disorganized mess, but at least I can get some stuff done in it now. I also bought my LJ last January and that stole a lot of attention from this thing too.
I have worked a little more on the rear axle. I built a backbone truss out of 3x3 .125 wall tubing. And now I'm working on the top "truss". It's built from 10ga plate. I've got a few more pieces to cut to box it all in then it will be ready to weld out. It's getting a new Yukon load bolted 3rd member, 9.5" 5.13 gears, Strange 40 spline spool, Gearworks pinion support for flipped 3rds, Strange 1350 35 spline yoke, and 40 spline shafts and drive flanges. I have everything here but the shafts. It just all has to be put together.
The front axle will be getting all the same parts but with 10" gears. It will have '05+ Superduty outers, haven't decided yet on the Branik 32 spline direct drive stubs or 40 spline stubs, Branik 1550 joints, and 40 spline inners. I have the housing, Cs, knuckles, gears, and joints. I still gave to get the 3rd member, pinion support, install kit, and other small parts. But like I said in the last post I'll probably finish up the rear, slap some spacers on the front, and wheel it while I build the front.
I have worked a little more on the rear axle. I built a backbone truss out of 3x3 .125 wall tubing. And now I'm working on the top "truss". It's built from 10ga plate. I've got a few more pieces to cut to box it all in then it will be ready to weld out. It's getting a new Yukon load bolted 3rd member, 9.5" 5.13 gears, Strange 40 spline spool, Gearworks pinion support for flipped 3rds, Strange 1350 35 spline yoke, and 40 spline shafts and drive flanges. I have everything here but the shafts. It just all has to be put together.
The front axle will be getting all the same parts but with 10" gears. It will have '05+ Superduty outers, haven't decided yet on the Branik 32 spline direct drive stubs or 40 spline stubs, Branik 1550 joints, and 40 spline inners. I have the housing, Cs, knuckles, gears, and joints. I still gave to get the 3rd member, pinion support, install kit, and other small parts. But like I said in the last post I'll probably finish up the rear, slap some spacers on the front, and wheel it while I build the front.
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Yeah he’s a good helper, and it won’t be long and little brother will be right there with him. Lol.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Then you’ll have twice the help or twice the opposite of help :dblthumb:
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Exactly. Lol.
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
A year later and the rear housing is finally done minus caliper mounts. They should be here in a few days and I'll get this thing off the table and get the SD60 for my LJ rigged up to put the new C on. It didn't turn out quite as sexy as I had envisioned in my head, but it will be a hell of a lot stronger than what I had at least.
Next up for this will be to measure and order the shafts and drive flanges and get the 3rd built.
Just a couple weeks ago I ordered a new 5.0 Atlas to put in this thing too. The 3.0 just wasn't enough behind the Powerglide. So as soon as I can get it pulled I'll have a 3.0 Atlas for sale if anyone is in the market.
Then next up will be start laying out the new front axle to match this one. By my calculations it should take approximately 7 years to build. I've got way to many projects and big ideas in my head, and absolutely no time to complete any of them.
Next up for this will be to measure and order the shafts and drive flanges and get the 3rd built.
Just a couple weeks ago I ordered a new 5.0 Atlas to put in this thing too. The 3.0 just wasn't enough behind the Powerglide. So as soon as I can get it pulled I'll have a 3.0 Atlas for sale if anyone is in the market.
Then next up will be start laying out the new front axle to match this one. By my calculations it should take approximately 7 years to build. I've got way to many projects and big ideas in my head, and absolutely no time to complete any of them.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Glad to see an update on this build!
hokie_yj
Well-Known Member
Caliper brackets are on, housing is painted, and brake lines ran. Now I just have to order shafts, and get the gears done.
ridered3
Not Rigless
Looking good.
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