Akin to the saying "Who watches the watchmen?" 
 
...
 
Who administrates the admin? 

Hey Joe, and welcome to the site.  The guest/unpaid version is a little empty right now, we're inundated with lots of thread transfers and I'm slowly trying to get the site built how Don wants it. 
 
If you go to Profile->Actions->Paid Subscriptions you will see the subscription options.  Honestly we have way more content on here already than I thought we would in under 1 month of going live.  TexasRedneck is heading up the radio/comms section, and I've already found some really interesting information over there, would love to have you join!

Glad to see all these guys from Dmax, y'all make sure you aren't strangers around here.

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I then finally mounted the Air Dog pump unit
      


The sump line is now connected to the pump.



Here is the line going into the pump. Note the minimum of space for that big line to get around in

The rest of the lines are now able to be hooked up


The air bleed return line was plumbed to the earlier fabbed return unit and plugged in

I installed all the fittings onto the pump/filter unit
      



This piece is supposed to fit inline in the factory fuel filler line...more on that later

I cut about 3/4" out of the filler line then came the big surprise!

...The supplied piece was too big. The diameter was too large and it actually fit over the hose!
This is a nice time to find out I have the wrong part. Not like I can call and get another. So, what, my truck sits idle for a week while I wait for the correct part that should have been there all along, finally shows up? What if I actually needed the truck...Man there's a concept!
I had no choice but to fab up something myself or I'd be dead in the water!

Luckily I found a piece of steel the correct diameter and started cutting things apart

Once I finished cutting this is all that was left of the Air Dog piece


After the sparks stopped flying, here is what I had. Not as pretty as the ill fitting piece, but it's in there and it works!

Time for some more mods!
This time I am going to install an Air Dog 165
Earlier I did some piliminary work when I cut up an unused mount on the frame and constructed a sturdy mount using it and some square tubing.
      


What was left of the mount when I finished cutting

This is the Air Dog 165 backing plate that was welded to the truck and reinforced

Here is the Air Dog pump being test fitted.
I mounted it at a 20 degree angle relative to the vehilde CL to give the fuel pickup line as much room as I could

I carry a winch accessoriy kit.
It has:
Several Clevis
Tow strap
Tree saver
some tools
Shovel
Some gloves
Pulley
Extra nylon strap
And what ever else I might think I need on any given day



....I got the lights installed this morning, well into the afternoon if I'm being completely truthful.
First off, I mounted the HID's back into the previously drilled holes, leveled them and snugged up the stud bolts.
(this is where ken accidently deleted the wiring pics....oops)
....I plugged it all together and tested the operation, one fog at a time, then eventually all four. THe wire did not even get warm and all the lights worked seamlessly.
The HID's were similiarly plugged in to the blue power leads from the fuse box and tested. They, too worked without problem.
So, no new switches, no holes in the firewall.
The HID driving lights come on when the high beam is activated. The 4 ea warn fog lights come on when you push the factory fog light switch

Finally it was time to remove the stock bumper.
There is absolutely nothing behind it to protect the front end of our trucks!




The rather beefy Road Armor bumper brackets get installed next. I left all the bolts pretty loose at this point


Time for the heavy lifting. I decided to give that chore to by best friend, Mr. Hydraulics. By rigging the bumper with 4 opposing slings, I was able to jockey the angle. THe front loader and the tractor did the rest getting it into position.

Quote:
Originally Posted by *****
"Is that winch 9000 lbs or is that just the model number?
Just asking because if its 9000lbs you may want to upgrade. As a general rule, you want 1.5 times vehicle weight, so id say a 14-15k winch would be a good match. Depends on if youre planning on using it to pull the truck out of thick mud or up some rocks or if youre just using it to pull the little jeeps and such out. But then again, you probably already know all of this, im just throwing my 2 cents in".
You don't need a large winch.
Everytime you double the line with a pulley, you mechanically multiply the line pull. straight line = 9000 lbs. double the line with a pulley and you get 18,000 lbs pull, although at half the line retrival speed. Triple it and get 27,000 lbs pull.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I attended the US Army's recovery school in Aberdeen Maryland. Back then I was a tanker and had a secondary as a recovery specialist. THis was obviously long before my pilot days. I learned a vehicle mired to it's undercarriage in average mud required a force equal to it's weight plus 60%. So my fully loaded truck at 8,000 lbs would need 12,800 of pull to free it, well under the 18,000 lbs I normally use.

........OK, here we go with Day 2 of the bumper install.
It was easy going right up to the point where I had to bolt it to the truck. THen everything went into slow motion mode. It was so slow getting to all those difficult to access bolts that I didn't get the lights hooked up.
Anyway, here's the fabbed up winch control box sitting securely in it's new home.


Here's how I did the winch ground cable. Simple and out of the way. THe winch gets grounded to the bumper, and the bumper in turn gets grounded to the frame and the battery

I wraped the positive cables in plastic wire loom then paid attention to securing everything so that no wire can chaff, or get in the way of anything. Murphy's law is in full force when playing with electrical fire starting stuff. Take a little time now and forget about it for years

The winch has a remotely mounted control box. I decided to mount it on to the top of the bumper for easy access. I fabbed up a mount made of 1/8" steel and used angles to completely encase the delicate box, thus affording it some protection.
      


Using cleco's I temporarily secured the bracket while drilling 1/8" pilot holes. Afterward, I drilled the holes to 1/4" their final size.


I ground the welds mostly flush and treated the steel before spraying with two coats of the John Deere black paint

Quote:
Originally Posted by ********
"Everything looking good, tell us how she runs, any problems with the mini maxx, exhaust, etc? I have a hypertech and S&B, doing a lot of adjusting and testing to see what works best with my truck, when I'm done will post a report on the forum".

I have driven the truck a couple hundred miles so far. The ride is both softer and different. I do get a little roll in the corners, but well within the green. The ride is cushy whereas the stocker was more percise although harsher. I have noticed a slight loss of power that is becoming more noticeable. Instead of cruising at 1700-1800RPM, I am now 1500-1650RPM. That has resulted in a loss of fuel economy. When I started the lift the truck was making 18.9MPG. At the moment that figure has dipped to 18.2 MPG.
The speedo is actually very close. It is now indicating 2-3 MPH slower than actual speed as measured by those handy roadside radar units.
I can now see the definite need to regear. I would think a 4.56 ratio would be ideal and should get me back to the 18.9MPG or maybe even a tad better. In any event, it will return the "snappy" throttle response I was used to before the 35" tires. It will also open the door to future 37" tires. My other truck, the Tundra was running 37" tires with a 4.88 gear and that was fine for the highway as well as crawling around in the rocks.
Finally my two young boys have both wiped out badly! They step out of the truck expecting to find terra-firma and instead discover they just jumped of the ramp of a C130 on a HALO jump! Yup!!! But, judging from the bruises and scrapes they should be pretty fast learners!

Stickers removed!!!!!
Easiest project day so far!

Quote:
Originally Posted by *****
"Looks great. What are you going to do for center caps. I know you said you are not going to put the stock ones on but I hope you are going to do something".

Sorry bro, no center caps. I think it looks fine the way it is. Center caps are just fake plastic junk anyway and I don't like stuff like that. Not going for any particuliar look, but I choose function over appearance every day of the week.
That's why the bumpers are going away. The factory ones are little more than air dams, totally inadequate when pushing small foreign cars out of the way!

...........OK, the next project is going to be the Road Armor bumper install. This will be a slow start out of the gate. Being a Saturday, my list of family activities and honey do's (starting with fixing a toilet!) out weighs my desire to bolt that cool bumper on.
So I just fussed around a little rounding up parts and hardware and fooled a little with the winch.
I have chosen to reuse a T-Max 9000 winch I once had used on other vehicles. It is an excellent winch featuring a 6.6HP motor. THe warn, notably only has 4.6HP! When I was buying this winch I scrutinized the winch components of the various winches and actually found this T-Max to be more robust in construction than the venerable Warn. The planetary gear set was slightly thicker in the T-Max and of course the motor was much more powerful. Retrival line speed of the T-Max also eclipised the Warn, and finally at 2/3rds the price of a Warn, I purchased this winch.
I carry a recovery bag which contains a tree sling, a tow strap, several clevis, some chain and hooks, and a pulley.
Ah yes, the pulley??? You actually have an option, that is to either mount a 150 lb 16,000 winch or simply double the line with the use of a pulley to get a pull of 18,000 lbs out of the 75lb 9K winch. Since every time you step on the loud pedal you are applying a force to acclerate a mas, well, the less mass you have to push, the less force (fuel) needed. So the math was pretty easy even for a thick headed guy like me. Forgo the 16.5 K bragging rights and get more done for less and save $$$ for as long as I own the truck.
OK the winch has synthetic line for safety reasons. Steel wire will stretch then when it snaps it recoils with sufficient force to kill. Synthetic line will just tear and fall to the ground. Then it is also much lighter. You can use either a hause fairhead which is just smoothed out aluminum or opt for a set of rollers. Here is a standard set of rollers used with a standard winch with steel cable.

To make it compatible with the Aramid fiber rope I am using, the rollers need to be made of poly or DelRin. Here is a replacement set of rollers

Not a great pic, my humble apologies, and here is yet another poor pic showing the roller itself

4 quick snap rings later and the steel rollers were, well, rolling away!
The new poly rollers were actually too long to fit, so I carefully cut them down to size with a miter saw.


The new rollers slid right into place in a jiffy completing this simple but necessary modification.

There are a myriad of extension brackets that attach to the rear axle repositioning things north a couple inches. Another bracket drops the emergency brake cable on the left side.




The shocks were installed and just like that I was done, well sort of

Next the shorter tie rod ends get installed. THis was probably the easiest task I had encountered to this point. It was like a mini vacation!
      


At this point I mounted the new Fabtech front differential skid plate. It looks pretty beefy and like everything else was heavy.




Next came the scary part, reinstalling those torsion bar keys. You just can't imagine just how much pressure that torsion bar exerts. It is nothing to mess with. My special tool slipped just a tad while loaded and this is what happened!

OK, here we go, off and running, well barely crawling, onto day 4
Here's a shot of something, heck, I can't remember of what, but there is some progress in there somewhere!
      



The factory sway bar gets two horizontal extensions that will then mount to the factory link onto the new torsion bar mount


I painted the factory links with John Deere flat black. THis is a very high quality paint that is reasonably priced

Now the front shocks can get mounted. There is a lower mount already provided for dual shocks if I want to do that in the future.
      



Tool time...
TO slightly enlarge a 2" area on a crossmember where the torsion bar needs some clearance, out came the handy carbide cutter


Next, the factory torsion bars get loaded from the front. I needed to be about two feet taller and have dextrous feet to have done it the first time without trouble. Like I said it is just a wrestling match. THe torsion bars are heavy and the going is just plain slow. But everything is fitting just fine as I go

With the drilling complete and the hole checked (It turned out perfect both times) the lower control arm gets remounted. The bolts stay loose for now
      



The torsion bar relocation brackets can now be permanently mounted and torqued in place.

Next, the tie rod ends are removed and 1/2" is cut off the threaded rod

Fabtech supplies some large aluminum bushings which get inserted into the factory torsion bar socket




The other half of the bushing occupying the old torsion bar hole



The last of the aluminum bushings, a smaller set is inserted into the hole where the factory shock bushing used to reside.

Finally the reassembly is started. Both new front differential drop brackets which are thick, reinforced, and cadium or zinc plated, are bolted to the factory mounts and the diff is reinstalled.
Reinstalling that axle is quite a chore. I did it by myself, but I'd say it would be much better to do it with two capable men. That thing is very heavy and difficult to balance. All the while it is dangling up there just inches away from crushing one of your body parts, you have to thread it onto four bolts and somehow with your third and forth hand get a washer and nut on something. Gravity was in full effect in my garage today, so I got to do the balancing act several times!
      

Next I removed the front drive shaft from the front diff and let it hang. That was as far as I got today working from 10AM until 1700. I lost about an hour having to go to the parts store to purchase a 35mm socket for the axle shafts. Somehow, I lost my old one!!!!! That was $20 I didn't want to spend. But having just shelled out 10,000 for parts so far, I guess it's a small thing.
Tomorrow morning I'll get back into it and see if I can get the front lift installed by sundown tomorrow!

...........OK, here we go, day 2 of the Fabtech lift install
Next the aft front diff crossmember is removed and discarded       


Next the differential assembly is removed. That is no easy task BTW, I had to use a jack and carefully lower it clear of the wreckage of what's left of the front end.


Here's a view of the bottom side of the oil pan, something most folks will never see I guess. So for reference and education purposes, here it is: