Recent Posts

I watched my brother straighten the frame on my Hardbody on a frame machine.  It was amazing to see just how much power it took to make any changes.  It looked like the truck was being torn apart.  The frame was about 1.5" to high in the drive rear corner.  We suspect it was rear ended there.  I don't think a highlift will have enough power to make any permanent changes.      

zombie thread revival.

Do you remember when you converted the Xterra 2wd transmission to 4wd if you needed anything extra? I'm trying to open up some options to replacing my beat up automatic transmission. I can't seem to find that thread for years ago here.

Those lights will come in handy when someone needs to pull you out of the bushes at night 

im looking at setting up a small machine / performance shop. Id be interested in talking to someone about designing an electronic lock for the h223b in either spline. Id also like to produce a full floating axle kit for the h233b. to truely bring the light to these super tough axles that they deserve

Testing the backup lights.

Not super bright but this will help while backing up on the trails at night. Plus I'm going to wire them up on a switch too. This way I can turn them on at camp if I need some extra light. The low amp draw will alow me to keep them on for much longer than the factory backup lights while the truck is not running.

Back from powder coat.

Mounted lights.

Now I just need to wire everything up and bolt it to the roof.

if anyone tells you the h233b is weak. show them this picture.

the ever so "awesome" dana 44  ring gear on the right and h233b 31 spline on the left. 9.5in wide ring gear vs the 8.5 dana 44.

[seemless]

heres a video of me doing a river crossing. that cursed rear bumper.  1min 25 sec you hear the BANG of the leaf spring sucking the frame inward hahaha. I knew it was abit rusty back there. but... damn! wasn't that bad 2 yrs ago and pre many many bumper smashes.... haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAYyubiBNk






SO I sorta devised a way to fix it. Not the greatest but not the worst. I can see no real way to restore it back to proper strength with any repair method to equal stock level. laying frame length plates on all 4 sides is just bad. I'm no pro pressure/structure welder guy but I know its hard to get 6-7ft worth of weld on all 4 corners and get no porosity from the rusty stuff below no matter how clean you get it. so To me having 4 sides of a welded box is just stupid and improper. unless you want to get all your welds x-ray'd the structure shouldnt be relying only its welds to resist twist and vibration like a 4x4 can see.

So what I have done is find some 3x4 .125in wall rectangle tube. I cut the entire seemed side off and discarded it. The seem is the weakest area, that's why we use seemless tubing for roll cages. I then began to patch and bevel every plate its full thickness to the next plate. thus providing 100% penetration like you would get from a structural or pressure quality weld. I'm also hoping by maintaining that factory bend in the 3x4 tubing and only having 2 heavily overlapped welds should increase my strength significantly. I'm using my 230v thermal arc lift tig for everything to help increase my weld quality. and yes I could have planned my steel abit better and only used 2 pieces total.... but hindsight lol







so then I got this idea! instead of making a ladder bar to help the crappy leaf spring which the 35s and diesel torque just punish lol. why don't I just design a 3 link kit for the d21 series truck!

so I have been designing a weld in self jiggin 3 link kit with 2 trusses. the upper link truss is a piece of notched 2.5in .250in wall seemless hitch tubing. the rear truss/cross member will be replaced with a 1.75in .125wall dom tube. all the rod ends are forged chromoly 4340.

I'm also designing this to fit under a non body lifted truck. I have tested fitted it on long box regular cab 2wd frame, and my king cab 4x4. the jig seems to fit both perfect. however for the hustler (reg cab short box) i have a feeling it wont fit. the box is approx 2in shorter and the wheel arch is moved a couple inches from the king cab box. So im saying a king cab box and the short box are 2 different boxes. the reg cab short box actually has a slightly shorter box.... haha phrasing
 I would love any input people have for the kit as I would love to make this a production kit.




this is the basic kit so far. I'm doing small changes to the cnc programs as I go to hopefully end up with something good. Also does anyone know of any decent 2d drawing programs that arent 1500$?



I think I need to put my springs under the frame. but No idea where I can find the proper length and spring rate i need right now. using the pathfinder lift coil under the frame will add about 6-8in worth of lift ball park lol

how well did you like it being welded... did you just unlock a hub half the time to steer well.. ive been thinking bout welding myself

It's been a long time but I'm finally trying to wrap this up. Got a manual swap and a sas to do this summer and I need to get these old projects out of the way.



















I still have quite a bit of work to do on this but I'm getting real close to wrapping it up.