congrats on the new house!!!!!! Do we get to see any pics?
Jim

Congrats on the house bud!

nice house.also glad to see you got a frame for bud.good job.

Sam,
I can only say one word!!!
WOW
AWESOME house with the ultimate view!!
Thanks for sharing & a +1 for ya.

any chance of you adopting a 45yr old son???

house looks fantastic sam.  and the fun begins on bud. looking forward to this.

NICE house, congrats.

Beautiful house! I second the observation room.

need to get that front yard ripped and disked and ready for a rainy spring (mud pit)

You going to do the shop to match the architecture of the house?

Nice, but man, I thought you were in the boonies or something! 

thanks for all the props fellas.  Our little chunk of Colorado is actually only just about a mile off a major artery into town - we're in 'the country' but juuuust barely.  We are still in range of deliverable pizza, great Chinese food, and diesel fuel, all while in a neighborhood zoned for horses and we're all on 5 acres - it's friggin' sweet.

When my wife and I got married 3 years ago we immediately sold some toys (our '05 Hemi Magnum R/T, her Yamaha R1, and my Honda Superhawk) and paid off all our debt, and since then we've been storing as much $$$ as possible, which afforded us the ability to buy the land, which in turn added up to a major part of the equity we needed to begin construction.  We swallowed our pride, sold what we didn't "need", and this house is the very real result of it.  At the time we didn't know what exactly we'd be doing - certainly we didn't have any plans on building, but we knew for a fact that getting out of debt would be the key to anything big we would want to do, and that was mostly focused on buying land. 
It worked out really great but it sure was tight...at least as far as the banks were all concerned.  Man despite all the 'stimulus' they're sure not any more inclined to loan any $ - it's very tight and you still need a bunch of cash.  Our only debt now is the home and what's left of our 'new' ('08) car.

Our builder - Copperleaf Homes - was 100% fantastic throughout.  My wife and I are both considering working for them - her shortly and me after retirement from the service.  They think like she and I do and that's something we really like.  So maybe...

For Bud's frame, the plan is to box it almost completely from the front back, stopping just past the front mount for the rear leafs.  Then add in lots of bracing for the front suspension, and I'm near certain Jim I'll be grabbing up one of your front Uber mounts for the 56's.  Then I'm going to build a stout set of sliders/side impact rails and a set of bumpers.  No custom front tilt, nothing fancy, just a good strong core frame and some good lift (6-8" total) - don't know yet until the leafs get under it.


...maybe an ultralite

not yet, but that is near the top of 'the list'  .  Judging by the little demo I did on nacho I'm guessing the front bolt will need to be 2-3 inches forward of.......well actually now that I think about it nacho's front mount was custom to start with so that baseline is moot.  Errumuhhh....Jim lemme get back wit'cha .

Patiently waiting for spring research, so that Jim may make me front hangers to use 52" springs at a near bolt in process 

hey no worries on any hijack - this is info I need anyway!

while I'm at it...Snoop - can you post a quick link up here to your thread(s) on your springs? 

- M2

max don't have a   link right now hopefully will this weekend

  no worries Eric.  I presume yer military out there?  Where abouts?  Yeah that bay door is a nice perk.  We elminated the 1st bay of the original 3-car garage (it's now my wife's hair salon), but we still needed a 3-car minimum garage so we had the builder graft on an RV bay (40' deep) to that far side, and for the forseable future (at least a couple years) that'll be my shop.  We got heat in there so it's pretty nice inside, painted the floor with 2-part epoxy, etc.  We're still building work benches, running wire, and moving in, so it'll be a while until I get rolling.

No problem Snoop - time is what I got lots of!

 

well I'd say this - if yer planning to use 'stock'-ish steering then you'll first want the leafs mounted up so the axle will be located same as stock, and on the steering mounting location, if you have the big stamped steel plate alongside the frame (not the 90* right angle mega tray style) I would delete the plate and bolt the steering box to the frame.  But I'd also definitely recommend reinforcing the frame, same location, by boxing it all in and adding in a side flex bar.  

On the drag link - I've got a crossover gig so no drag link, and my cross link was fabbed in-house.  But, I am using Skyjackers 4" drop pitman arm and I have a billet arm from Ram Off Road - local bubbas here in Colorado Springs.

For the steering here's some pics from my last rig -
  
...some action with a 1" hole saw.  (Tip:  Grind down the shank on a 1/2" drill bit to fit the pilot bit in the hole saw and it'll 'locate' the hole saw perfectly)



1/4" plate and 1" solid dowel that I drilled open to just over 7/16


make sure the plate fits




Weld the tubing to the plate and fit it to the frame




weld in place




and for good measure some inner bracing

?? you mean on the springs?  well if you're talking about the rear 56's I used last on nacho, I actually had to drill out the GM sleeves a bit to allow the bolt to go through - I think 9/16's.  The sleeve wall was really, really thick, and I think I was able to just drill 'em out to allow the bolts I already had.  I can't remember now Jim, sorry, but next go round with Bud I'll be fine tuning the gig based on the bushings that come with the 56's and 63's so...ideally...I won't have to do any voodoo to anything.

a-whoops - sorry Jim  .  Errummuhh lessee here - the 4 sleeves started out as solid 1" steel dowel, and I drilled a 7/16 inch hole straight through each one, and those became my sleeves.....at least I think they were 7/16" - whatever size the bolts were for the steering box.  I think the bolts were 7/16 and I drilled a hold between that and 1/2" - I've always sucked at math but 31/64 comes to mind...?

I'm definitely scavenging the uber steering mount to graft onto Bud's frame but I'm doing the diaginal structure tube a bit different, and doing it to both sides too (both sides will be boxed).

On the hangers - roger.  I've been trying to figure what hardware I'll need, but I'm certain I'll be hollerin' at ya when the time comes amigo  .  Yer stuff is my kind of strong .

i think that's a great idea for those of us that don't have the tools to make it with. 

thanks madmax

Why aren't you boxing the whole frame front to back?

Beautiful home and amazing views!

Looks like you have access to a nice boneyard too!

Sam,
I would go with 1/8" or better yet 3/16". That way it's as strong as the frame. You do want to have some clean out ports tho. When the mud & dirt sits in the frame it holds moisture & starts the rust from the inside were you can't see it till it's tooooo late.
Jim