yeah wut he said

Damn you Sam  As a 15 year FD veteran and currently a Lt I could only wish for a pole at home.


Let us know what your thinking Jim and put me down for one.

Dad is the eldest person to slide the whole thing - 74 yrs old.  Zack, our friends' 6-yr-old little boy, is the youngest...from the mid level not the high dive


hey where there's a will...  

yer up eeeeearly dude!  'Course so am I - I'm actually on a midnight shift keeping all y'all safe from the forces of evil!  Anyway, yup each floor has a self-closing/self-latching gate.  The furball?  You mean the cat or our two dogs?  - thay all dig the new place for sure, and we definitely like having lots of room for the pups to run around.  Thye property is a 5-acre plot, and we fenced in about an acre of it off the back side of the house for the dogs.  They love their big honkin doggie door...and so do we

looking good sam,  love the cross bones at the bottom of the pole. but man, all this house stuff is slowing down the bud thread. lol 

Looks like a stripper pole to me! 

Awesome idea Sam. 

ssshhhhh i know a couple POLE MAIDS if it is ever in need of of a shining......    lol jk very nice

While correct, your information is totally irrelevant to my point.

   -  the 3" pole is a lot easier to hang onto than the standard 1.5" pole too!  Bonus!  Thanks for the props - it was a lot of fun to do.  We still can't believe we actually pulled it off and the building code allowed it.  But it was actually a 'non-issue' - deemed about the same difference as a long spiral staircase or for sure a balcony.  Even the insurance company had not a single issue with it.

When we started talking about it the big issue was...what material to make it from?  We looked at brass, aluminum, regular steel, and stainless, and 'maintenance was a big issue, so stainless it was.  It is the best 'wearing' and every time we slide it...which is actually pretty often, it cleans itself , and it's very resistant to hand prints and rust.  And...it's super strong.  Being 33-feel long the thing flexes a lot - like easily a foot side-to-side, which it needs to do otherwise it would break the upper and lower mounts, and itself.  
We thought about having it chromed but that would have been just a bit too much.  The entire gig cost about 3grand but furtunately our builder paid for it.  We took care of the logistics for transporting the tubing (which originally came from Chicago), having it made at a good welding shop in town, cleaning/polishing it, and installing it.  It was a LOT of fun, and even more so to play on the thing.

On the frame, with the back end of the cab 'resting' more or less in place on the frame, I'm planning to raise the front frame cab mounts the necesary amount to get the cab level.  Whatever that measurement ends up being will be the overall 'body lift', and I'll raise the front clip accordingly.  The mil-spec bed will be pretty much fully custom mounted with whatever 'lift' is necessary to get my arm inbetween the frame and the bed - I like to have just enough room to get a wrench in there.

Thanks for the frame specs '88 - that's good stuff


yeah for sure...it's always something! eh?  Buuuut this was our life-changing-event, and it was so very worth it.  Bud knows he's coming...but for now he's just gonna have to wait.  I'm pretty sure the rig won't get built until next year - we just won't have the funds.  We're saving up now to build the big shop and the barn, but I will be picking on it now and then, slowly getting it up to snuff when the mad money comes in.  Meanwhile, me and the missus are looking forward to jumping in the Mule and going camping, fishing, mountain biking, hiking...all those things that we've been wanting to do during the summertime that have been soaked up building Nacho and saving up for the house .

Bud'll get there - no doubt about it .

- S

...'cause I wanted the biggest/thickest/beefiest to start with, and that means the 90-93 vintage frames, also loosely known as the "diesel" frames.  They're big beefy beyotches

So with the big front leaf springs, one of the mods I'm considering is a shackle swap, IOW mounting the shackles in front and the fixed mount in back - opposite of factory.  Doing so would gain lots of clearance and mounting space but I'm not sure what the draw backs would be.

A couple thoughts I have are, under big extension (drop), the axle would drop rearward instead of forward, which should reduce the potential for driveshaft separation.  And with a big solid cross-over steering system, I would think bump steer would be no worse than mounting the shackles normally.

Another 'pro' would be the definite advantage for eliminating a bad caster angle.  Really...I can't think of a major 'con' to mounting the shackles in front.  Granted the shackle will be in front, up where we run into things...but that's also where the front bumper and winch mount will be so I can easily make some armor if needs be, and I can steer away from the major obstacles so I'm not too worried about schwacking the shackles.....and besides...they're made of steel and steel is strong stuff. 

Full-size Jeeps ran (and I think are still running) shackles for ever with no issues, so why not a full-size Dodge?

Thoughts?

mid-90's F-350's had the shackles on the front of the front spring if I remember right.  Another full-size to consider that the factory has done it that way.
I've also heard claims of benefit of front shackles is that the force of the spring compressing will push the tire harder into the obstacle you're trying to climb, making more traction potential.

copy - and with my big crossover steering...and possible full hydro steering in the future...I'm hoping the bump steer issue will be moot.  I'm near certain I'll go this route with Bud, and if works good then I may do the same to Mack downt he road.


I think I remember that too.  Well it sure would solve a bunch of front suspension issues...

...well...it wouldn't be the first time I volunteered my truck to be a guniea rig  

I had a 1964 CJ5 that originally had the shackles on the front. I can't remember why Jeep designed it that way but it was not one of there better ideas. When you hit a big chuck hole or log or sharp incline the axle is forced into that object instead of flowing back & over it. I actually bent a pair front springs in my CJ5 truing to get out of a deep mud hole. The main Leif bent 6" front of the rear spring eye giving me an additional 3" of lift after I got out of the hole. After that I did a shackle reversal so it was like our Dodges & ine front axle did flow a lot better onet objects.
Jom.

that is to sweet.....................................

omg priceless of the branded ram logo on the butt cheek, and then roflmao on breaking the sink with the head, so funny

i like the triple stick set-up just because it looks bad-a$$!
if i was going doubler i'd definately go twin stick

I forgot to say, I remember seeing this truck in Mopar Muscle (I think) many many years ago - it has a warmed up 426 Hemi/727 under the hood - I bet it sounds awesome wide open!  I'd still prefer a diesel, but a Hemi in anything is always cool. 

That is Sonny Honnegers rig.  He ran it in the first Top Truck Challenge.  IIRC it wieghed  something like 10 K.

ohhh now don't tempt me - I did seriously consider bobbing a deuce, but I think my little pick-em-up truck'll be juuust right

dip tank and frame rotisserie

well I'm not sure how exactly I'll coat the inside of the frame - hadn't thought about it really, but the inner boxing will have access holes in it and I'll likely just reach in with a brush and slap in some basic chassis black.  I ciould powdercoat it all, and it probably wouldn't be too difficult to get it inside the frame, but getting the frame in the oven...that's the problem

backyard style, improvised "dip tank" and rotisserie!

just in case the picts dont show up he has it on the ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/M35A2-CUSTOM-CREW-CAB-W-REAR-STEER-COMPLETE-REBUILD_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2304f7954aQQitemZ150407189834QQptZMilitaryQ5fVehicles