Stephen Broady's "An Actual Trail Rig" build

[smbroady82]

It's cause he wants to go fast!

Facts

 

[Bebop]

I actually found some black clamps online I almost ordered lol

I was serious about the heatshrink. That's what Trophy Truck guys do.

 

[wizzo]

Curious why you dumped the ORI's for coil overs? I have heard good things about the ORI shocks but have no experience with them.

ORI's have their place. Just not on this buggy. A properly tuned coil-over shock will work much better. I see too many rigs similar to this one that still have to run bumps and sway bars. So now, all the money you "saved" is out the window and you have a product that's limited on tunability.

I was serious about the heatshrink. That's what Trophy Truck guys do.

I've done the heat shrink on worm gear clamps before. It keeps them from scratching paint, powder, aluminum, cutting into a rubber line, etc. and helps them look less like ****.

 

[Bebop]

I've done the heat shrink on worm gear clamps before. It keeps them from scratching paint, powder, aluminum, cutting into a rubber line, etc. and helps them look less like ****.

Yep

 

[94xjsport94]

How important is a slip in the short/ intermediate shaft driveshaft? Looking at doing a different carrier bearing than my WOD kit I have.

 

[Beerj]

How important is a slip in the short/ intermediate shaft driveshaft? Looking at doing a different carrier bearing than my WOD kit I have.

My intermediate shaft is solid. Been running it for 4 years now with a WOD carrier bearing, no issues. Everything solid mounted. I think as long as you're shaft is as straight as possible, and all of your mounts are strong, it should be fine to skip the slip.

 

[redneckengineered]

How important is a slip in the short/ intermediate shaft driveshaft? Looking at doing a different carrier bearing than my WOD kit I have.

I personally think it is important. I know WOD builds their rigs with no slip in the mid shaft because they solid mount everything but here's how I see it. No matter how solid your mounts are you will still likely get shock movement at that shaft and if you do, your carrier bearing will be taking it. They're not designed to take forces like that. It will probably be fine (depending on how hard you wheel) for awhile but it will eventually wear out prematurely. I have a slip in my mid-shaft and when Chris rebuilt my buggy last year we could see no reason not to reuse the carrier bearing. So it has been going strong now for 10 years. I pretty much attribute that to the slip in the mid-shaft.

 

[Bebop]

Ditto.
My carrier bearing is rubber mounted too.

 

[BLT94YJ]

Any updates on the babybouncer?

 

[smbroady82]

Any updates on the babybouncer?

Nope

 

[wizzo]

Knocked out the last large fab item. Exhaust is always fun. I made the middle section removable via band clamps so the starter can be accessed with out dropping the belly/engine skid and taking the whole front section of exhaust off.

Exhaust will get DEI heat wrap and floor panel will get some heat deflection material. Can't have Broady burning his legs up while Rachel is driving this buggy.

Rear brakes are on

Modified the cooler rack to fit this monster power bass sound bar that was deemed necessary.

Working on sorting out brackets for that and then start wiring and plumbing next week.

 

[TBItoy]

V band clamps are great, I'm glad they are affordable now. No more dicking around with flanges and gaskets

 

[jeeptj99]

gotta have tunes.... Hell i had to add a extra bar behind my b pillar to make it so it could be mounted.

 

[wizzo]

Got the sound bar mounted up. She's pretty thic bc apparently it's got super bass. So mounts are probably overkill but we can't have our tunes compromised.

 

[wizzo]

Added some panels behind the seats. On Terry's WOD buggy I finished out, very similar or the same chassis, he had a stick come into the passenger area and poked through the back side of the passenger seat. Fortunately, no one was injured too bad. I'm hoping this doesn't allow that possibility to happen.

 

[wizzo]

Something I like to do, if possible, is have all the electronics under the dash and or up out of elements as best I can.

Had to get a little creative with the dash bar lay out but still worked out just fine.

Hopefully fill this panel up with some electronics next week!

 

[smbroady82]

Quality work as always my friend

 

[FlatlandFSJ]

Nice. Whats the plan for wiring goodies? yall going pdm and all that fancy jazz?

 

[ridered3]

Looking great! Digging the rear/behind the seat panels idea too.

 

[wizzo]

Nice. Whats the plan for wiring goodies? yall going pdm and all that fancy jazz?

The dash lay out isn't really set up for fancy screens and spod or whatever switches. I'm not 100% sold on them myself TBH. I'm still on the KISS program. I like things where I can keep a few basic parts on hand and fix almost any issue that comes up. If the board on one of those fancy switch deals takes a dump, your dead in the water. No body packs around a spare. I can throw a switch, a few fuses, a relay and a little wire in a trail bag and fix almost any issue I have.

I have a background dealing with electronics on trucks, tractors, etc. I've seen circuit boards fail, even with fancy coatings and connectors to keep the elements out.