12-10-2021, 04:31 PM
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#211
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aemravan
What engineering discipline are you majoring in? Mechanical I'm assuming?
I graduated from the UNCC mechanical engineering program here in Charlotte back in 2011.. can't believe it's been 10 years.. I concentrated in the motorsports program and really wish I had more time to spend in the shop and learn welding early on instead of just last year on my own time. It has been one of the greatest skills I've been able to acquire for all my car hobbies. Obviously learning to wrench on my own stuff from my dad has been the number one thing making both my street and off-road hobbies possible at a reasonable cost.. I can't imagine having paid someone for all the work that i've done on my cars for the past 17 years.
I need to make some time to go weigh my setup and see what its sitting at currently.. I was astonished at how much weight I picked up going to the 315/70-17 tire.. I didn't quite weight it, but I would imagine its easily 100+ lbs. If I had to guess I would say i'm at 6500lbs considering the gross weight on the door tag is like 5700 lbs.
Keep trucking along with your build man, if I had to do it again I would definitely skip the hitch-mounted swingout carrier and build one directly into the factory reinforcement with the factory bumper trimmed around it. The amount of clearance you lose with a hitch-mount is unreal. I find that I'm pretty limited on departure angle even with the coastal offroad bumper I have now..
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Thanks! Yep, I'm studying mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech and am currently a junior. Next semester I'll have a bunch more free time, so I'm looking to get into one of of the design teams with a dedicated shop. Senior year it works out so the course load itself is lighter, with a focus on the design project. My parents aren't really into cars, so I've most stuff from reading and learning on my own. Basically started out doing maintenance stuff and it kinda snowballed into offroading haha.
I have a friend that was running stock 17"s on 35x12.5s that's wheel and tire setup was only 1lb more than my skinnies lol. Now he has kmc beadlocks and is up to 110lb per corner. I'd be curious to weight the whole thing now, but I haven't added a whole lot of weight.
For the rear bumper, my frame end caps are rusted out and one side the body mount is a little crunchy. So my plan was to cut like a 1ft off of each side, rebuild the rear body mounts, and fabricate a new cross member. Thats where I'm kinda realizing I need to upgrade my welding setup, since it does fine on 1/8" forever and can heat up 3/16" and 1/4" really well, but only for a limited amount of time before popping the breaker. The place I live has a 220v dryer near the back concrete area where I typically weld, but I don't know how a landlord would react to an shielding gas bottle. Its the kind of thing an average person would assume is a bomb waiting to happen, but someone with welding knowledge knows those tanks have to be certified and well maintained. I guess I could do 220v flux, but that seems to be two steps forward, one step back lol.
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12-21-2021, 10:54 AM
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#212
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Join Date: Jun 2020
Location: Charlotte
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Quote:
Originally Posted by y=mx+b
Thanks! Yep, I'm studying mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech and am currently a junior. Next semester I'll have a bunch more free time, so I'm looking to get into one of of the design teams with a dedicated shop. Senior year it works out so the course load itself is lighter, with a focus on the design project. My parents aren't really into cars, so I've most stuff from reading and learning on my own. Basically started out doing maintenance stuff and it kinda snowballed into offroading haha.
I have a friend that was running stock 17"s on 35x12.5s that's wheel and tire setup was only 1lb more than my skinnies lol. Now he has kmc beadlocks and is up to 110lb per corner. I'd be curious to weight the whole thing now, but I haven't added a whole lot of weight.
For the rear bumper, my frame end caps are rusted out and one side the body mount is a little crunchy. So my plan was to cut like a 1ft off of each side, rebuild the rear body mounts, and fabricate a new cross member. Thats where I'm kinda realizing I need to upgrade my welding setup, since it does fine on 1/8" forever and can heat up 3/16" and 1/4" really well, but only for a limited amount of time before popping the breaker. The place I live has a 220v dryer near the back concrete area where I typically weld, but I don't know how a landlord would react to an shielding gas bottle. Its the kind of thing an average person would assume is a bomb waiting to happen, but someone with welding knowledge knows those tanks have to be certified and well maintained. I guess I could do 220v flux, but that seems to be two steps forward, one step back lol.
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One thing I really wish I did my senior year was spend more time in the shop to learn welding and stuff like that sooner. But you're obviously a few steps ahead of that already lol. I was on the SAE Formula team but because of budget shortages we never got to fully complete our build.
I definitely would skip the 220 flux route.. just don't keep the C25 tank out there full time ;)
Luckily I have access to my dad's Millermatic 211 he bought last year, which as been an awesome unit to learn to weld on.. set the wire type and select material thickness and it auto-adjusts the feed rate. Works for 90% of the stuff I weld without having to tweak settings.
On a side note.. after stumbling across your posts in the Dobinson thread here yesterday I went out and made an impulse buy of their IMS long travel rear shocks and heavy duty springs damn it... so after only 6 months of installation and 3400 miles I'll be swapping out my Icon 2.5 rear shocks in favor of more travel.. I wish I did my research better when deciding to go with the Icons... looks like they also have a Long Travel version of my same exact shock I got, but i'm not willing to spend even more money and wait 20+ weeks to get them lol.
How are you liking your Dobinsons still? Any issues or concerns? I'm hoping to get a decent amount of added down travel with these along with my heim joint rear links. My current setup is limited on down travel by the shock, but i'm also losing almost an inch of shock up-travel because the weight of the rig can't compress my spring fully (its a heavy duty NON dual rate spring with a 1.5" spacer on top of it). So I am hoping between a spring that will compress all the way to full bump and the added down travel I should actually see somewhere between 2-3 inches of total shock travel.
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12-21-2021, 11:51 AM
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#213
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Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Lafayette, IN
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aemravan
One thing I really wish I did my senior year was spend more time in the shop to learn welding and stuff like that sooner. But you're obviously a few steps ahead of that already lol. I was on the SAE Formula team but because of budget shortages we never got to fully complete our build.
I definitely would skip the 220 flux route.. just don't keep the C25 tank out there full time ;)
Luckily I have access to my dad's Millermatic 211 he bought last year, which as been an awesome unit to learn to weld on.. set the wire type and select material thickness and it auto-adjusts the feed rate. Works for 90% of the stuff I weld without having to tweak settings.
On a side note.. after stumbling across your posts in the Dobinson thread here yesterday I went out and made an impulse buy of their IMS long travel rear shocks and heavy duty springs damn it... so after only 6 months of installation and 3400 miles I'll be swapping out my Icon 2.5 rear shocks in favor of more travel.. I wish I did my research better when deciding to go with the Icons... looks like they also have a Long Travel version of my same exact shock I got, but i'm not willing to spend even more money and wait 20+ weeks to get them lol.
How are you liking your Dobinsons still? Any issues or concerns? I'm hoping to get a decent amount of added down travel with these along with my heim joint rear links. My current setup is limited on down travel by the shock, but i'm also losing almost an inch of shock up-travel because the weight of the rig can't compress my spring fully (its a heavy duty NON dual rate spring with a 1.5" spacer on top of it). So I am hoping between a spring that will compress all the way to full bump and the added down travel I should actually see somewhere between 2-3 inches of total shock travel.
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I'm thinking maybe I could get one of the smaller bottles and it would be more incognito lol. I've got my eyes on the HF vulcan migmax since I've got a buddy that really likes his
I like the dobinsons and the rear shocks are nice and long and flexy. I have the basic nitro gas shock, but they have the same travel as the IMS and I've been happy with the travel. I have a buddy with the IMS all around and he really likes them for both the ride and comfort. I'm a big fan of the dobinsons for the value per dollar aspect
I haven't had any major issues. When installing the rear shocks, they were so long that the axle at both sides droop was at an angle where the shock bodies were touching the axle tube, so I put a washer on the lower shock mount to space them a away a tad. That's probably a function of using the stock links beyond their intention lol, but with your custom links you can probably make a little pinion angle adjustment to fix that
Another thing to look out for in the rear is due to the extended droop on the lower side, the upper side wheel will camber in a lot and get leveraged back further. This is a 265/70r17 that was rubbing pretty bad in the rear because it got pushed back a decent amount That could be a reason my pinch welds had already folded itself up on one side lol
Still need to get back to my buddies flex station with the 35s to give it a test
This is the best I got with the 35s so far
Last edited by y=mx+b; 12-21-2021 at 12:00 PM.
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12-21-2021, 03:28 PM
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#214
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man thats what I like to see! So much flex.. and on a budget too lol.
Looks like everything is in stock and getting ready to process. Really hoping to get these next week and swap them in.
My pinch weld is already pretty significantly cut and beat in as I'm sure you've seen in my build thread, but I may end up doing a bit more when I have the wheels off later this week. I'm hoping I cut the coastal off road bumper back enough, and if it rubs a little i'll be OK with that.
With regards to the adjustable links, I agree, it looks like my pinion angle is quite a bit different than yours at droop so I'm not worried about interference, time will tell though. I'll let you know how the 35's fit lol. My hope is that 37's come close to fitting at full bump for later down the road lol
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12-21-2021, 03:55 PM
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#215
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aemravan
man thats what I like to see! So much flex.. and on a budget too lol.
Looks like everything is in stock and getting ready to process. Really hoping to get these next week and swap them in.
My pinch weld is already pretty significantly cut and beat in as I'm sure you've seen in my build thread, but I may end up doing a bit more when I have the wheels off later this week. I'm hoping I cut the coastal off road bumper back enough, and if it rubs a little i'll be OK with that.
With regards to the adjustable links, I agree, it looks like my pinion angle is quite a bit different than yours at droop so I'm not worried about interference, time will tell though. I'll let you know how the 35's fit lol. My hope is that 37's come close to fitting at full bump for later down the road lol
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Thats good news, hopefully you get your shocks without too much delay. I saw you got the adapters for your brother's wheels, so I'm certainly curious to see how those 37s work out!
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12-22-2021, 12:17 AM
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#216
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Kenda Klever 35x10.5 Tires | Return to Directory
Meant to get to this a while ago, but got caught up with school and work. I worked on this little writeup on 3 separate occasions months apart, and I admittedly did not reread all of it lo.
I dropped some teaser pictures a while ago, so heres the full details on getting everything to fit. I'll go over how I fit tires and try to include pictures of all the important parts
LIFT DOESN'T HELP FIT TIRES!!!
So I hear all the time from various places "What lift do I need to fit X size tire?" and this comes from the misconception that lift helps you to fit tires. In reality, the lift only helps the tires fit at ride height. When it comes time for your suspension to articulate offroad, the lift amount doesn't really matter. With a fully stuffed tire, the lift amount is really irrelevant, since the bump stop positions aren’t changed.
In reality, the key to fitting tires is alignment, trimming, and hammering
Step 1: Alignment
Setting Caster
This step is going to depend a lot on what upper control arms you have. I have adjustable SPC uppers so I can play around with the numbers, but with a static arm like JBA, you may be more limited in what you can do with alignment
I started by pushing the LCAs all the way forward with the cam bolts. This meant turning the front cam in and the rear cam out
Front Cam in (This is the driver side for reference)
Rear Cam out (This is the driver side for reference)
This is purely a reference measurement and not meant to be taken as actual measurements. This is just measured between a 265/70r17 wildpeak and the mudflap.
First: LCAs in neutral position, Second: LCA pushed forward
I then moved to the SPC uppers. Theoretically, position G will give the most body mount and firewall clearance but some may not be able to get all the posative camber out. I fall into the latter category, so mine are set to F. Yes this does lower the overall caster number, but it is a sacrifice I'm willing to make to prevent tubbing at this point in time.
Passenger side pictured
Setting Camber
I used the SPC slider and an angle finder to set the camber. I aimed as close to 0 as possible and torqued the UBJ nut to the spec, and then some. Theres not much else to this
Setting Toe
Same here, not much involved for fitting tires. I set mine a hair toe in with a tape measure
Step 2: Big Tires On, Front Suspension Out
Now we're going to cycle the suspension from droop to bump and lock to lock. This will ensure your tires fit in all range of suspension travel. Putting in a ratchet or cam strap will also help so that your shockless front suspension doesn't just fall to the ground
So with the front suspension out, put the big tires on one of the front sides and point them straight forward. Then get a jack under the LCA and jack up to full bump.
With the tire at full bump, notice where it is contacting probably a lot of plastic.
I personally am not a fan viper cuts or any angular cuts on the front bumper cover to make tires fit. Instead, I prefer to follow the curves that are already there, but with a bit bigger radius. I used some blue painters tape to outline the desired curve, and a box cutter with a new blade to make the cuts
Last edited by y=mx+b; 12-22-2021 at 12:20 AM.
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12-22-2021, 12:18 AM
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#217
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Tire Fitting Continued
Once the tires fit in the straight-forward position, you can turn them and see where things begin to contact
This is where you may notice contact with the Fender Liners, Body Mount, Pinch Weld, Windshield Washer Tank, or UCA
Fender Liners
I did an aggressive cut on these, but I left decent coverage around the air intake to prevent junk from getting launched off the tires up in there. Any sagging areas can be further supported by zip ties. I cut two slots in the liner, and flossed a ziptie in there ton string it up
Body Mount
Cut this bad boy if you have contact. With the skinny tires and no spacers, I actually didn't have to cut mine. The above picture is when I tried them with spacers, but turns out I didn't need them
Pinch Welds
I hammered these flat up front (first) and in rear (second). Then follow this up by repainting any beat up paint work, and covering the split seals with seam sealer. Still have to seam seal, ran out of time
Wiper Tank
I have yet to relocate this, since I didn't have much contact on the street, but I finally cracked the tank lol
Here are some good instructions on how to relocate the tank:
UCA
If you're having UCA contact, you'll need spacers or difference offset/backspacing wheels to counteract this. I did not have this issue with these skinny tires, but Spidertrax and Bora are reputable spacer manufacturers. Test for contact with the tire at full bump and full lock turns in either direction
Last edited by y=mx+b; 01-16-2022 at 11:18 PM.
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12-22-2021, 12:18 AM
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#218
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Last edited by y=mx+b; 12-22-2021 at 12:25 AM.
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12-22-2021, 12:19 AM
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#219
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Dobinson Snorkel Install | Return to Directory
Since cutting out my fender liners, I wanted to relocate the intake so it wasn't directly slurping up crap from my front right tire. The main fixes for this are A) External Snorkel or B) Internal Snorkel/Cowl Induction.
I chose to pick up the Dobinson Snorkel out of personal preference. This seemed like a great idea, until I had to cut a hole in my fender. It ended up being alright in the end, but it worried me for a bit
I started by covering the fender in blue painters tape and laid the template out on the fender. Because the template is a flexible carboard, its hard to get it to sit right. This is especially nerve-racking because I'm about to use this floppy thing to make an irreversible change to my fender. In my experience, the template made the holes a bit low and backwards of where they needed to be, which I'll expand on with the next set of pictures
The hole is cut! For the 86mm hole, a 3-3/8" hole is the right US equivalent, but I couldn't find one, so I used a 3-1/2" hole saw and it worked fine. For the larger 114mm hole, I used a 4-1/2" hole saw. Because the sheet metal for the fender is so thin, I found the hole saw to catch a lot as it broke through. Instead of spinning the drill forward in the direction of the teeth, once it started catching, I used the drill in reverse and it no longer caught. Although it did introduce more heat into the cut because it obviously wasn't cutting ideally, it solved all the catching problems.
Before removing the template, I also predrilled each of the mounting holes with a 1/8" bit. The template called for a 16mm diameter hole for these, which is around 5/8". To me that was huge, so I tried to keep them as small as possible. Although the larger holes do give you more room to move it around as you find the best position for it
Because of the wonky template, my holes weren't in quite the right spot. For this, I recommend putting in one stud at a time, starting with one of the extremities. I then used the step bit in my undersized holes to expand them into almost a slot. Because my holes started out smaller than 5/8", the expansion didn't make them unnecessarily massive.
Once all the mounting holes were properly adjusted, it was time to secure the upper A-Pillar bracket. I'm too much of a weenie to drill the pillar and rivet as recommended, so I used 3M exterior double stick tape to secure it.
Once everything was ready for final installation, I shot some spray paint on the now exposed metal to prevent rust
Lastly, I removed the stock intake tubing and cut the elbow deflector off, so the air would have an unobstructed path into the intake. Not pretty, but it will be covered up.
For final install, I don't have too many pictures because it was kind of a pain. I suggest first snaking the rubber elbow in between the fender and engine bay. Getting the piece into the engine bay was a tight fit, so not having to battle the snorkel at the same time is good. Then the snorkel can be fit to the fender and the rubber elbow connected to the snorkel with the hose clamp. You'll need to snake your arms up in-between the fender from the wheel well to access this. The engine bay side will be easily accessible. Once all the tubing is connected, then the mounting hardware can be secured by, again, snaking your arms up through the wheel well.
Heres some pics just after install
And I got out this weekend with a few buddies from TW, so heres it out and about. I need some pictures from the snorkel side!
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12-22-2021, 12:19 AM
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#220
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I feel like I'm missing something in the chronology, so I'm leaving this one blank as to not back myself into a corner with the 20 image limit
Sliders are all welded up and painted, just need to weld to frame. Maybe tomorrow if the weather doesn't suck
Shameless bus pics because I love my job. Can't wait to get back to it!
Last edited by y=mx+b; 12-22-2021 at 12:30 AM.
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12-22-2021, 08:33 AM
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#221
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Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Merritt Island, Florida
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Real Name: Brett
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Haven't checked in here for awhile, more great stuff! With your attention to detail and documentation skills, your going to make a really good engineer my friend.
As far as the shielding gas, could you keep a smaller bottle hidden in a closet when not in use?
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12-22-2021, 10:37 AM
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#222
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 4RunnerAquasport
Haven't checked in here for awhile, more great stuff! With your attention to detail and documentation skills, your going to make a really good engineer my friend.
As far as the shielding gas, could you keep a smaller bottle hidden in a closet when not in use?
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Thanks, I really appreciate that!.
And yeah I was thinking about the full sized bottles for a bit, but I could probably get away with a small bottle and get it refilled as necessary. In my apartment, the 220v dryer is right near the back concrete patio where I typically weld so it could be a nice setup
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12-22-2021, 01:13 PM
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#223
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: St. Louis
Age: 44
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Real Name: Jeff
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Quote:
Originally Posted by y=mx+b
A lot of really smart stuff...
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Just read through the whole thread and wanted t say what a joy your write ups are. Very informative and great pictures. Well done, and I love the Patrick skid plate.
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12-22-2021, 01:24 PM
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#224
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dusty Driftwood
Just read through the whole thread and wanted t say what a joy your write ups are. Very informative and great pictures. Well done, and I love the Patrick skid plate.
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Thanks! and I love the Patrick too! really like how he pokes out from underneath lol
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01-16-2022, 11:16 PM
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#225
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Winshield Wiper Tank Relocation | Return to Directory
When putting on the 35x10.50s, I started to have some pretty significant tire to wiper tank contact.
I just let it go for a while, but eventually I cracked the wiper tank while out with some buddies. Then, I finally decided it was time for relocation
I was originally planning to follow the Silver Rhino Media guide ( linked here), but after ordering the Dorman tank, I just didn't like how it fit with the v6 intake. So, I got a different container I liked at Walmart and made my own brackets. Along the same principles as the Silver Rhino Media guide, so I won't go into a whole lot of detail as its already covered excellently there.
Drilled holes for my pumps
Started by making a bracket that utilized 2 rivnuts in the fender apron
Then added a leg down to the wheel well, and made sure to space it far enough forward that the bolt head won't be rubbing into the tire. A strap then holes the tank to the bracket
Then it was ready for paint! Also added some weather stripping to the strap to really keep it snug in there.
Right now its hooked up a little wonky. Did the final install at night before leaving on a trip, and I couldn't get the front pump wiring cable management clips unhooked in the dark. The front and rear pumps have different wiring connectors and I wanted to at least have the front fluid working, so I plumbed the front nozzles into the rear pump. Once this snow clears I'll get it hooked up right, but at least it works for now!
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