Gary Lewis

Some of it did come together today. I got legs to the seat platform and the platform itself installed. I think it turned out a bit better with the rusty bits painted. And I got the adjusting arms prepared and dipped. The prep included drilling and media-blasting the end of the arms with the rest protected by a plastic bag. Can't tell how solid the "knobs" will feel until tomorrow as the Plasti Dip has to set up, but there are about 6 coats on both of them and I'll bet they are much more comfortable to grab now. Plus the SEM paint came in this afternoon so I hope to paint the console as well as line it with felt tomorrow.

Thanks, Pete. I've now read some on Xenforo and it does look interesting. But I'm finding that everything looks interesting until you actually use it, and that's where the issues show up. So could you take a screenshot of you starting to post something on that forum? I'm wanting to see what the various editing options are, like images, Youtube, embed, highlight, etc. And could you describe the steps for including a picture in a post? And/or anything else that you like or don't like?

Welcome to the Bullnose Forum! Glad you joined. However, you probably missed the email you were sent asking you to make your first post an introduction in the New Members Start Here folder. We ask that because we have our guidelines posted there and since we will hold you to them we want to ensure you have at least seen them, if not read them.

Got it, but I am just curious. Jeff - Here are the skid plates for the Bullnose trucks. The pic on the left shows the two up front, with one for the transfer case and the one for the front gas tank. And on the right is the one for the rear gas tank.

I'll apologize in advance for a long post, but this is rather an important topic so I hope you'll read it and at least vote and, hopefully, reply. Background: Issues with Nabble: Potential path forward: Gary's wanted features: Some of the things I have been looking for in a new forum platform are: First attempt: Chris/ckuske graciously agreed to host a new forum, for testing purposes only, on his AWS server. Initially we tried Discourse but it didn't seem like it was "right", although I think maybe we were wrong on that, so moved on to phpBB software. He has it working fairly well and you can see it by clicking the New Bullnose Test Forum link in the menu at the top. In fact, you can join if you'd like to kick the tires. However, we both have come to the conclusion that this isn't what we were looking for, and some of those reasons include: Pictures: When you click the image icon it inserts BBCode and you are then to go find your pic, copy the URL, and paste it between the brackets in the BBCode. Then do a preview and click the rotate button to get it where you want it to be. So not only does it not autorotate it doesn't give you a popup where you can navigate to your picture and click on it to insert the URL. And, to top it off, the only way to figure out how to do that is to hover your curser over the image icon and read the popup. Links: If you want to put a hot link on a set of text you copy the URL, highlight the words, click the link icon, and then add an equal sign in the BBCode and paste in the URL. Not too bad, but the BBCode is small and the chance of error large. And, to top it off, the only way to figure out how to do that is to hover your curser over the image icon and read the popup. Lists: The ability to put in bulleted or ordered lists is there, but it is complex. Maybe not as complex as on Nabble, but still quite complex. Subscribing: To me the subscribing process is counter-intuitive and I can foresee having no end of problems because members don't get subscribed to even their own threads/topics. The process is to click a wrench icon at the bottom of a post or forum and if you aren't subscribed there is a checkbox with a check in it that says "Subscribe". To me the fact that there is already a check in it says you are already subscribed, but that's not the case. Your Input: So we need your input. Do you think we should consider moving to a new platform? If so, what features are you looking for? And do you know of a platform that appears to have those features?

Nope, Big Bro doesn’t. Thanks guys for all these information, very instructive! I'll take some pics of the skid plates on Big Blue tomorrow, Jeff. It is a lot of weight that you don't need unless you are doing things like I may be doing.

It didn't really feel like much progress today as it was a lot of prep and a little bit of painting. But when (assuming) it comes together tomorrow that will be progress.

Bob - Big Blue's rear diff is no stranger to rocks, as you can see below. And the aluminum cover isn't sticking out below the diff itself, but I don't want to back into a rock. But I didn't check the front diff, so plan to do so tomorrow. I'm going to have the "comfort" things done soon, so could look at some other things. And I think the rear bumper would be my choice of things to do that would help. That would raise the clearance in the rear dramatically since, as you said, the receiver is part of the bumper. Yes, we'd probably scrape the bottom of the bumper on rocks, but I doubt we do more than cosmetic damage. But I'm not thinking that I'm going to get to make the bumper, at least not before the trip. We have a lot going on right now with doctors appointments. And the grandtwins are coming around Easter. Plus we want to take Big Blue on a trip to western OK, which will be a good test of the seats. And there's getting everything ready, including routes programmed into the Garmin. So I'm doubting I'll undertake anything very extensive.

Got the bench seat legs painted today, and picked up the Plasti Dip. May get to put the legs on the platform tomorrow and dip the seat track handles tomorrow.

We have a page dedicated to speedometers, including a calculator on how to correct them here: https://www.garysgaragemahal.com/speedometer-gears-cables--sensors.html

Trimmed the epoxy and then scrubbed the area with Dawn & then SEM Soap. I think this will work. Now it is time to address the tracks...

That makes sense. I wanted you to know what you would be getting into and what the benefits might be. It would cost to have the E4OD rebuilt, assuming it needed it, buy the controller, get the odd crossmember, and then modify the floor. And you might get two MPG on the highway out of it as well as a calmer environment in the cab. That's hard to justify financially as you'd have to drive a lot of miles to recoup the upfront cost.

Will they work on the dual-in/single-out mufflers? I’ve had fits finding those.

I've used Simple Green with good success, but not in a pressure washer. Just my heated parts washer. Others have used Purple Power and I've heard it works pretty well in a power washer. However, some of the cleaners shouldn't be left standing on some types of aluminum, so while I don't know about the transfer case you might want to wash it off with water when you are done.

I know that skid plates were an option on the F-250HD in '85, because I ordered one new (I did get the skid plates). But I don't know how often the option was chosen. I kind of wonder if the people in that video actually know what skid plates are too. In at least one place he's dragging his aluminum side step / running board / psuedo rock slider and the spotter says "it's just your skid plate". But yes, there are three primary materials used for skid plates: steel, aluminum and a plastic (sorry, I don't know the specific plastic, but it's something that's used in commercial kitchen cutting boards). Steel is most common. It's cheap, easy to work with and strong. It's also pretty good at not getting hung up on rocks. Aluminum is next most common. It's light, which is a good thing in a rock crawler (taking stress off suspension and driveline components) and a very good thing in an overlander (which are usually loaded well over their GVWR with roof-top tents, refrigerators and other comforts of home). It's also quite strong. I don't know for sure about the grade of aluminum they use (I doubt it's as good as the military stuff Gary mentioned), but I know that aluminum canoes will catch and gouge when they drag on rocks, so I pretty strongly suspect aluminum skid plates will catch worse than steel. I don't know that I've ever seen a commercially available plastic skid plate, but I have seen vehicles featured in magazines where the owner built a plastic skid plate. They are very light and very slippery. They are a little harder to work with (you can't bend them well and can't weld at all), so they are usually used where everything has been tucked up so high in the chassis that a flat sheet can be bolted to the bottom of the frame. It's also not that strong so it needs to be thicker (like maybe 1"?) so it hurts ground clearance (but who cares when you're running 40" tires or bigger). I have a little bit of experience with plastic skid plates. Our next door neighbor has RZRs and he bought a full set of plastic skid plates for his and we installed them on the lift. They are Ultra High Molecular Weight (UHMW) polyethylene and are about 1/2" thick. That makes them heavy enough that you really don't want to be laying under the RZR trying to bench press them into place, so two people under it on the lift was a bit help. They go on with cupped washers in recesses so the bolt heads aren't a snag point. And they work quite well. He said that with the metal skid plates he sometimes came to a grinding halt, but with these he slides right on over like they are lubricated. There were scrapes on them after he took it out, but no true gouges. This company makes some of them and their advert explains the advantages quite well.

That's funny! And telling. At least right now chatbots cannot be trusted to tell the truth, so disclaimers must be made. But if you tell me that the information you are providing might not be accurate then I'm not going to believe anything you say. So what's the point?

I would love to do that. So I need to hit WelderScott up to see what parts he's acquired. He was going to pick up bits and pieces instead of buying large sections.

Bob has sliders on his Bronco, but has said I won't need them on Big Blue. However, I'd run across that method of "bending" rectangular tubing so wanted to preserve it. My thinking isn't to do it before we go, but if I mangle a step bar then maybe I'll want to do it when we get back.

You don't have skid plates on Big Bro? Both Big Blue and Dad's truck have steel skid plates that cover the transfer case and both gas tanks. As for aluminum, there is some really serious aluminum available. As a kid my family had a cabin in the Oklahoma woods on the Grand River. Across the river was what the locals called the Powder Plant where during WWII a lot of ammunition was made. Pryor Creek cut through it and when the river was really high there was enough water to take our boat up into the plant. The first thing we noticed was a gate with barbed wire that, when closed, would go to the bottom of the creek. The second thing was a road just inside the fence and I could imagine a Jeep with a .50 caliber machine gun mounted on it patrolling the road. Then we found the scrap pile. Lots of neat stuff, including pieces of aluminum we thought we could use, so we took two small pieces. When we got it home we tried to drill it and just succeeded in dulling our bits. That stuff was so hard we finally gave up and threw it away. I have no idea what alloy it was, but it was very light and felt like aluminum. But it wouldn't bend nor drill worth a hoot, so wasn't useful to us. But it would make great skid plates.

LOL! I know what you mean about the welds. Mine aren't pretty either, but they hold. So you are making PROGRESS!

You will also need the E4OD crossmember. You can see that in this post on Dad's truck. And, you may need to modify the floor of your cab if it is a regular. I had to do that on Dad's truck, and you can see what I did starting here.

Congratulations!! Such a good feeling. But the power steering is probably due to air in the system. Put the front up on jack stands and turn lock to lock while the engine is running, monitoring the level of the fluid frequently.

Sounds like you prep'd it well. I'll bet it holds. The glue is setting up nicely in the console's holes, and I'm hoping to spend some time tomorrow smoothing things out. But I'm not going to prepare the console until I get the paint as I want everything to be squeaky clean. Maybe I can do that Thursday? And the Plasti Dip is to be in Wednesday so maybe I can spend some time painting the slides tomorrow to be ready to dip them.

Good to know. Thanks!

Just in case I decide to make rock sliders for Big Blue, I want to remember this approach to bending rectangular tubing. Currently I have steps made out of round tubing held to the mounts with 3/4" bolts that engage a piece of steel welded to the inside of the tubing. Instead I'd consider making step/sliders out of rectangular tubing with 90 degree bends at each and welded to the mounts. Then there'd be another piece of tubing welded inside the U that the step makes to act as a slider.