Skid Plates, Frame Repairs, Sway Bar, Oh my!

From: JT McBride (James.McBride@GDEsystems.COM)
Date: Mon Jun 17 1996 - 13:44:20 EDT


Just about ready for my trip to Montana.

I replaced all four front anti-sway bar bushings. As far as I can tell, these
are not available in aftermarket urethane, so I bought new Dodge rubber ones.
My old ones were pretty hogged out from 86K tough miles. I have a new truck!
Well, I hav no perceptible bounce steer, where it had got pretty bad.

I had scrunched my center cross-member pretty badly, especially on the pass.
side, which is not protected by the xfer case skid plate. It was bad enough
that I was not able to adjust the torsion bars because I couldn't get a socket
on the bolt! I rented a Porta-Power (body shop tool, a hydraulic master cylinder
and set of attachments, one of which are Jaws-of-Life) and expanded it.
I plan to fabricate a skid plate to cover the entire space from the second to
third crossmember.

I learned something at the parts counter. Any part that's welded onto the
frame is available only as the whole frame. Dodge does not sell brackets or
crossmembers for crash repair. BTW, they want $1500 for a complete new frame,
which seems pretty reasonable to me. Of course, to fix a truck, I can just
imagine: "That'll be $1500 in parts, $10,000 in labor." Lots of assembly.

As to skid plates. Don't go offroad without them! By offroad, I don't mean
numbered Forest Service roads (though with the maintenance budget these days,
some are not fairing too well) I mean crawling over rocks, dirt and sand --
where you'd want a mountain bike or hiking boots. On the Dakota 4x4, the
skid plate that will take the most abuse is the front differential/oil pan
protection. The front pumpkin probably doesn't need to be shielded, and the
oil pan is nicely tucked up there out of harm's way, but the plate serves
as a skid and will keep you from getting hung up on the front pumpkin.
The center skid plate may be less vital for short wheelbase trucks like a
shortbed regular cab, but on my Club Cab, with 131" wheelbase, the truck is
most likely to find a road impassable only because it would high-center.
The center crossmember, which the torsion bars mount to, is the last frame
part to get involved in a highcenter situation. behind that, the driveline
propeller shaft will contact, and this is to be avoided. I've only scraped
the gas tank rock shield once or twice, and that was on very tall rocks that
I rolled the tires over, banged the rockers on, and didn't have the room to
get the rear tires onto. We're talking very BIG rocks.

Jim
The "Assault Weapons" ban is drive-by legislation. The target: Crime;
the victimized innocent bystander: the lawfully armed Citizen.
     ~*~*~ Tyranny Insurance by Colt's Manufacturing Cos. ~*~*~
 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:24 EDT