Project Bronco Diet and Makeover

[Busted Knuckle Racing]

That is about 600 lbs I believe, and you will have about 1250lbs of axles and 500 lbs of rubber, and I am guessing about 250 lbs of propane, about 600lbs of motor and transmission.
That only comes up to 3200 lbs.... maybe I forgot something.... I figure this thing will weigh about 4000 by the time you are done. thats not all that bad for a 4 seater with rockwells.

[JWP]

We have used about 200 feet of tubing to this point. I estimate that we will use about 50 more feet of tubing. With us using 2"x .134 wall tubing our chassis weight will be around 725 pounds. If we had used 1.75" x .120 wall tubing,like everyone else uses, we would weigh around 565 pounds which is very close to what a 4 seater Avalanche Contender weighs. This tells me that are not really using too much tubing.

As far as final weight, my guess is that we will never get below 4500 pounds. I predict 4500 to 5000.

Before anyone asks, the reason that we use 2" tubing is because we are like Monster Garage in that it was a FREEBIE.

[rsmith]

I weigh 220 - my wife weighs (I know better than that)

I am anticipating around 4500 lbs still. There is still a lot of tubing to go.

[Busted Knuckle Racing]

cool, lets take bets!
then go weigh it when we are done! I am gonna put my money on 4275lbs full of fuel because I like to stay positive. ;D

[rsmith]

How much money are we talking about, so I will know how thick of material to build all of the accessories out of?

Speaking of - does anyone know of a template for a Warn 8274 winch on the Internet? I need dimensions to build the plate for the front. I could drive out and measure, but I thought if anyone knew right off hand it would help.

[Busted Knuckle Racing]

[rsmith]

Bless you

[jeepchipjones]

Im gonna say.... 4617 lbs, 8 oz

[broncocraigellis]

it's really looking great. can't wait to see it with the boat sides on it.

[rsmith]

We are working tonight (Thursday) from 5:00 till we get tired at Jason's. We are planning on getting the tubes bent for the boat sides. We may be working a bit Saturday as well.

I will post some pics tomorrow of the sides.

[JWP]

I have not heard from Rob today but I think that we will probably work most of tomorrow beginning to install the running gear. All are welcome to come by.

[Busted Knuckle Racing]

I will definitely be there for that. What time you getting started?

[rsmith]

We had a very productive weekend as the drivetrain started making its way under the cage. It is starting to give us glimpses of how it is really going to look. Brad, Jason and myself worked all the day Saturday.

Here are some shots of the progress:

As we started, Jason finished up some welding to the cage as it was upside down. We fitted a few bars to the boatside which is not completely finished as we are deciding what to do about link arms for the suspension. Here is a shot as we just turned the frame back over.





The next thing we did was finish stripping the Bronco frame. BTW, if anyone wants and Early Bronco frame you need to tell me before Wednesday or else it will end up at the scrap metal yard. I don't have any pics of the frame teardown, but here is one as we were inserting the motor into the buggy for the first time.



Here is a shot of the motor in relation to the front axle. We offset the motor about 2 inches to the right to assist in clearance for the Rockwells.



Here are some shots to the grill and fender. We have been a bit undecided as to whether to actually use the Bronco parts or continue with strictly tube in the front. I think I have made my mind up as to what to do, but what do you guys think?





Here are some shots as we stand back from it:

[rsmith]

O yeah, the height that the buggy is sitting now is approximately 4" below ride height.

[bean]

i say run the bronco skins. you always see a tube jeep or some sort of buggy but never a bronco. that thing is going to look cool ether way though.