Ford LT 110 Off-Road Build

Looking good cleaned up and painted. Will look sharp once it's all assembled.

Thanks Matt! Yeah I'm sure hoping it looks better, haha.

I like the added gussets and the refinements.

Man that crane boom on the front of the GT is giving me a lot of ideas.

Thanks Carl! Yeah she's pretty solid now, haha.

Made some good progress on the coilover towers today!

I used some angle steel as the lower part of the brackets to bolt on to the frame:



Bolted them up and made the uprights and mounting tabs out of some more angle steel and some flatstock.

Right side:





Left side:



Had to make a little cutout to fit around a casting in the intake manifold:



Coilovers back in place!







Not done yet, but I'm really liking it so far! Still need to make some rearward facing braces and some braces to keep the towers from bending inwards, but that'll be easy. Then I just gotta paint up the towers, probably paint the coilovers, and I also wanna mess with the steering a bunch, because leaving that kinda stuff stock is just simply no fun.

But anyways, I'm definitely liking the way things are looking so far. Let me know what ya think!

Looking good thus far. You answered already the question I had. LOL! Great job.

Haha, thanks Mighty!

Alrighty so I got some more stuff done here. Painted my coilovers up all nice and pretty:




Turned out pretty cool looking in my opinion!

Then I added a couple braces and a cross bar for the towers:







Gonna paint those with the same gloss black I use for the beams after I I finish up the limit chain mounts, but first I just had to see how the coilovers were gonna look:





Oh yeah! Haha. Definitely happy with the way it's turning out, more progress to come soon!

Nice work with that strut going through the hood connecting the towers and the gussets you added.  Looks really strong.  Will look even better once it's painted.  What are you thinking for steering?

Thanks Carl! I actually added a couple more gussets, painted everything up, and re-assembled the whole thing shortly after that post. It turned out looking great, but of course it was too dark to get any good pictures by then, haha. Oh well, I'll be sure to snap a couple tomorrow.

The idea I have for steering is pretty hard to explain, but it will basically be more like the drag link and tie rod set up on an older Ford pickup. It would work much better with the Twin I-Beam than the current steering setup does. I'll be able to explain it better once I get everything sorta mocked up and what not. That is, if I actually ever do it.

So I actually decided to start on the crossover style steering yesterday, and it went quite well!

Started with the old bellcrank from the GT's stock steering setup, and a piece cut out of the mounting plate:



Welded the mount to the frame and added a couple gussets:



Probably gonna add a cross member right behind it later on to keep the frame from flexing, but she's pretty solid for now.

Then after some cutting, bending, and welding, I got the linkages all made up and painted!







You can kinda get an idea of how it works here, as I said it's a lot more like a pickup truck setup. It works great too!! No more change in the wheel toe during suspension travel, and it's pretty neat looking in my opinion. Hahaha.

Finally some pictures of the whole rig:







Everything's holding up fantastic so far. Took it through the trail in the woods yesterday after I finished the steering, bumping over logs and what not, and the front end handled it great! A bit better that I expected to be honest, haha. Pretty happy with how the front end re-vamp went, let me know what ya think!

Interesting steering set up.  Does the extra point cause additional slop?

Surprisingly no, although some of the joints I used are pretty loose. I'd like to pick up some more heim joints so I can have all heims instead.

were do you guys find the shocks you throw on the tractors, or if i went to the junk yard what shold i be looking for?

Well obviously I can't speak for everyone, but I just happened to find these coilovers next to an old truck I robbed the steering box out of a year or so ago.

I have found a few pairs of coilovers at the juinkyard, I robbed them off of some street bikes with two shocks, but both times I have found them a bit too stiff. So try to find the smallest bike you can I guess.

well, theres a street bike sitting close to a tractor i want. but i dont know anything about taking apart somthing road legal.

Dang, finally get some traffic in here and we're not even talking about the build....

Deal with it

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Dang, finally get some traffic in here and we're not even talking about the build....

People are in AWE of the Ford build they don't know what to say!  

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Dang, finally get some traffic in here and we're not even talking about the build.... :lol!: :lol!:

hay, i got a ford that needs to be as "shocking" as this ford.

Those are some complicated linkages you have there, but if the toe doesn't change during suspension travel you nailed it.

I like the roller chain you used for suspension travel limits.

I wish I had the what seems to be endless amount of good heavy scrap metal you have.  LOL

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Those are some complicated linkages you have there, but if the toe doesn't change during suspension travel you nailed it.

I like the roller chain you used for suspension travel limits.

Thanks Carl! Yeah there are a couple more joints involved now, but it's definitely worth it not having to worry about hetting death-wobble or anything.

MightyRaze wrote:

I wish I had the what seems to be endless amount of good heavy scrap metal you have.  LOL

I can share, but it's gonna cost ya!

AK and death wobble.  Something just doesn't sound right there.  LOL  

MightyRaze wrote:

AK and death wobble.  Something just doesn't sound right there.  LOL  

Maybe, but it's quite a sight I assure you.

Had the little Ford out this weekend. Hadn't been started in weeks so it was a grumpy thing for a little bit, but she finally came around after some driving around and a splash of fresh gas in the tank. Pretty much the only thing around here this time if year is mud,  so that's what we ended up playing in.

Couple screenshots from a video I was trying to make:







Then I got a little rammy and slammed across a big rut at full speed, so I ended up breaking a steering rod:



Whoops, hahaha.

Had to play tow-truck with the GT and got 'er back to the barn to be fixed up.



I just cleaned up and welded the rod back together and it held up fine for the rest of the day.





I think I'd like to beef up the linkages some now that I've had it break on me, use some nicer rod ends and what not. I've also been thinking about a front skidplate to protect the steering linkage and suspension components. Maybe make the skidplate come up into a neat looking bumper even? We'll have to see, haha. I've got a few Ideas so hopefully I'll be able to make something happen!