I've been getting numerous questions on S10forum about my under bed set up, which has since changed from this ->Original Bagged Thread<-.  I'm still working on getting my truck back on the road, but I figured I'd post this up since I'm almost mobile again.  The reason for waiting was because I hate when a project thread has the pictures scattered over 20 pages and it takes forever to look at them all.
Anyway, I had/have a bunch of stuff planned for it, but I'll cover them one by one.

(throughout this thread I'll be posting thumbnails, so just click them to enlarge the image)

I started taking everything apart and putting the truck up on jackstands.  I put ramps and ... um, textbooks under the tires to keep the suspension from pulling on the bags.  Who says you won't ever use your old text books again?  haha

 
 


First was to tunnel the cab for the driveshaft.  Not much to say about this other than I tunneled way more than necessary and can now bodydrop 3" as it sits.       Using a cut off wheel to cut the floor sucks. I quickly switched to a sawzall.  I recommend it.

   

Next on the agenda is the addition of an extra five gallon tank.  I wanted another E200 tank, but never found one and SD stopped carrying them.  The aluminum ones on FBI's website peaked my interest since they still had the ports spaced far apart, had an actual drain port, and were also aluminum.  So I picked up a couple.

The original tank rack, which everyone was asking about, was made to hold one tank, two compressors, and a set of valves.  This purpose was served, but like I said, I've since decided that I want more air. 

The objective of this new one was to make it house two FBI aluminum 5 gallon tanks, two compressors, and 16 valves   (I'll get to that part later)

This is what I came up with as far as dimensions.

 

As you can see in this first picture, the rear crossmember that I made was about 2" from being flush with the rear ends of the framerails.  It was made from a 2" x 4" x .25" wall tubing with 1/4" thick plates welded on the ends to create flanges to bolt it in with.  I cut the flanges off of one side and moved the crossmember back flush with the ends of the framerails to give myself an additional 2" of room in the spare tire cargo area.



Here's the beginnings of the new rack.  You can see how it bolts into the stock sway bar mounts.



A couple weld pics ...

More of the tank rack a little farther along ...



Then, I added sheet metal to the "floor" and front face of it to help guard against debris and water from getting all over everything.  I'm sure it's still gonna get dirty, but maybe this will help a little.



I took off my lift bars and cut the circle plates off and welded them back on 2" farther back to get a  little more lift in the rear.  I sprayed them red this time because my 3 link is red.  Just spray paint, nothing special.
But here it is with the new rack, adjusted lift bars, and mocked up with the tanks and compressors.



Here you can kinda see the front "wall".  You can also see again, where it bolts right up into the stock sway bar mounts.  The rear mounts bolt in between tabs that I welded to the bottom side of the crossmember.



More details to come ... I hope this helps answer some of the questions that people had about my set up.  What isn't in this thread may already be in the original thread that I linked in the first sentence.

I'll keep ya updated.

So when i said that i was going to have 16 valves, I meant a full set of eight 1/2" valves and a set of 1/4" valves plumbed in parallel.   It's essentially the same thing that I posted in the Valves sub-forum, except all the valves are mounted on the tanks and they are staggered such that they are all right next to one another with the dump hanging down.

Here is a diagram ...

 

Here's the anticipated wiring.  I'm currently only running the 1/4" valves because of difficulty in finding exactly the right switch(es) that I want.



With the toggles shown there, I can use the same switchbox and change speeds with the flip of a switch or two.  Also, depending on the toggle selectors that I buy, I could potentially flip from 1/4" only, to 1/2" only, or to all of them together at the same time.

People say this is the multispeed set up that has more potential leak paths.  If you take your time and do it right and get all of the leaks taken care of, then you really don't have anything to worry about.  I don't mind a little extra work to get 3 speeds out of the set up! 

Here are two videos with the 1/4" valves.

These two on the left show clearances with front up back down.  The one on the right shows full down.





Note the air tool chuck for filling my tires or whatever it comes in handy for.  There's a stock hole that the chuck goes through and can screw into a coupler. Using a washer or two, it can be snugged up nice and tight.  I've used it to hook up and fill 3 people's tires so far including my own because I've picked up some nails in both back tires.

Check out these bushings I used.  I love 'em!

->AirRideTalk.com Forums - Bushings for quieting the compressor(s)<-

This is another change that is still in progress.  I have the mounts made and it tilts, just not under it's own power.  I also mounted an S10 hood latch to one of the driver's side bed mounts so that when it drops, a rod latches into place like your hood does.  Then I'll have the cable run into the back of the cab so I can pull release it from inside.



  Since I got my truck back on the road, I found that one of the FBI tanks is leaking through a weld on the tank.  So getting that and a leaky airline fixed are my larger priorities at the moment.

Here's a shot of the hood latch as it stands right now.




Another change is I finally put on rear shocks.  Yes, I know, riding without them is stupid .... which I immediately knew how stupid once I drove with shocks for the first time.  Wow, what a difference.





I think that gets it pretty much up to date.  My apologies for getting these last few posts up so late.  Especially considering a lot of the pics are from around June or so.

Getting started on relocating things under hood.  I pulled the inner fenders, so I had to support the battery tray by welding on an upright to the bottom of the tray and bolting it to the frame.




other pictures, so far ....

Notched the ABS bracket to clear the brake booster and then bolted it back closer to the firewall.


Inners removed.  ECM wiring extended to put it under the battery.  Tons of room there, I dunno why people don't do it.


Inside of the driver's outer fender cut for tire clearance.

cool looks good bro seems like very people even geton here ne more

I was wondering is the air bag arm attached under the rear with a shackle? It cant be seen in your photos.Is this system designed by u or is it store bought?It looks really great.johnrodz

I was wondering is the air bag arm attached under the rear with a shackle? It cant be seen in your photos.Is this system designed by u or is it store bought?It looks really great.johnrodz

Quote from: johnrodz on 04/21/08, 06:04 PM

The rear most link bars are lift bars.  Yeah, they attach to the axle via shackles and "superpivot" "Johnny Joints".  The superpivots are built into a bracket that bolts to the axle where the leaf spring used to.  The shackle allows the forward end of the lift bar to move throughout a different travel arc than the axle does.

I built it myself after modeling it all up in 3D with Mechanical Desktop 6.0 (AutoCAD)

Thanks!    Unfortunately, I have recently decided to de-bag the truck and get it ready for parting ways.  It has almost 200,000 miles on it, and has required more time fixing things lately than it has allowed for customizing things.  I also live in an apartment with limited space and resources, and I may be moving soon, now that my wife is done with school.  It's just time for me to let it go, and one day when I have a house and some dedicated work space, I plan to get an old classic truck, or muscle car, and start working on it from the ground up.  Then, I can take my time and not have to rush to put it back together in time to drive to work on Monday.

It's been fun, but alas, it's just time.    Thanks again for the props.