Stretching rear 4-6" Any problems plating the frame sides?

[68 Broncoholic]

Tonight I'll be grinding off the rear leaf spring hangers from the frame and pushing them back 4-6". I'd like to go 6" but the rear hanger gets into the open area of the frame. I've seen others weld/fill in the open gap and attach the rear hanger all the way to the end of the frame. I'm thinking of plating the sides of the frame with 1/4" and attach the hangers to the plates. This will push the width out 1/4" on both sides but I'm also installing a D70 full width axle and the spring perches are not welded yet. I just think its going to be much stronger plating to the end than filling in the gap.
Anyone see why I shouldn't do this?

 

[crawln68]

Seems like the shackle would adjust for the rear spring hanger being 1/4 wider that the front hanger. I filled in the frame horns with 1/4 inch plate to keep the outside of the frame the same width. I welded the inside and outside for strength. If you go all the way to the back of the frame rails, you will need to modify your gas tank or go to a fuel cell.

 

[rcmbronc]

The one issue is that when you weld a flat plate on the outside of the frame, if it is welded on all 4 sides, you create stress risers at the corners that can easily crack the frame. This is because of the direction reversal on the bottom plate from stress. If you look at splice plates on a frame you will notice that the ends are diamond shaped to avoid this.

 

[crawln68]

Good point. I did that when I plated my frame for my steering box.

 

[68 Broncoholic]

That was my main concern about welding plate to the side. If I do I'll stich weld and add some plug welds. Or thru bolt the plate and add a few weld stiches here and there.
I didn't get time last night (finished the front) but this weekend I'll have a better idea of my plans. It looks like I can get away with 4" without hitting the gas tank. I raised my stock tank 2" higher (2" body lift) which helps.

 

[crawln68]

Yeah 4 inches is all I could get too in order to avoid the gas tank. Post some pics after the weekend of your progress. ;D

 

[68 Broncoholic]

Will do if I can get the far. The wife just got sick and I have a 2 yr old.
I can just seem myself chasing the kid with the welding helmet on. Hey, come back with that!!! %)

It looks like you didn't have to cut much of your wheel well (body) when going back 4". I know you stretched the inner wheelwell back 4" but how much fender trimmnig was it?

 

[crawln68]

I did stretch my inner fender tubs out about 7 inches. My outer fenders were un cut :-X when I started so it was easy for me to center the Warflare over the tire and cut. Because I didn't have a cut out to start with, I had to cut quite a bit more to the rear of the Bronco to accommodate the 4 inch stretch. Here are some pics of the rear before the Warflares were mounted so you can see where I cut it.

 

[68 Broncoholic]

Thanks! My outerwell is close to the same cut out as yours is now. I'll just stretch back the inner wells and see what needs trimmin from there.

I noticed something on you rig which I'm dealing with right now.
The Cage arms have the lower shock mount headed at a forward angle around 11:00 (driverside) instead of 12:00 causing a premature bind in the lower shock at ride height(5.5"). As the axle/radius arm drops the bind gets worse.
I pushed my front axle 1" forward so this made the lower mount bind even more. So I'll grind off the mounts and move them back 1" and twist to 12:00 or even 1:00 to help down travel. 11:00 on the passenger side. What do you think?

 

[RajinCajun]

That all looks like fun.. I am going to wait on my rear axle move.. I have alot of work to do on the front so I am just going to wait on the rear move.. All I have to do right now is weld the perches and hook up the brakes and drive shaft.. I may weld a U piece of metal in my gas tank so I can move the axle back more... My 10.5 is HUGE so I don't think I can get away with more than about 2" right now and that is not enough to warrent that much work...LOL!!

 

[68 Broncoholic]

The 10.5 is larger than the D70 but not all that much towards the rear.
I bet you can do 4" without a problem if you run at least 4.5" lift in the rear otherwise the cross brace needs to be raised. Might as well do it while you are there... ;D

 

[crawln68]

That all looks like fun.. I am going to wait on my rear axle move.. I have alot of work to do on the front so I am just going to wait on the rear move.. All I have to do right now is weld the perches and hook up the brakes and drive shaft.. I may weld a U piece of metal in my gas tank so I can move the axle back more... My 10.5 is HUGE so I don't think I can get away with more than about 2" right now and that is not enough to warrent that much work...LOL!!

Yeah, do it now or you will A) never do it. Or B) regret not doing it while you had it all torn apart. Just speaking from experience. ;D

 

[68 Broncoholic]

All I know is after riding in my buddies Bronco thats stretched to 100" WB everything seemed to be a walk in the park. No more teetertottering or off ballance concerns. I remember wheeling with him last summer and I had all 4 tires on a rock waterfall (93" WB at the time) and took several tries to get up. His front tires reached the top and pulled himself up effortlessly. Same with Toyota pickups with extended cabs as I've found.
Then a few EB friends that go to Moab all wonder why they never stretched their rigs earlier. I dunno but I'm gunna do it! ;D