SFBD square with a Cummins and custom chassis

why would u do away with it?? hydroboost is great and has GOBBBBS of braking power

I don't mind hydroboost myself but some people hate it. Up to this point I've never had an issue with a hydroboost system. I've had lots of issues with vaccuum systems and lots master cylinder issues but never a problem I could blame on the hydro.
I got my notches welded up last night. I'm not sure I'll have time to get them put on today but hopefully tomorrow I can knock it out. One the notch is done I'm gunna finish my 4 link and get the rear bags mounted.

^^^pictures^^^ we need pics of the frame progress. LOL

I'm going to go out and try to get the notch done in a bit. I'll take some pix of the process. I got a couple pix of the notch to hold you picture junkies over lol. You'll have to excuse the welds on the notch. Their not the prettiest welds I've ever laid by far but there's plenty of penetration so they'll hold. I welded a couple of gussets on the underside for extra strength. I may occasionally tow so I wanted the extra strength. I don't think I've ever seen anyone gusset that area so I figured I'd try it out and see what happens. Surely it can't hurt anything though.


A pic of the gussets.

Well I got the notch put in tonight. As soon as I started I ran out of MIG wire and couldn't find my extra roll. So I ended up just welding it in just enough to be strong the rest of fab with the ole trusty Lincoln arc welder. So don't laugh at my nasty welds. Whenever I tear it down and paint the frame I'm going to finish weld it, weld some diamond shaped plate at the joints,and box about a foot of the frame on each side of the notch. In some of these pix the axle is sitting to far forward and has rolled downward since only the lower links are holding it in place. I snapped a picture of the battery box resting on just a couple of the bolts where it's going to be mounted for good. Enjoy.
The top of the frame trimmed out.

Tacked in.

With the frame chopped out.

The battery box.

And finally the truck laid out. Been over a year to get it to this point. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the upper links fabbed and the bags mounted on the lower bars.

If you look closely you can see the battery box in this pic and how close it is to the ground. It sits about 1.5" off the ground when fully laid out. That's another reason I built it so heavy. If it ever makes contact with anything while I'm driving down the road hopefully it will protect the batteries.

That's a HUGE notch huh? Why so tall? I was planning some rather tall notches to accomadate bag under notch.

Well the way it is sitting right now the axle is about 5" from the notch. The truck is on unlevel ground and the oil pan is holding me up so it'll fall another 1"-1.5" after that. Then I'm gunna cut my pinch so that should be another .5". My current tires are 1" shorter than the big rigs I'll run when it's done. The remaining 2" are just breathing room and to be sure it cleared my gussets inside the notch. They hang down about 1.5" under the top tube. I'll always leave a couple of inches extra on a notch. I'd rather be to tall than not tall enough. Also my bed floor is of no concern to me. I'm under no illusion that it'll ever be used for anything but a goose neck ball.
I've also played with the idea of putting bag brackets over the axle. Just in case I ever have to haul a heavy load on my little brother goose neck or hell even on our bumper hitch trailer I can just move the bags and not have to worry about tacoing my lower 4 link bars. Still a lot of thought to go into that one. Just one of those crazy ideas I have flying around in my head lol.

Amen to that. I thought that was low as you were going. Cool Beans.

First of all I really like the battery box, and now the truck is starting to look really cool. I am going out to work on mine today. Hope to get the notches built and installed by the end of the weekend. Keep up the great work!

Thanks guys.
Hopefully I can knock out the 4 link and the few remaining little thing I need to do before I tear it back down and paint everything this weekend.