Round 2: Keepin' up with the Joneses, Mud Devils and Tony Woody

I want updates on the Ranger.

Marsfab is still progressing on it. When I dropped it off, we discussed at length (I pissed 3 times behind his shop as a time reference) what i wanted done and what he thought. Once we had a plan, I told him I would stay out of it aside from major decision making. I don't like being micro-managed and I won't do it either. I fully trust him and will wait on his updates.
 
I’m workin on it. I’ve gotten a bit done since the last pictures Jody posted. Things around the MarsFab casa have been very different since COVID came to be. Currently I’m teaching two 6 year olds and an 8 year old school every day, trying to run a business, cooking all the meals, essentially being a single parent while this years tax seasons have pretty much completely taken over my CPA wife’s life. She’s working 14-16 hours days bringing home the bacon while I’m working 2-3 hour days cooking the bacon :).

A lot of the work under the Ranger seems like it was pretty nice when it was initially built. Lots of thought went into things. Right now though, many of those things have been modified or changed due to years of use and upgrades. It’s been somewhat of a rabbit hole delving into it. Fortunately for Jody I’m not the type to not try and fix what needs fixing. He pretty much told me what he wanted to invest into it. He said he wanted to lower it some, gain some wheelbase, gain some up-travel and overall take care of issues that I find along the way. So here we are...

The crossmember/belly pan configuration was very cumbersome and tough to remove so that’s getting completely re-done.

As of now I’ve built all new 3/8” wall lower links, .250 upper, gotten away from the dreaded Barnes joints that are prone to fail and gone with 1.25” heims (every one I’ve installed in the last year has failed, sorry guys/customers). I’ve pushed the axle forward roughly 8” which allowed the truss and portions of the diff housing to clear the oil pan and crank pulley plus I’m hopeful that it’ll not be so far forward that I can’t do something nice with the grill. We’ve not gained quite what Jody was hoping for but it’ll still be a big improvement in stability and uptravel. After looking over all the bracketry on the axle I found that the lower link holes were wallowed out some and the panhard bracket and the hydro ram bracket lacked much structure. So... 2 or 3 days were spent cleaning all that off and starting fresh. It’s getting new Lower link mounts with skids to protect the new heim joints and I’ve also come up with a design for a long side “truss” that incorporates the panhard, upper link and the single ended hydro cylinder mount. I’ll try to take pics of that progress this afternoon.

Anyways. I really haven’t done much online in quite some time. Time has become quite the commodity around here so when I do get to work I try to be as efficient and productive as possible. It leaves no time for taking pictures.

Next week my kiddos will finally be back in school a couple days a week and tax season will be over for the wife so hopefully life will go back to a somewhat normal schedule for me. Hopefully bringing up my productivity and giving me more time to get back into doing what I love. Thanks for all the interest in my builds and sorry for being so silent on the web for so long. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.


Oh and someone asked about the suburban. It’s.... uh.... a..... huge project I’ve been working on for a while now for a customer. Andy and I started it over a year ago. The specs are, 54’s, super built 12v cummins, 5 ton Unimog portals, full chassis, cage, Hybrid exo, roof top tent, rear steer and thousands of other things. It’s basically being built to drive cross country (yes on the highway LOL) as a no expense spared expedition vehicle.
 
Oh and someone asked about the suburban. It’s.... uh.... a..... huge project I’ve been working on for a while now for a customer. Andy and I started it over a year ago. The specs are, 54’s, super built 12v cummins, 5 ton Unimog portals, full chassis, cage, Hybrid exo, roof top tent, rear steer and thousands of other things. It’s basically being built to drive cross country (yes on the highway LOL) as a no expense spared expedition vehicle.
Something like that needs a build thread....
 
I’m workin on it. I’ve gotten a bit done since the last pictures Jody posted. Things around the MarsFab casa have been very different since COVID came to be. Currently I’m teaching two 6 year olds and an 8 year old school every day, trying to run a business, cooking all the meals, essentially being a single parent while this years tax seasons have pretty much completely taken over my CPA wife’s life. She’s working 14-16 hours days bringing home the bacon while I’m working 2-3 hour days cooking the bacon :).

A lot of the work under the Ranger seems like it was pretty nice when it was initially built. Lots of thought went into things. Right now though, many of those things have been modified or changed due to years of use and upgrades. It’s been somewhat of a rabbit hole delving into it. Fortunately for Jody I’m not the type to not try and fix what needs fixing. He pretty much told me what he wanted to invest into it. He said he wanted to lower it some, gain some wheelbase, gain some up-travel and overall take care of issues that I find along the way. So here we are...

The crossmember/belly pan configuration was very cumbersome and tough to remove so that’s getting completely re-done.

As of now I’ve built all new 3/8” wall lower links, .250 upper, gotten away from the dreaded Barnes joints that are prone to fail and gone with 1.25” heims (every one I’ve installed in the last year has failed, sorry guys/customers). I’ve pushed the axle forward roughly 8” which allowed the truss and portions of the diff housing to clear the oil pan and crank pulley plus I’m hopeful that it’ll not be so far forward that I can’t do something nice with the grill. We’ve not gained quite what Jody was hoping for but it’ll still be a big improvement in stability and uptravel. After looking over all the bracketry on the axle I found that the lower link holes were wallowed out some and the panhard bracket and the hydro ram bracket lacked much structure. So... 2 or 3 days were spent cleaning all that off and starting fresh. It’s getting new Lower link mounts with skids to protect the new heim joints and I’ve also come up with a design for a long side “truss” that incorporates the panhard, upper link and the single ended hydro cylinder mount. I’ll try to take pics of that progress this afternoon.

Anyways. I really haven’t done much online in quite some time. Time has become quite the commodity around here so when I do get to work I try to be as efficient and productive as possible. It leaves no time for taking pictures.

Next week my kiddos will finally be back in school a couple days a week and tax season will be over for the wife so hopefully life will go back to a somewhat normal schedule for me. Hopefully bringing up my productivity and giving me more time to get back into doing what I love. Thanks for all the interest in my builds and sorry for being so silent on the web for so long. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon.


Oh and someone asked about the suburban. It’s.... uh.... a..... huge project I’ve been working on for a while now for a customer. Andy and I started it over a year ago. The specs are, 54’s, super built 12v cummins, 5 ton Unimog portals, full chassis, cage, Hybrid exo, roof top tent, rear steer and thousands of other things. It’s basically being built to drive cross country (yes on the highway LOL) as a no expense spared expedition vehicle.
I've been in the same boat, almost identical. My wife works accounting too but just a secretary... so I still have to make the bacon in scrap.

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What is the issues with the Barnes joints? I ask because I just put all that on mine and haven’t run them yet. Still in the building stage...
 
What is the issues with the Barnes joints? I ask because I just put all that on mine and haven’t run them yet. Still in the building stage...

Let me start by saying I’m not bashing Barnes. I’ve dealt with Brad pretty much since he opened. They have always been good to me AND my customers. I’ve used barnes joints on almost everything I’ve built with the exception of a few but even those have gotten his heim joints.

For a very long time I lived by them, the price was fair and they held up really well with the exception of an early design with threaded adjusters instead of a snap ring. When I had issues with a couple of those Barnes always made it right either through me or sometime even directly through my customer who didn’t actually buy them parts direct from him.

Recently he must have changed the bushings he uses in the joints. I built an FJ80 this year that blew all 8 joints out on basically their first trip to URE. Again Brad made it right and took care of the guy sending him rebuild kits for all of them plus some extra stuff for good measure. Since that build I’ve met quite a few guys having issues with this latest round of his joints.

I have always liked the design and really hope he can get it straightened out soon.


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Figured as much, both sets I've seen have spit out pieces of bushing and feel like a worn out heim after ~1yr of use.
 
Gentlemen,

We have had some issues with our Enduros. With the original design (ones with small bodies) we found that the poly cups needed to be larger to extend joint life. To increase the size of the poly cups we had to redesign the body as well. At that time, the poly manufacture changed. We have found that manufacture not to be up to our standards. We have redesigned the poly and found a better manufacture. When we found the problem, we turned off all the listing for Enduros so no others could go out. Therefore, we have been out of stock for months on these parts. We are now building them in house as fast at the new poly manufacture can produce the poly. We will always stand behind what we sale. If you have any issue do not hesitate to let us know. The Enduros that are shipping now will not disappoint!

Brad Barnes
 
Gentlemen,

We have had some issues with our Enduros. With the original design (ones with small bodies) we found that the poly cups needed to be larger to extend joint life. To increase the size of the poly cups we had to redesign the body as well. At that time, the poly manufacture changed. We have found that manufacture not to be up to our standards. We have redesigned the poly and found a better manufacture. When we found the problem, we turned off all the listing for Enduros so no others could go out. Therefore, we have been out of stock for months on these parts. We are now building them in house as fast at the new poly manufacture can produce the poly. We will always stand behind what we sale. If you have any issue do not hesitate to let us know. The Enduros that are shipping now will not disappoint!

Brad Barnes

Could you give us a rough time range there were issues with the poly for the enduros? I have the newer bodies, but don’t know if the poly is up to standard.


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Could you give us a rough time range there were issues with the poly for the enduros? I have the newer bodies, but don’t know if the poly is up to standard.


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What was your order number?
 
A little late but here’s pictures of the new truss/link/panhard/hydro dealio and the completed trans and atlas crossmembers that are now completely independent of the each other and the belly pan.

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3d2809742539fa921d24607eb1b303ee.jpg



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