Superthermal's M813 Build, THE BOT

Out for a warm up and a full fuel top off. The BOT is awesome. Excellent rig.

I like it!

I drove mine to work yesterday and it just ran super smooth; no vibrations, rattles or tire hopping and felt like really strong power. Not sure if it was the temps or what but everything was working superb!

I have purchased 3 Detroit lockers for the axles and three sets of Konig chains for my 16.00R20s. I will be attempting to make the "track" chains discussed back a ways in my thread.
I will start installing the lockers on Monday with the help of another SS member. I need to pull my S-280 out and then remove the cargo bed. This will allow me to remove the chunks from the top through the top of the frame. The front is a bit more tricky. Will be lifting the front of the rig off the ground, removing the front tires, and resting the rear of the springs on railroad ties and some 2x12s . Ill take the drums off and the steering arms off the top of the knuckles then undo the front U-bolts. Then with some luck I can slide the axle out from under the front of the rig so the surgery can take place.
Wish me luck.

Now that's an ambitious task...good luck!

Well that took longer than i thought it would for the two rears. Will finish putting back on the driveshafts today.

Is there any shimming to do after the swap or is it just a carrier change over?

US6x4 said:

Is there any shimming to do after the swap or is it just a carrier change over?

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There is a great video done by yhe Western Canadian Rockwell guys on Youtube on how to do a chunk inspection. In yhis video they cover the details on a 2 1/2ton chunk but point out along the way yhe differences with the 5 ton. Very helpful.

Getting the last locker installed in yhe front axle. Would be "easier" if I was doing a big cam swap and just pulling the chunk out the hood rather than havimg to pull yhe entire axle out from under the rig. The UBolts were an absolute bear. Everything else was smooth to this point. Will get the chunk pulled tomorrow and the locker installed.

It feels good watching other people tackle hard projects and make progress all from the safety of my phone...hehehe.

Keep it up!

US6x4 said:

It feels good watching other people tackle hard projects and make progress all from the safety of my phone...hehehe.

Keep it up!

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No kidding this was a bit much to bite off, but was able to punch the leaky inner seals out, replace the boots and put the locker into the chunk clean everything up on the top loader, reinstall the chunk and do some clean up of tools etc... On Saturday Looking to finish. Will be getting the axle back under, get the new inter seals installed, replace all the brake lines, drums back in place among a million other things.

Driving with the two rear lockers I honestly could not tell any difference on dry pavement. Truck turns same as always and no tire dragging due to the lockers being able to free spool the faster rotating tire.
Will be using my 1x4 air hose assembly I made back a bit to ensure that all 4 of these rear tires are kept at the exact same air pressure to try to ensure they all wear evenly. Will also connect the two fronts to do the same. (See the part I used in the item #10 of this post:

What pressures are you running front & rear?

US6x4 said:

What pressures are you running front & rear?

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The front is at 60 and the 4 rears are at 52. My tires were new with the fuzzies on them and I found that running anything more than this that the tire side lugs were not wearing the same as the center section of the tires. When at the above psi the side fuzzies began to wear evenly with the rest of the tire. Now that was with the bed empty and no S-280 shelter in it. But I haven't adjusted the pressure since. If you don't have fuzzies to wear off your tires you can put some paint or heavy chalk on your tire in a line across or on several of the lugs and see how the chalk/paint wears off as you drive. You want it to be as even as possible to ensure full contact of the tire for the longest wear life.
How about you? Your front winch weighs almost 800lbs in all. What are you finding suits your setup?

I'm running 60 in front, 35 in rear and 40 in the middle for now, but I still experiment with different rear settings. Truck is empty.

I like the chalk/paint idea - will have to try that out.