Alright folks, well apparently I have entirely too much ADHD medication and lots of crap on my mind. SO we must proceed on the next quest of what to do to my truck cause god forbid i leave it alone for more than 10 minutes. This time my screwing around with it will be an air ride cab. well as about the best I can get close to.
Parts I have decided to use are the rear cab air struts off an International Prostar tractor These are bolted to the frame by their own clamp style mount. Looks pretty simple. I believe I can leave the front mounts alone but just add different bushings for a better ride.
The plan for the rear mounting is pretty simple I believe. I have a pretty basic U mount that I fab'd up when I did the transmission modification. This lets my cab mount thru the same 1/2" cross plate that the transmission bolts to. Well We are going to lower that plate down and use a smaller transmission bushing so that will drop that cross beam in the pictures down about 2 inches or more. I will not bolt the cab back to that plate. I will instead use some 1/2" steel plate and run it across the width of the cab out just beyond the frame rails. I will in turn bolt the frame mounting for the air strut to the vertical 1/2" plate I have on the outside of the frame for the rear cross member. I will then bolt the air strut to the 1/2" plate going across the cab and secure that to the cab using the existing rear cab bolt holes. Basically the air struts will be holding the cab up. I will then add a reinforcement to the back side of the cab and add a shock mounting bracket to the rear of the cab on each side on the inside of the vertical steel plates and add a lower shock mount to it so that the cab shocks will rebound off of that. And of course add some safety straps. I will add a level valve to the rear along the frame some where below the cab.
Seems simple enough. That's the fall project. Will keep you updated.
Parts I have decided to use are the rear cab air struts off an International Prostar tractor These are bolted to the frame by their own clamp style mount. Looks pretty simple. I believe I can leave the front mounts alone but just add different bushings for a better ride.
The plan for the rear mounting is pretty simple I believe. I have a pretty basic U mount that I fab'd up when I did the transmission modification. This lets my cab mount thru the same 1/2" cross plate that the transmission bolts to. Well We are going to lower that plate down and use a smaller transmission bushing so that will drop that cross beam in the pictures down about 2 inches or more. I will not bolt the cab back to that plate. I will instead use some 1/2" steel plate and run it across the width of the cab out just beyond the frame rails. I will in turn bolt the frame mounting for the air strut to the vertical 1/2" plate I have on the outside of the frame for the rear cross member. I will then bolt the air strut to the 1/2" plate going across the cab and secure that to the cab using the existing rear cab bolt holes. Basically the air struts will be holding the cab up. I will then add a reinforcement to the back side of the cab and add a shock mounting bracket to the rear of the cab on each side on the inside of the vertical steel plates and add a lower shock mount to it so that the cab shocks will rebound off of that. And of course add some safety straps. I will add a level valve to the rear along the frame some where below the cab.
Seems simple enough. That's the fall project. Will keep you updated.
