Unimog Axled M715 Build

Cool truck. Love the portals. Hope you can get it out of the garage when your done. Mine barely clears an 8 foot door and it is not near as big as yours.

Hate to sound like a Chase commerical but wait, you have a 715 with mog axles! I thought about something like that but read you needed to do a 4 link setup and couldn't use springs. Love the blue color! You have to finish this up before I find a truck to put rockwells under!I need more info.

Militarytrux - Ahhh the 12 valve comment, I’m surprised it wasn’t the first response haha. I love diesels (I have 2 right now) and I love Cummins motors but for this thing to be moving in the next century I’m keeping the small block. Plus if actually had the dough for a Cummins I’d have to rethink these axles because there’s no way I couldn’t help but turn that thing up into a drivetrain destroying machine.

Jeepcj - So the wheels are from USA 6x6, good to know although I believe they went out of business a few years back. At least I’ll know not to call starzworks to figure out why 2 of these keep leaking.

Don't worry Brushawg its gonna have 4-links as soon as I do all the design work and I figure out how to buy all the expensive rod ends/material/etc. Yes, rocks would be easier and arguably quite a bit stronger but this is what I got and what I want to work with. Plus they are already locked and have steeper gearing which will let me get away with a small block hopefully…

Troop ISP - I gotta set of rollers that will get it out of the garage, you'll see when I get around to adding more to this thread.

Currently:

Fast forward 5 years, just like the guy I bought it from, time went by and very little work was done on the jeep. I have it stored in my parent’s garage 45 min away from my house so I don’t get up there that often except around holidays. Over the years I’ve taken quite a few parts off it to make my green jeep work or get back into working order. I bought a house, went to grad school while working full time, required attention to g/f’s, and a bunch of traveling so not a whole lot happened to the Blue Jeep due to lack of time and funds. Not to mention an engine swap (454), TBI conversion, and a spring over on my green truck.

The jeep remained stored at my parents because I decided to buy a house without a garage and only a carport and an RV gate with only enough room for one jeep (green one) back there.

I didn’t want to admit defeat on this project though so I’m trying to get things rolling again and hoping for some motivation. Below I’ll break down each of the sections of the jeep to explain where I’m at and what needs to happen next. Feel free to chime in with suggestions, ideas, and or some constructive criticism will help. I’m trying to keep this thing budget minded which is hard to fathom based on the parts list of what this thing came with.

Pic of my parent’s garage a few years ago, luckily this is like a retirement home for them so they don’t live there full time or this jeep would have gotten to boot years ago. Could easily clear two 30 packs stack on top of each other.

http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/...p/9158d286.jpg

Suspension:

I had always known that I’ve wanted to design and build 4-link suspensions to locate these axles because leaf springs are not ideal with portal axles and I wanted to lower it quite a bit to make it a lot more stable. I like to plan and design things thoroughly before jumping into them but looking back if I just jumped into this I’m sure I’d be a lot further along. Rod ends, tube adapters, misalignment spacers, and heavy wall tubing are real expensive not to mention the shocks I’ll have to eventually purchase. The plan right now is to do the rear axle first and probably use some box tubing as my shocks in the mean time. Currently I welded the rear axle to the frame at full compression to make it a roller. I’m going to design the 4 links using a 4 link calculator as well as solid modeling which will probably take a while but it’s the next step and it really only costs me time instead of money. I’ve done a lot of research on other 404 axled projects on the internet and I can tell this is going to take a while and not something I want to take any shortcuts on.

Are you runnin a sm420 or a Sm465? I only ask this because I was told that sm420 cant have a married transfer case or do you have a divorced 203/205 double or have I been misinformed?

Alaska Hunter - You might be right it could be a SM465 since it looks real similar to the one I have in my green truck but I haven't looked at it in a while. Here's an older picture of the Tranny and T-cases and they are definitely married together. I didn't build the mounts but everything looks like it should be plenty strong and isolated from the frame.

http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/...ps551fc192.jpg

Steering:

Steering is also going to be a problem because of the size and weight of these tires. So this is going to require either hydraulic assist or a full hydraulic system fab’bed and installed not to mention lack of 404 steering arm sources.

Here’s some $$$ ones from Blue Torch Fab: http://www.bluetorchfab.com/Product/...iver-Side.aspx

Here’s a link to the BTF arms bent/warped: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/merce...-quistion.html

There’s a guy who makes them with a different design out of 1” thick steel for $300/set, here’s a link to some pictures of those: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/merce...teer-arms.html

Here’s a JP magazine write up for putting hydro assist (a lot cheaper than full hydro) on their J-Truck on Rockwells and 49’s which would be very similar to the size and weight of my truck and it appears to work ok:
http://www.jpmagazine.com/techarticl...ing/index.html

This is going to be an expensive and time consuming step. Currently the tie rod runs behind the axle and has a factory bend in its design but I haven’t seen many people try and keep this design although I’ve read it keeps the steering ackerman angles closer between tires at full lock steering.

http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/...psd2f7f2c5.jpg

That's some ground clearance. Those axles are very cool. I considered them for a short time. But the coolness didn't over come my inexperience with them and the cost. Now I wish I would have looked further into it. I'll be watching closely. So please keep posting pics and details.

WOW! :eek: V8 with granny 4 speed, T-case doubler, AND 7.56 axle gears!! Now that's a crawler!