Poison Spyder Buggy

Today, a venomous project kicks off Xtreme 4x4 as Ian and Jessi build a poison spider rock rod. Plus it's the equivalent to bike week in Daytona. We'll go to Moab

S Easter Jeep Safari. Xtreme 4x4 starts now.

Welcome to Xtreme 4x4 and our most ambitious project yet. We've been thinking about what we've been missing from our build list. We got cheap Jeep, we got AJ our ultimate Jeep. We pulled a ranger of a wrecking yard and we're building a Baha

truck out of that. That's going pretty well. And we even threw in a couple of tow rigs just for the hate now.

But when you start planning your own rig, you begin to seriously think about a tube chassis

like this one that we had brought in from poison Spider customs. Now you can build your own frame and a few years ago, that was your only choice, but you run the risk of it not working. And plus you're gonna spend hours or even days and months building and designing one of these things. Well, why go through all that when you can buy one for $3900 you know, it's gonna be square, you know it's gonna be straight level and it's actually gonna work. That's why nowadays a prebuilt chassis is a great option.

Clifton Sleigh is the owner of Poison Spider Customs manufacturer of all sorts of crawler accessories, including stingers, bumpers, even turnkey buggies and cages.

Hey, I'm Jessi Clifton and Spider fabricator. Timmy Turner made the trip from Denver Colorado to personally deliver our bruiser chassis to extreme.

These guys build awesome rigs like their latest here. Suicide Sally.

Ours may not be as spiffy,

but with the hardest part finished, we set out to build a competent trail rig, one with bulletproof axles, custom for

link and plenty of power that will hopefully make the designer proud. I can't wait to see what you guys make of it.

I'm sure it's gonna be an awesome machine

and, uh, we'll be back and we'll see you on the trail.

Our bruiser eight chassis is constructed with inch and three quarter dom tubing

and comes welded complete with winch mounts and shock mounts. The first thing we're gonna do today is we're gonna slip the engine transmission and transfer case in there and they wanna start planning to get this thing sitting on some diffs. And for those of you who are wondering when we're gonna show you how to swap out gears. Well, today is the day

for the drive train goodies. We decided to go with the crate engine and a crate transmission from GM Performance. We flipped through the catalog

and chose a V8 LS one because it delivers a good torque curve that peaks at 365 at 4000 RPM. And because it's aluminum, it'll give us a good power to weight ratio. Now, behind that LS one, we're going to be slipping in this four L 65 E electronically controlled transmit.

Now this is a great trance to put in behind a small block and it's a four speed unit with a 3.08 1st gear for slow speed crawling.

But it also has a 0.07 overdrive for when you really want to fly through the dunes. Now, the best thing about one of these packages from GM performance is that this isn't some wrecking yard, find that someone rebuilt and created up. This is a brand new engine with all the newest stuff right off the assembly line.

The next item to be going on our rock rod is a transfer case. We wanted to stick with our crate theme. So we went to advanced adapters for an Atlas too.

And since the bruiser will be spending most of its life on the rocks, we went with the ultimate low 50 gear ratio, which means that when I spin the input shaft,

the output shaft will spend five times slower than the input, giving a speed reduction and torque increase. So with the transmission in first gear, we'll get a gear ratio of about 15 to 1 and of course, advance sent us all the adapter plates that we need to get this bolted up to our transmission.

Pull that

jacy.

Yep.

Yeah.

Leave it. Don't worry,

look, my head fits right through there,

then you got,

and if he

put

back through there, it's even better.

Now. It's time to start mapping out our motor mounts in the transmission cross member. And the LS one has excellent bosses making this a fabricator's dream because I can mount them here here or even here. So I got a lot of options to choose from.

I will cut out quarter inch plate for the engine mounts

and with the holes laid out, I'll drill them using a drill press,

then cut the tubes for the urethane spring eye bushing we got from propane.

I'm gonna finish welding this piece all together while it's bolted onto the engine and onto the frame because this frame is gonna act like a jig and not allow it to twist from the heat of the welding. Now, if I were to finish welding it out on the table, it would deflect. And when I would try to line these bolts back up, they wouldn't line up and that would really suck.

Yeah,

with the engine firmly on its mounts,

I'm going to hang the transmission and the transfer case off this ratchet strap. Then I'm going to go ahead and take one piece of tubing and run it underneath for the mount by the time we get back from the brake, this entire drive train is going to be sitting in this chest.

Welcome back to our extreme poison Spider build. We've already dropped in our wicked drive train that consists of an LS one A four L 65 E transmission and an Atlas two transfer case. And now it's time to deal with the axles and we would open a lot of crates on this project. So why stop now? Well, because you asked us to, you wanted to know when we're gonna do a bone yard axle build up.

So here they are a couple of days six

that we got from Condon's auto parts, a great source for used four wheel drive parts.

And we're gonna build these what we consider bomb proof axles. But before we put gears in this front axle needs a little work first.

So I'm gonna tear into the rear axle and I'm gonna replace the carrier with this Detroit Locker. We got from track

and then I'm gonna spin that

with some 513 gears we got from superior axle and gear. Now these gears will give us a great bottom end run. But with our tire combination, we'll still have half decent top end speed. Now, a differential is a mysterious item and these gears are the first part of the puzzle as to what goes on inside that diff

as you drive your truck, power from the engine is split in two and sent to either wheel by the differential.

When you have an open D

or a locker, the real work inside the diff happens when you turn a corner and the wheels have to travel at different speeds.

While the gear reduction and power splitting are handled by the ring gear and drive pinion.

The differential action uses the side gears

and pinion gears sometimes referred to as spider gears.

The ring and drive pinion are still turning the same speed,

but with the spider gears working their way around the side gears, the input speed is divided between both wheels allowing them to travel at different speeds.

The Detroit locker replaces those spider gears with a spider and clutch assembly that's going to maximize traction, but it's still going to allow for that differential action. Now,

replacing a ring opinion may seem like a big job. But trust me, if you can rebuild an engine, you can easily swap a set of gears

with the rear 60 on jack stands. I will pull the axle shops

then pop out the carrier.

When starting with an existing gear set. I like to check the feel of the pinion rotating torque,

then pop out the pinion gear and remove the bearing races.

Now, here's a trick when you're doing this job,

you're gonna have to press that new bearing onto the pinion.

So I'm gonna take this old bearing and I'm gonna cut the cage off of it

para side cutters.

I'm gonna peel it open and

pull all the rollers off.

I'm gonna use this inner part on top of the new pinion

with a piece of tubing

to press that new bearing on.

Now, the carrier,

the shims to set bearing preload go between the side bearings and the carrier themselves.

And we're gonna have to take this apart and put it together a whole lot during the set up. So I'm gonna take the old bearings, I'm gonna grind out the inside of the dye grinder until they fit on and off and we can take it apart, easier

check the fit on the set up bearings,

installed a new ring on the Detroit locker

and torque the bolts to 100 and 10 ft pounds

place the new Detroit locker into the rear axle

and using a dial indicator, move the carrier back and forth. This is the total amount of shims we need 78/1000 of an inch

with that number recorded installed opinion bearings

installed pinion shims into the carrier followed by the Bering race

and install the pinion into the rear axle

and checked the rotating torque

with the pin in place.

We will set the carrier in the housing

and move it back and forth again, measuring in the same location with the dial indicator.

This will tell us how many shims are needed on the ring gear side of the carrier

with the carrier removed, we pull the set of bearings and place 50,000 worth of shims on the ring gear side.

Then the remaining 38,000 plus 15 thousands for bearing preload are installed on the opposite side

with the bearing caps torqued.

We're going to go ahead and check backlash using a dial indicator.

Now, you want between four and 9000 th of an inch worth of play between the ring and the pinion.

Now, if you have too much backlash, you take a shim from this side of the carrier and move it to this side

and that will move your ring gear closer to the pin.

Have too little a backlash. You take a shim from this side of the carrier and move it to this side, moving that ring gear away from the pinion. Once you have the correct backlash, we can check the gear tooth pattern with the paint and if everything looks good, we take it all back apart, put the new bearings on the carrier and assemble it for good.

Well, Ian was dealing with that rear axle. I went ahead and started stripping this front 60 by drilling out these spot welds. And as soon as I pull out the axle tubes, we can go ahead and start planning our custom with front axle

with the front axle tubes gone and the gear set up looking good. Spider will be crawling soon. But up next, these spiders are weaving their web through moab

for the annual Easter Jeep Safari. Stay tuned.

Got an idea for the show. Drop us a line at Xtreme 4x4 tv.com.

Welcome back people. We're in the middle of our poison spider build. We've dropped in a killer drive train into our prebuilt chassis and we're in the process of rebuilding some junkyard axles. This thing is gonna turn out to be a truly competent trail rig, something that we can take out to Moab

Easter. Jeep Safari

for 29 years. Moab Utah has hosted the Easter Jeep Safari where thousands of drivers take their rigs and do what else go wheeling.

There we go.

Each time you come out here you're seeing better be

rigs, better technology. To me, it's like the Sturges of, of off roading. It's a uh a year's worth of work that you get a release in a week's time.

Southern Utah is known for breathtaking scenery, thousands of miles of trails and that infamous Moab

Slick Rock. The name is a little tricky. Slick rock. Came, came from the old days when they were riding horses with the metal shoe horses. So that was slicky

this way. It was with weather with the, with the rubber tires. It actually gives us quite a lot of traction

might actually be a handicap because if you're not too good of a driver,

the rock will still pull you through. Clifton Slay is one of the most well known builders in the world and he's been tearing up this rock for 15 years out here. You will see everything. It's awesome. This year, Clifton led the Xtreme 4x4 TV and dirt sports magazine, hardcore run

up.

This one proved so tough. Even Clifton's suicide. Sally met its untimely demise.

I'm not happy. We didn't know what it would take to actually break it and now we know not everyone who comes to Moab

wants to leave broke and Skyjacker had the perfect run for them. The Steel Bender Trail has some challenging sections and that gave Skyjacker a chance to show off its New Rock Ready Line. It has made such that it can overcome any of the obstacles that you would face off the trail. You get the opportunity to be able to sit back and just enjoy the scene

without being overstressed about the vehicle making it

over that obstacle and you're able to continue on and see all that's out here to see

for 20 miles. The technical trail tested these rigs, but the Skyjacker suspension handled it with these. I think that's probably the most exciting part of this trail ride is that we can actually see

our,

you know, all our suspension out here and it's, it is, it's doing a great job and I think it kind of speaks for itself. So we're really excited about that

over at the new Rock Crawling Park, Pro Crawlers, Kevin mclaughlin and Becca Webster were breaking in Pro

Comp's newest rubber. We're doing tire testing for Pro Comp tires,

new SRC, super sticky rubber compound as you know, in every type of racing rubber is probably one of the most intricate part of the vehicle and the super sticky were just that they worked awesome.

Unbelievable how they're hooking up. The tire just seems to be grabbing. I don't know,

I don't know what they do. I don't design the tires but whatever they did it works whether running it hard or just enjoying nature for the thousands that make the annual trip to Moab.

It's all about the love of getting in a four wheeler hitting the trail. After all. It's mother nature. You got a motor, you're out here having fun, a great lunch and a good bunch of people to be with. So it's really fun.

Ian, would you like to remind me and everybody else that's watching why we weren't there? Well, first of all, we were working and second of all, since everything we've built isn't finished yet, we'd probably be laughed off the trails if we showed up driving these.

Well, next year, the poison spider will be done. So we'll be out wheeling with you all. But it won't get done until we do some more work. So, check back after the break, we're gonna tear back in that thing ready. Go

for more information on anything you've seen today. Check us out online. Extreme furby four tv.com.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4. Our rear 60 has a new Detroit locker and set of superior gears in there.

I'm gonna pull out these old axle shafts so we can measure them and have superior make us some new 35 spline units.

Then we can go ahead

get this axle on some tires, get it underneath the back of the chassis so we can start measuring for links.

We went to NTO tire for these 38 by 15.5 mud grapplers. These have always been a great off road tire, thanks to their computer design tread pattern and their super thick side lugs and they've been working on the rubber compounds so they're biting really awesome on the rocks.

We wrap those tires around a set of 20 by 10 Mickey Thompson classic twos that we got online from National Tire and Wheel. Now these are a fully polished aluminum wheel and they have steel inserts in the lug holes for extra strength at the flange

with the axle back here. We can go ahead and start figuring out our ride high axle center line and then we can start planning out our four link system,

right?

Yep.

A link suspension is something that we could honestly do an entire show on and we will later on.

But for this chassis, we had the ability to look at other bruisers and talk to other builders to get a good starting point

with the approximate measurements that we just took. I entered them into our four L calculator which states that we have about a 30% anti squat. Now it's anti squat. Well, when you push on your gas, your rear end squats down.

So if you have a lot of anti squat, you're gonna have a lot of axle wrap and a lot of wheel hop. Now, if

move those front upper links down one inch, it's gonna change the entire geometry and giving us about a 4% anti squat, which is almost zero. So that's a good neutral zone for us to start because we can always change those links at any time. Now, if you wanna go ahead and use this system, it's gonna be on our website after the show.

Now, before we even think about a link system for the front of this truck, we're actually gonna need an axle. Now, this center section

is gonna be the beginning of an ultimate front axle for this truck and I'm just gonna set it in place on these jack stands

so we can get an idea of what kind of tube links we're gonna need

that. Four L calculator also measures leak links for us. So we're gonna be using Dom tubing with tubing adapters. And once I get all of these welded in,

I'm gonna be putting in three quarter inch high joints that we got from Q A one. They got a Teflon block for lubrication and they're heat treated for heavy duty applications

with the links in there. We can check everything and then burn it into place. And the next week we'll get in the front end, we'll plummet, we'll wire it and hopefully we'll get it running same extreme time, same extreme channel. Thank you, Batman.