2010 AK sled projects

[Nikolai]

Way to think outside the box

 

[rlcofmn]

Thanks man, I'm having a ton of fun with it. For all I know it will end up as a pile of scrap alluminum I had 100 hours into building but there is only one way to find out.

 

[revster]

Yeah nice work boys. Both projects are looking great! You guys got some skills. The rest of us will stick to oil and slider changes.

 

[Nikolai]

I've been updating my build on BackCountryRebels.com and forget to post here.

Cooler installed minus the rivets which I don't have.

Front tunnel blockoff plate and rear tunnel extension. Both .063 5052.

Punched the holes for the header and coolant tubes.

Cut off the old one and riveted on the new one.

Mocked up in the sled.

Finished trimming the front plate

Tunnel extension done

The absolute bare minimum wiring required to make a Nytro run. There's literally nothing left to remove or shorten. It'd be cool if someone could weigh their stock wiring harness. I've been slowly stripping away at mine over the last 3 years and finished pulling the last of it tonight.

I've deleted:
kill switch
TPS
DC reverse buzzer
gear position switch
brake light
tail light
high beam indicator light
headlight
headlight switch
radiator fan motor
Auxiliary DC jack
radiator fan motor fuse
signal fuse
headlight fuse
Aux DC jack fuse
radiator fan motor relay
headlight relay
and last not but not least...the load control relay.

Only thing left is to remove the fuse box and install an inline fuse.

 

[Nikolai]

Last couple years I've had kind of a cheesy exhaust clamp setup so this year I figured I'd change that. I had a 3/16" 304 stainless flange cut out and welded to my header so I could bolt the exhaust directly to it.

Reinstalled the exhaust which is all I was waiting on to start the seat frame. Not quite sure how I'm going to build it yet but I'll figure something out. The seat is a Two Brothers +3" for a KLX110 I bought off ebay for $85. It weighs 2.5 lbs and actually feels pretty comfortable.

Pic of inside the tunnel just because

I also picked up all my tube today and got my tube bender and notcher assembled. Rear bumper and seat frame are next on the list. Hopefully I can make some real progress now that most of the tedious stuff is done.

I got 1" .083 6061 for the rear bumper and seat frame. 3/4 .065 4130 for the upper a-arms, and 1" .065 4130 for the lower a-arms and steering post.

 

[rlcofmn]

looking sick man!!! remind me and I will weight my wireing harness before I start cutting into it.

 

[Nikolai]

Turns out you can't bend 6061 tube, it just tears in half at about 15-20 degrees. Obviously that scrapped the aluminum bumper idea so I bent it out of 1" .065 4130 which I'm sure is better anyway. The tube bender is a beast, but man does it work good. I'm sure I'll be looking for reasons to use it

Replaced what was left of the fuse box with an inline fuse. Now the electrical is clean, lol.

Now that I have the bender figured out things should start moving faster. I was going to build the seat out of 6061 but since I can't bend it I'll build it out of the extra 3/4 .058 4130 I have.

 

[..SNAKEBIT..]

what do you think of the bender so far? been thinking about buying one
what brand of bender?
what company did you order it thru?

 

[Nikolai]

It's a JD2 Model 32 I bought direct from JD squared. I really like it. It's an improved version of their JD2 bender which has been around for a long time. A great company to order fab stuff from is trick-tools.com. They have a very knowledgeable staff and are some of the most helpful people I've dealt with over the phone.

 

[yamadoo]

WOW what great work.

Thanks for sharing the pics and explanations

yamadoo

 

[thistle]

ya looks great....explain to me how these rivots work...we use hammer rivots with a air hammer and 2 guys. Are these better and hows the cost??

 

[Tarzan]

Wow man!! That`s a pretty aweysome sled prosject you are building there

 

[HYFLYR]

He is using clekos, its a clamping device to hold your metals together until you can rivet them. Very good for alignment of pieces, measuring, drilling or whatever it is you want to do.

He does use the hammer rivets, (aircraft grade) for all his rivet work as did i on my sled. Very strong as you might know and also have a very clean look. We take the clekos out one at a time as we rivet so that everything stays lined up and perfect. It can be done with one person but two is always nice in those hard to reach place. This took some time with the hammer...

 

[scmurs]

Turns out you can't bend 6061 tube, it just tears in half at about 15-20 degrees. Obviously that scrapped the aluminum bumper idea so I bent it out of 1" .065 4130 which I'm sure is better anyway. The tube bender is a beast, but man does it work good. I'm sure I'll be looking for reasons to use it

5052 aluminum will bend/form with a lot better results than the 6061. Keep up the awesome work.

 

[**sj**]

nice work man...

Id consider looking at the skinz seat frame for design cues...Id also consider adding a piece brought forward to the tank hoop...kinda roll cage/industrial looking which I bet if engineered right might lessen the flex in the chassis..

one of the members had a skinz seat and tooled a bracket /bandclamp type deal for his silencer...looked right...

hyflyr you must be an aircraft mechanic?