2021 Ford F150 -> XTF pre runner build log

With the axle installed the next step is to install the upper and lower control arms. This step is quick and easy. Simply screw in the the johnny joints press in the poly bushings and slide in the arms. Having the wheels on casters really helps here as you can easily swing the heavy axle around until the holes in the links line up.

In about 20 min the links are installed.

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Next I installed the fuel system.

Most V8 f150s built with a towing package get a few features. Shorter gears, additional cooling capacity, bigger rear brakes, the HD axle, and the 36 gallon gas tank.

We want all the towing features as they are a good foundation for a performance truck, howevert the 36 gallon tank is too long to fit across the truck between the frame rails.




The “26” gallon tank that actually holds much more than 26 gallons does fit across the truck frame using the OEM straps. Here you can see the tanks side by side.

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I installed the OEM shield that comes with the FX4 package from the 36 gallon tank on the 26 gallon. You can see the difference in width.

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Ill probably trim down the shield and see if it works in this new configuration


Next you simply extend the wiring from the mid ships location on the harness back to the new placement using the supplied extensions that mirror the OEM wiring connections . That takes 30 seconds.

Then you replace the nylon hoses with traditional fuel line.

Peel the nylon off to free the quick connect then attach the traditional fuel hose with clamps to the OEM quick connects.

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The OEM grip the traditional hose so well they will not come back out. I wonder if you even need clamps! I installed clamps anyway.

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I have a question for Ford. Why make every quick connect in the fuel system operate differently? I am sure there is some good reason, but from a service standpoint its not awesome.

As most of us have not disassembled what is basically a new truck, I am very impressed with the design of parts to allow them to fly together. Every quick connect pushes on the same way.

The whole truck is made almost carelessly slam together. Push this thing in place it stays there with clips then slam in bolts with power tools at full rpm. I guess time is money, so Ford has designed the assembly to trim seconds where they can.

It wouldn’t cost much if anything to make them fly apart too but that does not help the bottom line ….so we get what we get.

I considered using nylon hoses like Ford does as they are much smaller and elegant looking but i figured why chance it. I know the traditional hoses will work. I can always swap the hoses at a later time. There is so much room under the truck its a pleasure to work and hang out under there .

After a break for family vacation, its back to building.

The next step is getting the rear end rolling and functional.

Since another hobby of mine is woodworking, I like to incorporate wood into the build any time I can. In order to hold the truck up on the suspension temporarily, I quickly added some wood.

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This truck is all about suspension. Factory Five really went all out when they chose the dampers for this kit. Fox are a leader in this space and provide a huge range of specialty solutions for everything from mountain bikes to trucks.

We get a set of premium shocks in the kit.

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We have adjustments for both low speed and high speed compression.

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This is competition quality kit that will allow both setup of comfort or performance

In addition to the dampers we get two spring rates on the rear. One softer 450 lb rate for the beginning of the travel than a stiffer 600 lb rate to support huge bumps and jumps.

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In order to build a more capable truck than anything you get from a major manufacturer, it’s necessary to start over with a new frame. The frame needs to prioritize articulation as well as have the ability to take advantage of a race quality off road suspension.

One feature that takes the truck to the next level is a second shock called a bypass shock. Here is an example

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Using a shock like this you can tune each portion of the travel of the shock.

Each section of the travel has its own damping adjustment that is completely unrelated to the travel before or after.

Many traditional mono tube shocks are limited by a common set of valves that limit how drastically you can adjust travel throughout the stroke. Especially without physically opening the damper and changing valve packs. Using both a standard mono tube shock and a bypass shock at the same time it’s possible to blend the best of both worlds. The mono tube provides a fixed damping curve and the bypass shock provides a stepped curve where it’s possible to tune each section of the stroke. The bypass shocks allows adjustment of each portion of the stroke with adjustment knobs outside the shock. Changes can be made quickly on the fly for each step of the travel.


Of course if you go this route ( as I will) it’s necessary to re tune the shock sent with the basic kit. Since the bypass shock will do part of the damping work, it’s necessary to remove some damping from the stock factory five tuned Fox Shock. Luckily the Fox 2.5 dual compression adjustable shock is fully rebuildable and tune able using basic hand tools and a compressed nitrogen cylinder to recharge the shock.

I plan to both test the performance of the standard kit built on the Gen 14 F150 as well as build and test the next level performance afforded by a bypass shock.

Finally the frame will accept air bump stops as well.

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Air bump stops are yet another shock to help you control that last bit of travel before the shock hits bottom.

The great thing is no matter where you want this truck to be from a performance standpoint the frame is already built to accept the upgrade.

I can’t wait to start testing!

I solved a mystery from a few weeks ago. I was looking for an M9-1 bolt for the Ford 9.75 inch differential housing. Using my tap and die set I sized the bolt to be 9mm but I could not find a thread pitch that matched and I guessed the thread pitch was 1MM. Of course there are no 9M-1 bolts to be had anywhere except a few titanium bolts listed on Amazon.

Turns out my problem was I didn’t have the tap and die that matched the bolt.

Somehow I have survived using my tap and die method of sizing nuts and bolts for many years, but this project has stumped me a few times.

I found a good solution.

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I thought I had every tool under the sun, but this one really helps. Now I know the size of the bolts that go into the Ford 9.75 differential cover.

5/16 - 18.. That was easy!

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With the proper 5/16-18 bolts I swapped out the Ford bolts for the longer bolts provided by Factory Five. Because we sandwiched the axle brace between the ring gear housing and the differential cover we need longer bolts to maintain strength. Note that this Ford Performance cover adds another 2 qts of gear oil capacity. The cast iron Ford performance cover should also aid in stabilizing the differential housing. In theory the cast iron with additional gear oil will also aid in cooling.

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The FEDEX guy has been making many trips to my house these days. Friday he showed up with some hot off the presses lower control arms.

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These are the heavy duty off road lower control arms offered as an option with the kit. A less over built version will also be offered for street use. I asked factory five to send the arms uncoated to save time so we could keep going with the build. One benefit of getting the arms uncoated, is the craftsmanship is on display. These are MIG welds!

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A few coats of Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black -Satin and we are ready to start the build up. Note that Eastwood chassis black exactly matches the look of finish Factory Five apply to the frame. Factory five specified a powder coat for the frame that has high corrosion protection, but at least the Eastwood finish looks the same.

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Since I plan to do lots of testing and adjusting of the suspension I figured i need to outfit myself with the proper tools. One tool thats very helpful is a preload adjuster.

Here is the preload adjuster aka spanner wrench from FOX. Note the part number. 803-00-832 this preload adjuster fits the Fox 2.5 DSC damper included with the kit.

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The adjuster attaches to the top collar on the shock like this allowing you to crank down on the spring increasing or decreasing the static ride height. Right now I just have the adjustments at zero pre load to see where everything ends up.

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The other thing needed for the next step is the CV axles. Factory Five had longer CV axles made to allow for both wider track as well as more travel. You can see the increase in length on the Factory Five CV axle compared to the ones removed from the stock F150.

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You will need to crank down on the fronts at least to have 4-5 inches at the top (like you have it) with the front spring installed

Thanks for the info Erik.

Your videos are also helpful as I can see how things are setup in the GEN 13 F150 vs Gen 14. That of course and a lesson on how to fit two turbos into barely enough space.

With all the front end components built up and ready to go, its assembly time. We installed the upper and lower control arms, shock, as well as the CV axle.

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Then we installed the upright.

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The upright is best done as a two person job, but lifting the upright balanced on a jack could make this a difficult one person job.

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With one front corner assembled, it becomes obvious how much wheel travel this truck has. With the lowest part of the frame 16 inches off the ground the front brake disks are only 9 inches off the ground.

We are nearing the final phases of the build.

Today we installed the rear anti roll bar.

This is a simple task of U bolting perches on to the axle

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We noticed that one perch wanted to be in the same spot as this tab that was used to hold a plastic push in fastener. This fastener held the wires and brake line. We are re routing those so the bracket is no longer needed.

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We clipped the bracket off and the mounts and anti roll bar can be aligned so that everything is balanced and the links are perpendicular to the axle.

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The anti roll bar is an important part of the suspension as it allows us to run a softer spring yielding a compliant ride. Instead of using the coil springs to counter act the body roll, the anti roll bar isolates those forces and keeps the truck cornering flat.

Like everything with mechanical systems, you don’t get something for nothing. To get the nice anti roll feature, we trade off free articulation of the suspension.
When you plan on taking the truck out for a day of rock crawling or desert running the bar can be quickly removed to allow for max travel.

Part of being a beta builder is discovering what Ford has changed between the Gen 13 F150 (2015-2020) to the gen 14 F150 (2021-2023)

Of course the exterior changed and as a result some of the trim pieces changed as well.

One of those trim pieces that changed is the cowl plastic that goes between the windshield and hood.

Here you can see the gen 14 in the foreground and gen 13 behind it.

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The hard parts, windshield wipers etc are the same and in the same spot, but the plastic is different where it lines up with the hood and the creases in the hood.

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Unfortunately the plastic pieces that touch the cab are also different. I had some hope that I could simply make the plastic pieces that touch the cab work, but it does not look like it.

Here is how the Gen 13 cowl cover plastic fits on the gen 14 cab plastic.

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This is how it’s supposed to fit. Showing Gen 14 cowl plastic on top of the gen 14 cab plastic.

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Another slight change between the Gen 13 and Gen 14 is the filler door assembly.

Gen 14 (except the raptor) is square

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Gen 13 and Gen 14 raptors use this round filler door and filler.

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I'm enjoying following along with your and Erik's builds. As you identify these differences, is Factory Five making any changes to the parts they supply with the kits, or is that left to the builder?

Is there anything that prevents the anti-rollbar brackets from rotating around the axle other than U-bolt tension and friction? It looks like there is no physical geometry that would stop this behavior - but I don't know if it's even a concern based on the loading of the anti-rollbar. Are there any shear forces on it during activation that would cause it to want to twist around the axle, or is it strictly "vertical" in line with the axle?

Thanks for the great build thread!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Papa

I'm enjoying following along with your and Erik's builds. As you identify these differences, is Factory Five making any changes to the parts they supply with the kits, or is that left to the builder?

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Hey Papa.

Yes Factory Five are making changes to the kit to accommodate the GEN 14 F150. The idea is the builder will have a list if items to purchase from FORD or from a junk yard to accommodate things like the body lines and trim pieces. Bottom line you as a builder will know exactly what is different when you compare the cost and effort of building the XTF starting from a Gen 13 or Gen 14 F150.

Thanks for following along and asking questions!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by octobersknight

Is there anything that prevents the anti-rollbar brackets from rotating around the axle other than U-bolt tension and friction? It looks like there is no physical geometry that would stop this behavior - but I don't know if it's even a concern based on the loading of the anti-rollbar. Are there any shear forces on it during activation that would cause it to want to twist around the axle, or is it strictly "vertical" in line with the axle?

Thanks for the great build thread!

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Hey Octobersknight

The forces on the bushings are longitudinal twisting.imagine the anti roll bar is not bent around the differential but simply a squared off U shape. As one perpendicular arm of the square U goes up up it twists the longitudinal bar. The bar that goes width wise across the truck experiences spiral twisting forces

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There is little force attempting to move the anti roll bar brackets around the axle. Sure there is some but those U bolts clamp down pretty well.

Theory is one thing, testing is another. We are going to really run this truck through its paces to see what happens.

The other big difference between Gen 13 (2015 to 2020) and Gen 14 (2021 to 2023) is the headlights and taillights.

I am torn between keeping the gen 13 look and changing the truck to look like a gen 14.

There are two major concerns. First is the wiring and integration with the computer systems in the truck. The tail lights have the blind spot detection system built into the taillight housing as well as possibly some integration into the trailer backup assist gizmos. The headlights are LED and have the computer controls and low amperage wiring associated with those.

Of course the headlights and taillights are a different shape on the gen 14 compared to the gen 13 the XTF was based on.

I have a few ideas on how i can solve the bodywork. I took some 3d scans of the headlights and tail lights

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I could mill out or 3D print a mould that looks like the gen 14 bodywork, make a fiberglass part and then graft it into the factory five bodywork. Im not sure what will be fastest and most accurate.

The Gen14 BCM and completely different from the Gen13, I suspect you will have a headache if you try to use Gen13 lights, although you could probably reach out to one of the companies that makes lights and confirm (morimoto, diode dynamics). If your mill is big enough I would cut a mold from sheets of 2" pink foam sheets glued together. It is much easier to sand smooth the foam than 3D prints to get out the layer lines. Also a print that big and uniquely shaped will require quite a bit of supports.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ajzride

The Gen14 BCM and completely different from the Gen13, I suspect you will have a headache if you try to use Gen13 lights, although you could probably reach out to one of the companies that makes lights and confirm (morimoto, diode dynamics). If your mill is big enough I would cut a mold from sheets of 2" pink foam sheets glued together. It is much easier to sand smooth the foam than 3D prints to get out the layer lines. Also a print that big and uniquely shaped will require quite a bit of supports.

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Hi Ajzride, I suspect that you are right about the lights. I tried a set of cheaper replacement gen 13 tail lights


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and both the plugs, pinout, and wiring were different. Here is the Gen 14 pinout.


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and this is the gen 13 pinout with the Blind spot detection module plug as well.


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If i go with gen 13 lights, i will probably need to disassemble the gen 14 lights and rebuild them in the gen 13 housings. Seems like a lot of work.


Regarding the 3d print vs pink foam. I was considering a multi piece 3d print to make a mold for the fiberglass and yes its going to be a complex print with lots of supports, but printing is usually easer to setup than milling although the prints will take a long time.

I even thought about making a pink foam positive mold where the foam would be a very slightly smaller scaled version of the finished part. Cover that foam with fiberglass and epoxy resin as polyester resin will melt it, Then mill the cured fiberglass to the finished shape. maybe that's more work than its worth, but i will not need to worry about draft angles so the part will release from a negative mold.

Thank you for the feedback and ideas.

MAJOR mile stones this weekend.

First start and the truck moved under its own power and stopped!!

Of course I press the start button for the first start and the battery is almost dead. Ha. But 5 min on the battery booster it fired right up.

https://youtu.be/8qXSfMbCMJ0

One of the amazing things about this Ford Performance (whipple supercharger) install is that you don’t flash the ECU. You simply put in the hardware and fire it up! That was a bit scary to be honest. The ECU quickly learns the fuel air mixture and you are good to go. Pretty amazing really. No smell of un burnt fuel. No bad habits noticed so far. I really can’t believe it was that easy to add so much hp. The super charger kit still comes with the Whipple tuner and OBD2 connector so you can monitor the system as well as make modifications in the future. Very nice.



EDIT::: The part about flashing the ECU was wrong!! Ford instructions were not complete. Ford probably fixed the instructions by now, but I was an early builder of the Ford solution as well !! You must flash the ECU to get the supercharger to work properly!!

Now that the motor is running its time to install the air box and air filter supplied with the ford performance super charger kit.

The super charger kit air box fits into the same space as the stock air box… except. The bottom of the airbox has two pegs that register in the two round rubber mounts on in the stock engine compartment. Unfortunately the bypass shock mount interferes with the airbox.

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Cutting a hole in the airbox bottom would be a big deal except for the fact that there is already a giant hole in the airbox bottom! Seems like even the enlarged snorkel that siits in the stock location is not large enough to accommodate the airflow needed to supply the supercharger. Ford/ Whipple trimmed the bottom out of the airbox to accommodate. Well we are making another hole.

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Some quick work with a cut off wheel then the air saw and we have another hole in the bottom of the air box allowing it to clear the bypass shock mount.

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After some sanding and clean up of the hole. Now the air box fits.

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It is very different working on a rolling computer vs the mostly analog factory five cars we are used to. The computer has something to say about just about anything you do or touch.

Here is an example. I had not yet connected the braking system when I started the truck for the first time. Of course to start the truck that means connecting the battery. Once the battery is connected the truck immediately starts complaining about brake fluid levels, the fact that the braking system is inoperable. Of course the accident avoidance system cant work because the pre brake assist cant work so it complains about that.

Ok no problem (OK,OK,OK) to all the codes. Then this is the best, The truck immediately puts on the electric parking brakes and refuses to take them off. The buttons don't work!

Of course this is probably a good safety measure. If you don't have hydraulic brakes it’s probably not good to move the truck. Keep the electric brakes on.

But I want to move the truck. Nope you cant.

Well F150 computer I know how to fix you. I’ll just unplug your connection to the electric brakes. Let’s see how you deal with that.

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Well I won that battle. Now I can push the truck.

OK F150, I’m going to move you wether you like it or not. I’ll just put the truck in neutral. Nope you cant. The gear shifter is controlled by the computer. It isn’t physically connected to anything. Human, you can move the gear shifter all you want . We are in park.

OK F150, luckily the ford engineers thought of this and have a way to take the truck out of park even if the computer is dead.

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Pull this little orange tab and we can physically take the transmission out of park via a cable connected to the transmission.

NOW i can move the truck. Wow, that was a new experience.

When computers take over the world, at least you will know that you will be able to drive your factory five Cobra, hot rod, coupe, GTM, hot rod pickup, or 818. Your Factory Five XTF… the computers own that one.

That shifter sucks. Mine had a switch go out so it couldn't tell where it was, and refused to shift out of park. The tow truck driver Ford sent didn't now about the orange tab, and he crawled under the truck and forced it into neutral. After Ford replaced the shifter they spent another 3 days cleaning all the codes brought on by forcing the transmission into neutral manually.

I wish Ford had just put in a knob like Dodge (or like they do in the escape), but their marketing team did a poll and truck drivers want a real shifter.....


Side Note: I have a mongoose cable if you find yourself needing to do firmware updates on the modules, I'd be happy to put it in the mail for you.

I work with computers for a living and that was a fun read - it's like debugging a car!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ajzride

After Ford replaced the shifter they spent another 3 days cleaning all the codes brought on by forcing the transmission into neutral manually.

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Thanks for the offer for the computer interface cable Ajzride. Hopefully I will not need one.

Regarding he manual control of the shifter. When I was pulling the body off I had to disconnect the cable from the transmission to free the cab from the Ford frame.

I thought it was weird to have a cable going from the cab to the transmission without any way to control that cable that I was aware of. Only later when I researched putting the truck into neutral manually did I realize what the cable was for. The access door for the manual operation is well hidden .


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Originally Posted by RoadRacer

I work with computers for a living and that was a fun read - it's like debugging a car!

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Well to follow the theme of debugging a computer I challenge anyone to watch this video once and go into your truck and enable this mode.

https://youtu.be/RZ9g0ShcZdc

While it’s definitely not user friendly, this procedure is helpful when you are building the XTF. For example the truck just fits in my garage. To move the truck 1/2 inch from the garage wall I can put it in flat tow mode and push it the last few inches.

While the change between the gen 13 and gen 14 cowl plastic and hood hinges are subtle, they are very important to the XTF build.

Besides the fact that cowl plastic is physically higher and has a different shape on the Gen 14 F150, it seems like ford made the hood lighter. Because the hood is lighter on the gen 14, the struts that hold up the hood are not as strong. I think the leverage on the hinge changed slightly too.

The Gen 14 aluminum hood is amazingly light. You notice that when swapping in the very stout Factory Five hood. The Gen 14 struts are a bit weak.

Since I was having a hard time finding a junk yard that would sell me all of the cowl parts, I simply ordered the needed gen 13 parts from Ford.

Step one was painting the hinges. They are sliver plated from Ford.

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Then a quick before picture on of the Gen 14 plastic and hinges.

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Next remove all of the Gen 14 parts.

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And everything fits! Whew. When all the part numbers and schematics say i can just swap the parts I know it’s supposed to work, but as we know with these things sometimes there are gotchas. This time it was smooth. Now I can start the bodywork.

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Since this the first XTF built on a gen 14 platform, there are differences that will be updated in the kit. One item is the AC lines to the cab.

The aluminum hard line that goes to the cab wants to be in the same place as the new shock towers. I could either have a new line made using flexible hose instead of hard lines, or I can try to bend the aluminum.

Of course rather than go the easy way, I decided I would first try to bend the lines.

The hard lines are amazingly stiff!

So starting at the cab I needed to clock the mount that touches the cab about 30 degrees.

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Next I needed to make a Z bend in the pipe so it would go over the shock towers.

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Success without cracking the pipe.

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Now I needed to bend the whole pipe down over the top of the shock towers towards the front of the truck so all the condenser connections would fit. This was tough as Ford actually crushed the pipe in order to make it bend.

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I tried heat, but. I was afraid the pipe would collapse if I put too much force on it.

Then I had this idea.

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Now we are talking! I can put the force exactly where I want it and hopefully not crimp the pipe.

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I put the bender in the vice and was able to put the needed bends into the AC line. Woo hoo..

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Well done John! There is no forgiveness with aluminum tubing.

Jeff

Kudos Kabacj
I had an Oak tree fall on my DD pick-up truck, totaling it out. Using the lemon/lemonade analogy, I made fixtures out of the Oak to press bends into 2 X 3 frame rails for a street rod. There was (wood) surface damage after one or two bends and steel sheet liners stopped that. I find it hard to dispose those "one time" solutions, they are like trophies.
jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jeff Kleiner

Well done John! There is no forgiveness with aluminum tubing.

Jeff

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You know it Jeff! I walked away from this bend several times. One extra pull in frustration and its over. Let’s see if it holds a vacuum, then we can celebrate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by J R Jones

Kudos Kabacj
I had an Oak tree fall on my DD pick-up truck, totaling it out. Using the lemon/lemonade analogy, I made fixtures out of the Oak to press bends into 2 X 3 frame rails for a street rod. There was (wood) surface damage after one or two bends and steel sheet liners stopped that. I find it hard to dispose those "one time" solutions, they are like trophies.
jim

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Wood is an excellent tool Jim as you know. Oak is especially useful and a beautiful material. There is nothing like taking a once living thing and making it into a new thing with a new purpose. I’m glad to hear you were able give new life to the tree that killed your pickup. Better yet that tree helped give life to a new hotrod that produced carbon to grow more trees. It’s the circle of life haha.


Talking about these one time tools. I also have a nice trophy collection of one time tools. I keep them just in case.

This wood is left over from same 2x4s I used to lift the body over the frame. The circle of life in my shop. :)

John

Well I think we can call the AC line bend experiment a success. I was able to pull a vacuum and hold it over night.

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One interesting thing about working on a 2021 F150. Since the truck is relatively new there is very little DIY that is going on. Not much has broken yet. As a result there is little information available on the internet regarding procedures that apply directly to the 2021 model .

Normally you would look at the hood or core support for information regarding what refrigerant is used in the truck. Well the hood is gone now, so that’s not an option.

The printed manuals in the truck are not especially useful. The various guides have little maintenance information.

The owners manual is available in digital format however via the touch screen in the truck. I guess thats OK as it’s searchable, however it’s not what I expected.

I assumed the truck used R134a refrigerant. Well that was wrong. Seems like Ford was switching over the trucks in 2021.

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The 2021 F150 with a V8 uses y1234yf refrigerant. This requires different fittings than R134A.

John, As you obviously realize there is a hierarchy of materials and one begets another. When cosmetics are a fabricating priority at the expense of labor and speed:
Aluminum begets steel and SS.
Wood & plastic begets aluminum.
Leather over lead begets sheet metal.
On one occasion my dog's Nylabone helped me press a part to shape.
He got that tool back, no trophy.
jim

My weekend was spent mostly doing bodywork and fitting panels, I also did some work on a prototype mount for the FOX 2.5 Performance Series shocks that come with the kit.

While the kit parts are fully functional I have this thing about hose clamps. I just dont like how they look . Although hose clamps are the accepted way to attach the remote reservoir to an off road truck I was looking for an alternative.

There are plenty of solutions for sale using a solid block of aluminum between the round reservoir and a round tube but none for a reservoir to a square tube.

So I took some measurements

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

Drew up a prototype and printed it out using some filament that I wanted to use up.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

Fits pretty well. Thats a friction fit.

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

I think this is going to work

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...080&fit=bounds

It’s amazingly strong. The clamp is doing all of the work and the plastic simply locates the reservoir. Although I probably could get away with one mount, hours of off road punishment could weaken the mount. I think I’ll go with two. I see some improvements i can make. A few more prototypes are needed to get the answer.

Have to laugh that a hose clamp was still there in final solution though :)

I totally get it, but *big grin*

You could lose the hose clamp by making the clamp go all the way around the square tube and bolt together. You could use heat inserts to make the clamp threaded, or you could make flanges so a nut and bolt could go through. You can also embed nuts in your 3D print by having it pause after it has printed a hole for them to drop in, and resuming after you have added the nut.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoadRacer

Have to laugh that a hose clamp was still there in final solution though :)

I totally get it, but *big grin*

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I know. Its sad .

There is a reason that everyone just uses hose clamps.

It’s a good solution. Simple and fail safe.

Any solution made of billet aluminum you are at risk of warping the housing of the remote reservoir. Easy to put lots of compression with a bolt. Hose clamps are not easy to over tighten.

Fox ships hose clamps and rubber saddles to mount the remote reservoir with the shock!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ajzride

You could lose the hose clamp by making the clamp go all the way around the square tube and bolt together. You could use heat inserts to make the clamp threaded, or you could make flanges so a nut and bolt could go through. You can also embed nuts in your 3D print by having it pause after it has printed a hole for them to drop in, and resuming after you have added the nut.

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Yep good idea Ajzride. I like the stop the print and add the nuts solution.


I’m going to add a cover to keep dirt out and hide the fact that I just used a hose clamp from RoadRacer.

If you do decide to enclose nuts in a print, buy a pack of square nuts. Easier to design in CAD and also allows you to insert the nut in any orientation. Regular hexagonal nuts can only be inserted horizontal.

It is unlikely that any DIY replica will be held accountable to the SAE. The SAE requires auto assembly and maintenance with grade 5 or higher fasteners, to keep cars and drivers safe. SAE is like the FAA of road vehicles.
jim