WEll, I haven't posted any pics of this yet because I didn't want to hear all the sh*t talking during the build. I posted a thread almost a year ago asking why nobody has built a +8" LT kit. I got a lot of negative replys back stating that it was a very bad idea and nobody would build me one. So I decided to go out on a limb and find a fabricator who would build me one.

Please keep in mind that the front end is still not finished. Their is a lot of welding to be completed and the steering box and linkage has to be fabbed in. I just thought I'd post a few pics of the build now that the shocks got mounted this weekend. If you were woundering the J-arms are 8+ out and 2" forward, everything has been Tig welded. All Heim joint piviot points at the frame with Uniballs replacing the stock ball joints. The shocks ar 2.5" X 14" Triple By-Pass and a 2" X 12" coil over , mounted to the lower arm. With this arm set up I will still be able to use the 4WD. We are looking at about 18" of travel up front right now but it will change once the limiting straps go on. Still waiting for the new spindles to be built. I keep you guys posted with new pics when I get them.

Cool front porch!

Nice front porch....

Yeah, that stone work is the shizle!

looks pretty good nice to see when somebody steps out of the "box" should be a really cool duner
keep up the good work ! and by the way your porch is bitchen

interesting, for sure. My 2500lb sandcar does not even have that big of bypass on the front. Wow.

That's never going to work, what where you thinking?




just kidding brett,
looks awesome. Did you only do the front suspension? what are the plans for the rear if so?
I wanna see that thing hit the whoops, I bet it doesn't even feel them.

Thanks for the comments guys!!
Right now he has only been building the front suspension but yes the rear will get done right after the front. I was told I will be ordering shorter shocks for the rear do to the back seat staying in but it will still have duals with by-pass. I said let's get rid of the rear seat and put some big shock towers on and make it easier to fabricate and looks more race style, but again he just said anybody can just remove the bed and do big shocks. So I decided to keep the bench seat for now.

I've got two questions if you don't mind, How much were those bad boys? and Will you need to notch out the hood? It doesn't seem like it will sit flush? Thanks.

Well put it this way...for the price of just the front and back shocks I could of bought a complete 6" LT kit with arms, axles, shocks, and all the hardware from one of the other manufactures and probably have it installed too.
Yes your right about the hood, It won't fit with out cutting it. I'm going to be selling all my stock plastics very soon and having a custom hood built.

Looks good ! Pretty extreme ! Porch is sikk also!

If the porch looks like that, what must the backyard look like?

got any pics brett??

If the porch looks like that, what must the backyard look like?

got any pics brett??thanks again for all the comments on the porch. You can't really see much from those pics.
I don't want to change the topic from the LT kit on my rrhino to MY house pictures So,
I'll set up a link to Photo Bucket tonight so you can see better ones. I just have to download my pics to it.

looks like a flinstone pad

Now that's freaking cool!! Great Job.

I would almost gauruntee the MGM/FRP hood like mine would fit and clear it sits about 7 inches Higher then the stocker, and it looks mean as hell

It's funny you posted that about them, because I was just talking to Scott today about buying the bedsides from them. I do like their hood, but I'm going to stick with my own design of doing a custom sheet metal hood instead and keeping my rhino diff. from the rest.

Stetler, if your "Rhino" and ChopShop's "Rhino" got nasty

you'd have the craziest "Rhino" in the world...

Congrats though, your build looks absolteuyl amazing!

Same question i asked chopshop... are you selling the plans / schematics for others that might be interested in your setup?

That Rhino is looking good! Can't wait to see the rear!

You Concrete man deserve's a Ice Cold Delicious Beverage! He's got skills for sure!

And get that rear done so we can galk at the finished product!

Thanks for the comments. Ya , Chop Shops doing one hell of a good job on his build. I bet he didn't think it would be this time consuming and $$$ to do such a small car build.

I'm not doing the fabricating it's another guy doing the build on my rhino. As far as selling the plans to do it again, He has everything programmed for his CNC machines and Jigs built for all the arms and mounts. He is going to start selling the kits once they go through testing and make any changes that are needed. It will be a full bolt on kit just like everybody else's kit but you will get the front bumper included and options of doing single or duals in the front and rear. Not sure how much he is going to ask for the kit once it's done.
I will have my rhino out in Glamis for Halloween and anybodys welcome to stop by and go for a ride.

I'll keep you posted on the rear.
I think my concrete guys drinked their fair share of my beer durring the work and after work everyday with me when I got home.
Thanks!

alot of people kept talking about my porch, So here's a link to some of the construction pics I took while it was going on. http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee279/bstetler_99/
Also I started building a custom dash for my rhino and I've been shooting step by step pics, So I'll post those up very soon.

Tore the front end apart this weekend and had all the welding get finished and plated. Also shot a coat of clear spray paint on everything to keep the rust down until I get it powdercoated. Started on the new roof. Here's a couple of pics. Looks like the rear arms got designed to. Just waiting to get the material back from the laser cutter later on this week.

Looks cool Brett...

I grow tired of people coming on this forum displaying their regular looking long travel kits claiming it gets 18" inches of travel... BUT with that front setup you have looks like it gets that or more. Nice work.

Well he started on the rear suspension yesterday and I stopped by to take some pics of the progress. Got the lower arms almost built, waiting on the bushings to come in this week. Also I fitted the dash while I was their so I can bring it back home to finish the custom build I'm doing on that.
The rear suspension will have 10" long 2.5 triple by-pass kings and 10" long 2.0 coilovers at each corner. The arms are 8" out and 4" back. Right now we are figuring somewhere around 21" to 22" of travel And STILL keeping the backseat in.

Today he's installing the light bar w/actuator, New steering rack, and finishing the roof.
just added some pics of the light bar ...still not done with the mounting.

Looks real good definately beefy lookin. how wide is the rear 8 as well!!!

Wow pretty cool. Lets hear about the motor? That thing ought to do a solid 9 miles an hour over the woops with all that new weight and the stock motor. Call Weller Racing. J/K that is going to be sick.

The rear arms are 8" out pass stock on each side. They also go 4" back.
The motor has under 200 miles on it. (CDI box, KMS clutch, K&N Billet intake/cleaner, re-jetted carb) So it is very reliable.
It still hits 58 MPH on the street but the sand is a diff. story. I weighed the front half and the whole rhino before I started the suspension build, So it will be interisting to see how much weight I added when it's complete.

I'm probably only going to add a exhaust system to it and that's it. You know how it is, the more motor work you do, the more problems your going to have.

I'm looking forward to making alot of trips to Glamis this year. So I'm going to hold off until next summer to do my motor swap. Can't say I've seen it done before so I'll have to be the first one with a 13B Peripheral port mid eng. (still with a back seat). I think that should be enough power in the dunes.

I called Gorilla axles today and they told me I'm looking at 2 weeks to have the axles built. That pisses me off. ...Last week I called and the girl who answered the phone told me 2 days. Thats a huge turn around change. Not to mention I had to talk to 4 diff. people before I talked to somebody that knows about their product they are selling.

Brett, you should consider calling GearOne in regards to your axles, they are here in PHX and I am sure its going to be easy to get a hold of someone that knows what they are talking about.

Word on the street is they have a new axle setup for Rhinos that is coming out that is less expensive than the GearOne centerboard hubs and axles.

Now if you already spent money with Gorilla to have them built then disregard this message.

Thanks for the info about Gear one.
I did talk to Gear one at the SSSS but they don't have the travel in the CV's that I need. With Gorilla I can get 40 Deg. out of them. They even said I could even get 45 Deg if I wasn't driving around on them at that angle.
I have not spent any money with Gorilla yet. My fab guy is going to have the rear arms on tonight and get me my measurments so I can order the axles in the morning. I was really hoping to make a trip or 2 for testing before the Halloween weekend but now it's going to be close.
Mark are you going to be out their on Halloween? Thanks again

Where is the LS1 and Mendi going to fit in?

Stetler

Those rear arms are madness! Shiat bypass at four corners.

You mentioned that you weight it before. What did it weight?

Looking at the pic on the first page . When your front end is at full comp. Looks like your wheel travels higher then the bottom of the frame?

Are you adding some King Air bumps?

That front end looks sick! It does look like there is'nt much ground clearance at full bump, but it could just be the photo angle, or maybe you plan to put some taller tires on. Can't wait to see pics of the rear mounted up.

If that is directed at me HELL YES I am going to be there. What weekend are you planning?
before or after? If my rhino makes it through the weekend before, I may go the weekend after to.

I think you will be real surprised at what that weight and suspension does to your motor performance.............

Pretty damn bad ass. Looks like it is definitely built to last. I wish I had the skills and the space.... and the tools.. lol to do that stuff at home. It is very inspiring to me because I am always coming up with crazy ideas. Usually my ideas just make it to Solid Works and stop there, but you made your ideas a reality and it looks very nice. I think you are going to have a blast with it.

Thanks Madmachinist!

Marc-I'll be going to Glamis the weekend after Halloween. Maybe making a desert trip the week before somewhere to do a little testing first. If you go the weekend after call me or come by my camp. I'll be at the flats, pretty close to were you camp at.

Tomfish- I know it's going to slow it down. Last season my rhino just had wheel spacers, 4 seat cage with all the seats and I had no problem going up olds with a 75 lb cooler hanging off the back. While my buddy had the same setup but with long travel and kings and a sol-tek light bar and it would take him 10 try's to get up.

Chachi, As far as ground clearance goes from the pics...nothing has been set up yet. Springs lbs/coil hight/ bypass' adjusted. So not to sure were the ride hight will be yet.

ChopShop- No I'm not going to run air bump stops because I'm running triple bypass. See thats the great thing about going with a triple bypass over a double bypass. The third tube IS your bumpstop. So these shocks already have around 4" of bumpstop built into them. As for the pics on the first page of the wheel cycling through suspension travel, That was the 1st mock up with the uniballs tack welded to get an idea of available travel and binding angles. Since then he reset the uniballs at a diff. angle so their is more droop then uptravel. See the problem is where the arms are located on the frame ( to far apart from the middle of the car) and keeping the front diff in. So he gave it more droop but yes the tire will still travel a couple of inches pass the frame hight. Thats where the bumpstop will come into play. Your never going to land level all the time and you can never have to much travel.

The weight before I did the suspension kit but With the 4 seat cage and all seats and 3/4 of a tank of gas was- FRONT 520 LBS and WHOLE CAR 1280 LBS

Here's some pics from the other night. Hope nobodys getting upset because I keep posting pics. Guys please keep in mind NOTHING has been final adjusted so if it looks out of wack or thiers no gusset their that should be. I KNOW. you'll see it in the final pics in a couple of weeks.

Looking good! Keep posting.

Whats the travel and were does it bump out to, I would definately look into a set of bumps stops as well to keep the pan off the ground!!!

I will know exact travel next when I get the rear shocks back and mounted with the limiting straps. Rear axles will be here Friday
As far as the bumpstops..I wont need to run them because of the triple bypass. That is what Brett King told me when we went over all the shock options. That is why I went with a triple and not a double bypass.
You also have to remember that in all of these pics I posted nothing has been adjusted or even set to ride hight.

yesterday we got the dual fans mounted to the new fan shroud , new tie-rods with heavy duty hiems, front limiting straps, and got the rear Gorilla axles in.
Check out the stock axles that he welded up just for mock up. All we did was drive it in and out of the shop.

new axles in rear and all 4 shocks in rear.

wow is all i have to say nice work

that is SICK! very cool Rhino, all you need now is a Hayabusa Engine... Imagine...

looks great, I would toss the bed and do something like I did to save the weight you wont be sorry. I noticed you had mentioned a rear seat. With the bed replaced and lowered like mine the rear passenger will have more leg room

nice.
Hope to see it for thanksgiving.

I haven't missed that weekend in 14 years......I'LL BE THERE.

I see your new to this site and already hijacking other peoples threads
Last time I checked this was a thread I posted about a build I'm doing. If you want to show off your rhino for more business why don't you start a new thread topic for people to follow.

he started a post and no one cared there either.

Lookin good

I know, I know,,,, No video posted yet.
Today we fianally did our first testing. All I can say is Holy-F*ck! It soaked up everything I aimed for. I was having so much fun that I only took 1 pic. It's a pic of the builder from 151Fab doing some front shock adjustments. He did take some video of me driving it through some whoop patches but he has to download them and send them over to me. As soon as he does that I'll post them.