I can't help with your fishplating, but I'm curious about the f250 shock towers.

Won't the excessive angle of the towers foul with the tyres as they tuck into the guards? (they lean away from the chassis rail towards the wheel).

Check the link below. Government doc that covers fish plating. I haven't read it in a while but I think it basically says to use the same thickness of steel for the plating as the chassis. I don't see any difference in benefit cutting it either way you've shown it. It's probably more a matter of mounting preference. If you needed the front head of the plate hard up against another fitting or cross member it would be easier to do it the first way for instance.

http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/ ... _sec_2.pdf

EDIT: Sorry that's not the link that talks about thickness. I think it was in a hot rodding doc I saw the thickness discussion. Try googling that.

I used 1/4" plate for mine, a little over kill but I had a friend cut them out so I couldn't complain.

The reasons for the angles is to add more length to the weld, rather than a short vertical weld. The idea is to get as much weld as possible on the plates.

Be wary he Zook frame is very thin, I had an experienced welder come do mine, and some other welding that was technical, he blew through the frame on his first bead, after that he had no problem.

as for the lean and the fouling with the ford towers, ,I have had no issues, and you won't with normal backspaced wheels. However, you will want to put them as high as possible in the wheel well and even go as far a beating the fender well up to make more room.

The higher you can mount the ford towers, the more uptravel you will have which is crucial to a good ride. A good rule of thumb if you are wanting to travel at speed off road, is 3-4
" of uptravel.

If you have any questions about the ford towers, feel free to ask. Since they are only $12.50 and very stout, we use them allot.


Hope it helps.

Oh I almost forgot.

When your shocks are mounted, check clearance with the corner of the spring plate. The bottom of the shock likes to foul on the corner of that spring plate and dent the shock. I didn't know about that and dented my new rancho's. all I had to do to remedy that was ip a corner off the plate with a skinny wheel in a 4" grinder ;D

I don't have the right words to describe this so bear with me. But welds vertical or horizontal on the chassis will create a point that allows a crack to form and break easily. Angled welds are less likely to encourage it.

I would also look at gusseting the top of the chassis behind the tower as well. The twist back from your raised shock towers might do some damage (it might not to. I tend to overbuild stuff)

Sounds like you are all set

Not mine. They're scottys slider mounts. Saw them on Facebook and thought I'd post it up to show Creasy.
Scotty is pretty good at what he does!

Use 3mm for doubling plates. The chassis is 2.5mm.

Steve.

I was wondering what the exact thickness of the chassis was, thanks! My brother had some 5mm stuff at work so he cut it to size and brought it home for me. Is that usable, or will it be way too thick?

2.5mm.

You can use 5mm, but I'd only be running a 5 or 6mm fillet weld around the plates. Also be carefully to get even penetration of the chassis AND fish plate.

I use 4mm for fish plates, and wherever possible I avoid doing verticle welds. <===> is what I try to do.

The engineers I've been involved with in Vic have been adamant that doubling plates can't be more than 50% thicker than the original chassis, so even 4mm is out.

After the doubling plate has gone on, you can weld whatever you want to it.

Steve.

Most engineers won't bork at 0.25mm