MSA's 2013 SEMA Project: Black Rhino > Fab Work continued...Wheels Arrive.

After some tracking, the wheels arrived at our door steps on October 21. Any person that does bag setups know that one of the crucial pieces of a bag setup is the wheels and tires. Location of the bags, parallel bars, and other bag components depend on it. BUT with some SEMA builds, you don't always have that luxury. So we guesstimated. Well....we guesstimated ok. We weren't terribly far off, but it definitely created needed some reconfiguration.

First, our bags were off. The bags have 10" of lift and the rear mounts were way lower than the front. The rears would have to air up 4" before it would equal where the fronts completely deflated. So we used the torch to completely cut out our current top bag mounts and made them lower. This allowed us to have equal height adjustments for both the front and the rear.

Second, we had started to fiberglass and do body work on the Bushwackers. Our original plan was to use the rear Extend-a-fenders made for the F250 and modify them for our Dually fenders. After mounting the wheels and tires, we would have been left with about 1" of tire that stuck out beyond the fenders. That was a no go. The design calls for the rear fenders to be completely flush. Well, we can bring the wheels in or we would have to cut the bed. That would then conflict with our BedRug sponsorship. So, the rear fenders...trashed. We overnighted 2 rear dually fenders from Ford, then cut, trimmed, and molded into the existing ones. This allowed us to extended our fenders out to where we wanted it - flush with the wheels. Having only a few days left, this was definitely going to be a rush.

Lastly, our fittings leaked.  Every single joint and fitting leaked.  So we spent hours upon hours upon hours, looking and searching for the correct fittings to correct all the points in the system that was leaking. Sometimes a set back when it comes to airbags.  But it was another challenge that was overcome.