3D Printed Inclinometer Mount

I got one of the inclinometers for the dash, but didn't like how it mounted over in the middle where it's hard to see. So I made this mount. It looks really tall, but it's actually just the right height so you can still see it when your hand is on top of the wheel. I may try another that is shorter to see which I prefer.

There where Guys at work that used them on the front support on Dozers and Highlifts by using a magnet, or the tool had one made into it. This would get the slopes close enough before I would run slope stakes to check. I would either put a toe stake or top of slope stake and put the ratio on. Cut 20 feet on a 3to1, so 20 feet down 60 feet out will be the toe.

Some of the guys would get pretty good for a rough in making my job a lot
easier. I have seen them around for at least 20 years.

Very cool the things that you can design and make with another new technology.

I'm currently printing a 1" shorter version to try out. I also got some cool new OD green filament!

I was looking at the inclinometer, and it got me thinking... what is the tip-over angle of the LMTV? The inclinometer has it in the red >14°. Using the unloaded and loaded Center of Gravity (CG) listed on the data plate (dimension "B" in the chart), along with the overall width of the vehicle and tires, I drew up this diagram. "Worst case" is if you were only measuring tip-over angle to the inside of the tires, while "Best Case" is to the outside. This diagram concludes that...

- Unloaded tip-over angle is 34.6-45.5°
- Loaded tip-over angle is 30.5-41.1°

In either case, you should be able to max out the inclinometer (26°) without going over. (This is all calculation based, assuming the CG listed on the data plate is accurate, or at least on the conservative side of wrong.)




As I mentioned in another thread, long ago, I'd really like to conduct a couple experiments:
1.) Weigh the truck at scales that record each tire (or at least each side), then drive on top of something (e.g. cinder blocks?) of a known height and calculate the actual CG based on the weight shift measured.
2.) Pick the side of the truck up and actually tip it over, while restraining it from being able to go over entirely (e.g. chain down the lifting strap spreaders, put a long square tube in the low-side spreader receiver so it can only tip over so far, etc.)

I tried the 1" shorter mount, in green. It can still get blocked by my hand at the top of the wheel, but I want to lower it more still so that it's roughly overlaying the "already wasted" view at the top of the air defroster. So a 1/2" shorter one is printing now.

Also in the pic, you can see my first prototype of a sun shade for the WTEC-II keypad. I want to be able to see it better. This sun shade design needs some work, but I wanted to try something to see how well it covered, from my viewpoint in the driver's seat.

A small sidenote in all this... I noticed that the steering wheel is not centered on the dashboard in these trucks. It wasn't apparent until I mounted this inclinometer centered on the indicator light panel at the top. Look for yourself and you'll see that the steering column is about 1" to the left.

I bent the metal plate mine is mounted on and put it on the last two bolts at the right of the panel. The wheel dosnt block the view off to the right. Like your mount design!

A funny thing when i was in the boyscouts every year our big way to raise money to go camping and such was to take (i think it was 3/8 clear hose and a piece of plastic rod cut off in 2 in sticks with a cup of big bb's and anti freeze and fill a piece of the clear hose with the antifreeze about 2 ft long put a bb in one end and the plastic piece in the other end and each one of us would make at least 150 a piece then put them in the freezer overnight till the big rodeo came to nashville municiple auditorium and they at a couple points of the night during the rodeo would turn the lights off and our necklaces would glow in the dark and people could get theyre money out fast enogh to buy all our glow in the dark necklaces so the point of this story is you could maybe use the same theory with the tubing and pop it in your inclinometer for a night OP to see how it looks and you could see the degree you were at in pitch black you know when your riding around in the woods with your nvgs on !