not sure the purpose of those holes, but they do help keep the mud and moisture out of the tray

 

Don't know if mentioned but theres also skid plates for the frame to protect the rear radius arm mountain the frame , I have bent one of these and it won't bend back easily

 

Busy weekend
Got some of my drawings back from the welding engineers with a laundry list of recommendations. I have to re-visit the rear tire swing out, there is debate about the rear bumper mount not able to support the added weight.

Finished drawing the steering skid, Going to cut a test piece this week for fitting and final adjustment. I went a little crazy on the holes, but my FIA figures say it will hold, Still might dial it back for the finished product. Thoughts?

Finished the frame sliders (If you can call them that). Im not fully sold on the design. There is a small up-kick towards the front and I don't like how it looks on the truck. Might Re-visit that after the weld engineers have a look at it.

I had some time to run the front bumper through an FIA simulation. without any support or gussets it held up rather well. Deformed as expected up to 100K pounds of impact force both tension and compression. Popped 4 welds simulating a full frontal impact equivalent to a 55 mph collision. Im satisfied so far

Tom. I looked at the radius arm mounts and I agree they could use some protection. I will add that to the list Thank you.

Attached are a few shots of the drawings.
Thanks
Joe

 

The skid looks good, that is a lot of holes though. I wonder if that could be a issue getting hung up on rocks off road.

The rock sliders look good.

 

So much want.

That skid would be boss in aluminum

 

I agree with army rover, holes in bottom of the front of the skid and the horizontal area, caught on stuff, mine is aluminum love it 1/4" weighs nothing

 

Well after an hour drive to work today boss decided to close up shop for the holiday, so I finished some work on the roof rack. I need some input on the front. To me it looks a bit like a cow catcher for a train. I might bring the lower rack farther forward to see what it looks like before I start cutting tube. Any thoughts?
The rack is drawn using 1 inch OD x .063 Wall seam welded tube, All bends are 3in radius.
If I measured correctly it should retain the use of the sunroof, and only require removal of the stock cross bars.
I took the holes out of the steering skid. I figure if the end user wants holes they can cut them with a hole saw.


Thanks
Joe

 

Here's my thoughts.
- I'm not a fan of steering skids. IMO HD steering rods are a much better option. That said, I know a lot of guys like them so it might be wise to make them. I think maybe 5 holes to drop the weight and to add to the looks.
- Sill sliders look good, but yeah they need a bend to follow the door bottoms. Outriggers to the frame are a nice feature as well but is seldom done.
- Frame sliders. These are the ones Tom was talking about. I had a nice set in stainless steel I just sold. These bolt to the actual frame rails and have a skid under the frameside trailing arms mounts.

 

Your roof rack looks a lot like this roof rack.......
Urban Offroad roof rack for Land Rover Discovery

 

Yea I realized that this morning. This is not the final product. I just wanted to get something modeled and go back later to refine, as I was drawing I had several reference pictures up on my projects board of different designs. I liked the rear light hoops but when I got to the front It was getting late and I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted it to look and this took the least time to model. I'm not out to take business from anyone so it will be changed.

Joe