Unibody Rock Sliders *TESTED*

Inc · **Posted:** Wed May 20, 2009 7:52 pm

JJsKJ wrote:

Nice. When you get them trimmed to length, add to them, etc. can you weigh them? I'd Like to know how much extra they weigh Over a set of normal rock rails.

I'll weight them and weigh my old ones as well to see the difference. I think the difference will be quite a bit actually which kind of bums me out cause I don't really want more and more weight as things pile up. Price you pay to make things work better I guess.

ken · **Posted:** Wed May 20, 2009 10:59 pm

Nice the skinks are on my to do list tomorrow. The Franky II is done. 6 hrs by myself.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 1:31 am

haha that boy plays with steel like i do

Boiler · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 9:28 am

Wow. I mean, wow. By my estimation, if those are 1/4" thick rectangular tubes, those sliders weigh about 100 lbs each side.

Y'all know steel comes in thicknesses under 1/4" right? :wink:

jsc7002 · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 10:29 am

Boiler wrote:

Wow. I mean, wow. By my estimation, if those are 1/4" thick rectangular tubes, those sliders weigh about 100 lbs each side.

Y'all know steel comes in thicknesses under 1/4" right? :wink:

how do you figure that? I came up with them both weighing approx. 122# for the 2x5 at 140"

Boiler · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 10:35 am

jsc7002 wrote:

how do you figure that? I came up with them both weighing approx. 122# for the 2x5 at 140"

Well I'm not sure of a couple of his lengths, but here goes. I made assumptions for the 2" square tubes.

5 x 2 x 1/4" rec tube x 70" long @ 10.51 lb/ft = 61.3 lbs
1/4 x 5 flat x 68" long @ 4.25 lb/ft = 24.1 lbs
2 x 2 x 1/4" square tube x 12" long x 2 pcs @ 5.41 lbs/ft = 10.82 lbs
total for one slider (one side): 96.22 lbs

It will go up or down a bit depending how many 2" sq. tubes he uses and how long they are.

Inc · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 11:20 am

Well I weighed the bare pieces today and the old rails weighed in at 21 pounds each.

The new rails weighed in at 83 pounds each. :shock:

ken · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 11:29 am

much beefier

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 12:16 pm

Inc wrote:

Well I weighed the bare pieces today and the old rails weighed in at 21 pounds each.

The new rails weighed in at 83 pounds each. :shock:

Is that cut to length and w/ whatever extras needed (end caps, etc) added to them? Are they 1/4' thick?

if so, 3/16" would have been plenty thick in that type of application and construction. Really looking forward to more details as this comes together, I Want to do this to both my KJ and XJ in the near future.

Boiler · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 12:40 pm

For bending stress and rigidity, 1/8 would be enough. However, you might get small local dents with 1/8, since the bottom surface is 5" wide. 3/16" would be nice. Probably take you down to 65 pounds or so. Still a lot of weight though.

Inc · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 1:00 pm

Those were the measurements with all the bars for one side uncut. I figured since I was cutting off and angling the ends of the 2x5, the weight would be darn near the same as a finished rail since I will be adding just as much material as I am cutting off as far as end caps go. The welding material will be the only added weight, whatever that is, which will be pretty insignificant. My old rails were 1/8" thick and I abused the heck out of them and they did dent very slightly. Since these are weld in and not bolt on, I wasn't going to screw around and do it half way since they will be a part of my body forever from here on out. If they could easily be removed and replaced I wold have done 1/8 or 3/16. 3/16 might be thick enough, but the price and weight savings weren't substantial enough for me to go lighter duty I feel. Why not go all out just to be safe I guess.

Burchie · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 1:46 pm

It's been 3 days. Done yet? I wanna see pics.

ken · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 2:05 pm

Inc · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 4:31 pm

I thought I'd check in before I went down to the garage and started cutting.

Now is the time to talk me out of it if anyone was going to...

Burchie · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 4:56 pm

Inc wrote:

Now is the time to talk me out of it if anyone was going to...

Anyone? Anyone?

Nope. Start a cuttin'. great weekend project. and it's going to be a 3 day weekend too. :wink:

I'll tell you what. We will do it together. As you cut, post a pic, and I'll drink a beer and critique your work. it will be great. :lol:

Inc · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 5:03 pm

Burchie wrote:

Inc wrote:

Now is the time to talk me out of it if anyone was going to...

Anyone? Anyone?

Nope. Start a cuttin'. great weekend project. and it's going to be a 3 day weekend too. :wink:

I'll tell you what. We will do it together. As you cut, post a pic, and I'll drink a beer and critique your work. it will be great. :lol:

Sounds like a deal Burchie.

Here is a tentative schedule of how I am planning on doing it:

Today

Cut rockers
-pics
Cut Rails
-pics
Weld end caps and finish and clean them
-pics
Tack rails in place
-pics

Tomorrow

Weld entire rail in
-pics
Weld flat bar gusset in place
-pics
Cut and shape 2x2 length gussets for bottom
-pics
Weld them in place
-pics

Saturday

Paint
-pics

Depending on what I get done and how fast I go about it, hopefully I can shorten the list and finish them by tomorrow evening.

JJsTJ · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 5:54 pm

Strange huh Burch.......no stops for beer drinkin'?!! HTH do you tackle a project like this w/out beer drinkin' scheduled in?!

hrogi · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 6:25 pm

I am jealous big time...

I have no welding skills....

Xodius · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 6:38 pm

Dang cant wait for the finished pics. Looks like it is going to be awesome!
What was that?....you want to trade KJs

Inc · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 7:08 pm

JJsKJ wrote:

:shock: Strange huh Burch.......no stops for beer drinkin'?!! HTH do you tackle a project like this w/out beer drinkin' scheduled in?!

Me no drinky JJ.

If this doesn't work out, my jeep is going to look retarded. :lol:

Here is the passenger side cut up. It isn't quite hollow, meaning there is another layer you have to cut out which sucks, but at least there is not going to be any issues as far as I can tell and everything should be stronger now actually because all these underlying unibody pieces will all be tied together with some heavy duty steel.

I still need to cut out some of the underneath structures.

Unibody Rock Sliders TESTED

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