Off-Road Upgrade Questions

I would like the advice of some of you off roaders regarding the way I should go with my upgrades.

1. Wheels. What size and off-set is needed for the 33x12.5? Any recommendations?

2. Skiders. Should I custom build skid plates or go with the Isuzu-made bolt-ons? Cost versus quality and ease of fitment/construction... Your thought?

3. Sliders. I have heard that weld on sliders can 'oil can' the frame, and the company making mine recommends reinforcing... How do I do that?

I appreaciate the insight of the experienced, being a rookie myself. Thanks all.

1. For 33's you need more than just wheels and tires. Even with a lift you will need to take a BFH to the inner metal of the wheel wells and do some pretty serious trimming of the cladding. There are several posts on the board that refer to this.

2. The factory Rodeo skids do an all right job. But if you have the means to do a custom plate I'd go that route since you will get more complete protection. Same as above search the posts its been covered.

3. The key I think to preventing the coke canning of the frame is to have a minimum of 3 contacts. The one I saw coke can only had 2 points. To add additional support have the person welding them up and on weld a U box about 3-4 inches long to the frame then connect the sliders at those points. That is the plan I'm going to use when I ever get around to getting some made up.

Good luck and keep us informed of your progress. Will we see you in Moab next May?

If you really want to wheel, buy a Jeep and spend another 30K on it. I know I did :eek:

Actually, all kidding aside, the best way to attach rock sliders is the way Billy described. Mine have a box in the front and use original bolt holes in the rear that have a tab welded to the tube. The best thing about them is the ability to pivot on a rock without damaging the cladding. I think RockLoging here in Salt Lake still has the plans if you are interested, somewhere around 3 bills.

I am running 10.5 x 33 BFG KO’s. You might consider this size as there is not as much issue trying to fit them. The 12.5 wide will cause turning issues unless you backspace a great deal and then you will have to take out more cladding front and rear of the wheel opening. Irregardless a BFH is required in front of the door and a saws all in front.
Todd

Working with the BFH is no trouble, however what did you guys use to trim the cladding with? ( I am thinking to put my dremel to work) And what amount did you all trim?

My 912's will arrive tomorrow and the install will follow shortly. Tires and rims will follow behind that shortly. Right now I am planning on going with 15" rims and BFG AT 33" ers.

Thanks for the tips.

Triathlete, regarding the wheels, I know all that, I am just wondering about what offset I need for the best fitment and clearance of the inner well...

About the sliders, I think I will just have the guys build the U-box up attached if the can... I am going with the same ones Jeff (TucsonVX) had built by Stric9 Engineering

As for the skids, I think I might try to have a custom plate skid built up by Iron Pig Off Road. I am also going to see if they will custom fab a plate steel winch bumper to replace most of (if not all of) the front cladding. Their work looks like some of the best I have seen.


Oh, and one more thing... How do lockers, manual or air, effect the TOD system? Do I have to disconnect it or does it continue to work when the lockers are disengaged?

:p 1) trimming. Do not use a dremmel as it heats up the cladding and machine gun splatters everything(ie- your eyes, nose, mouth, everything, etc...). Best is a angle grinder with cut off wheel. Map/mark your line first and then cut slowly steady and deliberately.
2) Wheels. First crank clockwise the Tbars bolts after you have front end off ground making your life easier. Measure from level ground from middle of wheels to beginning of cladding. Mine are at 40"'s . Should be one turn equal 1/4 inch. I have 3057017" Goodyear Wrangler MTR's on KMC venom rims. Which is about the equal of 33x12.5's. Not an easy task of making them fit. Undo cladding in front wheel wells closest to the doors, peel back and start cutting away and pounding back metal.Don't cut off the mounting bolt for the fender as you pound that back after you have shaved it really close to bolt and use it to mount wheel well plastic to hold it away from rubbing on BigFWheel. If this isn't possible then get some snips and cut plastic away from wheel as it gets quite annoying to hear it rub all the time against the wheel on turns and bumps. Have fun .Now you have cranked the crap out of Tbars and lifted your VX insanely, VERY CAREFULLY undo the outer clamp of the innermost(narrowest end) cv boot. Then push norrow end of the cv boot above the ridge that it was inbetween and put another clamp back on very carefully and very snuggly. This will allow your cv boots to not tear as easily from stress of lifting. Unless you get axle dropdown brackets and don't disconnect one end of your swaybars when offroading then you should be ok with just moving the inner cv boot up.
3) Skidplates. You can remove your front skidplate as you will not need it. Use diamondplate steel to fashion a skidplate that mounts up to the front tow hook bolt area and extends underneath VX to either crossmember just before Tcase or go the extra mile and make it extend all the way back to the crossmember behind Tcase..if you do this it would be best to make a dip to give Tcase clearance so as not to push up on Tcase when "Rock Feeling" ;) .
Make it mount to the all crossmembers it covers. This is most efficient as you only will have one skidplate. I have one of Tone's skidplates that I got from Reg Hinnant. It only extends to middle crossmember and I have the Trooper Tcase skidplate. Man have I bashed that thing up, it is now pushing against Tcase when "rock Feeling" ;) . I need to make an extension and go back further with it. Tone's skidplate had bracket arms extending from the skidplate up to the Towhook mounts in front. I cut these off and mounted skidplate directly to bottom of my winch bumper that mounts into the stock towhook bolt holes. I cut off the whole lower part of front cladding to allow for more air flow and cooler running temp...so under the cladding or over the cladding skidplate was not applicable to me as there was no longer any cladding there. You might want to get a steel gas tank skidplate replacement too as the stock one is not very strong and you do not want to bash your gas tank as it is in a week place. My tow hitch has saved me many times from this, but it still gets pushed up.
4) Your OME 912's will not lift enough for 33's. Unless you get the coil spacers for the rear. Get EXTRA stiff 3" longer shocks in the rear and use the front VX shocks untill death do you part. Any longer than 3inch shocks in the rear and you might want to wire your coils in place when offroading so they do not slip out of place and crush an expensive $1000 wiring harnes or other important items. You will need front and rear bump stop extensions and a rear brakeline extension bracket you can make yourself.

Just to let you know, the sliders Jeff has are the ones that I saw "coke can" the frame. They are only attached in 2 spots and do not have the "U". Since they are custom made though shouldn't be a problem having them add the extra attachment point and the U. Having seen them in person, they do look good. If you come down to Tucson to pick them up let us know and we'll set something up so you can test 'em out!

ummm..my sliders are only attached in 2 places and I rock crawl all the time and have never had a problem. My sliders were made by Andy(Swordy) and his are the same way and we have neither never had a problem.

By the way...what is coke canning??? Is it where the thing all wrinkles up and collapses???

You might have a bigger contact area at the mount points Spazz. But I saw Jeffs first hand. The frame around the the weld dimmpled (only word I can think of to describe it). At first we thought the sliders bent but upon inspection found the frame was dimmpled around the weld area. Hope that explains it a little better.

I read in Four Wheeler that a guy put 36"s on his VX with the calmini 3" and a custom body lift. So I was thinking if I want 33"s with articulation I will need a body lift sence 3" suspension is all that they have right now. Anyone have any suggestions?

That would be Destruction. He is now SAS'd with air bags.

he probably has the same stock 4.3 ratio too still. Hopefully he went with at least 5.38's or will.

Hey Billy

I had some plates made and welded to reinforce the sliders mounting points so, will need to test then again, I think this is the best practice and think it would of still oil canned with three mount point anyway, the Isuzu frame is not made of very thick metal.

Jeff