sliders...

[pbkid]

ok here ya go...please go ahead and make fun of my crappy drawing program lol....
ok-
red denotes the frame
yellow denotes suspension
gray denotes the skid plate
green denotes the sliders

let me know if for some reason it wont work like this???
here ya go...



this is my understanding of what the underneath looks like, and where the rear control arms and the torsion bars are...if im off and it wont work...let me know now before i start taking measurements...

[Ascinder]

Looks good to me. The only critiques I could make would be:

1) Have the skid plate go ahead and cover the torsion bars-it wouldn't add a ton of weight, would give you a better attachment area to the frame, and would also stengthen the skid plate itself. It also wouldn't really interfere with anything to any great extent as far as I can tell.

2) When you do the transitioning points(like wherever it makes a 90 degree turn in your drawing) I would try and do either a 45 degree or better yet an arc. This decreases stess points in the design. Just on the inside bends, not the outer corners of course.

3) I'm not sure what you are thinking of using for the build material, but if you go multi metal, you could use a ridged piece of thin steel to support a flat bottom of either aluminum or nylatron. This would make the skid plate assembly lighter overall, and enable you to remove and replace the aluminum or nylatron bottom whenever you got a deep gouge or crack. It's a little more complicated, but would be better in the long run I think. You could also cut all your access holes in the ridged steel and cover it up with the flat bottom piece so you don't end up having to drop the entire skid plate assembly when you need to get in there and look at stuff(i.e. oil, xmsn, xfer case, catalytics, O2 sensors, etc).

4) If you are having it fabbed up, then make sure they get it exactly the way you want it. Be there when they are doing it, so if they have any clarification questions, they don't have to guess because you aren't around to ask. I've seen a lot of botched installs due to "interpretation".

[pbkid]

good tips, thanks beau...

im not completely clear on what you mean by #3...do you mean to use two sheets?? one with a basic frame and one with a complete sheet???

and secondly, dont the torsion bars articulate??? i was under the impression they did, but i could be mistaken (similar to the control arms)...
if not then i would definately cover them....

these are very very rough still, i would use kenny's design initially and then just make a few tweaks...

[Marlin]

My suggestion would include making sure that there is a central low point in the design, or perhaps use a drilled pattern. I have a plastic "splash" guard that runs from the under the front cladding all the way back to the forward end of the transfer case. When water, dirt, mud get in there, it stays because there is no where for it to go, so if you put a crease down the center having it come down toward the ground, that would help in drainage. My other concern would be heat. If you do mostly rock crawling type off road, then it is even more important since there isn't a lot of air flow generated by forward motion. Maybe holes in the bottom, like the prerunner skid plates?
As far as two pieces go, a solid frame rail design with removable under pieces and thinner cross members, good idea, I like teflon. You can get it in sheets, its lightweight, very convenient if you get on rocks and stuff since most of the time you would slide over just about any obstacle, and if you get gouges, you can heat it up with a torch or nice heat gun and smooth them back out again (not too hot, it will liquify or burn). There would be no galvanic corrosion, or any other type of corrosion, you could inset the mounting bolts to minimize risk of breaking the head off of one as well. I put teflon runners down my boat trailer boards, my boat came off the trailer like a greased monkey after that. It was one of my better projects and was cheap as well. My boat was heavy, about 5.5Klbs geared up, a Mako 191 center console with solid t-tops, twin Honda 4-stroke outboards, setup to troll with 7 Penn international 50s...I miss my baby.
Sorry, I was just flashing back...
But either way, keep us posted on your skid plate project, I am waiting to see how Riff Raff's deal works out, if not, I gotta do something before Moab and it may just be ghetto fabulous pending more time and money.

[etlsport]

it would be pretty cool to have a skeleton fabbed up that went frame rail to frame rail across the vx then extended out to become sliders.. that way any load on the sliders would be applied across the frame and not just on one side.. and you should be able to bolt it to the stock skid plate mounting holes so there would be no drilling or welding to the frame.. once you had that skeleton attached to the underside of your vx, then making plates to cover the area between that can be bolted to the skeleton should be somewhat easy?

[Ascinder]

im not completely clear on what you mean by #3...do you mean to use two sheets?? one with a basic frame and one with a complete sheet???

Yes. The steel framework underneath would be able to be made out of thinner metal if you throw in as many bends, flares, creases, flanges,etc as possible, then with that supporting whatever your plastic of choice would be (Delrin, Nylatron, or Teflon), you could just use disposable sheets of the stuff will all of the benefits is mentioned previously. Heat shouldn't be a huge issue as long as you plan for it. When you do the sheet metal around the lengths of the exhaust, just rivet or weld an extra heat shield type piece of steel that has an air gap between it and the skidplate and between it and the exhaust. Sparay the exhaust side with ceramic header paint, and presto you're all set.

and secondly, dont the torsion bars articulate??? i was under the impression they did, but i could be mistaken (similar to the control arms)...

Not even close. The torsion bars only rotate, and when I say rotate, I really don't mean it. On full flex they rotate less than half, a turn-a lot less. Think of the torsion bars as a tube that is also like a spring. If you try and twist it, it springs back. Like so:

[pbkid]

ok cool cool...i like the teflon idea...design a really basic "skeleton" of steel and then bolt the teflon to that....

and with the heating issue....im planning on adding an aux fan anyhow before i go to moab on a switch to the interior...secondly it would have ventilation holes throughout, both to relieve heat and to release mud and dirt...that way when i go to the car wash i just pressure wash the underneath and everything comes out...

ill have to crawl underneath this afternoon to get some ideas of where it could be mounted to and how many different pieces it would be built in...

well, hopefully my tax returns show up in the next few weeks and i can get a shop working on this while i wait for my sliders and my diff shield to show up

[pbkid]

hey quick question, justin you may know this one...

where is rocky road based out of?? are they utah or colorado?? i know they are mountain time zone, so it cant be that far