Body mounts... Neccessary or not?

[Belly Dragger]

I posted a snippet of this on 4x4wire....

On a mostly trail rig are body mounts neccessary?

It seems to me that in the evolutionary stages to a tube rig with a body style skin on it that body mounts only cause problems. Example a interior cage needing space for body movement. I read what MClark wrote and it makes sense on a DD but on a "mostly" trail rig it seems that a logical step would be no body mounts.

Thoughts....

[Independent4x]

kind of a slant but..my buddy James scout has the body hard mounted......rocker bars and rear bumper have sheet metal welded to them..

he drives it on and off road...rides pretty damn good..........eliminated all the "slop" from the played mounts.

the cage will go hard mounted to the frame as well.

suspension is in the leafs not between the body and frame

[Belly Dragger]

OK, so I'm not thinking entirely crazy then.

I can tell you that after replacing the factory mushy mounts to the Prothane one's for CJ's made a huge difference. But now that I'm deliberating over how to lower the beasty as well as reduce weight, it just seems that skin over tube makes much more sense and with that in mind I could "begin" by eliminating the body flex so a cage could be built snugly inside without concerns for the flex.

So far I figure I can do about a 4" body lowering if I rebuild the body support system with skin on tube. :D

[ramv]

Micheal, the other thing to consider is frame flex. If you were to wheel w/o body mounts and cage, (in between steps) the body could tear apart. If you ever check out the t-tops on a Redneck Z28 4x4 there usually have substantial amount of stress, cracks etc. Comanches/cherokees also exhibit the body falling apart due to the frame flex..... now if you build a stiffer frame and reinforce everything with a cage tied in eigth places or so, this probably is not an issue, just something to consider if the project is planned in steps....

AJ

[Belly Dragger]

Originally posted by ramv
Micheal, the other thing to consider is frame flex.Damn it Aaron! I was hoping to not have to rebuild the ENTIRE frame.

But probably right though.

damn damn damn..... back to the drawing board.

[Grampa]

I was pondering this idea last night after posting on the wire, and I'm starting to agree with Michaels original idea, if it involves tying a cage into the frame to stop frame flex. I dont think our frames are near as bad as C channel frames to begin with, and a little creative cross bracing as part of the cage would take care of any minimal flex. If you are running large tires and a well-built suspension, I cant see it feeling any worse with it welded, or bolted, solid.

[mepr]

to reduce frame flex you can weld plate on either side of it. Im perty shure most isuzu frames are boxed so just run plate on iether side of the frame and weld it. Just be carefull to weld it in stages so you dont warp the frame.