I'm going to be building (with the help of a friend) some tube rockers for my FJ-40. This is the latest design I've imagined. Under the recommendations of RockStomper.com, it will be .125" wall thickness tube and either 1.5" or 2" diameter. I will probably use DOM tube, but may use HRDW.
Are there any weak spots in this design? Any thing else I should consider?

http://jillandneil.com/jeep/fjrockers4.gif

Another variation:
http://jillandneil.com/jeep/fjrockers3.gif


The only problem I have with using 1/4" wall thickness is that I don't have a bender available for that thick.
If I do stick with .12, do you recommend DOM tubing instead of Hot Rolled?

Looks killer. But can you say overkill?? ;) Right on.

Mine are some what similar. I only have 2 supports coming out from the frame, and one bar running the length of the rocker. But then again I made mine out of receiver tubing....:eek: ....what's that word again?? oh yeah...OVERKILL!! oh yeah!!

The only think I would change is make the end of the sidebars (the rear end) taper *out*, that way when you slide on a rock it will push you off of it. I've seen this on a lot of trucks and it seems to work pretty well, and it's a feature incorporated into some of the commercially available sidebars.

Nice grafix, man!!

Originally posted by GloNDark
Mine are some what similar. I only have 2 supports coming out from the frame, and one bar running the length of the rocker. But then again I made mine out of receiver tubing....:eek: ....what's that word again?? oh yeah...OVERKILL!! oh yeah!!

That is great, they sound almost exactly like mine...

2", 1/4" wall slider and 1.5" .240 wall ties into the frame..

Originally posted by Jason M


That is great, they sound almost exactly like mine...

2", 1/4" wall slider and 1.5" .240 wall ties into the frame..

EXACTLY!!! I wanted a high lift point and rock bars.....2 birds 1 big ass tube....:D:D:D

I like the look...however, using 1.5" or 2" loses that much ground clerarance at the rockers....IMO, that's needed clearance.

Mine is simple 2.5" x 2.5" angle, stitched to the rocker itself. I cut the bottom edge such that the horizontal of the angle rests on the factory foot-area bracing. I can high-lift the entire side of the vehicle with no deflection and it has survived more rock-slides than I can remember. It doesn't tie directly to the frame, but is tied in with the factory (or my custom) body mounts.

Considering how beat up the front tub mount is on my Cruiser, I need all the clearance I can get....heh heh

I agree with Woody. I used to have 2" tube bars and they bashed on everything. In fact, I came down on them so many times, my rockers had little 2" tube dents in them wherever the tube ran under the rockers.

I ran 2 x 2 angle iron under my cut rockers and picked up 5" of clearance at the rocker.

versus

Woody and wngrog, Could you give some more info on how you attached the angle iron to the body. I assume you cut the rockers flush with the bottom of the floor boards. Are the rockers welded on or bolted? Did you use 1/4" angle?

You can buy 90 degree elbows. That's what did for my nerfs. You can see mine at:

http://www.lslc.org/austinbios/blumenthal/Dulciena.html

Scroll down to the 2nd pic.

Maybe one day, I will be able to post images...:(

I agree with Woody and Wngrog, I have the Smittybuilt nerfs and literally destroyed them. I am cutting them off and using some 3x5x.25" angle iron, bolted directly to the side of the truck, then make a 2" tube step that flairs out toward the outside edge of the rear wheel. I will gain almost 5"'s by losing the nerf bars.

Mine are 2.5"x2.5" x 1/4" angle, and are stitch welded to the verticle sheetmetal of the rocker, immediately below the door frameing. Also, since they contact the body supports in 1-2 places, they are also stitched there.

Mine are not cut to the floor boards....if you look at yours, you'll see a factory body u-channel support there....mine are cut flush to that height.

If the thunderstorms lighten up tonight, I can shoot pics and post Friday morning.

2.5 x 2.5 x .25 angle iron....5 bolts each side through what is left of the rockers.

These things will take a sick blow and not bend at all. I highly recommend this modification

Here is a link to my write up:
Cut Rockers with Angle Iron (http://www.off-road.com/tlc/tech/rockerpanels/)

I used 3x2x1/4 angle iron and cut 3" off of the rockers up to the body rib.
Before pic:
http://www.off-road.com/tlc/tech/rockerpanels/rockerpanels02.jpg

After pic:
http://www.off-road.com/tlc/tech/rockerpanels/rockerpanels10.jpg

The main reason I'm working with tube is because I don't want to cut (or mount to) the body at all. I also want to keep the stock steps for my wife's sake.

Eric, your rockers are awesome and I've admired them on Off-Road's site many times.

Jeff, where did you buy the 90 degree bent tube at?
Anyone know a place in Colorado that sells .25 tube and can bend it for cheap?

60seriesguy, can you give me more of an example of the tapered edge? I'm having trouble picturing how that would look.

Use square tubing. It takes a beating and is very east to make angles...
Plus I think follows the lines well.

Also cut the rockers down before you add it.
I cut more off than I added with the 2" .240 tubing...

Originally posted by jeepps
60seriesguy, can you give me more of an example of the tapered edge? I'm having trouble picturing how that would look.

Go to allprooffroad.com and look how their sliders "kick out" at the back...

the angle iron bolted to the side, at some point i envision the bolts going through where there is 2 parts to the panel?

directly under the door...how do you guys go there?

just drill a hole right through and use onger bolts, with big washers so it doesnt crush?
or do you guys just bolt below that area?

JasonM?
Wngrog?
Eric?

anyone know what im talking about:smokin:

Originally posted by bj42
the angle iron bolted to the side, at some point i envision the bolts going through where there is 2 parts to the panel?

directly under the door...how do you guys go there?

just drill a hole right through and use onger bolts, with big washers so it doesnt crush?
or do you guys just bolt below that area?

JasonM?
Wngrog?
Eric?

anyone know what im talking about:smokin:

Cut as much off of the rocker as you can. you are left with the double thick area that is at the same level as the body mount. Then simply drill through that and reasonable washers. It is fairly strong when done this way... The angle iron adds a lot of strength to the rocker..

i know what you are talking about. i dont know what they did about it but i know what you mean. i was planning on the angle iron aproach before i took off the diamond plate the PO had put there, to find my rockers were not worthy of protection:( out came the sawzall and cutoff wheel, and i took the rockers our completely. right now i am preparing to weld in some 2" square tube. its gonna be SWEET. i'll post pics when i get it done.
Matt

fixxer from what jasonM just said, they finish below the floor??

is this correct, because i was considering cutting mine all teh way to the floor, and running something a bit different, i have checker plate there now, and it offers a fair bit of protection and being 3mm adds lots of strength, but id rather be chopping it, before i SOA, i dmaged the rockers bad, thats why the checker is on there ;) since SOA and body lift they havent touched anything yet...

was going to run some tube from the front guard through to the rear wheel well....similar to this but not a tray back, just keep my existing back

Sorry so late...work has has no net for the past 5 days, and I haven't had much time at home to get online....but here goes...

http://www.ih8mud.com/misc/rocker1.jpg


http://www.ih8mud.com/misc/rocker2.jpg

I dont think I have enough rocker to do that with............................:rolleyes:

jeepps,

you can cut your rockers, then make removeable nerf bars for when your wife is with you...that's what i did. the nerfs sit where the running boards would've, and when i wheel, i can take them off.

a good place to check for the elbows would be dencol in commerce city (just west of the western complex).

Here's the finished product. We also took the hard top off last weekend.
http://jillandneil.com/fj/rockers.htm

http://jillandneil.com/fj/fjrockers3.jpg
http://jillandneil.com/fj/cruisertopoff.jpg

Dude, those are pretty clean:cool: I like that you were able to keep the running boards for a fairly stock look;)

Jeepps - that's a great looking rig - nice and clean! Your nerf sliders are excellent. The above commentary from Woody, Wrngrg, Eric, etc., assumes you are looking to build a more "hard core" rock crawler. For what it's worth, my rig is a crawler and uses the angle iron treatment. But for a more moderate duty situation you have accomplished a very clean looking body protection. Keep up the good work.:cool:

Hey Jeepps.

Thanks for the updated pics of your rocker bars. They look really clean with the stock steps. I wish I could have kept my stock steps, buy my rig wanted to go over bigger rocks than the body allowed so they had to be removed.

This how i did it, cut out all the sheet metal below the door and welded in square steel tubing.

Christof

closer look

This was the question that I was going to ask. So you don't attach the angleiron to the frame? Just bolt or weld it directly to the body?
I finally took off my sidesteps thinking that I was going to find a hidden treasure of rust but didn't. I don't want to cut my rockers yet, and my dad would shit himself with that idea :D. I also don't want to weld onto the body so what if I...get the angleiron, get some recesed bolts, put on a backing plate on the inside of the body and bolt it up...will it hold to rocks and jacking? I will probably use the stock step holes and just add 1 or 2 more...
Thanks...

Joseph A.

Joseph-
Yes, you can do the angle iron approach w/o welding to the body, thats how eric did it, look at his write up, its good. Of course i would recomend the squaretube route ;)....
Matt:skull:

When I first did my angle iron rockers, I did not cut the body. I just removed the steps, and bolted on the angle iron and drilled 2 more holes (just like you are talking about Josh). This worked good for light wheeling, but you will bend the body if you land really hard since there is no back support for the angle iron. If you don't want to cut the body yet, I would bolt up the angle iron like you are talking about and then put some box tubing (or upside down angle iron) behind the body to help support the angle iron to the floorboards. With the box tubing mounted flush to the floorboards, you will have less chances of bending the body.

I did what eric first did, I left the rocker panel full length and
bolted a 5 X 3 X .460 piece of angle iron up to the panel. On the inside I made a support out of the same material to go over and pick up the front leg of the front rollcage. This helped two problems, the possibility of folding the whole rocker panel over and it increased the surface area of steel that must move in a major failure of the front cage.

Thats what I was planning on doing was sandwitching the body between the outside piece of angleiron and another piece of steel on the other side of the body.

Eric- Are you talking about bolting the outside piece to the inside piece that is bolted to the floor above? Sounds like a good idea...

krcruiser- Do you have any pictures? You kind of lost me on the "go over and pick up the front leg"...
Thanks

Joseph A.

No unfortunately I don't have pictures...

If you look at the picture in Eric's post where he holds the tape up to the body, I just layed a piece of angle iron on the inside of the body and it happened to go right under the rollbar mount, which sits real close to the fronmt body mount. I ran the 4 3/8" grade 8 bolts down through the rollbar mount, body and the angle iron, then ran three more bolts through the langle iron, rocker panel and new rock slide.

i get it now......you donht cut right to the floor, you leave a fair bit behind!!

oh well, im cutting right through the floor :smokin: :rasta:

Looks good! Oh, my sliders are BLACK. You don't spot them at first, but are simple to touch up with a rattle can. :rolleyes:

Oh, Warpdrive... anytime you need 1", 1.5", or 2" tubing bent... I have the dies and hydraulic bender. Stop on by when up this way (hint: Fat Tire Ale!).

13 days till closing on the new house.... 14 days before submitting the loan paperwork for the detached shop. :)

Tom :usa:

can you say, WHERES THE BEEF! Man those rockers are beefy!

These are the sliders on Old Yeller, 2x6" rectanguler wall tubing, with angle iron to bolt to the body, they have a brace running over to the factory body mount. Body has been trimmed to the pinch wel where the floorboard and the outer sheet metal connect. I wanted to keep the step/running board, most people don't even notice these are not factory running boards.
Butch

'Nother shot.....

Originally posted by texican
These are the sliders on Old Yeller, 2x6" rectanguler wall tubing, with angle iron to bolt to the body, they have a brace running over to the factory body mount. Body has been trimmed to the pinch wel where the floorboard and the outer sheet metal connect. I wanted to keep the step/running board, most people don't even notice these are not factory running boards.
Butch

Butch,

Do you/can you make and sell those to your POR and LCML buddies?? ;) Looks pretty easy, just weld, or bolt the angle iron to the 2X6? Can you show pics of the brace to the body mount?

Thanks

Right now I am not in a position to make any items like this, too busy in the shop repairing cars. I have a list of folks wanting the half doors, as soon as I get time to start making them, One thing I think I would change on my design is to run it forward under the front fender, trim to allow clearance because the way they are now you still bend the lower edge of that fender at times.
plus these are 1/8" wall and are way heavy, shipping would be $$$$
Butch

Originally posted by texican
Right now I am not in a position to make any items like this, too busy in the shop repairing cars. I have a list of folks wanting the half doors, as soon as I get time to start making them, One thing I think I would change on my design is to run it forward under the front fender, trim to allow clearance because the way they are now you still bend the lower edge of that fender at times.
plus these are 1/8" wall and are way heavy, shipping would be $$$$
Butch

Can you take a couple pics of the brace to body mount? I think I can get this fabbed up here!

How's this?

Other side

a shot of mine....we fully stretched the pass front shock, and the tire stayed wedged (busted newfield guts already) Truck got tippy at this point, so we quit with the high-lift.

http://www.ih8mud.com/misc/2002-05-25_paragon/P5240031.JPG

Originally posted by texican
Other side

Perfect!! thanks Butch!