Mud Flaps AND Rock Sliders

[dig255]

Anyone have any experience with the Aluminess nerf bars? How thick is the aluminum tube?
Do they mount or brace to the frame? How tuff are they?

[PatO]

Originally Posted by dig255

Anyone have any experience with the Aluminess nerf bars? How thick is the aluminum tube?
Do they mount or brace to the frame? How tuff are they?

I know I've see a picture of a bent one in another thread. Look for other rock slider or side step threads here on the forum.

[rob_gendreau]

I'm curious about the welding on the frame rails; is that really how they're attached? Vertical welds? Did they do any internal reinforcement on the frame?

[BIGVANS]

Originally Posted by rob_gendreau

I'm curious about the welding on the frame rails; is that really how they're attached? Vertical welds? Did they do any internal reinforcement on the frame?

Ditto, did you “Box” the frame in that area?

[warholic]

The supports are welded as shown; there is no other form of attachment. I don't remember what type of welding other than it is supposed to be the correct way to do it. Supposedly, I can even lift my van with a jack on the rails if I wanted to and it will not fail.

We talked about bolting it to the frame but he said a proper weld is much stronger than any bolt-on system we could do.

Now, is that MIG or TIG or ARC or whatever...?, I don't remember what he told me. I can find out tho', if you want to know.

warholic

[rob_gendreau]

It's usually not the strength of the weld that's the issue, it's the metal immediately next to it. Especially if under a bunch of dynamic stresses.

[BIGVANS]

Originally Posted by rob_gendreau

It's usually not the strength of the weld that's the issue, it's the metal immediately next to it. Especially if under a bunch of dynamic stresses.

Exactly what I was wondering about!

[warholic]

I see

Well, unless the sliders are hitting objects in a big way, which I have avoided to date (no Rubicon rock crawling for me), dynamic stress will be nil, I would think.

Jacking up or lifting the SMB using the slider would be a way to create a lot of dynamic stress, I guess. The fabricator told me it's such a strong bond that an additional benefit is I could jack up my van on the sliders if I wanted to. Of course, that is not why I put them on so that was not the requirement when he designed/installed them ....

I think everything is 1/4 inch plate steel.

This fabricator/installer specializes in building and/or modifying off-road vehicles, show cars, fabricating any part no longer made or available, among other things. He told me this is the way he would do it.

regards,
warholic

[notmiller]

I would not worry about it. I'm actually impressed at the way they're reinforced, and it's fairly obvious the fabricator knows some stuff based on this. The alternative would be to weld them to some wider plate steel and then weld that plate to the frame, essentially distributing the load over a wider area. In terms of stress loading, this set-up is basically going to apply torsion to the frame rail (like any slider set-up), but the frame is most likely sufficiently strong to support this, especially since you're distributing the load through many connection points along the length. Any vertical loading is more than handled by the height of the frame rail cross-section. The best you could do would be to try to box as much of the frame as possible so you're applying torsion to a tube rather than a C-channel, but I think it's overkill.

When I build mine, I'll be doing it the same way without hesitation.

[warholic]

thanks .... I didn't want to start worrying after spending all this time and doing all of this work ...

Also spent a lot of time making sure the rails didn't interfere with anything underneath that might be incurred due to maintenance or repairs issues that might come up.