Boatside thread

53guy said:
you'd have to have welded half doors, and a good amount of width on your rocker protection to act like a step, then you could do it!!
Click to expand...
You don't even need that. On my last wheeling trip I damaged my passengers side bad enought that the doors wouldn't open for a while. I had no rocker protection and full doors, but my passenger seemed to have fun climbing in through the window. Later in the day another good hit freed up the front door, but the other guys on the run were still making Dukes jokes all day.
BrettM said:
I'm guessing it's a doors issue. I'd love to see someone do an agressive boat-side job like Zebaru and modify the doors to still fit.
Click to expand...
How high is the box tube that replaced his rockers? It doesn't look much, if any, higher than the 2x6 I used to replace my rockers on my rig. In mine it's sitting slightly higher than the bottom of the floor and I didn't have to touch the doors at all to keep them functional. I didn't add the slanted panel yet (the actual boat-side portion) since I need access to bolts going through my frame.
 
nhrocker said:
How high is the box tube that replaced his rockers? It doesn't look much, if any, higher than the 2x6 I used to replace my rockers on my rig. In mine it's sitting slightly higher than the bottom of the floor and I didn't have to touch the doors at all to keep them functional. I didn't add the slanted panel yet (the actual boat-side portion) since I need access to bolts going through my frame.
Click to expand...

Looks are deceiving I guess... The box tube is just about at the old lower body line - the one everyone cuts at for the rear quarter raise. I had to remove the bottom door hinge to go this high. This rig was t-boned and the passenger doors were shot anyway, so ditching them was not a real hard choice.

So going this high and keeping doors would be a trick, but, one could keep the sides about two inches lower, keep the hinges, and it would not be any harder than cutting the doors off and welding in a new bottom. You would probably lose full window travel in doing so though...

Considering how dusty this rig was on Barrett, I think door skins are in my future...

Travis
 
BrettM said:
very nice Zebaru. you gonna throw a small lift on there? 2" would probably be nice.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm gonna have to do something. The rears are so sagged they are inverted, and I have a little interference in the front end still. I also drug my frame, LCA, and rear spring mounts way too often with this setup.

So, I am going to lift it two or three inches, whatever I can piece together for cheap.

Travis
 
Figure I'll bring this back up to the top again, as I've got some actual tech to contribute to the thread I started.

sides1.JPG


sides3.JPG


What's not immediately clear in the pics (look for the bolts) is that the cage is tied into the bracing for the boatsides. Those are box tube, the remaining braces are angle. One more will be added at the rear, but it connects right where the old forward leaf spring hanger is, and I haven't cut that out yet.

They will be skinned with 1/8" CR sheet, most likely riveted to the angled supports. The main tube along the bottom of the door sills is 2x5, and is welded all along that edge.

Here's a shot from the front:

sides2.JPG


Doesn't leave a huge gap either. I figure I'll cut out a rough sheet metal shape to fill it, then go around the edges with some body caulk and call it good.

The doors still go on and fit fine...so theoretically a setup such as this could be done by any of you guys who live in states overly concerned with inspection, like myself.
 
hadfield4wd said:
OK, looks good, but why not cut to the bottom of the sills, then cut off the doors and give yourself an extra couple of inches?
Click to expand...

Any higher and you really have to start modifying the floor too to get a straight line down to the bottom of the frame rail. Because of where my cage comes down there really wouldn't have been room for the plates and the bracing for the sides if this were the case. You're also cutting off most of the base attachment of the B-pillar when you chop that area.

It would be a much more significant gain if you're not doing the boatsides. With them in there you're pretty much expecting to hit them anyway but it's a smooth surface over that entire area. If you look at where another 1.5" puts the profile of the sides I really didn't think it was worth the added hassle of having to rework the floor, cage mounts, B-pillar, and doors.

I'd like to see someone do it though.
 
Its nice... but those arnt really boat sides. Those are rock grabbers IMO.

I did something similar but raised the rockers a few more inches then bent the floor up to meet it.

raisedrockerzf7.jpg

rockergusset1jj9.jpg
 
I guess I should report that I cut mine out & redid 'um. I narrowed the car by 4" & raised the rockers about 1".
This time I used 2X2 X 3/16 for the rockers & 12 ga CR for the skids.
On my last ones the 2X4 X 1/8 rocker was starting to bow a little.

Paul
 
vetteboy said:
Did you see where I said I'm skinning them with 1/8" CR sheet?
Click to expand...

yeah... but dont mean you wont get hung up on them. Here is kinda how I think of rockers vs boatsides, I may know a little about what I am talking about...:laugh3:

If you cant make your rocker over about 40 degress.... then 1. its not a boatside and 2. dont plate it because your still going to get hung on it because its more difficult to slide off of.

If you CAN make it over about 40 degress, plate dont have to be super thick cuz you SLIDE off of it. Make sense kinda? I am getting ready to redo my rockers, again. This time I plan on ditchin them entirly... but thats another story.

In all honesty, those braces you have make an EXCELENT cage support, but I just see you getting hung on em'.

There is a photo of JES (cant find it right now) with him holding his skins on his rockers that are just like yours. Didnt really work to well:eeks1:
 
Scrappy said:
yeah... but dont mean you wont get hung up on them. Here is kinda how I think of rockers vs boatsides, I may know a little about what I am talking about...:laugh3:

If you cant make your rocker over about 40 degress.... then 1. its not a boatside and 2. dont plate it because your still going to get hung on it because its more difficult to slide off of.

If you CAN make it over about 40 degress, plate dont have to be super thick cuz you SLIDE off of it. Make sense kinda? I am getting ready to redo my rockers, again. This time I plan on ditchin them entirly... but thats another story.

In all honesty, those braces you have make an EXCELENT cage support, but I just see you getting hung on em'.

There is a photo of JES (cant find it right now) with him holding his skins on his rockers that are just like yours. Didnt really work to well:eeks1:
Click to expand...

I don't understand your logic Matt. Seems to me the lower they are, the more improtant it is to have a skid. If he doesn't plate them he'll definitely get hung up all day long, if he does plate them he'll hit them just as much, but he'll slide right off.
Mine (as pictured in this thread) were probably less then 40 degrees & I never got hung on them, not once.

P
 
Paul S said:
I don't understand your logic Matt. Seems to me the lower they are, the more improtant it is to have a skid. If he doesn't plate them he'll definitely get hung up all day long, if he does plate them he'll hit them just as much, but he'll slide right off.
Click to expand...

This is about what I figured. I'd greatly prefer to have a smooth surface than to have two cage supports just hanging out in space. Seems like it'd be about the same or a little easier than draggin yer junk over a belly skid.

I know people (Kaczman I think?) have had decent luck putting a layer of UHMW sheet over the steel to make it slide better, I may end up doing that too.
 
Paul S said:
I guess I should report that I cut mine out & redid 'um. I narrowed the car by 4" & raised the rockers about 1".
This time I used 2X2 X 3/16 for the rockers & 12 ga CR for the skids.
On my last ones the 2X4 X 1/8 rocker was starting to bow a little.

Paul
Click to expand...

Got any good pictures of the redo? Jeff
 
hadfield4wd said:
It's on this site. Under technical, rocker replacement.

http://www.madxj.com/

Matt
Click to expand...

But those aren't boatsides...that's just a straight-up rocker replacement. I can't say I'm really a huge fan of how those are connected, either...I see myself landing on the outside edge hard enough to really jam the door closed.

Hell, with my old rock rails (2x2x1/8" square, under the factory rockers) I landed on 'em hard enough to crush in the factory sheet metal almost the entire length, and they were mounted in many places to the pinch seam and frame.
 
so all you really have is cut out rockers, then supports to them that eat clearance? all so you can mount a cage?

hmmm...

seems like a lot of work for negative clearance gain over just cutting out the rockers, and mounting the cage to the frame rail...

though - I wish that i had re-enforced my rock rail replacements, as they are about 1/2" higher than they were when i built them, and my door doesnt like that all so much...
I wish I had a cage to support mine off of, the way that IntreppidXJ did his -
http://www.myxj.net/tech/rockers/
 
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