Building side protection..

[ZachMan]

Okay I have a buddy who fabs on XJs alot and I am wanting to run tubing (1.5" .120 dom) from front bumper around wheelwell to front rockrail and the same for the rear wheelwells, just something to help keep the trees and rocks off and to later build off of.

My question is will this tubing be strong enough for say resting my Jeeps weight on it or will it crush/bend/dent in and do more harm than good? The guy I am going to said the tubing he uses is $5.50/ft so I thought it be good stuff, but .120 dom doesn't sound too too strong.

 

[98xjjeeper]

i would say it would provide protection. I would use at least.160. .180 would be the best to use. This would also be a good starting point for a exo if you ever decided to do one.

This is what i guess your wanting
this is bigwhitey's rig

 

[ZachMan]

Yeah thats it, just around the wheelwells and to eventually build a cage off of. I thought .120 sounded a little thin. Hell the guy will build an entire exo for $1k though...wonder how much more .160-.180 would run?

Still $5.50/ft for .120 dom seems high

 

[98xjjeeper]

Yeah thats it, just around the wheelwells and to eventually build a cage off of. I thought .120 sounded a little thin. Hell the guy will build an entire exo for $1k though...wonder how much more .160-.180 would run?

Still $5.50/ft for .120 dom seems high

yeah 5.50 is high. i would look around at other sources to get tubing from.

 

[Matt S.]

.120 will be ok. .188 would be better. Really just depends on what you got and how much you want to spend. Tube is tube. If you roll, .188 may hold up better, but it will still deform and dent (if its hard enough). I have used .120 pretty much. Some of the rigs should of had .188 in spots.

go with .188 if you can.

 

[ZachMan]

Okay he said .120 is $4.45/ft and he could do .188 in hs bender so I said lets do it.

I think it would be worth the $$ for .188 especually if I ma just doing my wheelwells cause there is nothing else keeping the tube off my sheetmetal.

 

[vintagespeed]

The problem isn't the thickness of the tubing but the planes on which you will be loading it when leaning up against an obstacle. There will be no support at the top of the fender tube and no bends to resist this force pushing the tubing into your fender. It's kind of pointless really to add a bunch of weight to "protect" your fenders but not build it in such a way as to do anything except look "cool".

 

[perez]

you should stretch the WB

 

[ZachMan]

The problem isn't the thickness of the tubing but the planes on which you will be loading it when leaning up against an obstacle. There will be no support at the top of the fender tube and no bends to resist this force pushing the tubing into your fender. It's kind of pointless really to add a bunch of weight to "protect" your fenders but not build it in such a way as to do anything except look "cool".

Thats what I was asking. I am gonna start with this and probablly build off it. Its not for "cool" its for the trees and banks around here in the SE, I don't have flares and the fenders are cut, I want to keep my sheetmetal straight thats all. I'll just have to remember brushing up against a tree I hope to be okay, but I have no plans to put the whole Jeeps weight down on one little piece of tube until its tied into something more.

 

[T&A-XJ]

I used 1.5x.120 HREW for me flares and 1.5 ID sch40 pipe for my rock rail kickouts. The pipe is .140 and has a few dents while the flares have none. The flares wont generally see as hard a hit as the rockers will. I have smacked the flares on rocks, trees ect and they have been fine. I see no reason for the extra weight of .188 for the flares, .188 would be good for the rock rails though especially if you use 1.5 OD