mtnmedic

thanks for the offer...if it wasn't a 4 hour drive, i'd be there with some beer. maybe someone should make the parts and people could individually weld them on?

Update - i heard back from the welder and he should be getting back to me tomorrow with a rough price. I might have him weld 3 supports instead of 2. Why, i dont know? I'm not a big guy, just think it might look cool. Hopefully, if I get it done he'll let me hang and watch the mock up to see how it might look like that. will let everyone know.

CIJeep

Do those rock rails (rubi ones) just bolt to the body? If so then I can understand the flex.

Great write up, would love to see the underneath pic. I may make my own after seeing this for my Sahara. One with the pretty plastic step for my wife.

Jeep recommends pulling them when going off road.

mtnmedic

yeah, the factory rubi rails just bolt on and they have no real support build in. I am not too concerned about the flex either.

VBS4

As he mentioned, they do bolt to the body. I really don't think the slight flex comes from the body though. I actually think it's the rail's bracket that slightly flexes. Who know's, it may actually have been made to give, just slightly. That may be why they don't mount flush on the sides of the jeep.

I do have a couple ideas on how to reinforce them though. The best part is it's a pretty simple idea. I just have to stop being lazy and try it.

Just to give you an idea:
Both rubi and plastic step mount to the body in the same way but the plastic steps don't flex. So with that in mind, it's not the body flexing. It's the difference in the step vs the rail. So whats the difference? Simple enough if you compare the two you'll see that the step's three main brackets are boxed on 3 sides. The rubi rail's is a flat bracket that only has a small stamped ridge down the center (to help strengthen it). I think if the sides of that bracket were boxed in they would be just as stiff as the step's.

But then again, I'm really not to worried about the slight flex flex. Like I mentioned before, someone has already pivoted over rocks on these.

I can probably get some underneath pic.s for you also

MojaveGreen

take him up on the offer! very good work!

Thanks Dr.!

mtnmedic

So i went to the welder this morning but he did not have a working pipe bender, so I will have to go back to him later in the week. But we took the factory rails off, measured and determined where the supports will go.

He had 1.75" steel tubing but truthfully, that looked very fat and I think 1.5" would look better. Have people who have done this mod really used 1.75" tubing?

If anyone has more pictures of their project that they could email me directly I would appreciate it...Just PM me and I wil give you my email.

CIJeep

Maybe a muffler shop can bend the tubing?

CIJeep

Thanks, I'd appreciate it, thank you for the explanation also, very thorough.

RedRockJK

IMHO 1.5" tubing looks awesome.
















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Ryans_JK

I too think that 1.5" tubing is more then enough. If your worried about strength my tubing is .120 DOM and it has hit a few rocks pretty hard and did not budge.

The only thing a would recommend is putting them at a slight upward angle like RedRockJK's over having them flat.

These are my rails and the same guy did mine and RedRockJK's.