My brother owns a jeep, otherwise, this would never have come to my attention. I was looking on this site to see about getting his christmas present and I noticed this:

http://www.jeepinoutfitters.com/scri...?idCategory=91

They have sliders that mount to the body. I realize that they are probably thick and strong but I personally wouldn't want to come down on a slider attached to the body of my truck, seems like it would tweak something. Can someone explain why this works on a jeep? Am I missing something?

 

Its a jeep thing, we wouldnt understand.

wade

 

lol... thats what i was thinking

 

I hoped SOMEONE would understand, hahaha. I know there are some closet jeep owners on here!

 

well, they are cheap and easy to mount that way. also, it offers improved clearance. wheras my sliders stick about 2" below the rocker panel, body mounted ones would offer me 2" more clearance.

i have seen body mounted ones on toyotas as well.

 

but what good is the clearance if it messes up the body? is that a reasonable trade off? aye, at least not for me as i'm running a dd.
either these jeepers just don't care about the body damage or think the extra clearance is worth it or there's just something we're not geting here?

 

It depends upon which Heep model. Some Heeps are "unibody", so there is no "frame" as you and I think of it, to attach sliders to.

 

i think that design is ugly as sin. makes me think of the pre-built gussets and brackets out there with laser cut flames and iron crosses

 

The heeps on the page posted are not unibodys though,come to think about it we have a new heep wangler in the family and it has slider/rockerpanel gaurds on it.

 

I have a friend who build his own that bolted to the body. They are usually some form of angle and actually pretty strong.

 

exactly, they are just a thicker steel that spreads the load out across the body seam. they wrap around the bottom edge of the body.

 

I've only seen those ones that mount sort of to the body, on TJ/YJ/CJ's (wranglers). The sliders on my zj were welded to the "frame rails", and then bolted to the seam right under the rockers, too.

 

I understand that they are thicker and stronger than the body, but either way, the forces are being sent through the body rather than to the frame. It just seems counter productive. I would be concerned about body mount bolts pulling through the floor from repeated slider use. or the bdy tweaking a bit and making it hard to open or close a door, ya know.

 

Couple of points here:
The CJ/YJ/TJ frames are MUCH more narrow than the Toy frames, forcing any fame mounted slider to have very long mounting legs = lots of leverage.

People like Roger Brown and Scott Ellinger have been making sliders that take advantage of the body seem for a very long time. Yes, they are bolted/welded to the frame, but they sill use the body seem to spread the load.

Third - it ain't broke, so don't fix it.

 

those things are TEH GHAY

 

Roger's sliders or the Jeeps?

 

Can someone explain to me the "unibody" thing? I thought unibody meant that a vehicle's body is made of one pice, cast, instead of more than one either screwed together or welded together.

Doesn't that mean that unibodies can still have a frame?

Thank You,
Marko

 

The first automotive application of the monocoque technique was 1923's Lancia Lambda. Citroën built the first mass-produced monocoque vehicle in 1934, the innovative Traction Avant. The popular Volkswagen Beetle also used a semi-monocoque body (its frame required the body for support) in 1938.

In the post-war period the technique became more widely used. The Ford Consul introduced an evolution called unit body or unibody. In this system, separate body panels are still used but are bolted to a monocoque body-shell. Spot welded unibody construction is now the dominant technique in automobiles, though some vehicles (particularly trucks) still use the older body-on-frame technique.

In automobiles, it is common to see true monocoque frames, where the structural members around the window and door frames are built by folding the skin material several times. In these situations the main concerns are spreading the load evenly, having no holes for corrosion to start, and reducing the overall workload. Compared to older techniques, in which a body is bolted to a frame, monocoque cars are less expensive and stronger.

 

Actually in the Jeep line, they call it "uni-frame" not uni-body, for example on the Cherokees. They use a regular one piece body and a traditional steel ladder frame. Only difference is that instead of using compliant body mount bushings:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...Kit.shtml#Body
They just weld the body to the frame, making it all one unit.

Quite common for the SWB Jeeps and FJ40 Landcruisers to use the rocker panel reinforcements instead of sliders. Seems to work fine, never seen anyone have trouble with that on the trail. With the vertical body side, I guess it is easy and more economical to do. On the 4Runners and pickups, it would be a lot harder to form heavy steel to match the body contours and figure out a way to attach and support it, so separate sliders seem to be the better answer. Also look at the side profile of a Jeep, straight up and down, so protecting the bottom corner is sufficient. Look at the profile on the 4Runner. The door panel sticks out ~6" or so beyond the rocker panel. I prefer to have a slider that is as wide as the door panel to help protect that sheet metal on the trail:



http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...tml]More info.

 

You guys under estimate the strength of the body.