Starting to fab rock rails... Have ?'s

I am using 1.75 x .120 DOM that I have leftover from the cage install I did on my brothers Honda. They are going to resemble the guards on Custom4x4fabrication.com. I am going to run three legs to the uni-body and have six mounting locations on the pinch seam. My question is… how much clearance should there be between the lower tube and the bottom of the Jeep? I know the angle on the pinch seam needs to be mounted so it is touching the underbody, and I know I can have the other tube (top) mounted as far away from the side of the body as I want. I am not sure about the tube that runs under the body next to the pinch seam. Do I have it touching the underbody or have it sitting off the body some? If anyone has any input I would appreciate it. Sorry if none of this makes sense, but I have it down on paper and I just need to make sure I have the dimensions correct before I start fabricating these.

Thanks
Jaromy

Jaromy, i think that is completely up to you. You could have the tube touch if you wanted to, or have a 1/2" of clearance or whatever...IMHO, its your call. You sound like you know exactly what to do.

the rest of your design plans sound perfect. I've seen some designs that use the front spring hanger and its bolt as a tie-in.

seems like a great idea to me.

Beezil said:

Jaromy, i think that is completely up to you. You could have the tube touch if you wanted to, or have a 1/2" of clearance or whatever...IMHO, its your call. You sound like you know exactly what to do.

the rest of your design plans sound perfect. I've seen some designs that use the front spring hanger and its bolt as a tie-in.

seems like a great idea to me.

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I thought that was the respose I was gonna get. I was thinking it was personal preference but I wanted to make sure. Thanks for the response.

This is the best pic I've got of mine. There touching all the way down the rocker. I just finished em not to long ago and I've only smacked them a few times. But I think its better to distibute the force along the entire rocker. Than allow them to move at all. I tied into the pinch seam w/ 9 bolts on each side. I also only used 2 rails per side. I don't think three is nessisary. I've never seen 2 come off.

csudman... thanks for the info, those look good. I will post some pics after I get mine done.

If you are comfortable doing it I would cut the rockers out and replace with box tube. It really stiffens the structure up (even though you already have a cage). to boot.

cherokeekid said:

If you are comfortable doing it I would cut the rockers out and replace with box tube. It really stiffens the structure up (even though you already have a cage). to boot.

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I don't have a cage in the XJ yet. I am in the process of putting a cage in my brothers Honda. I thought about cutting out the rockers and replacing them with box tube but I think I will stiffen up the uni-body in other ways.

You can trim the pinch rail a bit to raise your rock rails closer to the body. I just used 1" angle iron because that is about how big the pinch rail is and I didn't want to trim metal yet.

Follow the link to a recent thread on rock rails. Some pictures and a drawing.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=16938