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Rocker Guards

BoostyKid

NAXJA Forum User
Location
sacremento
whats up guys i was wondering what everyone did for rockers. did u make them, by them, if so from where and how much. i have been looking into some but it seems like the ones i have found so far have looked like garbage. such as rockratz. any help would be great, pics would be even better.

shaun
 
I made mine. They’re not finished yet and there not installed yet but you can get the general idea. They will have supports between the square tube and round tube and will be bolted to the pinch seem and welded to my sub frame sleeves when finished.

Rockrail.jpg
 
bought mine from rocky road outfitters.
Took a lot of abuse on their first run and they didnt flinch, just a few scrapes which i couldnt care less about, they did their job well.
File0024.jpg

File0023.jpg

File0022.jpg


oh yea they are also made out of 1/4" steel so they are freakin beefy, borderline overkill but i love em!
 
J small , I would put some small pece between the tube and box to support the tube. I had mine built maybe 3/16 to a 1/4 of an inch from the box, and had four steel pieces welded in the gap to help support the tube. Well after running ti for one summer I've managed to push the tube so it almost touchs the box in the places that don't have the supports.
 
Weasel said:
J small , I would put some small pece between the tube and box to support the tube. I had mine built maybe 3/16 to a 1/4 of an inch from the box, and had four steel pieces welded in the gap to help support the tube. Well after running ti for one summer I've managed to push the tube so it almost touchs the box in the places that don't have the supports.

Agreed. In my original post I tried explaining that I still had to do that. It must not have come out right. I still have three 1.25" pieces of tube to put in there. I will have a better pic when I'm done.

Later
 
JSmall said:
Agreed. In my original post I tried explaining that I still had to do that. It must not have come out right. I still have three 1.25" pieces of tube to put in there. I will have a better pic when I'm done.

Later

Nah, I just didn't read that part.
:confused1
 
If the slider part itself doesn't fully mount flush along the rocker itself and mount to the pinch seem (angle iron or a little square tubing won't cut it) as well as being frimly mounted to the framerail they won't work under even moderate abuse.

Here are my RRO step rails after 3 trails - Swamp Lake, Fordyce and Rubicon. EricsXj had similar results. The supports that come from the frame were actually slightly bent. Both were properly mounted. Non reinforced C4x4 rockrails suffered a similar fate on the same trip:

160_6087.JPG


Eric's:

177972581VpIIXB_ph.jpg
 
96XJCLASSIC said:
Same here but :05of5:

Ditto on AJ's. Great price, too.
 
basalt51 said:
If the slider part itself doesn't fully mount flush along the rocker itself and mount to the pinch seem (angle iron or a little square tubing won't cut it) as well as being frimly mounted to the framerail they won't work under even moderate abuse.

Here are my RRO step rails after 3 trails - Swamp Lake, Fordyce and Rubicon. EricsXj had similar results. The supports that come from the frame were actually slightly bent. Both were properly mounted. Non reinforced C4x4 rockrails suffered a similar fate on the same trip:

160_6087.JPG


Eric's:

177972581VpIIXB_ph.jpg
WHOA! What exactly caused that damage to your rocker? Was it the leg of the rail???
 
AJsArmor said:
WHOA! What exactly caused that damage to your rocker? Was it the leg of the rail???


The step rails stick out like 3 inches or more further than the ones i have(pics a few posts up) so i would think it wouldnt be to hard to get a rock up in there...since the step ones dont actually really cover the rockers...or at least from what ive seen they dont look like they do.
 
I got the Rocky Road Outfitter protection also, I did have to put a notch in them for clearance where my belly pan attaches on a 5.5 REXJLA kit; now they fit perfect.
101_0136.jpg
 
One thing I don't understand, is why some companies don't put supports between the main tube and the pinch seam mount. I run three in between the frame rail legs and I think it's crucial to spreading out the forces/impacts.
 
AJsArmor said:
WHOA! What exactly caused that damage to your rocker? Was it the leg of the rail???

Yes it was the ROCKER GUARD that damaged my rocker, Eric'sXJ's rocker, and either Bryon or Mike from Utah (C4x4 rails) all had damage from where the rail itself flexed up into the rocker. In Erics and my case it flexed WAY up. I watched as Eric pivoted around a boulder on his slider and it just flexed like crazy tearing up his rocker. Wish I got it on video. It was here:

0008.jpg


As he climbed the rock on the drivers side teh rail flexed all over.

You can kinda see it here:

0009.jpg



Also, the supports from the frame to the rocker are bent (I might have mentioned that earlier) and the self tapping bolts have pulled from the frame a little and the frame is dimpling outward.
 
I have seen quite a few rock rail designs out there and I think that every single one of them has it's strengths and weakneses. Anyways I have seen numerious mass produced ones from different companies damage rocker panels due to either poor design, bad install or who knows what else. Anyways one thing I'd stay away from is self tapping bolts... I think that's just asking for trouble to use those.

I had some custom built rails that attached to the pinch seam and they had worked for me really good for the longest time. Then I nailed them at the right angle with enough force to move up the pinch seam (using the angle iron that was welded to the rock rail and bolted to the pinch seam). End result? BFH to get the door to open up right.
Anyways, now that I got the new "semi virgin" jeep to work on, I took those rock rails, sliced the angle iron off and welded some square tubing to go behind the pinch seam. I got the idea from looking at an open rocker panel on my rolled jeep: there is just more support behind the pinch seam then in front. I have also taken a piece of 3x3" angle iron and reinforced the frame rail and with a bit of a help from a few jacks and a bfh I was able to get my rail back in where it was supposed to go. Oh... I drilled through the frame rail and sleeved the bolts to prevent the compression of the rail.

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=te2xbqn.c1yk7do7&x=0&y=4s1kn4
 
Kejtar said:
Anyways one thing I'd stay away from is self tapping bolts... I think that's just asking for trouble to use those.
I understand what you're reasoning is but I gotta disagree with that. No, not just because that's what I use to fasten them to the framerails either. But in over 200 sets sold, I've had 1 person report back with failure due to the self tapping bolts shearing off. In his case the impact was so severe he fully expected to see the rockrail smashed up into the rockerpanel. It sheared off most of the framerail bolts, pulled away the metal on the frame quite a bit like what happened to you. But the rockrail itself only bent slightly and didn't cause any significant damage to the rocker. Considering the numbers, I'd say that's more than enough proof that it works. BUT, what I've seen done on other rockrails is only using 2 bolts per mount with a small,narrow plate. I use a total of 7 per side with larger mounting plates.

No doubt that something like a bolt/sleeve arrangement through the frame rails would be better but it adds to the cost and installation would be trickier since the framerails among XJ's can vary. I would never go so far as to say mine are indestructible and I think any company touting that is flat out lying to it's customers. ANYTHING can be broken.
 
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