Which Chassis Stiffiners?

So with these things being the latest and greatest thing I am ready to jump on and get some. Of course, now that these things are so great every company's coming out with their version (I am specifically interested in the plate style).
Their are TNT's, they come with no Rosette holes. I found a thread that they stated you shoult plug weld or Rosette weld them... I think I would like to do that.

There are Ruffstuffs, they are the general design with and 1 inch lip extra lip that extends to the floor pan as well as the section extending up into the front wheelwell. Now these look sweet, of course with the extra stuff they cost a bit more. I am not to confident in my overhead/upside down welding so that makes it difficult. Now, if these 1 inch lips are that important, then I can have someone do or show me the proper way to weld upside down to the floor pan.

And of course, HD Offroad Engineering. His are the basic design, with plenty of Rosette holes for what appears to be a great price. Not to mention I will be ordering a set of his shackle boxes in about 2 hours.

So with that said, I think that if I want to do rosette welds I should look at Ruffstuff or HD Offroad Engineering. What do you guys think?

Thanks,
Tom

I got the TNT stiffeners and I Drilled 1/2" holes in mine. just one row of them about 4" apart on both the upper and lower sides of the stiffener. After taking about an hour and a half per SIDE of the stiffener,(slow drill press, and the bit started to dull...) I had wished I had bought the ones form HD offroad just because they are predrilled. Right now they are cheaper than the TNT ones (price just went back up. The TNT ones were $99 when I got mine.) and it will save you the time of drilling. Doing that many will take you at least a day!

x2 for Brian's stiffeners. I just ordered a set the other day for my rig. I have never met or wheeled with him but have been told he is a great guy and would prefer to do business with the "little man" as opposed to a big company. I sent him a PM after I ordered them and he has been in contact with me twice since then--great customer support is worth alot!

http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=983208&highlight=frame+stiffeners

Bob at TNT has a write up somehwere about why he doesn't think you need rosette welds.

I just made my own with 3/16" 3"x3" angle iron. Worked out great.

I went with the Detours system because they also tie into the front and rear suspension points. http://www.detoursusa.com/

another vote for hd, noticeable difference! cant wait for their rear frame reinforcements to go from where I left off to the hd shackle relocation boxes

Brains are great - lot of welding involved but they fit snug - also the material is thin enough in case you need to trim ( i had to cut out some of the stiffener to fit around my long arm mounts)

I will definently be doing some trimming and cutting. I have the RK LA mounts and they are already welded to the unibody.

I have the HD's, too. They're not on yet, but they fit great in a mock up I did.

Another thing I noticed is that the Ruffstuff come with the nuts to make mounts. Now obviously I can do that with any of them but I would like to drill the old nuts for the crossmember bolts out and weld the nuts to the chassis stiffiners and theirs are 3/16" thick. At least one of the nuts for the crossemember are stripped right now. Input on that?

I helped install a set of TNT stiffeners this past weekend. The install was fairly straight-forward with no real difficulties. We drilled fifteen 1/2" holes per stiffener for rosette welds, as well as stitch welding the perimeter. Drilling the holes was time consuming but definitely not hard. Pre-drill with a 1/8" bit and then enlarge the holes with a step-bit. Takes like 30 sec per hole.

By far the worst part of the install was cleaning the frame. Even after 2 passes with the wire wheel and grinding disk, they still weren't spotless. They looked clean enough but when welding there was some noticeable porosity from contaminants.

Here's a few pics...

Jess said:

x2 for Brian's stiffeners. I just ordered a set the other day for my rig. I have never met or wheeled with him but have been told he is a great guy and would prefer to do business with the "little man" as opposed to a big company. I sent him a PM after I ordered them and he has been in contact with me twice since then--great customer support is worth alot!

http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=983208&highlight=frame+stiffeners

Click to expand...

Brian is definitely a good dude, and so is Adam. I've met and wheeled with them. i would order from them in a heartbeat. I want to pick up a set of rocker panels from them. those plus my sliders would make it quite tough in that area!

Ok, thanks for all the replies. I guess what it comes down to is the material thickness. Is the 3/16 going to make a big or noticable difference over 10 guage?

Thanks again,
Tom

live24wheel said:

Ok, thanks for all the replies. I guess what it comes down to is the material thickness. Is the 3/16 going to make a big or noticable difference over 10 guage?

Thanks again,
Tom

Click to expand...

I don't think so. Unless you are plating the whole underbody of your rig with 3/16 it will just transfer the impact to another area and do the damage there.
The way I wheel (which is quite hard) I am comfortable with the 10 guage. If I do that much damage I would rather cut the "frame" and repair rather that replacing whole floor pans and re-adjusting doors and hatch and etc.

Jess said:

I don't think so. Unless you are plating the whole underbody of your rig with 3/16 it will just transfer the impact to another area and do the damage there.
The way I wheel (which is quite hard) I am comfortable with the 10 guage. If I do that much damage I would rather cut the "frame" and repair rather that replacing whole floor pans and re-adjusting doors and hatch and etc.

Click to expand...

Were you able to notice a good difference when you installed them?

I just installed the Ruffstuff ones. Overall I think they are pretty nice, but haven't driven the Jeep yet (haven't finished the steering on it yet). In my case I thought they were worth a little extra since I'm cutting the lower control arm mounts of and doing a 3 link, and I like the little extra stiffener running up the wheel wells. The price really wasn't that different form TNT with the discount and his cheaper shipping.

The extra 1" lip on the top was pretty much useless on my install. The fit wasn't really all that great. Most of the stiffener fits OK, but in many places, the 1" lip is bent up to 1/4" too low to weld in place anyway, and the holes for the cross member didn't line up with the frame holes (OK front to back, but not side to side).

In the end, I like the extra bit at the wheel wells, and they make a great foundation for my custom suspension. I'm still glad I bought them over the TNT ones, but wish the upper portion would have fit a little better.

If you are keeping your lower control arm mounts, but the TNT ones, or be ready to cut a portion off of the RS ones. If you are removing the lower mounts, but the RS ones.


Welding upside down and sideways sucks!!!

I guess I'll throw my input out there...

I've got a set of HD Offroad Engineering ones (actually the 1st one to order). They fit excellent, I could not have been happier with the way they fit. Every bend and hole that was drilled for the crossmember (had I wanted to use them) was spot on. Could not have been any better. That and the service was great!

I did get a chance to see some RS ones first hand recently. While I did think the bends were even and they looked good, I was very disappointed with the condition they arrived in. Covered in light surface rust. I know it was just surface and therefore not a big deal, but if I had payed that much for the RS ones I would have been very upset about the rust. Order something and if should come in rust free not matter what it is, IMO. I can't confirm or deny what ROKRWLR mentioned about the extra 1" lip fitment as I never held them under the Jeep.

I've also seen a set of the T&Ts after they've been installed, (prior to my ordering the HD Offroad Engineering ones). They looked like they fit well and did the job. I do still think rosettes are necessary, but let not get into another debate thread on that.

Thanks for all the input guys. I just oredered the HD ones, I also ordered the Shackle relocation brackets earlier today. I think the 10g will work a bit better for me as I am going to have to cut the hell out of them. I have the RK LA kit and the brackets are already welded to the unibody. Can't wait to get everything.

Thanks again for all the input,
Tom

Thanks for all the props and orders guys, keep them coming.

the RS ones bill saw that have surface rust are mine. he was actually right next to me when i opened them in the packaging that i received them in. and i too am very happy with the geometry and features of them, but have not yet installed or even held them up. the light surface rust won't long to take care of with a flapper, but it's annoying that i have to do that in the first place. i wonder how many others have had this problem too.