Worth it?

[.40CalPatriot]

Ok, so I have a pair of unibody stiffners that I bought some time ago. Lately I have been thinking about things that I really need on the heep such as rocker guards. So my question is since I havent had them welded on yet and I really dont do major crawling and it is my DD are they worth the work of installing them at this point in my build? Do those of you that have them seen a difference? I am thinking of selling them and using the funds to buy some rocker guards. What are your thoughts?

[xj-grin]

My opinion is that they are one of the best mods on my jeep, per my butt dyno :eyes:. Seriously, the difference if even on-road driving was dramatic pre/post stiffeners, although certainly my TnT belly pan acts as a bit of a ladder, and stiffens things even further. If I were you, I'd put em on, and then pick up you sliders -- I assume we're talking TnT stiffeners, and if so, they act as a damn good slider for the layered-sheetmetal uniframe, and also make a good mounting point for sliders... Yella has a link to a guy on craigslist that makes fairly cheap sliders for XJs, IIRC.:us::guitar:

[.40CalPatriot]

hmm good info. And I know who you are speaking of. Ohana Fab iirc. I like the sound of good mounting points for my sliders.

[in4aride]

ya his and frankz's are almost same...
IF you decide to get rid of those...let me know...ill be interested........
but i say do it....anything that prevents body twist is great!!!!

[YELLAHEEP]

I think you need to determine if the XJ you have is one you plan on keeping for a long while. Installing those stiffeners isn't a simple/easy job and is a nice improvement - it'd be a shame to install 'em only to sell the rig sooner than later.

As far as sliders go, be sure you have the builder measure your rig after the stiffeners are on. Ohana's pre-made rock rails won't work with the stiffeners - the legs would need to be shortened a bit. FrankZ's SliderZ are built a bit better than Ohana's, but the designs between the two are VERY similar. I've always referred to Ohana Fab's sliders as a great light-duty rock rail, not for serious off road use.

[xj-grin]

WTF, I must be crazy!!! Call Frank! :phone::callme:

[.40CalPatriot]

Yeah I liked the location of Ohana but would like to help out a NAXJA pal so I will probably ask frank. I think I am leaning towards selling the stiffners. Mike you are first in line if I decide to sell them.

Since I am not planning a serious rig right now will sliders by chance give me a little more support from twisting? You would figure they would considering how they attach.

[YELLAHEEP]

Not really. Nothing you'd notice anyway. I had some seriously beefy ones under the HeepII before cutting into the rockers and they did nothing but move with the unibody. The cut-in sliders did definitely stiffen things up a bit.

[Frank Z]

Put the stiffeners on now, you'll regret not thaving them later when you start doing other mods...seriously.

[ColoradoRaptor]

Put the stiffeners on now, you'll regret not thaving them later when you start doing other mods...seriously.

X2

[.40CalPatriot]

Put the stiffeners on now, you'll regret not thaving them later when you start doing other mods...seriously.

If I do can you make me a set of custom sliderZ to fit them? Please?:worship:

[Frank Z]

Yep, sure can.

[XJNOOB93]

Ah, Frank is so awesome.

[DutchVDub]

Even though I have yet to install my TnT Stiffeners, I have to agree with everybody that you should put them on. It'll help a lot with allowing your rig to survive the stress of wheeling. I met a guy once that had a seriously lifted ZJ and while flexing it out the rear windows cracked forom the unibody tweaking. It wasn't even a serious obstacle. Our leafspring rear suspensions transfer even more force through the unibody so its always a good idea to strengthen the unibody whenever you can.