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My roof sliders

1

1996cc

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Springfield, OR
I built these with the idea of tieing in a full exo in the future, but at least wanted some tree protection for now. I was able to spend most of the day on them and get them cut, bent, and all tacked into place!! Tomorrow I’ll fully weld and paint them. Then slap them on the roof. They weigh a bit more than I’d like, I busted out the bathroom scale and they tipped it at 103 lbs. It is hard to tell in the pics, but every perpendicular and angled cross brace is bent to follow the contour of the roof. The only straight piece is the small parallel one in the middle.

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It's DONE and installed, wet paint and all. It warped on me some which sucks, you can see the actual "slider" portion is curved up like a smiley, not sure why, but oh well, it still bolted on with only slightly enlarging 1 of the 12 holes. And some of the cross bars rub the roof, where there was 1/4" or more clearance before. Hopefully that doesn't rub and cause an annoying noise or something.

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some better overall pics: (don't worry, the name stickers on the passenger side are a total joke for my wife. She (and I) think it is stupid to have your name on the door of a rig, so I did this to tease her (and I had to put the kids name on there too, just for fun.) They will get torn off by the first tree I find.)


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Sorry to be a pic 'person with a sensual job', but this being only my 3rd welding project, I'm pretty proud of them!
 
You've got the skills! It's not easy to create something with compound bends and have it turn out so good. What type of bender did you use?
very niiiiiice!
 
1996cc said:
The dreaded Harbor Freight one that gets so much bad press. :)
Click to expand...

what i would really like to see is a nicely done with Lots of pics writeup on how to get bends like those 90's out of the horrible little HF bender.

and since you like the pics so much.

you wanna volunteer?
 
Looks good :thumbup:
103 lbs?
what did you use for material?
I'm building something very similar and used .095 wall HREW tube. I only have crossbars at the B C and D pillars (none of the X bracing in between) but mine is considerably lighter than that. I like your mounting. I am wrestling with the best way to get mine on right now, just might have to "borrow" that idea.
-Ryan
 
cumorglas said:
what i would really like to see is a nicely done with Lots of pics writeup on how to get bends like those 90's out of the horrible little HF bender.
and since you like the pics so much.
you wanna volunteer?
Click to expand...

No pics, but put the pipe in there. (And that is PIPE since it is a pipe bender - not tube, with the correct die/shoe). In my case the 1 1/4" die because I used 1 1/4" sch. 35 pipe (~1 1/2" outside diameter). Since it is the 3rd die from the biggest (it comes with 2 sizes bigger), use the corresponding 3rd from the outside holes on the bender for the rollers and pins. And SLOWLY pump away. I know a hydraulic jack doesn't move very fast even when pumped quickly, but I pumped fast on one bend, and the pipe came out of the die and kinked. YOU HAVE TO PUMP SLOW. And count the number of pumps so that you can do the even amount on both sides. Also, you need to put the seam of the pipe on the outside of the bend, that also helps prevent kinks.

Here is a good write up on pipe and the HF bender for an exo. Chass is a member of our local club here and I've wheeled with him, he is definately hard core and has rolled countless times. When we wheeled in the snow, his passenger rode home with me after he flipped into a creek and soaked the rig - no damage to the exo. If you click the link in his sig, you can see him flop it on purpose after the exo was finished.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=342992&highlight=sprinkler+pipe+exo
 
I dig the roof sliders. not really liking the way it looks but it isnt built for show. I have no room to talk about a way a rig looks, I dont have more then 6 inches between rust on my dodge, but it gets up anything I am it at.

I always bought into the "DOM is the only way to go" thing untill I met a group of local wheelers that pretty much all run exo's made out of pipe. They wheel hard and flop on a weekly basis! so far no cage failures. The key is that they inspect their pipe after every run, any sign of fatigue and it gets reworked, these guys know how to weld, some work in pearlharbor as welders on everything from scaffolding to submarines, I trust they really know what they are doing.

1996cc,
I've met Chass via a local website he is on, Very cool guy. He is coming over here soon so I hope to meet him in person, Im also moving up to Oregon so Maybe I ll get a chance to wheel with some of your club in 2007.
 
Last edited:
Wow can't believe I missed this thread.Need to revive it real quick for a question,though.How did you bend the angle iron to fit flat on the roof....or is that part of the roof pretty flat?Its dark out and I'm still nursing my hand after my run in with my 4.5" angle grinder or else I would go look for myself...

Nice work!!Very creative.I've been tossing this idea around for sometime now.
 
You did a great job on a totally useless project.
 
Mdub said:
You did a great job on a totally useless project.
Click to expand...

Why is it a totally worthless project?????

In the PNW it is almost a requirement for roof sliders. Well that is if you want to use your doors for more then a couple wheeling trips.
 
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