Custom Trans Crossmember - Opinions?

[SC Rednek]

My floor already gets hot enough to melt plastic and blow up coke cans, you're saying it'll get worse if I clock the t-case? I may have to reconsider or find some other way to get rid of the heat

 

[ktm racer 419]

My floor already gets hot enough to melt plastic and blow up coke cans, you're saying it'll get worse if I clock the t-case? I may have to reconsider or find some other way to get rid of the heat

well the tighter everything is to the floor. plus a large belly skid= not so much ventilation through there = heat

 

[kastein]

I made a VERY solid crossmember out of 2x8x1/4 wall rect. tube. VERY simple, it took about 2 hours to make. The tranny mount sat on top of the crossmember just like factory. I just drilled 1-1/4" access holes to get to the 4 tranny mount nuts. I angle-cut the ends so I could get into where the factory bolt pattern was on the frame rails. Sat the whole Jeep on that crossmember a few times, with NO issues.

Your design looks good, but 14ga steel sounds thin to me. I would say it would be OK if you made a rect box with the 14ga and the 1/4 strap as the sides, and bolted the tranny mount like factory, but if your just planning on bolting through the bottom layer of 14ga, my feeling is it won't handle a hard hit.

X2. 14ga worries me.

I like the design, my only worry aside from the 14ga is that in some areas you do not have enough vertical separation between the top and bottom plates of the crossmember - vertical separation and stock thickness are the name of the game in making a strong crossmember, to the point that I would probably trust a 2" tall crossmember made from 1/8" stock over a 3/4" tall crossmember made from 1/4" stock.

 

[SC Rednek]

I agree, but with the severe lack of good steel yards in Vegas I couldn't find anything else, trust me I looked. I guess I'll find out when I smash it on something, but for now at least the jeep is driveable.