DIY Rear bar and swing away carrier

[rangerdanger]

After suffering clearance issues offroad at the back corners and struggling with stashing the oversized spare inside the car I finally bit the bullet. A quite patch at work gave me the spare time so I designed and built my own bar, wheel and jerry can holder. The bar is made up from lazer cut and folded 3mm plate, welded together with a stick welder at home, and painted with aerosol cans. The mounting plates bolt through the chassis rails with compression tubes and backing plates. The stub axles are machined to fit a pipe sleeve and held in place with setscrews. Finished tally up of costs was $420 for the bar, $800 for both the swing out carriers. This included all steel, bolts, ridjidij latches, stub axles, hubs, jerry can holder, lights plus paying a workshop to do the folding machining.
Many, many hours of work over about 5 weekends, but it shows what can be done at home. Another $600 would have had it blasted and powdercoated, but I couldn't justify the expense. Painting and finishing off took a good chunk of time.

The entire bar is drawn in AutoCAD, including plate developments. There are a few little errors in the drawing to be fixed after building the prototype, but otherwise it went together well.
Happy with the result. I don't think I'll sign up to do it again though.

[mtb_gary]

Great looking bar, sure as hell doesn't look home made! Well done!!!

Gary

[FiveSPDDisco]

Fantastic job. Well done, well done indeed.

[Keithy P38]

Looks great mate! Excellent job.

One thing (and it may be just my eyes this early in the morning) would the location of the Jerry can holder present "Pajero" issues whereby hitching a trailer may present a problem, or opening the swing away while a trailer is connected be hindered?

Cheers
Keith's

[rangerdanger]

I tow a boat and a box trailer so I was very careful to make sure I had clearance. It may be an issue when the trailer hitch is close to the front.

One other thing I made sure of was that I can leave the spare wheel off the carrier and still open the top tailgate. This makes life much easier around town.

[rangerdanger]

One other thing to watch is that the lower tailgate will open downwards without touching the rear edge of the bar in the centre. As it is I only have 3mm clearance. More by good luck than good management.

[TheTree]

Great stuff, looks excellent!

Would you be amenable to sharing the autocad file ?

Steve

[Keithy P38]

That's the go - excellent planning there! I like the idea of being able to open the upper tailgate without having to open the swing away!

Good work.

[rangerdanger]

There are a few errors on the CAD drawing to fix and the raw cad file could get shared with the Aulro community on an all care no responsibility basis.
My original goal was to do up clearer drawings, parts lists and assembly instructions so other people don't fall into some of the traps I did. It is a fairly elaborate build with a lot of details worked out along the way, so I'm not sure I can afford the time to go that far.

[DT-P38]

Watched 2 P38 rear bumpers get smashed out at Wombat on the weekend... any metal shops in Melbourne wanting to do a batch could probably make a dollar or two. Better still, Ranger Danger why don't you recoup some of your costs by coordinate group buys in each major city? :angel:

[rangerdanger]

There's definitely a market there, but if you add in labour costs this will probably cost as much or more than current commercially made bars. Lots of fiddly bits in there.
I wonder if there is a market for a cut and folded flat packed kit out there, with instructions to finish the job;).

For the moment I'll be concentrating on just putting photos and files out there for the benefit of all.

Troy N

[TheTree]

Hi

An acquaintance of mine has a short run engineering business with a big cnc laser cutter. He does a lot of work for the mining industry.

I might ask him if he would do a short run and if so at what cost.

I have a rijidij kit sitting in my garage, I was going to make a bracket and keep the existing bar, but your design has made me think again.

Thanks a heap for all the work you have put into this:D

Steve

[rangerdanger]

More photos.

[rangerdanger]

And more.....

Some pitfalls along the way

The tailpipes need to be flanged and removable so the mounting bolts can be drilled and fitted. The standard exhaust hanger also needs to be ground off.

The mounting plates should be clamped or bolted to the outside of the chassis before tack welding the centre section of the bar to the mounting plates. I just relied on measurement and ended up 2mm too small. Had to grind the surfaces back to get a neat fit.

The hubs on the swingarm couldn't be fitted without removing some of the rubber trim to give clearance. I'll draw the pivot centreline closer to the rear of the bar.

I can't do much on the cad files until work gets quieter. Maybe a month away at this stage.


Troy N.

[rijidij]

There's definitely a market there, but if you add in labour costs this will probably cost as much or more than current commercially made bars. Lots of fiddly bits in there.
I wonder if there is a market for a cut and folded flat packed kit out there, with instructions to finish the job;).

For the moment I'll be concentrating on just putting photos and files out there for the benefit of all.

Troy N


G'day Troy,
Fantastic looking bar mate, I bet you're happy with how it came up.
I know what you mean about, "Lots of fiddly bits in there". There are 169 individual components in a single swing away carrier for a Defender, let alone a whole rear bar with twin swing aways. It's a big project to take on in your spare time.
Flat packing rear bars and carriers is something I've been wanting to develop for a long time, but as a one man operation I just haven't been able to find time to do the design work. I've been flat out keeping up with the individual components and Defender carriers etc.
I do manage to design the odd new item now and then, for example, a jerry can holder in kit form (http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb102/rijidij/Wheel%20Carriers/Jerry%20can%20holder%20kit/Jerry-Can-Holder-Kit_zps593fb843.jpg), but the time required to design a whole rear twin carrier is very hard to find.

Excellent job.

Cheers, Murray

[TheTree]

Hi Troy,

I hate to be a pain, but I destroyed my rear bumper "skirt" last weekend :angry:so am even more keen for a rear bar now.

I was hoping you may have tweaked the autocad file to your satisfaction

Regards
Steve

[rangerdanger]

I've got to apologise. The cad software is at work and the quiet patch didn't eventuate. I've fixed up the basics of the file so all I need to do now is put all the plate developments in a logical position and put some notes on for plate thickness and pressing angles.
I'll get back onto it over the next week.

[TheTree]

Thanks mate, I am probably a month or so away from attacking the project anyway, there always seems to be something to do !

Seems like it is possible to convert an Autocad file to g-code for a GNC cutter, so that may be the go

Steve

[rangerdanger]

OK Folks, I now have basic AutoCAD and DXF files ready to be uploaded for the Rear Bar, Wheel Carrier, Rocksliders and Front Recovery Points and Bashplate.
Refer the attached .rar file, containing both formats.

Some photos of the bashplate and rocksliders are attached as well

There's enough detail to replicate what I have done, with a few minor refinements to minimise cutting and drilling to suit.

Note: It will still need some thought and a bit of trial and error fitting, so best of luck.

[finallyrangie]

Fantastic looking set of stuff, thanks so much for the effort you have put in and then being willing to share, makes me want to fabricate something!

[TheTree]

Troy,

Fantastic work !!

I am going to talk to my mate who has a fabrication shop and see if we can get GNC laser cutter to do much of the work !

Will let all know how it goes

Steve

[rangerdanger]

As mentioned elsewhere, I can now supply a set of drawings in PDF which shows how to fabricate the 'ranger danger' bar, with the hard work done by a shop with lazer cutting / plate folding capability.
The DXF file is contained within a .rar file in an earlier post of this thread.
The PDF drawings contain all the dimensions, fold lines and angles for somebody with welding skill to replicate what I have done.
There is a little bit of trial fitting needed, so it is not something that should be attacked as a production line approach.

This post has the details of the bits. The next post will have the assembly.

Troy N.
79221

79222

79223

79224

[rangerdanger]

Note, these drawings need to be printed to colour A3 to work best.79225

79226

[Keithy P38]

You've gone to a lot of trouble there mate! Really appreciate it!

Cheers
Keithy

[rangerdanger]

I just hope other owners on the forum get some benefit. I've gotten a lot out of this forum so this is just my way of putting back in.

[Keithy P38]

Just digging this up, I've got a boilermaker knocking up a rear bar for me on the second of August. It's not as detailed as your design Ranger D, and I apologise as it's not even going to come close to the sexy of yours - but it's within my price range and old mate has a solid reputation around town so I've gone with a custom design that'd probably suit someone with an X-rox front bar more than a regular bull bar.

Cheers
Keithy

[TheTree]

There was / is one on ebay which didn't sell

Range Rover P38 Rear Custom Spare Wheel Carrier | eBay

Steve

[davidsonsm]

Isn't that a standard OEM bumper? With a wheel carrier bracket.

[TheTree]

Isn't that a standard OEM bumper? With a wheel carrier bracket.

Yes on closer inspection it is a bracket and original bumper.

It failed to sell at 350 so he reilsted it for 450 ??

Steve

[davidsonsm]

Yes on closer inspection it is a bracket and original bumper.

It failed to sell at 350 so he reilsted it for 450 ??

Steve
Jedi mind trick.