Defender Rock Sliders, Sill protectors

**camel_landy** · 22nd March 2005, 08:03 AM

Hmmm.... All looks a little overkill to me, maybe you should have bought a Unimog. :?

It's all well & good strengthening the chassis here, there & everywhere but all you're doing is transmitting the load elsewhere. You can then bet your life that the "elsewhere" is going to be a sod to repair.

I've got reinforced sills which are on the "weaker" style mountings... They have already had a serious amount of abuse as well as being used on a regular basis to jack the vehicle up on with the hi-lift. They still look fine to me.

You may well say that in extreme conditions, the mountings will bend... Let them bend. It's a lot easier repairing the sills rather than having to strip down the bodywork to patch a section of the chassis.

My 2p worth... 8)

Mark.

**sclarke** · 22nd March 2005, 08:24 AM

I'm agreeing with Mark.
Weakest point will always fail 1st. if its the Sills, so be it. Quick fix.
If the chassis is damaged then the cost to repair could blow the budget out...
I'm a big believer of KISS "Keep it Simple Silly"

If the mount is streathened then it will transfer the stress else where.
But in your case you would have to have it get hit bloody hard or a side impact to stuff the chassis.

Either way you wont have a problem if you treat it with some respect. if you sill bounce it then expect damage over time.

I cant see you having any problems with the it being upgraded like you have. Id personally choose not to, mind you the crush tubes are a fantastic idea. spot weld them in and they can be knocked out if damaged.

id hate to think how hard you would have to push a defender to get it to Sill bounce.

I must be used to looking after my trucks..

**Larns** · 22nd March 2005, 01:25 PM

Serg
You say that you learned to weld in two day's, that's all good but is everyone aware that to weld a chassis you must be qualified to Australian standards 1554 and have proof that it's been welded to the manufacture's spec's.
I've just finished going through all this so I could weld my D90 chassis an let me tell you it's not an easy task undertaken, it took several weeks worth of paperwork and alot of money to get certified, an I was already qualified to weld, just not structualy.
Tread very cearfully with things like this, if NSW registery got wind of modified chassis not to standard you can bet at a min. they wouldn't register your car, a min.

Cheers Larns

**uninformed** · 23rd March 2005, 12:15 PM

99.9% of mods i do to my truck will be legall as not to void my insurance, BUT for the time and cost invoved for this project i felt it wasn't needed. legally yes but reality no. i can tell you all day how i welded it, the prep invoved, etc, etc, but at the end of the day, i didnt feel it was changing the dynamic of the truck, effecting handeling or a saftey issue so i take the risk. if you followed the adr's to the letter 50% of road going vehicles would be illegal. as for the statements re overkill etc on my mods well if i want a fuse on the sliders all i have to do is mount it with lower grade bolts. i feel that its a good design with strength but i don't think i will abuse it to the point of chassis failure. jacking a fully laden 110 with a high lift and having the slider rotate/fail is not something i want to experience. :wink:
cheers, serg

Thread: Defender Rock Sliders, Sill protectors

Thread Tools

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions