TOTM: Unibody Improvements

[rstrucks]

Here are some pics of my unibody plating and cage tie ins. THe cage is welded to plates at the roof as well. So far I am really happy with how solid it feels. Time (and use) will tell if it holds up in the long run. I think it will.





Rockers are tied into the unibody rails. Here is the start of the plating. The 1/8th inch plating is on the outside of the rail and the bottom before and after the suspension mounts.



I reinforced the front crossmember as well.



I plated the area where the steering box bolts on along with installing a box brace. There is also a track bar bracket brace that runs under the engine and attaches to the passenger side frame rail. I thought I had more pics of the plated rails.....

[geeteesjeep]

What if you use option B and weld a subframe inside the jeep overtop the frame rails? Would this be just as strong?

This is a relevant post Maxx made about Elliott's thread mentioning an FEA that Kraqa did regarding frame stiffeners.

[jpeterson]

I can add a little tech to this TOTM.

Let me say first this is not a DD; it is a street legal trailer queen.

First to strengthen the unibody a full cage was installed. It started life as an essentially off-road kit that has been modified. I was not really impressed with their kit; it did not fit together well. (It still needs more triangulation, it’s on the things to do list.)



The cage is tied into the frame at all the pillars. The floor is sandwiched between two plates at all pillars, with bolts that are welded to the nuts. I welded some tubing to the plates in order to connect the cage to the unibody as well as the outer lip/rock sliders.




In the rear I made sure when the pillar hit the floor it would be centered on the unibody. This made it possible to weld two pieces of angle iron on each side of the unibody frame. This is welded to plating on each side of the rear unibody.



Like I said above there rear of the unibody was plated on each side for strength.




In the front the whole unibody was plated on the outside.




There is also a Clayton Off-road unibody sub frame welded along the unibody, it is also welded to all the link brackets. The sub frame is also welded to the opposite side via a cross member.



In the future I plan to add more triangulation to the cage, as well as weld bars back from the shock hoops under the hood through the firewall to the A pillar of the cage. Even more will be done if we get into Top Truck this year.

Thanks hope this helps people out.