What did you do TO your Gladiator today? [ADMIN WARNING: NO POLITICS, NO GUN TALK]

[4xjeepr]

Meant to post this as well....

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[4xjeepr]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RCKB8W9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_FKMGFbW1Q509G

Here is the link

 

[Jim smith]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RCKB8W9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_FKMGFbW1Q509G

Here is the link

Thank you 4xjeepr

 

[4xjeepr]

You're very welcome...

 

[JTRUBI]

I notice you’re in Toronto...is that why you have access to them? I’m wondering if we can order those here in the States...

Should be able to order them with the part numbers straight from your dealership.

 

[CokreeateJT]

Took her out to play in the dirt.

 

[JCHGlad]

Small item installed today. Popped in front frame plugs. Easy and quick, took less than a minute and should save me down the road with rust concerns.

In theory seems great, but trapping air/moisture isnt a perfect solution either, I’d rather let it open and “flush it” occasionally

 

[brain]

Fabbed up some mounts to hang my Rotopax on the Fab Fours Overland rack. I was inspired by Evolving Male's YouTube video about his project to do the same - thank you sir, for giving me the confidence to try it!

This is basically nothing but low-profile strut channel and some pipe hangers, but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. A list of pieces and parts I used is at the bottom of this post.

First a little bit about the bed rack. The Fab Four Overland rack is not everybody's cup of tea, and I'm not really sure it's mine, either to be honest. But I paid for it, so it's going to get at least a year on my bed before I think too hard about replacing it. The driver's side upright panel arrived slightly warped, which made it impossible to insert the center of the three top bolts - that didn't make me happy. Fab Fours told me that they have seen this before, and that it can usually be fixed by using a ratchet strap to pull it into alignment, but if I didn't want to do that we could discuss other options. To be fair, I had the rack on for our trip through the Rockies this summer and the lack of the one bolt never seemed to be an issue. I did just discover, however, that the front truss of the rack that bolts into the front trail-rail holes in the bed has been moving side-to-side and scraped away a nice chunk of paint on either end. Definitely not pleased about that.

Also, the damn rack seems to reach out and bite me in the head anytime I climb into the bed or get near the rear corners...

The thing that surprised me the most, though, was that the holes pre-drilled in the rack don't match up with a Rotopax mount. I mean, really, is there any accessory more commonly seen on a bed rack than a set of Rotopax? If, as a rack designer, you're just going to add an arbitrary hole pattern to the rack, why in the world wouldn't you set the hole pattern to match the distance between the bolts on a Rotopax mount?!?

On the other hand, the holes are all at the top of the rack, so not really a very good place to hang Rotopax anyway.

Anyway, back to building the Rotopax mounts.

I bought all the hardware from Grainger and McMaster-Carr (except for the stuff I didn't realize I needed until I started putting it all together...that came from the Lowe's down the road).

• 2x three-foot sections of low profile, slotted, black powder-coated strut channel
• 4x end plugs for the strut channel
• 4x vibration dampening u-bolts for 2" pipe
• assorted nuts and bolts and washers, including strut-channel self-centering washers
• 3/16" Rubber stripping to go between the u-bolts and the tubular bed-rack uprights.

I cut the 3' strut channel down to length using a miter saw with a steel-cutting blade and took the burrs off the cut ends with an old chisel and a bastard file.

I painted everything black with a rattle-can of automotive paint (from Lowe's)

And lined the inside the U-bolts with the adhesive backed rubber strip (cut to length off the roll).

I put an end plug on one end of each strut channel, then slipped in six of the self-centering washers - two for each of the two u-bolts, plus two more for the bolts that would hold on the Rotopax mounting plates (the photo only shows four...I forgot the other two before I took it...).

Then I put the remaining plugs in the other end of both strut channels.

Then I placed the U-bolts on the tubular uprights, about 8" down from the top of the tube to get the Rotopax centered in the open space, and hung the strut channels on them. (This photo was taken when I was dry fitting everything, before I painted all the bare steel parts black.)

Then I tightened all the nuts down with a deep 15mm socket (had to run to Lowe's for that...). Tightening the nuts down compressed the plastic surrounds on the u-bolts as well as the rubber stripping, and gave a nice tight fit against the tubular upright. The U-bolts are designed for 2" tubing (which is the size used on the rack), but the inside diameter of the u-bolt is actually 2 1/8", thus the need for 3/16" thick rubber strip to fill the void, and prevent slipping. I could have used a u-bolt with a smaller inside diameter, but that would have meant a smaller gauge bolt, and I wanted to keep the diameter of the bolt big enough to keep it from being too sloppy inside the self-centering washer. Plus, I wanted the rubber strip to provide friction between the plastic u-bolt surround and the steel tubular upright so that the weight of a full Rotopax can wouldn't drag it down the upright. Haven't given that a good test yet over a bumpy trail, so I don't know yet if I got that worked out properly or not...

When I originally ordered the 2-gallon Rotopax cans I also ordered the locking mounts (which I thought I was going to be able to just bolt directly onto the bed rack...), and they come with a backing plate that you can use to attach them to all kinds of things. I could have just run the mounting bolts through the holes in the backing plate and through the slots in the strut channel, but that would have required me to carry the Rotopax "tall-wise" (short sides of the can at the top and bottom) and they don't quite fit that way in the open space on the side of the bed rack (plus I don't like them that way). So I needed to turn the mounting plates 90 degrees. Unfortunately, the pre-drilled holes at that position on the mounting plates are intended for wood screws and are way too small for a decent bolt, so I had to drill those out.

Then I bolted the locking mounts to the backing plate, but replaced the original hex head bolts with some longer ones (ran to Lowe's for those, too...) and a washer for good measure. The original bolts seemed too short to me (even without the washer), and there was plenty of depth in the bolt hole, so I went up from 3/4" length to 1 1/4".

With the locking mounts bolted to the backing plate, I then bolted the backing plate to the strut channel, using button head bolts, with a lock washer in addition to the nylock nut.

The I slipped the Rotopax over the locking mount and, voila, Bob's your uncle! This photo was also taken during the dry fit, so things are slightly off kilter. When I put it all together for real I tweaked everything into position to get it all nice and level and square before I wrenched the heck out of it.

And the view from inside the rack

Being recessed into the space between the uprights, the 2-gallon Rotopax don't stick out at all beyond the sids of the cab, so there's no real increase to wind resistance or any whistling. Here's the view down the side of the truck.

And from the rear

and this one shows about how much of angle you have to get to before you can even see the Rotopax from the front of the truck

I still need to cut down the length of the threaded portion of the u-bolts so they don't stick out beyond the edge of the strut channel, and I also plan to take it all apart and get all the pieces powder-coated, but aside from cutting the channel to length and drilling out the mounting plate, this was an extremely easy mod. And looks damned fine, if I do say so myself! (Almost makes me think I want to keep the Fab Fours rack...)

Here's the parts list (the rubber trim is to help save my noggin from future bashing, but I haven't put it on the rack yet):

What wheels are you currently running on?

 

[Sparty]

In theory seems great, but trapping air/moisture isnt a perfect solution either, I’d rather let it open and “flush it” occasionally

I was thinking along the same lines with condensation and then it being trapped

 

[Strider62]

What wheels are you currently running on?

17" Black Rhino Armory in gunmetal grey. Great color match for the Sting Gray.

 

[CTFriel]

Installed some Ace Engineering sliders and my Rhino Rack Dome 1300 awning.

 

[AZJT]

Installed Nitto Ridge Grapplers (285/75/18s) after leveling with the Rubicon Express JT7134E kit. Also have: drop-in bedliner, Extang Trifecta, Mopar front and rear grab handles, Mopar cab cover (when the top is off), Spidwewebshade JTKini, Mopar front and rear splash guards, and other things I'm sure I'm missing... :D

 

[Jdyowa]

Fabbed up some mounts to hang my Rotopax on the Fab Fours Overland rack. I was inspired by Evolving Male's YouTube video about his project to do the same - thank you sir, for giving me the confidence to try it!

This is basically nothing but low-profile strut channel and some pipe hangers, but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. A list of pieces and parts I used is at the bottom of this post.

First a little bit about the bed rack. The Fab Four Overland rack is not everybody's cup of tea, and I'm not really sure it's mine, either to be honest. But I paid for it, so it's going to get at least a year on my bed before I think too hard about replacing it. The driver's side upright panel arrived slightly warped, which made it impossible to insert the center of the three top bolts - that didn't make me happy. Fab Fours told me that they have seen this before, and that it can usually be fixed by using a ratchet strap to pull it into alignment, but if I didn't want to do that we could discuss other options. To be fair, I had the rack on for our trip through the Rockies this summer and the lack of the one bolt never seemed to be an issue. I did just discover, however, that the front truss of the rack that bolts into the front trail-rail holes in the bed has been moving side-to-side and scraped away a nice chunk of paint on either end. Definitely not pleased about that.

Also, the damn rack seems to reach out and bite me in the head anytime I climb into the bed or get near the rear corners...

The thing that surprised me the most, though, was that the holes pre-drilled in the rack don't match up with a Rotopax mount. I mean, really, is there any accessory more commonly seen on a bed rack than a set of Rotopax? If, as a rack designer, you're just going to add an arbitrary hole pattern to the rack, why in the world wouldn't you set the hole pattern to match the distance between the bolts on a Rotopax mount?!?

On the other hand, the holes are all at the top of the rack, so not really a very good place to hang Rotopax anyway.

Anyway, back to building the Rotopax mounts.

I bought all the hardware from Grainger and McMaster-Carr (except for the stuff I didn't realize I needed until I started putting it all together...that came from the Lowe's down the road).

• 2x three-foot sections of low profile, slotted, black powder-coated strut channel
• 4x end plugs for the strut channel
• 4x vibration dampening u-bolts for 2" pipe
• assorted nuts and bolts and washers, including strut-channel self-centering washers
• 3/16" Rubber stripping to go between the u-bolts and the tubular bed-rack uprights.

I cut the 3' strut channel down to length using a miter saw with a steel-cutting blade and took the burrs off the cut ends with an old chisel and a bastard file.

I painted everything black with a rattle-can of automotive paint (from Lowe's)

And lined the inside the U-bolts with the adhesive backed rubber strip (cut to length off the roll).

I put an end plug on one end of each strut channel, then slipped in six of the self-centering washers - two for each of the two u-bolts, plus two more for the bolts that would hold on the Rotopax mounting plates (the photo only shows four...I forgot the other two before I took it...).

Then I put the remaining plugs in the other end of both strut channels.

Then I placed the U-bolts on the tubular uprights, about 8" down from the top of the tube to get the Rotopax centered in the open space, and hung the strut channels on them. (This photo was taken when I was dry fitting everything, before I painted all the bare steel parts black.)

Then I tightened all the nuts down with a deep 15mm socket (had to run to Lowe's for that...). Tightening the nuts down compressed the plastic surrounds on the u-bolts as well as the rubber stripping, and gave a nice tight fit against the tubular upright. The U-bolts are designed for 2" tubing (which is the size used on the rack), but the inside diameter of the u-bolt is actually 2 1/8", thus the need for 3/16" thick rubber strip to fill the void, and prevent slipping. I could have used a u-bolt with a smaller inside diameter, but that would have meant a smaller gauge bolt, and I wanted to keep the diameter of the bolt big enough to keep it from being too sloppy inside the self-centering washer. Plus, I wanted the rubber strip to provide friction between the plastic u-bolt surround and the steel tubular upright so that the weight of a full Rotopax can wouldn't drag it down the upright. Haven't given that a good test yet over a bumpy trail, so I don't know yet if I got that worked out properly or not...

When I originally ordered the 2-gallon Rotopax cans I also ordered the locking mounts (which I thought I was going to be able to just bolt directly onto the bed rack...), and they come with a backing plate that you can use to attach them to all kinds of things. I could have just run the mounting bolts through the holes in the backing plate and through the slots in the strut channel, but that would have required me to carry the Rotopax "tall-wise" (short sides of the can at the top and bottom) and they don't quite fit that way in the open space on the side of the bed rack (plus I don't like them that way). So I needed to turn the mounting plates 90 degrees. Unfortunately, the pre-drilled holes at that position on the mounting plates are intended for wood screws and are way too small for a decent bolt, so I had to drill those out.

Then I bolted the locking mounts to the backing plate, but replaced the original hex head bolts with some longer ones (ran to Lowe's for those, too...) and a washer for good measure. The original bolts seemed too short to me (even without the washer), and there was plenty of depth in the bolt hole, so I went up from 3/4" length to 1 1/4".

With the locking mounts bolted to the backing plate, I then bolted the backing plate to the strut channel, using button head bolts, with a lock washer in addition to the nylock nut.

The I slipped the Rotopax over the locking mount and, voila, Bob's your uncle! This photo was also taken during the dry fit, so things are slightly off kilter. When I put it all together for real I tweaked everything into position to get it all nice and level and square before I wrenched the heck out of it.

And the view from inside the rack

Being recessed into the space between the uprights, the 2-gallon Rotopax don't stick out at all beyond the sids of the cab, so there's no real increase to wind resistance or any whistling. Here's the view down the side of the truck.

And from the rear

and this one shows about how much of angle you have to get to before you can even see the Rotopax from the front of the truck

I still need to cut down the length of the threaded portion of the u-bolts so they don't stick out beyond the edge of the strut channel, and I also plan to take it all apart and get all the pieces powder-coated, but aside from cutting the channel to length and drilling out the mounting plate, this was an extremely easy mod. And looks damned fine, if I do say so myself! (Almost makes me think I want to keep the Fab Fours rack...)

Here's the parts list (the rubber trim is to help save my noggin from future bashing, but I haven't put it on the rack yet):

My rotopax fit perfectly. I mean perfect. Just barely got them installed.

I've since taken the rack off and it's for sale. To heavy. Like driving a Uhaul truck

 

[Jdyowa]

Please check out my install. For those that like pictures.. see below.

 

[Strider62]

My rotopax fit perfectly. I mean perfect. Just barely got them installed.

I've since taken the rack off and it's for sale. To heavy. Like driving a Uhaul truck

I watched your video where you bolted the mounts directly to your rack, and I thought "damn, I must have been wrong" so I immediately went outside to try again. Strangely enough, the holes were still about an 1/8" off (too close)...absolutely no way to get both bolts in without drilling out the holes. Tried every set of holes down the length of the rack and wouldn't fit anywhere, and in fact some of the sets of holes seemed even closer together. Mentioned that to Fab Fours and they said they were all computer laser drilled, so couldn't possibly be a QC issue. But, like I said, I didn't really want them mounted at the top of the rack anyway. All's well that end's well, I suppose.

I don't mind the weight of the rack - hauled it (and about another 500lbs of gear) over Imogene Pass, Engineer Pass and Ophir Pass with no problem - it just hasn't turned out to be very practical for attaching anything other than my RTT. On the other hand, I don't want a rack that looks like every other rack, so my options are limited.

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