Otter Pop

[Otter155]

Finally using the parts on my build so I figured I would post.

When I got the Gladiator from the dealer, the 2" Mopar lift was installed, with 37" tires. From there I added a few things that I knew I wanted to have as similar from my JKU.

I didn't like any of the mirror solutions for when doors are off, so I fabbed up my own. More to come on these, but eventually I will be re-wiring so the mirrors heat up and move with door buttons, and an extra set of buttons for half doors/no doors.

Just drove 2k miles with these mirror movers on, and have had no issues. The design is such, I can use the top of the bracket for small spot lights.

One of my musts was rock sliders. So I made my own that use 4 mounting positions on each side, 2 frame and 2 around the body mount bolts.

The last item I'll mention in this first post is my oil pan skid. I fabbed this myself as well, and I was purpose building the skid.

I love rock crawling, but find myself doing overlanding a lot more. Weight was a huge concern with my JKU, so I challenged myself to build a lighter oil pan skid for the Gladiator. I wanted maximum protection for the oil pan itself and additional protection for the auto tranny coolant lines (I've personally repaired another Jeeps tranny line on the trail because it got ripped out from a stick.

First shot of the oil pan skid is with the support in. Second picture is before the support. The weight reduction comes from using 1/8" sheet metal, which for most overlanders is more than adequate. Then I added the cross section support which is 2"x1/4" flat stock. The mounting bolts that go to the engine mounts, are tied directly into the 1/4" thick flat bar, providing strength. The 1/8" thick plate provides coverage for the tranny lines, and other areas.

I need to really test the design on some hard trails this weekend, but I'm happy with the way the skid turned out.

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[Otter155]

Reserved.

 

[DTJB]

Looks like I’m 6 months behind, but I’ll ask anyways in case you see this, how did you do your rock sliders?

 

[jurfie]

How did I miss this thread? Love seeing people come up with their own solutions and fab them up.

Hopefully the OP is still around to share more projects like these.

 

[DTJB]

@jurfie i hope so as well... it’s the only post I’ve found of diy sliders for JT’s so far... I’d love to fab my own, got a shop full of tools to use... and it looks like the OP put a lot of effort into this thread, but last day online was the day after this post. Doesn’t look hopeful.

 

[Otter155]

Looks like I’m 6 months behind, but I’ll ask anyways in case you see this, how did you do your rock sliders?

Been awhile since I've checked the forums, I'm glad someone was looking around.

I bought the materials at a local metal vendor, square tubing and some round tubing. The square was 2" .120 wall, the round tubing was 1-3/4" .120 wall. I used a harbor freight pipe bender, and went really slow; the bender did have a couple mods to it that really helped out and I am very happy with the results. 8 months of wheeling, I have more dents in the round tube from rocks than any creases from the bending. I used 1.75" round tubing because it came out to about 2.05" across when the angle was cut into it, so it matched well enough to the 2" square.

Using the HF pipe bender, some people have good reviews, others it's horrible; for my purposes it worked great. I cut some extra pieces of the round tubing, sliced it in half, and then proceeded to make a top cap piece and replaced the stock rollers on each side. This mod can be found by doing a search. Since I wasn't doing a full 90 degree bend, I didn't get any creases, although I did get some very tiny flat spots. However you wouldn't know now because of the wheeling damage. I did about 5 pressure pumps on the bender, released the pressure and moved the tubing ever so slightly, about 1/8". Repeated that a few times over about 1-1/2" and I came out with a clean 45 degree bend.

The hardest part about doing the rock rails was cutting the angles on the round tubing, that were to be welded to the square tubing. I did the bends first, because I needed the control in order to make 45 degree bends on both sides. Then I propped up the round tube onto jack stands, kind of free hanging, and mocked up where they would sit on the square tubing. It was a lot of slow trial and error after that, making small cuts, grinding and more small cuts. Finally got the angle I was after, so I could have a slight upwards angle of the round tubing as it sits on the square tubing.

I didn't have a hole saw for tubing, so I had to get one, but it worked like a charm, and gave me great cuts for the 4 short pieces that act like spacers. I was a bit rushed as we were getting ready for the Top of the Ozarks Jeep Jamboree the next week, so there were some major gaps that needed to be filled while welding. A better welder than I, or better prep and you would have never had gaps.

The design is a frame, body mount hybrid. It fits on under neath the stock Rubicon rock rails which I wanted, just to see if it could be done. I need to post pictures of the underneat so you can see how it connects.

I hope that helps explain a little bit. I will try and post other pictures I took of the process.

 

[DTJB]

It ma

Been awhile since I've checked the forums, I'm glad someone was looking around.

I bought the materials at a local metal vendor, square tubing and some round tubing. The square was 2" .120 wall, the round tubing was 1-3/4" .120 wall. I used a harbor freight pipe bender, and went really slow; the bender did have a couple mods to it that really helped out and I am very happy with the results. 8 months of wheeling, I have more dents in the round tube from rocks than any creases from the bending. I used 1.75" round tubing because it came out to about 2.05" across when the angle was cut into it, so it matched well enough to the 2" square.

Using the HF pipe bender, some people have good reviews, others it's horrible; for my purposes it worked great. I cut some extra pieces of the round tubing, sliced it in half, and then proceeded to make a top cap piece and replaced the stock rollers on each side. This mod can be found by doing a search. Since I wasn't doing a full 90 degree bend, I didn't get any creases, although I did get some very tiny flat spots. However you wouldn't know now because of the wheeling damage. I did about 5 pressure pumps on the bender, released the pressure and moved the tubing ever so slightly, about 1/8". Repeated that a few times over about 1-1/2" and I came out with a clean 45 degree bend.

The hardest part about doing the rock rails was cutting the angles on the round tubing, that were to be welded to the square tubing. I did the bends first, because I needed the control in order to make 45 degree bends on both sides. Then I propped up the round tube onto jack stands, kind of free hanging, and mocked up where they would sit on the square tubing. It was a lot of slow trial and error after that, making small cuts, grinding and more small cuts. Finally got the angle I was after, so I could have a slight upwards angle of the round tubing as it sits on the square tubing.

I didn't have a hole saw for tubing, so I had to get one, but it worked like a charm, and gave me great cuts for the 4 short pieces that act like spacers. I was a bit rushed as we were getting ready for the Top of the Ozarks Jeep Jamboree the next week, so there were some major gaps that needed to be filled while welding. A better welder than I, or better prep and you would have never had gaps.

The design is a frame, body mount hybrid. It fits on under neath the stock Rubicon rock rails which I wanted, just to see if it could be done. I need to post pictures of the underneat so you can see how it connects.

I hope that helps explain a little bit. I will try and post other pictures I took of the process.

thank you for the reply (and for spending the time to be thorough), made my day! I’ve been scouring, trying to figure out how I want to do mine, I’d like to build a few things for it just because I can... it seems sacrilege to just buy everything and put it on... if it’s going to be a personality trait I’d assume use my personality to build it... patiently waiting for pictures of the mounting. I thought about making a clamp style to clamp to the frame and maybe using the body mounts as well to try and give it some rigidity vs just being clamped around the frame (I’m thinking any force up and down with the clamp style would cause movement in the same direction, assuming it won’t move inwards when braced to the frame)

 

[Otter155]

Here are a couple more pictures of how the mounting for the sliders were used.

Please don't mind the welds, I'm very new, and do this as a hobby; there is a lot of splatter that could be avoided if I was to weld with gas. I bought a welder specifically to try projects on the JT.

This first image is of just the rock sliders with no mounting brackets. This was just getting the round tubing tacked onto the square for fitment. I welded everything up and then took it to the JT for final measurements. Before doing any of the cutting, I did use Free CAD to design the sliders, to make sure I knew where I would be locating the brackets, length of sliders etc.

Second picture is with the passenger side slider having brackets. The 2 outside brackets that are flat iron are attached to the mounting bolts on the JT. The 2 inside brackets are 2" square tube and flat iron. The inner 2 were cut and measured to push on the side of the frame, and were secured to the existing holes on the frames underside. The flat bar is 2" wide 1/4" thick; it was leftover from my dad, but worked great for this project. There was only so much I could do in Free CAD to design the sliders because of the natural curve to the JT's body. For this creation I didn't try to curve the sliders, I simply went from point A to point B. In the OP pictures of the slider you can tell that the front ever so slightly pushes away from the body, where the rear is closer. Most people glancing would never be able to tell the difference. The bonus was I was able to fit this under the stock rock rails; but this could easily be done without using the rock rails.

Here's a picture out on a trail at SMORR in Missouri. For anyone close to Southern Missouri, this offorad park was a lot of fun. This was a small waterfall on the trail, that is about 24-30" high. I'm halfway down the waterfall when this picture was taken. I love that you can see the underside and see how sturdy the sliders are. I've never had a problem with the sliders pushing into the stock rock rails.

After almost 18K miles, a Jeep Jamboree, multiple local rockcrawling weekends and some overlanding of the JT wearing the sliders they have held up great. There are couple of things I would do differently, first is to cut and put some plating on the end of the square tubing. I decided to leave the ends open, partly because I knew water would get in, and I wanted it to drain, partly because I was pushed for time before leaving on a trip. Second would be to get these powder coated at a shop, I went the rattle can route and they need a touch up.

@DTJB - If you are interested in replicating let me know, and I'll help anyway I can.

Edit - After looking at this picture, I had to laugh that I thought the waterfall was at most 30". The waterfall was higher than my tires, which are 37". So maybe with tire deflation, a 30-36" waterfall.

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