Yep, trail wheeling is all I do anymore. The Rubicon Trail is about the toughest this rig will see. I went through my wanne-be-rock-buggy phase when I lived in Phoenix, and my poor CJ-2A is still under the knife because of it

 

nice idea but i agree

 

Juuuuuuuuust for all the haters out there, I will let the cat out of the bag and let you all know this wasn't exactly my idea... If any of you have much experience outside of the XJ realm, you can look into the world of the Early Bronco and see several designs very similar to this, that have held up quite well through years of abuse under the much heavier EB. Yes, I've also had (and still have) an EB with sliders just like this. Guess what? They don't cause more damage than they save... Also, just for good measure, JCR offers a slider with a tube outrigger (as opposed to my formed rail) that mounts exactly the same way, and they claim it's bombproof The secret, much like a fender washer, is distribution of pressure. Yeah, it's tied to the thin sheetmetal rocker, but it's tied to all 60" of that thin sheetmetal rocker. It's also tied to the unitbody rail via the 'Z' plates from below, so any leverage from dropping directly onto a rock has to not only push the entire rocker, but it has to pull from the unitbody rail. I'm not saying it can't happen, but damage is pretty unlikely.

 

Well it looks tougher than it probably is, if that counts for anything.. lol

 

Sure, except attaching to the unibody rails doesn't give you any appreciable strength in the vertical direction, only horizontal hits. And, while you are distributing the load, you're only using 10 ga (.1345") steel that only connects in a strip. The JCR units are 3/16 (.1875") and distribute the load over the entire surface of the rocker panel. Additionally by having the ledge sticking out you're multiplying the leverage applied to the rocker panel itself. The concerns people have are still valid, it will all just depend on what you ever end up hitting with them. Brush up against a stump while you're moving forward and they'll help. Have your tire fall in a rut and the side of the Jeep drops 1 ft instantaneously where there happens to be a large rock you didn't see lodged in the side of the trail and you may have a nice long crease running down your rocker where you may have only had a centrally located dent otherwise.

It all depends on what you're going to do with them. If you're going to go easy like you say, I think they'll work. Personally, I like to be prepared for the stuff I don't PLAN on hitting; usually bigger than expected and comes out of nowhere. If I could control everything I drove over I wouldn't need ANY protection! If you think you're rockers will hold up, use them, I'm not going to stop you. I would be curious to see how well they hold up over time after you "test" them out a couple times. Who knows, maybe we'll all be surprised!

 

wwoah!!!! its a forum and there many opinions here. its called peer criticism. Here some more criticism there are guys here that build alot of cool stuff and your is one of them.

 

+1 very well said dude. No such thing as over prepared in my book imo

 

well said north woods

 

Add some gussetts and some underbelly pics ofnit attached and I'm sure it'll do great

 

well, i will say.... it's better than my rocker protection.

it does look good, and for the most part (average wheeler), i'm sure it will do the job just fine.

but although i've dented my rocker up at the pinch seem from a huge rock, i'm now in the middle of making up a set of 3/8 protectors.
there is a lot of exposed rock up here in the great canadian shield. i've been lucky so far.