New Trail-gear butt for "Grumpy"....

[xj]

Hey all, heres some pics of the install of the Trail Gear bumper. It wasnt without its issues, but we got there in the end.


The start


Original bar and tyre mount off and ready to fit..... or is it?


New bar in place, BUT, note scallops cut out of flares!! For the bar to sit beneath the flares, i would only have been able to use four of the 8 bolt holes available, on the top row. The only way to mount it using all the securing points was to cut my flares. Not entirely happy, but had to be done.


Catch arrangement took some figuring. (No instructions came with the bar.) Thought I had it right, but the spare parts told a different story..... couldnt figure how it ALL was supposed to go together so went with what I had, and it works fine. Considering the latch mount needed 4 bolts and only came with three, im hoping the left overs were surplus to requirements anyway.


Affixed an LED rego plate light and zip tied the plate on, still not sure if this is going to be the final resting place, but I cant see any other suitable place for it. note the location of the Hi lift mount fitting brackets.... cant see how one can fit without taking off the tail-light..... anyone? anyone?


Tyre mounted and ready to rock. Decided to replace the suppled mounting bolts with our hi-tensile versions. Thiers were too small and with a single washer were pulling through the mounting holes when tightened. Used a beefier bolt and double washers. Had to drop fuel tank to fit the centre 4 bolts.


And the finished product. I've a tow ball tongue enroute to fill the reciever hole. Need now to make a mounting bracket to take the recovery hook to bolt to the chassis. This bar sits slightly lower that the original (but hugs the body line better, so no issue with angles) and obscures where the recovery hook was located originally. Had considered making another tongue for the reciever with a hook on it, as the Americans seem to do, but prefer to pull off the chassis, so thought better of that dalliance.

All in all im happy with the way it ended up, esp when it's half the price of the ARB rear bar and carrier. I have outlined my little problems with the supplier, who has passed on comments to the manufacturer. Not that i really mind too much, but im certain that others would have a major malfunction at, say, the thought of having to cut their flares.

whasmore, my darling wife is talking to me again now...... so yeah...... its all been worth it!!!

[TJ]

Looking good, but is it possible that the bar was measured for a TJ with a body lift? Some bars do ask whether you have a body lift or not.

How difficult was to drop the tank. I am thinking about changing the gas tank skid soon.

[xj]

1) dunno, possibly i suppose, but that option wasnt mentioned. If thats the cas ethen their advertising needs some work. The install pick on the trail gear website shows it mounted on a YJ and THAT appears to be well lifted as it would seem theres a 50mm gap between the top of the tube and the bottom of the flare.

2) be easier if i didnt have it still clooged with mud and rubbish. No prob though, 6 nuts and the guard came down, a bit of muscle and i managed to get what i wanted done by moving the tank about (couldnt be arsed disconnecting the filler hose etc etc) , probably ought not to have claimed that i "dropped" it, as i didnt fully remove the tank.

[xj]

Finally got around to sorting the recovery bracket. (16-02)
With the help of Dixies welding.........




I also noted that there was nothing to stop the tyre carrier (actually the high lift jack mount on the tyre carrier) from striking the side of the guard when open... something you would expect the manufacturers to pick up when testing their product... anyway, rather than drilling into the bar to insert a bolt as a stopper, or attaching a flange to the tyre carrier to act as a striker on the bar, dixie suggested welding a nut to the bar, and using a bolt to stop the carrier short, and so it was done - (can you tell that I welded that one!!!????)


And where the carrier now stops.....


Also changed all the mounting bolts to 12mm grade 8, replacing the 10mm grade 8, which had replaced the supplied 10mm grade 5.

Have to give Lilpig a shout here too. He kindly donated a spare towball tongue, which, after a bit of nip, tuck, weld, found its mark also. Just need to whip the towball off my original bar and I'm laughing...... Cheers Rexy....

[xj]

but thats not all...................................

At the end of each chassis rail is a hole with a captive nut, used prior for mounting tow hook. (see pic)



Seeing as how the bar bolts into the chassis x-member only, I intend to fab a bracket for each side, weld it to the bar and then utilise these bolt holes to further strengthen the mounting of the bar.

[xj]

SUMMATION

They say that Jeeps are built not brought, I say YAY to that ideology. However, when a person buys something which is made for the machine, a person expects it to bolt on, and away they go. Maybe Trail-gear purposely omit design features to ensure that when their product is mounted, it still has to be "built" to ensure the owner is staying true to the motto.

Issues with this bar were as follows:

Problem: Grade 5 10mm bolts supplied to attach bumper to vehicle.
Solution: Replace supplier inferior product with grade 8 12mm bolts

Problem: 3 bolts instead of 4 supplied to moung tyre carrier latch.
Solution: Supplied own 4th bolt (sure not huge, but also unnecessary)

Problem: No instructions supplied to assemble latch.
Solution: Scaratched head and made it up as I went along.

Problem: Bar wouldn't fit, wrap around ends too long
Soultion: Cut scallops from factory flares to fit bar into the right position.

Problem: Tyre carrier strikes, and damages, rear 1/4 panel when fully opened.
Solution: Weld stopper to top of bar to limit travel distance.

Problem: Bar attached to x-member only, not chassis.
Solution: Using some Kiwi ingenuity, fab and weld bracket to bar and bolt into existing bolt hole on chassis.

Problem: Nowhere to fit recovery hook
Solution: Built a bracket to utilise the factory holes on the x-member also used by bar.

Problem: Nowhere to place license plate. (NZ specific due to size of plates)
Solution: Drilled bigger holes in plate and zip tied to horizontal members of bar

Problem: No license plate illumination (again, problematic to NZ, not necessarily a design flaw)
Solution: Purchsed LED light and drilled onto tyre carrier above zip tied plate



If I had have known that there were going to be this many "oversights" (exclude last two) then I would have looked for an alternative and not purchased from this manufacturer. However, with the ARB version being $1800.00 + GST, and this being $900 incl, the decision seemed a bit of a no brainer. If, however, my time was taken into account, or someone elses time was calculated, to correctly fit and then modify (or fabricate additions for) the outlined areas, and then the $$ to replace flares was considered, I doubt there would be much difference in cumulative price.

Hopefully the Trail-gear people from the US follow my comments on their forum and, for the sake of future consumers, take the time to re-design this particular product.

DISCLAIMER:
I have no idea what "Trail-gear"s other products are like, and hence my comments are pertinent to this particular product only based on first hand experience.
Also, it needs to be noted that our member, and the vendor from whom I purchased this product, "Jafa", (and his company)is in no way responsible for the design issues or failings that I have experienced with this product, from this manufacturer.

Mark

[lilpigzuk]

lookin good XJ, the LR badge on tongue has dissapeared??

[xj]

lookin good XJ, the LR badge on tongue has dissapeared??

Funny that innit? Couldn't in all good conscience leave that there now could i?

[lilpigzuk]

lookin good XJ, the LR badge on tongue has dissapeared??

Funny that innit? Couldn't in all good conscience leave that there now could i?

the one LR part that cant leak or breakdown - touch wood

[TJ]

Its looking good. Rather than use that bolt on the bottom, fab something like this:



Its called a frame tie-in bracket and is commercially available in the US.

Also see:

http://www.certifiablejeep.com/frametiein.php

http://www.4x4xplor.com/LoD-CJ.html

This photo and description in here explains it as well.

http://jeephorizons.com/tech/jeepermantc.html

I'll try to take photos of my frame tie-in for the ARB bar, its an overkill but I have recovered Cruisers using my rear bumper with no ill effect to me. JP Magazine had done a test of 13 rear bumpers for a TJ and found the ARB one to be the strongest tie-in. I had to install 18 total bolts to the frame and cross member. Talk about over engineering.

The bumper has to be linked to the frame, cross member is not strong enough.

[xj]

heck, why not do both??????

[TJ]

Well, the ARB one is like a box that does the side like shown above, then the back bolts to the bumper through the cross member and top plate from the bumper over on top of the cross member. The more bracing you can do, the better for recovery safety. I am emailing you a few photos of what sort of bracing is on my rear one for ideas.

[xj]

hi Tj, got your email mate.....

heres what i had in mind -


fitting here -


Ill hopefully fab both sides up by the end of the week, get my hole placement right (not quite there in the pics) and bang em on next weekend. Cant see too much wrong with my design, it'll all be either 5 or 7 mm.

[dixie]

WELL WELL looking smart in hirequip orange is it?.......ha ha

Rexy any more of the removal tongues lying about?

[xj]

And finally we have the finished product. Everything is now hooked into the chassis rail.

I know, I know, my welding doesn't look the tidiest..... but it held up to a roller being driven over it!!!

Left:


Right:



(we'll ignore the missing washer for the timebeing)

[xj]

And it appears that I forgot a washer!!!!!

[coxsy]

hey xj don't do concerned over the look of a weld the ugliest weld still holds, it fusing of metals if you had that when you were welding its fine , looks good to me

[xj]

hey xj don't do concerned over the look of a weld the ugliest weld still holds, it fusing of metals if you had that when you were welding its fine , looks good to me

Coxy, i mean this in the nicest possible way..... have you been giving grammer lessons to 86-surf???? I get the general gist of what your saying though... cheers

[coxsy]

so sorry didn't reread it before posting

[TJ]

Looks like you are now ready to pull some cruiser from their stuck positions

Looking good. Hey where is the write up about rock rails? And photos.

[xj]

The rails, they were donated. A mate had made them for his TJ, he sold it to another bloke in Whangarei, who took them off to put the pocket flares on. The original owners brother works with the new owner. The brother is the bloke i hang at Pouto with each Labour Weekend. I mentioned that i was going to make some, they had a conversation, and he donated them to the cause.