[abclarke]

Hey guys i thought id make a thread to kinda kick start my little project. Main reason for building the rear bar before my much needed front bar is due to TAFE. Basically for my adv diploma course one of the final year projects is to design and draw/model a tow bar with autoCAD. But really talking to a mate that finished the course last year, its a piss easy project!

My request to the teacher(s) is going to be i step it up a notch and design/draw/model and even eventually fab a rear bar for the zook. In which ill incorporate a tow hitch anyway, plus the added extras of a swing away arm for the spare 31" tyre and a seperate swing arm for the 20L steel jerry can holder. Plus little bits like rated recovery points and LED lights, and depending how in depth i wanna go maybe a LED work light on the back and UHF aerial mount for the future.

Doing some digging around the net i have found a few ideas and designs which i quite like, one main one being bogfrogs which i think is great. Others are from a mixture of facebook suzuki groups and pirate4x4. But hopefully i want the end result to be something original and suit the car as much as possible.

For the rest of the night i think i might do up some quick measurements of mounting points and do a few sketches to get a good idea in my head of how im going to build the final product. Some of the requirements for the project are things like material choices of bolts/bar work etc, down to things like what welding process will be used and what rods etc. So its gonna be a fair bit to think of!

Im hoping if anyone else has any pointers or tips i should consider than please let me know! Hopefully by the end of it i kick the crap of the project plus come out with a kick ass bar

[GRPABT1]

Just be aware that a swing away tyre carrier is quite a bit of extra weight added to a zook. This can be a good thing as it will help to even out a front heavy zook but it will also affect your fuel economy and acceleration. I'm not against them at all but I would reccommend making the swing away tyre carrier and jerry can holder parts easily removeable to save on weight while just daily driving. I've never had a flat in the city in all my years of driving and I rarely carry a spare for either of my cars in town.

[abclarke]

Yeah that was a consideration, making the swing arms bolt on so like you said i dont need to carry them constantly. Even at the moment im more than happy when driving around locally to leave the spare off to cut back on the weight a bit, the 31" spare isnt something light

[GRPABT1]

You should try pulling a 34" swamper out off the pile of 5 in the shed! lol

[whincup]

GRPABT1 wrote:

You should try pulling a 34" swamper out off the pile of 5 in the shed! lol

my brothers 33x13.5 mudzillas are bad enough

[SierraDan]

Wouldn't be as bad as a beadlocked Trep.

[GRPABT1]

Nothing is as bad (good) as a beadlocked trep