[Fatzook]

SuziBlu wrote:

Fats, have you seen some of the corrugations that Shep is talking of, road train made ?, some big enuf to near swallow a lil zook.

Yep. I've done some driving in NT. Awesome country, but the road certainly are wild at times

Oh, and coilovers are hight adjustable

[Fatzook]

Red89 wrote:

I have thought of doing that too, any idea what thickness you will be using ?

Prob 20mm if I can get it.

[alien]

theres a few place in perth that sell polyurethane and polyethylene in all sorts of thicknesses and can router cut it to shape too. i reckon it'd be great to put under the leaves to help them slide over rocks etc.

[SuziBlu]

Fatzook wrote:

SuziBlu wrote:

Fats, have you seen some of the corrugations that Shep is talking of, road train made ?, some big enuf to near swallow a lil zook.

Yep. I've done some driving in NT. Awesome country, but the road certainly are wild at times

Oh, and coilovers are hight adjustable

Hight adjustable, so cool.

[shep]

there is a polyethylene made in 1200 x 2400 sheets for flooring in boats.
from memory it is 9 or 10mm thick.
i will see if i can find a link for ya.

[steve]

Fatzook wrote:

I'm making my belly plate from that waxy plastic cutting board material, so I can slide over anything

not being an arsehole or anything, but would that work? I don't know, just throwing ideas around, Have you done any testing? I thought maybe it would be too soft, and also flexible, so rocks may just dig in to it and grab?

[SuziBlu]

Steve, I know this stuff well, its very slippery, and, if you hit it bad, and save your drive line, then throw it away and replace it, it has done well.

I recon as rocks will hurt it bad, but, its an insurance policy so to speak.

Most rocks will slide off, they tend to be rounded, or if not, they are very sharp and nothing on earth will save you.

[alien]

the idea would be to apply it over some 3mm steel plate though right? so the steel behind it gives it strength...

[steve]

I'd still want to see some proof before anyone can claim victory. Has anyone ever done it? and actually done serious rockcrawling?

hard steel bash plates work well on sharp rocks. I think it's a common belief that aluminium bash plates tend to grip because they are soft?

I guess we are talking in slight percentages here anyway so no big deal.

[SuziBlu]

Steve, try the sg of the differing substances, one is very light, tho dense, the other is light, but hard and easily disformed. Also pretty sticky, is why you need wax on cutting wheels when cutting the stuff.

Ever had anything to do with dyneema, that is pretty special, all it is is HD PE, only PE heated and formed under extreme pressure, and yet it is not only the strongest fibre known to mankind, it is also the slipperiest, it took me a long time to work out how to splice when making fishing nets out of it.

I am sure it will be a winner, ok, not yet proven, and I see your concern, but, knowing the stuff, I feel it is all good.

[Gwagensteve]

shep wrote:

Fatzook wrote:

it is the blanket statement
Body lift, guard chopping and bumpstop spacers are the only ways to fit a larger tyre

If there's 3 inches between your tyre and guard and 5 inches between the axle and the bumpstop how are you fitting tyres without a bodylift, guard chopping or bumpstop spacers?

I'm 100% serious, please explain the other ways of gaining room for tyres because other than portal boxes, I can't see another way.

There's lots of rock race cars in the US running cutting board plastic as a belly pan. It's a great idea.

Thing is, when we built Greg's car, we went to all the hassle of setting captive nuts into the chassis and adding more supports on the crossmembers to support the HDPE belly pan we made.

That was 4 years ago. It's still sitting in my shed. Once you do the work to run a flat pan (lift the transfer, exhaust and gearbox crossmember) the pan becomes redundant because there's nothing under the rails to catch on.

We've also built an alloy pan for CJ's car:



I think the amount that belly clearance effects capability is overrated. In my experience, cars rarely get stopped by being caught on the chassis. They might bump and grind a bit, but it's relatively rare that they'll just stop. Cars get caught on the diffs all the time though, and that's why the only relevant measure of ground clearance is at the diff.

[SuziBlu]

Steve, I have gotten hung up more times than I like to admit, always on the chassis with all 4 wheels in the air.

It does depend on where an on what you drive.

Up in the territory, long time ago, it was on rocks, anthills, nowdays, its on sand.

Where you are, and on your play zone, ok, what you do is excellent, but, there are as many play zones as there are ways to build.

You drive on rocks, use very low gearing, me, im on soft stuff that needs speed to do shit, if I were to build as you do, epic failure, your builds where I play, same deal, epic failure.

Many play zones, many excellent build ideas.

[SierraDan]

My take on a belly pan is for those lone rocks that wanna make a mess of your transfer. By that i mean, thats the reason id make the effort.

[ajsr]

I'm with setve on this one, I belive it will almost snag the rock unless wet, with the weight of the car on it.
steel would have more slip on rock I belive.

same idea's Ive been having, a slippery belly would be ace

[SuziBlu]

ajsr wrote:

I'm with setve on this one, I belive it will almost snag the rock unless wet, with the weight of the car on it.
steel would have more slip on rock I belive.

same idea's Ive been having, a slippery belly would be ace

HT yes, 'normal" low tensile steel, naaaa, bog down, too much scorability.

[steak_knife]

Gwagensteve wrote:

Won't go 1/16 of the place's Sully will, doesn't have a drive shaft....

[Fatzook]

SuziBlu wrote:

ajsr wrote:

I'm with setve on this one, I belive it will almost snag the rock unless wet, with the weight of the car on it.
steel would have more slip on rock I belive.

same idea's Ive been having, a slippery belly would be ace

HT yes, 'normal" low tensile steel, naaaa, bog down, too much scorability.

Sorry fellas but its not a new concept. The yanks have been using it with great success for many years. It is a consumable part, and due to its 'softer than rock' construction and very 'slippery' texture, it actually slides VERY well over most surfaces. Yes it scratches and gouges away, hence the 20mm thick sheet. It also weighs very little, so its not a compromise to have a 20mm tick skid plate

I'll dig up some build threads of cutting egde US rock buggy builds.

[Red89]

Fatzook wrote:

I'll dig up some build threads of cutting egde US rock buggy builds.

'One last Samurai' has one I think.

[Fatzook]

Red89 wrote:

Fatzook wrote:

I'll dig up some build threads of cutting egde US rock buggy builds.

'One last Samurai' has one I think.

UHWM Skids

[royce]

wheres the threads of people using it?

iirc somebody had it at tough truck and it was a failure, fell to bits, the shit is also massive expensive, for no real gain over a decent steel skid (all the cool kids run a full welded plate belly and get the driveline out through the cab )

suziblu I reckon you are a different kettle of fish, you are dropping onto a high point of soft stuff so you get swamped, normally with a big rog - log more speed will let you slip over

[Red89]

Fatzook wrote:

Red89 wrote:

Fatzook wrote:

I'll dig up some build threads of cutting egde US rock buggy builds.

'One last Samurai' has one I think.

UHWM Skids

This is getting off topic but,





http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=829327