[oohsam]

Hi Guys,
I've just purchased an LWB bullbar for my swb with the hope of modifying the brackets to suit.

After some trial fitting and measuring, it seems that the brackets can slide along the bar to fit.
The mounting points are different, however, I have found something strange.

I have found the factory threads on the cahsis that other bullbars use, and if i were to modify teh bracket to mount to this point, there is a L part of he bracket on the top which would be held in by the same bolt that holds the body onto the chasis, and lines up perfectly.

I have a feeling that this bracket, on an LWB utilises the body lift bolt bracket to help support the weight of the bar (so the bar is not being held by side bolts only, but it is also physically resting and sitting on the chasis.

I have 2 questions.

1. How difficult is it to lift up the body 10mm (thickness of the steel plate) to place the bracket under the body lift bolt
2. Is the bolt long enough to accomodate for a 10mm rise, if not, will i be able to get another bolt - Im assuming its a high tensile bolt
3. has anyone ever heard of, or seen such a mounting method? It seems that if i drilled the side holes to line up with the factory, and the body lift bolt, the bar would be mounted pretty much perfectly on the car.
4. Any other help or advice is highly appreciated.

here are some pictures to show you what the bracket looks like

This is a side view
I would be cutting off that long section with the two holes down the bottom, as they will be unused on the swb, and drilling two holes to line up with the factory chasis holes.



Top view, you can see the L part that would sit on the chasis here

[oohsam]

Ok, Just decided to take out the head lights and remove the body /chasis bolts.
Jacked up the body off the chasis enough to put the bracket under it, and....Looks like they are long enough, however, the hole on the bracket does not line up with the bolt location, just my luck!!

So there goes that idea, and now back to the drawing board to design custom brackets.

Or I drill another hole to line up the bolt, and that may just work...I'll sleep on it and think about it tomorrow, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to holla.

[DarkHorse]

Now that you've gone to all that effort...

The lug you are attempting to mount to the front body bolt sits on top of the chassis nubs on the LWB, which is the main difference between the long and shorts:

(These are custom brackets to suit the body lift and mount the winch cradle, but it gives you an idea.)

The hole below that is for an extra bolt (or two) that most of us put through the chassis nub for extra strength:


The bottom hole mounts to a bolt down here:


The second bottom hole is confusing me, but it could potentially just be for a reco point, like the extra hole drilled in mine above.

[oohsam]

Thanks Darkhorse, your'e a champ yet again.

Had a good think about it after seeing your pics.

Here are my options i think .

The section that normally bolts into the lugs on the lwbs, I can mark up and drill through, where the body mount bolt goes in on mine, that will provide support from top.

The second bolt, on the side (there is only 1 of), I'd have to drill through the chassis section and bolt there.

The two bolts holes that then go backwards towards the engine, go to nowhere. So I was going to just cop that off.
That would leave those two bolts being the only two holding on the bar.

Do you think that would be sufficient?
In addtion to this, I have two factory holes in the chassis on the same side as the one hole on my bracket, they are threaded, (as I can see in your pic, but you have not used them, mine are diagonal, yours are vertical) I could drill them out and use them for additional support. They are a fairly small bolt though, used for holding on the bumper bar support bracket on, I would use a high tensile longer bolt through there, same thread.

One more qn, with your bolts in the second and third pic, are they self tappers that go through the chasis nub, or do they have nuts on the other side? I cant see how you would get a nut in there..

Thoughts?

Cheers

[DarkHorse]

Are you just mounting the bar? No winch? Going to put decent recovery points in somewhere else so you don't snatch off it? Is the bar steel or alloy?

If it's just an alloy bar it sounds like you'd be OK as you've described. If it's a heavier steel bar you might want to engineer something more. If you are planning on winching or recovering off it you will definitely need much more strength.

I'm not familiar enough with the SWB front end to really help.

The two holes on the side - you mean the two little holes just behind the bottom bolt of mine, under the body mount? They are not threaded on mine from memory, and are way too small to be any use. That bottom bolt is a factory mount for the bumper, there is a nut welded to the chassis and the bolt is an HT M8, same as the top one.

The top horizontal bolt just behind the bar mount is an HT M12 that is drilled through the chassis nub with a nut on the other side:

I still need to pack that gap and get some crush toob in

[oohsam]

Awesome, thanks for the pics and more info.

Yeah, Its an alloy bar, no plans for winch, and no recovery off the bar, will be using different recovery points for the front.
If i were to get a winch, I'd be upgrading to an ARB steel bar I think which is why I don't want to weld anything to the chassis, so it is removable.

I think i'll give it a go!

Cheers

[got_bar_work]

Take a pic of the front of ur chassis
Drill through the chassis if u need to and put crush tubes through it then use a min 10mm ht bolt
The little 8mm bolts r not going to hold shit
The bar will vibrate around
I dont think lifting the body is a good idea u might crack it after a while

[Charlie Brown]

Hey dark horse do you have a pic of how the other side brackets (passenger) work to get around the tie down point. I've made a tube/winch bar and am figuring out how to mount it too thanks.mate

[DarkHorse]

This is about the best I've got - bracket goes to the outside of the chassis nub, tie-down is on the inside so no dramas:




When I come to remount the bar (hopefully pre-Christmas) I'm going to blatantly plagiarise Fatzook's mounts, probably grind off the lip of the crossmember and build brackets for the winch cradle and bar off that.

[Charlie Brown]

Sweet thanks heaps for that mate I don't have a body lift so it sits a bit lower.

[DarkHorse]

Ah, yeah that could make things interesting. If you're building recovery points into the bar that could be used as tie-downs just cut the factory one off.

[Charlie Brown]

Good point I think I might and get a bolt on hook for snatching