Underbody Protection

[Z()LTAN]

Has anyone here tried to extensively clad the under body of their 70?

Im looking at making a belly plate come tranni/transfer crossmember out of 8mm sheet biz alloy, folded up at the edges and bolted to the chassis. The added bonus of this, it will make the chassis very rigid and less prone to twisting. Also you can hang rock sliders of this and not worry about the chassis twisting when it takes the added leverage of the slider/side step...

I will make another mount above the tranni so when i want to drop this belly plate the tranni will stay suspended.

It will start just behind the bell housing and finish just before the output flange to the tail shaft.

Now in doing this, i may have to push the tranni/transfer up a few inches to be above the underside of the chassis? will this muck things up? or will the only problem be twisted engine mounts and radiator fan/radiator proximity? oh and gear lever position?

lol alot of reading i know... but i dont have a shorter way of explaining

[guzzla]

But you want the chassis to twist, thats what its designed to do

[+dj_hansen+]

Has anyone here tried to extensively clad the under body of their 70?

Im looking at making a belly plate come tranni/transfer crossmember out of 8mm sheet biz alloy, folded up at the edges and bolted to the chassis. The added bonus of this, it will make the chassis very rigid and less prone to twisting. Also you can hang rock sliders of this and not worry about the chassis twisting when it takes the added leverage of the slider/side step...

I will make another mount above the tranni so when i want to drop this belly plate the tranni will stay suspended.

It will start just behind the bell housing and finish just before the output flange to the tail shaft.

Now in doing this, i may have to push the tranni/transfer up a few inches to be above the underside of the chassis? will this muck things up? or will the only problem be twisted engine mounts and radiator fan/radiator proximity? oh and gear lever position?

lol alot of reading i know... but i dont have a shorter way of explaining

Bizallloy, as the liebherr fitters said.. was fitter proof! their boss considered making their esky out of it even... however for what it makes up in strength, its fawken heavy isnt it?

Drive train lift (if your doing body lift) to give yourself a flat belly, and then consider stuff like low profile cross members, and perhaps welding extra meat onto the bottom of your chassis rails like the wear plates on a excavator bucket/truck tray, rather than adding a heap of plate that is going to weigh a tonne... and trap mud, rocks etc that will rattle around and annoy the hell out of you...

If your dead keen on it, there was a bloke a while ago who made up a full underbelly slider, i think it was toughnut, pics would be long gone, but shoot him a pm and ask a few questions he may be able to help you.

[rockcrawler31]

Yeah, steve (toughnut) had a full underbelly plate which looked strong, but heavy as farrrrk. I think i'd prefer a plate similar in size and shape to a factory one but a little thicker andwith a tube brace above it. The factory one is just sheet metal from one chassis rail to the other, and i've found on mine that resting the truck on it pushes it up and exposes the drain plugs.

So i reckon a little less than what you're planning and a little more than factory would be a good medium.

[Z()LTAN]

point taken, ill take that all into consideration, thanks

[balzackracing]

This is a good idea on doing it.[/img]

[Z()LTAN]

oooh, now thats very shiny... ideas comin in now!

[rockcrawler31]

Heyyyyy, i know that truck

except it's orange now and been sold