RUBICON '03 PICS

[Steve R]

Hey Guys....gotta tell ya, I love this subject... as we are the innovators and trying to get better performance from this thing.

There can be no doubt, the higher you lift the vehicle....the greater you compromise side-slope stability....it's a pure trade-off!

I've been on many sideslopes where I've been thinking ANY lift would result in rolling. Seriously....I've been enough sideways that I'm not able to take a **** for days OR have to take some muscle relaxers!

Jim...I hear ya, better angles, more clearance....everything is good with the one exception of compromising side-slope stability. There is just no way around it....putting the weight up higher will essentially create greater leverage...the thing WILL roll over sooner. I also hear you about Trav doing the 40-degrees....but still....

Billy was making some noise about doing a body-drop of 3" and a suspension lift of 4"...now we're cookin'...but can it really be done????

As I see it, we have 2 angles to work: improve clearance AND brace for impact. We have to figure a way to get more clearance without substantially sacrificing stability....and we have to figure out some gnarly protection.

Billy makes his stuff from chrome-moly (sp?). It actually weights less and is several times stronger. My cage is way reinforced. We are also designing some side rockrails that actually are huge plates that extend from the frame all the way about 3.5" out (to replace the bars we have).

The bars we have use a sillyladder-like gussets to hold in place...these things get caught-up and whacked around. A smooth plating (like the H1 has) is more proper a choice.

Like I say....more clearance to avoid the contact AND more protection to absorb the contact. Some beefy-ass tie rods and some metal bumpers...and we're ready to rumble!!!