project ideas?

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cplchris

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im currently taking a few cad courses required for a certificate program, fortunately ive been working with cad and 3d modeling for about 8 years, so needless to say the work is easy, im looking for ideas for something to occupy some free time so if any of you guys have an idea that you want to fabricate but cant figure out how to go about designing something or if you just dont have the patience, whatever the case is im looking for ideas on stuff to design and ultimately id like to fabricate the designs and do writeups with detailed instructions for anyone who would like to build some cool stuff so any ideas or problems needing solutions are welcome and ill see what i can do
 

Minimike

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both, mostly for recovery. I want to mount a winch to a 2" draw bar for use on the front or back. My rear hitch is a 6000lbs class 3 receiver so it should cope well.
 

SabaII

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Bumpers front and rear. My poor old lap top wont run any decent cad program and I havent used one in about five years as well.
 

cplchris

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both, mostly for recovery. I want to mount a winch to a 2" draw bar for use on the front or back. My rear hitch is a 6000lbs class 3 receiver so it should cope well.

ok then i will design it to be just as strong if not stronger than the rear mounted hitch, would you plan on welding in a front crossmember for added strength or are you looking for a completely bolt in setup?
 

cplchris

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Bumpers front and rear. My poor old lap top wont run any decent cad program and I havent used one in about five years as well.

lol i hear ya on the crappy computer the schools coputers are slow and have built in graphics, i have already been working on designing my own set of bumpers are you looking to make them out of steel or aluminum? so far ive been doing concept sketching for the bumpers as far as the mounting design and fab goes i have to wait until i can have the front bumper off for measuring purposes so it will more than likely be a little while but i do plan on having them done inside of the next year and a half and will post a build how to with all drawing included in pdf format
 

JeepinJarhead03

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there's already a crossmember there which can be incorporated into the mounting for the front - if using a 1 piece bumper design, the bumper becomes the effective "weld in cross member" if using two piece, the mount (eg. arb or detours) becomes the effective "weld in cross member"

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suggestion for the rear

if accommodating a tank skid - 4 bolt with tank skid on first, or 6 bolt with tank skid mounting last - and there's a lip that goes across the rear of the vehicle that is quite assistive for R&R a rear steel bumper - would probably take 3 people to put mine on if it wasn't able to rest on that lip while being installed and removed

the tank skid issue is more or less a concern as getting the bumper and skid on or off can be rather dangerous if there's no way to retain one or the other
 
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SabaII

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lol i hear ya on the crappy computer the schools coputers are slow and have built in graphics, i have already been working on designing my own set of bumpers are you looking to make them out of steel or aluminum? so far ive been doing concept sketching for the bumpers as far as the mounting design and fab goes i have to wait until i can have the front bumper off for measuring purposes so it will more than likely be a little while but i do plan on having them done inside of the next year and a half and will post a build how to with all drawing included in pdf format

Well so far my plan of attack is cardboard. Lol I am going to snag some radiator boxes from work and just measure out what I want and build it up in cardboard first as sort of a mock. I wasn't sure how I was going to mount it until I get to that point of removing the stock one for the mock purposes. I am going to use steel, just not sure on gauge yet either. I have almost no aluminum welding experience so it makes more sense.
 

cplchris

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there's already a crossmember there which can be incorporated into the mounting for the front - if using a 1 piece bumper design, the bumper becomes the effective "weld in cross member" if using two piece, the mount (eg. arb or detours) becomes the effective "weld in cross member"

--

suggestion for the rear

if accommodating a tank skid - 4 bolt with tank skid on first, or 6 bolt with tank skid mounting last - and there's a lip that goes across the rear of the vehicle that is quite assistive for R&R a rear steel bumper - would probably take 3 people to put mine on if it wasn't able to rest on that lip while being installed and removed

the tank skid issue is more or less a concern as getting the bumper and skid on or off can be rather dangerous if there's no way to retain one or the other

thanks for the info, like i said i havent had the front bumper off yet ive done some work on a couple of xjs in the past and have welded in a front crossmember for more strength, i gotta get a daily driver before i start having real fun with the kj
 

candpliberty

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I have a hitch rack which works great but I want to raise it to about spare tire rim level, add another rack above the spare with (2) 5 gallon steel "jerry" cans on the bottom rack. I want to leave the spare alone, have the racks and gas cans swing on a frame mounted to the Reese receiver hitch. It would be nice to be able to remove the racks when not in use. Am I asking for to much?:shrug::freak3:
 

cplchris

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I have some for you ... I need portal axel kit .... :)

while that would be awesome im not quite that advanced and i would feel bad if i sent you in a bad direction and ruined your jeep but tat would be an awesome mod, there was a company i saw once called overkill engineering or something like that and they made something similiar called "atomic axles" it was basically an independent suspension set up but the axle housing went from wheel to wheel and the center axle was mounted higher than the wheels and a cv joint connected the center section to the hub, but the axle moved as a solid axle does and it still gained quite a few inches of ground clearance
 

cplchris

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I have a hitch rack which works great but I want to raise it to about spare tire rim level, add another rack above the spare with (2) 5 gallon steel "jerry" cans on the bottom rack. I want to leave the spare alone, have the racks and gas cans swing on a frame mounted to the Reese receiver hitch. It would be nice to be able to remove the racks when not in use. Am I asking for to much?:shrug::freak3:

no your asking a pretty good amount but i can do that without dismanteling my jeep, if you can get me a pic of your hitch without anything mounted, one with the rack in place and then the rack by itself with dimensions so i can model it and work off of a 3d solid model that would be great
 

candpliberty

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Rack size is 19 1/4 wide by 60 1/2 long by 5 1/2 basket depth.
 

Phil + Neela

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while that would be awesome im not quite that advanced and i would feel bad if i sent you in a bad direction and ruined your jeep but tat would be an awesome mod, there was a company i saw once called overkill engineering or something like that and they made something similiar called "atomic axles" it was basically an independent suspension set up but the axle housing went from wheel to wheel and the center axle was mounted higher than the wheels and a cv joint connected the center section to the hub, but the axle moved as a solid axle does and it still gained quite a few inches of ground clearance

Well, portal axle conversions exist, but the price is a little...yeah

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/Axeltech-Bolt-On-Dana-60-Portal-Conversion-Kit-p-20131.html

In this case, the D60 price is the least of your worries.
 

Vital

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Ry' N Jen

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I have a hitch rack which works great but I want to raise it to about spare tire rim level, add another rack above the spare with (2) 5 gallon steel "jerry" cans on the bottom rack. I want to leave the spare alone, have the racks and gas cans swing on a frame mounted to the Reese receiver hitch. It would be nice to be able to remove the racks when not in use. Am I asking for to much?:shrug::freak3:


Jen and I are thinking of doing the exact same thing as what you would like!

The main problem I foresee is the actual part that inserts into the receiver itself.
The last off road excursion Jen and I did the receiver portion of the hitch made contact with the terra firma several times!
Had the receiver been any longer it would of dug in and we would of gotten stuck several times!
Still trying to work out how to get the cargo carrier up high without causing the grounding out!
 

cplchris

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ill model the rack first and when im done ill have you pm me your email and ill send a pdf of the rack so that you can double check to make sure the base for the design is correctly szed, ive already thought of a couple of potential ways too mount the rack higer up and have decent clearance but they will require a little more stuff to bolt up
 

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