who else believes that this needs to happen?

   

You need to start this ASAP

Po-Po Ram Bar, Me Likey.

yup, going on the list to be added to the 240

Maybe a little over the top.

this is a bull bar off of a 90 F150, it breaks down into 4 pieces, so I might bolt it back together using thinner cross beams and make it narrower so my fogs are not interfered with.

The idea it to protect the grill and radiator, and provide a lower mount for an eventual skid plate to proceed rearwards.
(ok ok, i lied, the idea it to be able to hit a shopping cart at 65 and see how far it goes)

   
   
   

thats more what im thinking-

still on the fence about adding a third bar below, making it a square cross piece to bolt the license plate to, or just trimming the tabs short and using the stock plate mount

opinions?

   
   
   

This is over the top!

LOL "let me tell you about my grandchildren"

I need that plate. You are right, this puts mine to shame

Thats not over-the-top that's the most awesome W123 evar!

My main concern about hitting a 'shopping cart' would be it flipping over the bar and taking out the hood and the wind shield, a shopping cart is pretty light and a 3000+ lbs car going 65mph is alot of force. Adding any weight to thus said shopping cart?

(05-14-2010 06:33 PM)Kozuka Wrote:  Thats not over-the-top that's the most awesome W123 evar!

My main concern about hitting a 'shopping cart' would be it flipping over the bar and taking out the hood and the wind shield, a shopping cart is pretty light and a 3000+ lbs car going 65mph is alot of force. Adding any weight to thus said shopping cart?

maybe an ex GF or two.

Actually, this mod is to prevent this (stolen from benzworld)-

   

the OEM bumpers are too low for a lot of modern car bumpers, and it just slips over and does damage to the radiator and whatnot. I want to prevent this kind of thing from easily happening since I will be driving the car daily in heavy traffic. Even if its my fault, id rather do more damage to their car and be able to drive mine away

My 16v has damage kinda like that from a parking lot. I have silly thoughts about ramming cars out of my way in some kind of emergency situation haha.

One time I was hanging out at the local grocery store parking lot where a friend of mine works and I saw this you lady in a beat up ford probe strait up ram this mini-van pulling into a parking spot reverse pull in the spot and acted like nothing happened.

I park far away from anyone else.

(05-14-2010 07:47 PM)dropnosky Wrote:  .....
the OEM bumpers are too low for a lot of modern car bumpers, and it just slips over and does damage to the radiator and whatnot. I want to prevent this kind of thing from easily happening since I will be driving the car daily in heavy traffic. Even if its my fault, id rather do more damage to their car and be able to drive mine away

How about putting a lift kit to raise the bumpers.
           

Or you can have both the lift kit and the push bumpers.

I think the cross bar should be a thickness that in the middle of the original and the test tubing.




.

more like this? I think you are right.

   

I want that lift kit and those splash guards!

i love the lift kit! how does one do such a thing?

and i've always wanted to throw a rambar on my 123! awesome project. i like the thicker crossbars it came with though.

Yeah, I think I was on the wrong track going with smaller bars, the entire thing was I think just too wide, and there was probably no need to go with a smaller diameter bar.

After reviewing the pics on the thread, I am now shortening the thicker crossmembers to see how they look. Great benefit to them is that they come with the fog light mounts on them already.

How do yall think that CD is raised the way it is?
Do you think the thickest coil spring shims would achieve that or somthing close?
Those mudflaps kick ass, they really add to the appeal of that car.

(05-19-2010 10:42 AM)garage Wrote:  How do yall think that CD is raised the way it is?
Do you think the thickest coil spring shims would achieve that or somthing close?
Those mudflaps kick ass, they really add to the appeal of that car.

That car was for sale not too long ago and I pirated the pictures. I believed it was claimed to have a factory lift kit.

The factory use a certain spring type for the different options/accessories that is installed in the car. If you have the correct springs you will get some lift with thicker spring pads.

Not that I ever seen one of these before, I imagine the factory lift kit involves taller & heavier springs and shocks.



.

(05-19-2010 12:42 PM)DeliveryValve Wrote:  

(05-19-2010 10:42 AM)garage Wrote:  How do yall think that CD is raised the way it is?
Do you think the thickest coil spring shims would achieve that or somthing close?
Those mudflaps kick ass, they really add to the appeal of that car.

That car was for sale not too long ago and I pirated the pictures. I believed it was claimed to have a factory lift kit.

The factory use a certain spring type for the different options/accessories that is installed in the car. If you have the correct springs you will get some lift with thicker spring pads.

Not that I ever seen one of these before, I imagine the factory lift kit involves taller & heavier springs and shocks.



.

Oh so it was claimed to be a factory kit?

It makes sense that these cars would have a lift option, with there being so many of them in other/3rd world countries and such.
I wonder

Here is every spring they have. For a company that likes to share parts cross-platform, they sure have plenty of options!

That lift kit will be more than just springs. In the front you might be able to get the alignment dialed in with just taller springs, but not the rear! At the least it would involve some sort of extensions on the sub-frame and trailing arm mounts.

shorter with original bars was the way to go! I love it, time to paint and properly mount

   
   

You guys are silly. I would be more concerned with the shocks collapsing and the cow bar doing more damage!

(05-26-2010 09:18 AM)winmutt Wrote:  You guys are silly. I would be more concerned with the shocks collapsing and the cow bar doing more damage!

Ill just have to test it out then.

actually, I was surfing around some police forums, and the consensus seems to be that the police style ones are really useful for pushing stuff off the road and protecting vitals, but actually add to the body damage of a PT maneuver instead of limiting it. pretty interesting discussions given the the big price tags of the actual police issue stuff.
Seems a lot of police forces go back and forth buying them or not. I was reading one thing where once sherrifs department requires them to fill out an accident report any time they TOUCH another vehicle with the cruiser, including pushing a car off the road. For that reason, those cop's don't even touch any cars with the push bumper unless they can avoid it.

I am not bound by these pesky PD bureaucratic rules however

(05-14-2010 03:18 PM)dropnosky Wrote:  yup, going on the list to be added to the 240

Ok were did you get that roof rack?

(07-15-2010 02:55 AM)mike-81-240d Wrote:  Ok were did you get that roof rack?

discountramps.com

Its this product- http://www.discountramps.com/gutter-mount-van-rack.htm

They are super fast and easy to deal with, and the rack was cheap, but it does not really fit the car, and is really really really cheap and shitty. I would hesitate to try and put one duffel up there the metal is so thin. Does look cool though, old looking. They claim that it fits minivans, but I honestly doubt it. I had to bend the heck out of the gutter mounts to actually get it to sit on the roof, which compromised any strength is may have had.

Some of their other products may work though.

(07-15-2010 08:29 AM)dropnosky Wrote:  

(07-15-2010 02:55 AM)mike-81-240d Wrote:  Ok were did you get that roof rack?

discountramps.com

Its this product- http://www.discountramps.com/gutter-mount-van-rack.htm

Ahh I remember that one from a benzwo*ld discussion, too bad it doesn't fit. Looks great, but I'm trying to haul 2 kyaks cheaply and craigslist has jack shit.

ended up scoring some yakima towers for 30 bucks of craigslist instead, like everyone on that other thread told me to do in the first place. Something will probably come up cheaply in your area I bet.
I liked the way it looked also, but I think a couple of kayaks would have bent that rack right in half! I was able to bend the gutter mounts with one hand, it was extremely fragile. I think the side stamped rails were easily thinner than 20 gauge. The gutter mounts were closer to 18 gauge I think.

Waste of 50 bucks with shipping.

(07-15-2010 11:38 AM)dropnosky Wrote:  ended up scoring some yakima towers for 30 bucks of craigslist instead,...

Waste of 50 bucks with shipping.

Pics of your new setup?

Sounds like a buyer beware

Just found this...

http://www.a1-autoracks.com/proline-gmr1...racks.html

(07-16-2010 12:08 AM)mike-81-240d Wrote:  Just found this...

http://www.a1-autoracks.com/proline-gmr1...racks.html

I just decided to go ahead and order that rack, it came out to be $62 with shipping.
So we will find out how it fits!

Be careful it have enough clearance to get over the plastic trim on the rain gutter.

(07-19-2010 08:12 AM)winmutt Wrote:  Be careful it have enough clearance to get over the plastic trim on the rain gutter.

The plastic trim on my gutters is no longer there, so we will see.

I ordered it Friday evening.

Craigslist didn't have anything.

(07-19-2010 03:17 PM)mike-81-240d Wrote:  I ordered it Friday evening.

Craigslist didn't have anything.

Hey mike what kind of kayaks are you hauling around?
I just recently picked up a 14ft aqua terra kayak, made by perception.
Its really a blast, i try to do alot of fishing out of it too.

(07-19-2010 05:43 PM)garage Wrote:  

(07-19-2010 03:17 PM)mike-81-240d Wrote:  I ordered it Friday evening.

Craigslist didn't have anything.

Hey mike what kind of kayaks are you hauling around?
I just recently picked up a 14ft aqua terra kayak, made by perception.
Its really a blast, i try to do alot of fishing out of it too.

I have 2 10 foot wilderness systems, and I'm thinking about a 12.5 foot perception I found on craigslist.

(07-15-2010 10:37 PM)mike-81-240d Wrote:  Pics of your new setup?

Sounds like a buyer beware

   

Waffling on getting the fairing, but boy, that sure does make a difference in sound with these racks! Friggin hate paying 60 bucks for a piece of plastic though! Maybe generic fairings are available?

Push bumper update: So, shortened cross bars, and actually had the bars turned to have a perfectly smooth surface instead of a bead of weld. Unfortunately, machine shop guy doing me a favor incorrectly secured the bar with the brackets for the lights, and it flew out of the lathe and damaged one end. They fixed it, but cut material off of the end to do so, and now the brackets are not centered. I have to cut one off, and have it rewelded the correct distance from the end, but I will be using a different shop for that since these guys are not exceptional at aluminum welding. Their skill is about the same as my skill, which is poor.

New rack fits great!

(07-24-2010 12:37 AM)garage Wrote:  New rack fits great!

Pics!

(07-24-2010 09:03 AM)dropnosky Wrote:  

(07-24-2010 12:37 AM)garage Wrote:  New rack fits great!

Pics!

Im not too sure how to post pictures on here, theres some pictures of it in the offroading the D's thread that Captain America posted for me.

(07-24-2010 09:50 AM)garage Wrote:  

(07-24-2010 09:03 AM)dropnosky Wrote:  

(07-24-2010 12:37 AM)garage Wrote:  New rack fits great!

Pics!

Im not too sure how to post pictures on here, theres some pictures of it in the offroading the D's thread that Captain America posted for me.

Its super easy, I just resize them on my computer to 640x480 through the windows stock microsoft picture manager which just comes on the computer so they are not too big, then in the thread making page, just hit the "browse" button under the attachments window, go to the file, click it, it will fill the browse window, then hit "add attachment", and it will show up underneath the new attachment window. Then you can hit "insert into post", and it will put the picture wherever the cursor is in the typing window.
If you don't hit "insert into post", the picture will show up underneath whatever you wrote when you post the reply.

I pirated your pic from captains thread-

   

heres mine for comparison again-
   

The one you have is much lower profile than the yakima stuff! It looks great, hows the noise? The yakima rack is super noisy until you get a fairing.

Right on Dropnosky! thanks for the tutorial, seems easy enough.

Yeah it is definetly more low profile than that yakima one on yours, however, i think i would prefer round bars over square bars. So far no noise, i havnt had her on the hwy yet, but i will find out soon enough.

oh man, if your rack is quiet, im going to be pissed.

you got the whole kit for 62, shipped?

I bought used towers for 30, and bought new bars for 60 (which don't come with end caps at that price for petes sake). So I paid 90 bucks, half of which are used components, and still have to deal with the noise problem, which yakima has a solution to for another 60 bucks.

Well i couldnt hear anything with the sunroof open or closed, but then again i have a loud ass straight pipe exiting underneath the passenger seat, so it might have just drowned it out.
But going 65 with the clutch in, i did not hear any whistling or anything.

Yeah the whole kit shipped was 62bucks, and it was pretty much assembled. It seems like its decent quality.

(07-24-2010 10:58 AM)garage Wrote:  Well i couldnt hear anything with the sunroof open or closed, but then again i have a loud ass straight pipe exiting underneath the passenger seat, so it might have just drowned it out.
But going 65 with the clutch in, i did not hear any whistling or anything.

mine starts making noise at 30. Maybe I will order one of these proline deals later and move the yakima to my wagon if it ever runs. High enough that it should go over the stock bars.

Oh boy I just checked UPS...


Tracking Detail

Your package is on time with a scheduled delivery date of 07/26/2010.

Tracking Number:1Z224*7W03421&636$ Status: In Transit Scheduled Delivery Date:07/26/2010

well, it turned out pretty nice I think. I only had to make two tiny angle iron brackets for the top, and the brackets this thing uses to bolt to the F-150 bumper actually worked perfectly below, almost as if it was made for it.

   
   
   

Now I just have to find a skid plate, maybe off a toyota truck to continue underneath and adapt it to protect the oil pan and radiator. It can probably continue from right where the push bumper ends.

(08-27-2010 12:47 PM)dropnosky Wrote:  well, it turned out pretty nice I think. I only had to make two tiny angle iron brackets for the top, and the brackets this thing uses to bolt to the F-150 bumper actually worked perfectly below, almost as if it was made for it.

Looks Great!

(08-27-2010 12:47 PM)dropnosky Wrote:  Now I just have to find a skid plate, maybe off a toyota truck to continue underneath and adapt it to protect the oil pan and radiator. It can probably continue from right where the push bumper ends.

Yes! I want one two! hehe ... too! Here is my thought... Make a plate just a tad wider than the oil pan and run it straight back from the bumper to under the pan, bolt right there at cross member behind engine oil pan, continue under trans and bolt up to trans cross member, continue just past rear diff with a lip at the end to protect diff housing. Yes it will be heavy but EVERYTHING will be protected... Also make some steering linkage protection as well cuz that shit seems like it will snap if you look at it the wrong way

i am really happy to have found a crowd that shares my view on the w123 as a rally / expedition / etc platform. <3 you guys lol

(05-14-2010 05:15 PM)ForcedInduction Wrote:  This is over the top!

The top needs to be raised or it just looks like it dont fit.

Whats on the top our left of the car?

So have you hit any unsuspecting trash cans or traffic cones with that new beast of a bumper yet?

The first thing I would go for is those F'ing toll lane pole things!

Take 'em all out in one shot..