Safari Bar brackets

[RabidPony]

Can anyone post a pic of Tone's Safari Bar brackets? I'd like to see how hard it would be to make a set for myself. Unless of course someone has some collecting dust on a shelf that they'd be willing to part with.

[RabidPony]

bump...anyone?

[vt_maverick]

Maybe VX KAT could take a pic of hers?

[don moore]

if kat dont ..Ill do it ..ill take mine off to shoot some pics.. after the end of the week

[circmand]

check Kats photos or others I am sure there are a few already posted

[RabidPony]

Thanks Don, I appreciate it. I've actually searched high and low through both the forum and the gallery but I haven't found a single pic.

[JoFotoz]

This may help...






Its not Tones Safari bar...but the mounting must be very similar.


jo

[deermagnet]

I can't remember seeing a photo of Tone's brackets ever! Even going all the way back to suv.com. His is a two piece design that's welded at a specific angle. That would be the tricky part, getting the proper angle.

I'll go out and see if I can get a photo, but I'm not sure it would help much just seeing them on a VX.

Mark

[deermagnet]

This is my driver's side. The blue arrow is the Tone supplied bolt that uses an unused, already threaded hole in the frame. The red arrow is just flat plate steel that you can copy and cut pretty easily. The yellow arrow is just a flat steel disc about 2.5" dia except for a flat edge on one side that gets welded to the main piece. It is not a 90 degree angle between the two parts. That's what you have to figure out, the proper angle at the weld.

You're probably thinking right now, "why can't I get Trooper brackets from Westin and use those on my VX?" You can, but, Adam from NYC at one time had the Trooper brackets using this same bar from Westin. It works but they make the bar stick out way too far from our front cladding. The Trooper nose is obviously much different from ours. I think Tone did an excellent job and I wouldn't want my bar any closer or farther from the cladding. If you want to make your own, I would use Tone's design. There's not much chance of coming up with anything better than he did.

You could possibly cut the whole bracket from one flat piece of steel, then have a shop with a brake press make a bend at the right spot at the right angle needed. Then there would be no welding.

If it was me, I would cut it as one piece from light guage sheet metal, make a sharp bend at the right spot, hold it up in place and adjust the bend so the disc is parallel and perfectly flat to the front of the VX. Measure the distance of the bar bolts and make adjustments and so on. Then take that light guage template to a shop for a prototype of heavy steel and go from there.

Of course, if ya can find someone with a new or used set that's selling 'em, forget all that and it'll bolt up in just a few minutes.

I had that bar on for seven years. It was still in good shape, but lookin' a little road weary. I put a new one on last year to get back that shine. There was some rust around the ends and lots of rust inside the ends. For the brackets, make sure to coat them with primer and then gloss black Rustoleum. To isolate the bar from the brackets, and any migration of rust, use a washer between them. The biggest washer I could find was 2", which is the exact size of the bar and not the best seal there. I cut out washers just over 2" from light gauge galvanized sheet metal and drilled a hole the exact size of the bolt. After it's installed, coat around the washer and the end of the bar with primer and the gloss black Rustoleum. Repeat that step whenever necessary.

Westin #30-0015 is the black bar you need that will fit the Tone brackets. #30-0010 is the same bar chromed that will fit also. For the lights, take into account the depth and the clearance. Some of the larger lights with deep reflectors will not fit.

Mark Griffin

[RabidPony]

Awesome, thanks Deermagnet. What I way try to do is rough it out of plate steel and then throw it in my vice and heat and beat it into shape. And Use the sheetmetal template idea like you said. I'm quite advanced as far as my wrenching skills go but I've yet to learn how to weld. It's on the to-do list.

[rickshaw]

Here is a picture of my set of Tone's Safari Bar brackets. These are not for sale!
But I could sketch a template from these if it would help.

[WormGod]

Yep, that's an east coast undercarriage, heh. How I DO hate to crawl up under my VX....

I *MAY* still have my brackets. I have to look. After my show bar was the helmet for my VX when an idiot tech drove it through the wall, I think the brackets all that were salvageable for that kit. I will look this weekend and let ya know if you are interested.

[deermagnet]

Great rickshaw, that's just what he needs. You can really see how heavy and well built they are. It's 1/4" steel I believe. That would be hard to work with on your own. I'm not sure it needs to be that heavy.

Also, he needs to know the size and thread pitch of the frame bolt. It would help if you could take one of the frame bolts to an auto or hardware store to get the size using that bolt size guage thing.

I see you got a second gen design because one of the upper corners is cut off at an angle. The first design with a 90 degree corner caused a problem with some Vehicri 'cuz the amount of weld bead on the frame varied and some of us could not get the bracket up far enough to line up the bolt hole. Some of us had to round it off with a grinder or jig saw or hack saw. Tone obviously took care of that at some point.

Mark

[don moore]

thx guys on the pics im still dealing with the baby thing and work. i hope there pics helped..

[WormGod]

Managed to find my brackets in my pile-o-stuff in the garage. I have no use for them since my brush guard went the way of the mammoth.