Belly Pans

Hey, done alittle searching and not come up with much. I'm in the home stretch of finishing the fabrication for my SAS, going well, simple and well thought out (at least I think so lol). Anyway, after this i'm going to finish building the axle, but I'm also thinking about a belly pan for the explorer. I'm thinking about making a frame out of 2x2x.187 (or round tube if I can find a bender), attaching it forward of the bell housing, just behind the shock mounts. Then extending it back to my transmission crossmember. The crossmember is 2x4x.187 and i'm not sure I want to tie this into that so I'd probably mount it just behind that removing the x-fer case gaurd and using those mounting points. Has anyone else done this, or something similar??? Just looking for some ideas. On the surface it seems like a relatively cheap and good mod.

Something like this...paint isn't a very powerfull tool for designing stuff but it kinda conveys my idea. Of course it would bolted on, and the gray crosshatch pattern would be a solid sheet.

looks like a good idea. What thickness are you thinking for the guard itself?

Tim

Not really sure, would .187 be too thick, maybe 11 gauge? I could also use UHMW but i have no clue where to buy that...

Looking for any suggesions here. And also, i'll have to figure out a way to support it somewhere in the middle...too far of a span to have the weight of the explorer sitting on it without a middle support I would think.

CodePoet said:

Not really sure, would .187 be too thick, maybe 11 gauge? I could also use UHMW but i have no clue where to buy that...

Looking for any suggesions here. And also, i'll have to figure out a way to support it somewhere in the middle...too far of a span to have the weight of the explorer sitting on it without a middle support I would think.

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.187 itself with no support braces is definately not enough. I have a 1/4" steel belly on my Jeep and have bent that in places with no support. If you add UHMW to the 3/16 I think that would be ok with little or no bracing except at the edges.

Look for plastic supply in the phone book, there should be at least a few around where you live.

cool, thanks for the advice

tap plastics should be able to get hte hookup

i like the plastic idea i have personal experience with it on four wheeler and it works great but no idea on vehicles keep us posted

sorta an offshoot what about a undercarriage pan, like on formula cars, would this help in aerodynamics?

If "UHMW" doesnt turn up much on E-bay, search for "HDPE". I'm planning on plating the underside of my soon to be rock sliders with this material.

Not sure if a belly pan for aerodynamics would make a whole lot of difference for an explorer...they're bricks pretty much haha. Mine is to keep rocks out of my tranny and to help me slide over crap. UHMW is used alot from what I can tell, best part is it's probably a whole hell of a lot easier to work with than 1/4"+ steel haha.

Thanks for the tip iz...my sliders will DEFFINITLY need something, I have three nice big anchors on each side with those haha.

I do want something that's easily removable since after each run it'll need a thourough cleaning...the plastic may be the best since it's lighter.