Sure glad I made a roll bar...

[olds97_lss]

If I hadn't had my roll bar on, I'd be looking for a new engine. My skatepark has some steel box rails that site about 8 inches off the ground. I lost control of my savage (3rd gear kicked in unexpectedly) and it went cartwheeling into one of those rails at a decent clip. It hit about as square as it could right above the cooling head. Made a loud "DONG" sound and a bunch of rust fell off the rail.

I wish I had my camera with me as I could at least have shown how the truck ended up. It was basically on the sides of two wheels with the roll bar leaning against the rail.

The only damage I can see is a tweaked stock roll bar:

The body kicked up like this when I took out the body clip:

Shows you how tweaked that thing was.

And here's a front shot with the body off:

After a few small "taps" with a hammer, she's as good as new. I should probably get a new stock roll bar as I'm sure the aluminum has fatigued due to it being bent.

 

[Racer 1966]

Ouch!!!! Never leave home without a camera! I'm glad it didn't damage anything important.

 

[awhunt]

what is that behind your front bumper??:\

 

[olds97_lss]

Rubber grommet to keep the bumper from flexing so much on impact that it breaks the bumper stand offs. You can't buy just the stand offs. You have to spend $12-15 on a new skid and bits just to get them. Prior to the grommet, I was replacing stand offs about every other bash session. Since the grommet (4+ years ago on another savage) I have yet to replace a stand off nor has the new owner of it. I have one on the rear as well, but mounted a bit different.

Did something similar on my aftershock as it's packaged the same way with the brace/skid:

Setup this way, it can absorb a very hard hit and not damage anything. I run a bolt through the grommet and then through a plate on the truck chassis. When the grommets compress, the bolt slides through the hole in the chassis.

Not as easy to setup on the savage though. I need to rethink how I'm doing it on that rig as it's hard on the shock tower screws. I made a little plate that uses the two lower screws to run the bolt through.

 

[gnarkill]

Woah, You really beat that cage up. Glad to hear you didn't break anything else.

 

[silverbird02]

Now thats what i call preventative maintenance nice job on both the mods and good timing too.

 

[olds97_lss]

Now thats what i call preventative maintenance nice job on both the mods and good timing too.

Thanks.

I've always ran roll-bars. Get a few jabs from a few guys about looking at them... but when they save your butt, it makes those jabs not so effective!

 

[awhunt]

how about a littlle more info on the grommet mounting, looks like you built some sort of attachment for it to attach to truck.

 

[olds97_lss]

how about a littlle more info on the grommet mounting, looks like you built some sort of attachment for it to attach to truck.

Maybe I'll pull them apart this weekend and take some photo's... after I get my work bench cleared up. Got my jato all apart on it at the moment. Waiting for parts.

It's really simple though. The aftershock one was really simple and the savage one was a bit more complex, but I should really re-do it as it's not as solid as the aftershocks.

 

[awhunt]

that would be sweet, my savage is sitting on my garage floor waiting to be ran. so tke your time but that looks like a great idea

 

[olds97_lss]

Sorry, forgot about this. Better late than never?
Front of the skid:

Back Side of front bumper:

Top of front bumper:

Side of front bumper:

Since there isn't a good way to mount the grommets on the truck like there is on my aftershock, I just mounted them directly to the skid itself. On my first edition on the savage, I made a little plate and used the top two shock tower screws, but it would rip them out on hard hits, so I did it this way instead. Works really well now. I've had a few nasty dead stick landings on the front from 4+ feet in the air, it just bounces and keeps on going.

The grommets are just big fat rubber grommets I got at the hardware store. I cut one at a bit of an angle and made notches in it so it would bolt higher up on the skid plate. The second one I cut the fat end off of it and made a recessed hole for the nut/washer to sit in so it doesn't smash into the bulkhead cross piece unless I hit hard enough to compress the grommets quite a bit.

 

[Rolex]

Wow, that roll bar took some major bendage. I guess I should consider installing one on mine in case it falls off the shelf.

 

[olds97_lss]

I don't know anyone that makes one in chrome...