You've heard, there's no free lunch; everybody has to pay the piper; and you can't have it both ways. These are but a few axioms that imply a negative causal and effect relationship between good things and bad consequences. Sucks, doesn't it?
But what about, there's more than one way to skin a cat; never say die; and nothing ventured, nothing gained? Yeah, that's more like it.
When it comes to adding armor to your Jeep the tradeoff for all that strength and protection is usually a ton of performance-sapping weight. But it doesn't have to be. We cringed at the thought of adding nearly 80lbs of steel to the tub of our 2.5L-equipped YJ, so we went on the hunt for a set of lightweight aluminum rocker guards and found them available through Quadratec. The company offers 1/4-inch thick 6061 T-6 aluminum rockers for '76-'06 CJ-7 and Wrangler vehicles, including Jeep Unlimited models. We've used aluminum rockers in the past with good results. And while rocks will chew up the aluminum a bit more than steel, the weight savings is more than worth it to us.
Fully welded 1/4-inch T-6...
Fully welded 1/4-inch T-6 aluminum with a nice black powdercoated finish, our PN 12012.302 Quadratec YJ aluminum rocker guards feature three mounting bolts for the bottom of the tub, seven for the tub sides, and a nice integrated step that also keeps trail obstacles farther from the body. We began the installation by removing the front flare.
Like most rocker installs,...
Like most rocker installs, we positioned the rocker guard on the tub to mark where our mounting holes needed to be drilled, then bolted on the stainless steel tub side rocker bolts. Underneath, the Quadratec YJ rockers don't tie into the body bolts, but rather use spacers to create a solid connection to the tub floor. Our spacers were a bit long in a couple places, so we cut them to the proper length.
You have some leeway when...
You have some leeway when positioning the rockers fore and aft, but we found it best to slide the rocker all the way back to the rear flare and then cut the front flare for clearance. Notice the missing mounting bolt. The pinch weld for the floor and tub sides is right behind it, so we just left it out. At less than 15lbs each, our Quadratec aluminum rockers will protect our tub and combined weigh less than a full 5-gallon fuel can.