Ped4599's Garage

[ped4599]

I think i will eventually paint the side screws black or put a black finish covering on them.
Its very important not to get these too tight during the process or the main bolts on the bottom wont line up.


ON my passengers side, i had the whole guard mounting a tiny bit too high and the door rubbed at first. but once i put the main bolts on the bottom it brought it down into place.


On one side i tucked the plastic fender well behind it. that pushed the fender flare in a bit and causes a gap. I will mold the plastic with a heat gun and i think this will then be corrected.the other side i let hang for now to test it, but that makes it rub the MT tire when I turn.


but they turned out to be well worth the wait!

[ped4599]

I have read many threads on sway bar removal....front, back...which is best to remove. of its bad...how much do you gain?....are the brake lines long enough?....etc ...etc!
I finally decided that no matter what you read, every rig is just a little different so there is really no way to know until you test things out for yourself. So i wanted to do a control test and make sure everything was ok before offroading with the links removed....and see if I would really gain all that much.
So here are a few pics from my rig with the front sway bar links removed. I have driven about 500 miles with then off...both on streets, in fields, off road, and on the interstate. I can really tell they are off, but I have not had any problems.

[Sal-XK]

Man thats awesome two great mods at the same time. Your running your sway bar disconnected all the time? If so how are the road manners? Did you do a before and after test to see how much flex you got?

[LWM]

One fine looking Commander and another great write up with fantastic photos!

[ped4599]

Man thats awesome two great mods at the same time. Your running your sway bar disconnected all the time? If so how are the road manners? Did you do a before and after test to see how much flex you got?

I have had the OEM links removed for about 500 miles so far. Its handles ok, but you can really tell. I am careful on curves because it leans a lot.
I did not get an accurate measurement of the "with/with out" links. But i can see it did help keep the wheels on the ground. Just by eyeballing it, It looks like i gained several inches of articulation.

[ped4599]

MY first time using this winch on the 4xG matrix was a learing experience.





Here is the link to the full story:

Winch recovery

[Sal-XK]

Those don't look like it would be the most solid feature. Do they hold up well? Don't they just mount to the body?

Those are the 4xGuard rock rails and do not mount to the body. There actually very solid and can take all the weight of the XK coming down on them. They can also be used as a jacking point to jack the XK up.

[ped4599]

The 4xG side guards are very solid. Yes they are mounted to the under body of the vehicle. Keep in mind the design of the commander is sort of a type of "unibody" so lifting on the side guards will support the vehicle. Ofcourse the job of the side guards on my commander is to protect the doors and body from rocks and drops on to rocks, and to server as a step to help shorter folk get in with the lift and bigger tires. For these two intended jobs, the sides guards are very good.

[ped4599]

I Just got done using a heat gun on the plastic fender wells and molded and tucked the fender in behind the side guard so not it doesn't rub on the tire very much and looks very nice. It looks like the factory side rails. I am very happy with how it turned out!

[Sal-XK]

cool glad it worked out looking forward to the photos. Can you include a complete rubbing report while your at it. The only reason I have not run the spacers is because I knew they would cause rubbing issues were I have non right now but I also cut or destroyed most of my front wheel wells LOL