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Got some side steps mid week. Bought some that bolt to both outriggers, rather than sill rail, as I thought they would be stronger.
As always, what should have been a 15 minute a side job has turned out to be hours of work.
Started with the drivers side. The holes in the bracket that bolts to the centre outrigger didn't line up with the hole in the outrigger bracket. Also, the fuel tank mounting was in the way. So I had no choice but to get the angle grinder out and cut a section out of the new side step. Then I had to drill an 8mm hole through the outrigger bracket. Going against my 'no drilling the galv chassis' policy
You can see the hole I've drilled with the dinitrol around it and the original hole above it. You can see the fuel tank mount that wasin the way too. I wonder if a Marsland chassis would have been ok? Probably!
Got it bolted on and the out sill put back. It's not parallel to the sill, but you can't really tell. I had no room for adjustment anyway!
I was taking the outer sill off the other side when I remembered the fact that the centre outrigger was 12mm out of place
Discovered there were no holes in the side of the outrigger bracket and so it didn't matter about the holes lining up.
You can see the gap between the outrigger and the black sidestep bracket here.
There's a hole on the inside of the outrigger, which is no good to me. Looks like RC welded a drivers side bracket to both tubular outriggers.
Here's a picture looking through the outrigger at the gap.
The gap is approximately 18mm! There's the 12mm from the outrigger being welded to far towards the rear of the vehicle and 6mm because the upstand bracket on the step is not perpendicular to the step
I've found some 50mm X 50mm square galvanised washers on ebay and bought a pack of 10 to use as packing pieces. It's the best I can do and should be reasonably secure and robust. Annoying though.
The error(s) in the chassis have had quite a few knock on effects. I would want to measure up a Richards Chassis before using another one. Would probably apply the same to a Marsland to be honest!
As always, what should have been a 15 minute a side job has turned out to be hours of work.
Started with the drivers side. The holes in the bracket that bolts to the centre outrigger didn't line up with the hole in the outrigger bracket. Also, the fuel tank mounting was in the way. So I had no choice but to get the angle grinder out and cut a section out of the new side step. Then I had to drill an 8mm hole through the outrigger bracket. Going against my 'no drilling the galv chassis' policy
You can see the hole I've drilled with the dinitrol around it and the original hole above it. You can see the fuel tank mount that wasin the way too. I wonder if a Marsland chassis would have been ok? Probably!
Got it bolted on and the out sill put back. It's not parallel to the sill, but you can't really tell. I had no room for adjustment anyway!
I was taking the outer sill off the other side when I remembered the fact that the centre outrigger was 12mm out of place
Discovered there were no holes in the side of the outrigger bracket and so it didn't matter about the holes lining up.
You can see the gap between the outrigger and the black sidestep bracket here.
There's a hole on the inside of the outrigger, which is no good to me. Looks like RC welded a drivers side bracket to both tubular outriggers.
Here's a picture looking through the outrigger at the gap.
The gap is approximately 18mm! There's the 12mm from the outrigger being welded to far towards the rear of the vehicle and 6mm because the upstand bracket on the step is not perpendicular to the step
I've found some 50mm X 50mm square galvanised washers on ebay and bought a pack of 10 to use as packing pieces. It's the best I can do and should be reasonably secure and robust. Annoying though.
The error(s) in the chassis have had quite a few knock on effects. I would want to measure up a Richards Chassis before using another one. Would probably apply the same to a Marsland to be honest!