Howdy Knut haus...

Firstly, Ive been away for quite a while doing all manner of interesting things, so apologies for my absence from the forum for a while. Im certainly still a Knutter!

In the coming weeks ill be heading up to Gladstone where my younger brother is rebuilding a '74 VW combie that Ill lend a hand on - and also visiting my legendary uncles who you may recall made me that 14mm bolt thingy that I used to re-do one of the front engine mount threads which I stripped out on my rebuild....

Anyways, they have all manner of skills, tools, welders, benders etc at their disposal and Im thinking ill take the opportunity to make a fairly extensive and solid set of engine/body crash protection bars. Ive already wrecked the factory mounts used for the stock drop bars...they just dont cut it for an adventure machine that gets dropped a lot more frequently then the designers ever intended it to....

Just seeking some input from you wise oldies gentlemen....

Things like where would be good places to mount them...? I.e. what the most suitable mounting points would be? Weather or not to use the engine mounts? Should I use the mount points on the sump at all? How can I avoid using the sump mounts? Ways to attached bars to the frame? etc

Just thought Id through it out there for you to think about while your being paid to do something else etc....

I would also like to incorporate a sump guard into the mix too....maybe rubber mounting the sump plate to the threaded holes in the sump, then solid mounting the bar system to the sump guard plate...

Open to ideas.

Cheers

Floyd

I have been giving this some thought as well for mounting. I was thinking of using the original mounting positions and use some Bareco rubber bits http://www.bareco.com.au/files-general-g21e They do have metric threads  as I used the 8mm mounts on the red rocket for the top of the engine bars and they are very strong.
The 6mm mounts will go into any suitable place that a 6mm bolt came from and that gives a good range for mounting a bash plate.
I thought about a U shaped bar to protect the valve and crank covers with 2 bars going down round the exhaust to the 2 mounts on the sump and a bar up to the front engine mount with a bolt on bar or 2 across the front of the engine and the front of the bash plate attached to that bar/s. Possibly a removable section to get at the oil filter and sump plug.
I also have been considering a bar to protect the radiator with a quickly removable screen so it can be cleaned quickly after those delightful muddy days.

sounds like some serious dropping there Floyd, 
not sure where is best , however I'm a bit quisitive as to where not to . 
My recent drop , has me wandering about an oil light issue for the following 24 hrs after.
not sure if undue pressure on the engine or sump may have caused this . does anyone else have experience here on this matter.
just to ensure Floyd has success with his mounts.

groverK wrote:My recent drop , has me wandering about an oil light issue for the following 24 hrs after.
not sure if undue pressure on the engine or sump may have caused this.

Check that the sensor wire or its connector isn't shorted to ground.

Thanks guys.

Yeah Grover, some big drops for a K I suppose but its all just been very low speed or off side stand stuff. thing is though when the beast is fully load she falls quite hard. especially on rocky uneven ground....

My rubber mounts were all old and half gone anyway so Im wondering how much of a beating they can take when new...?

Im feeling lazy today so im thinking of super easy options....

This is my current idea....

- make a sump protector/bash plate out of 3mm aluminium plate (is that a good thickness for this?) I would just fold up the left & right sides and use the rubber mounts Rick suggested above to mount it to the threaded bits in the sump. Fold up the front a tad up around the oil/water pump.

- Use the factory drop bars. 

- Use Ricks suggested rubber mounts on the top (I would probably need to make spacers of some kind as they are not as long as the factory ones, but the factory ones are very dear)

- Either hard mount or rubber mount the bars to bash plate. I should probably rubber mount them but I dont want them to keep breaking...I suppose if the Bare Co rubber mounts are cheap enough I can just bag a bag full of them. yeah that would be the go.

thanks Inge , I'll put that one on the ckecklist as I do the inspection . 
Hopefully Floyds idea gives him the added protection he needs.

would someone with a set of verniers handy go and measure the width of the sump from the threaded holes where the crash bars mount?

Greatly appreciated...

So, do we now call you Autum Leaves?

182 mm measured with a steel tape

My vernier only good for 150mm but I have sump plate off at present so it will be within 0.2mm either way

rawdonball wrote:182 mm measured with a steel tape

My vernier only good for 150mm but I have sump plate off at present so it will be within 0.2mm either way

Thank you sir. Did you do both front and back? Im not sure of they are the same. But perhaps they are...

Front and back are the same Sir

Cheers

well so far my "basic and cheap" fix for my engine bars was to use the above mentioned Bare Co. rubber mounts all round. They are $10 a pop rather then the $30 for the BMW ones. 

Ive modified the lower right one so it too takes the $10 Bare Co rubber mounts rather than the $80 BMW mount bar thingy.

But its not perfect and Ill still fabricate something specifically. Perhaps using the centrestand mount mounts. 

Ill make some big ass chunky thing similar to the sidecar subframe I once owned for the K. This used the centrestand mounts also, and would give me a very solid platform to mount a sump guard, radiator guard and maybe even some top fairing protectors. 

I had one of my most major K "offs" the other day. Was heading to Guy Fawkes River National Park on some loose, steep gravel sections. I was just cruising along and perhaps started day dreaming a little to vividly, when next thing I know, Ive lost the front. It just slid away while I was going in a straight line! Regained it, but then lost the back. No biggy, got the back under control, then the front went again....then there was a sharp corner with a drop off the other side. So I just let the beast slide out from under me and go down the road a few meters....I was totally fine. Not a mark on me. The beast was totally fine too. It spun around a full 180 on its left side, but the crash bar took 99% of the force and with the brand new rubber mounts on, it remarkably stayed in place for 99% of the duration of the slide. Then one of the rubbers gave and one arm of the crash bar bent out of place about 100mm! Will need to get it straightened out. Both bottom rubber mounts on the left broke but the top one survived. 

Thanks lads.

I need to practice that - "just letting the beast slide out from under me"

Will certainly need some bars like yours first!

Floyd, If you are going to make some tough as bars, then why not try upsizing the bars? If they bolt on the same at the frame mount, and then upsize to something that can be opened up to flow around the engine's tappet cover, then perhaps you can fit belting (like you get at the mines) inside the opened bar or pipe and it will stop any bumps on the pipe driving the pipe into the engine, it can shrink back down to the normal size and run under the front of the engine and supply you with a bash plate, set both sides up to have the pipes contour around the engine cases and be a wrap around bumper bar at the cases and a bash plate? Doable?