Told this to Gil the other day.

For us real trail/heavy off-road guys, I came up with a good idea about re-moving the doors.

I removed the door panels for both Drivers and Passenger sides. Disconnected the connector going to our door latch which switches on the dome light when it is closed. So, when the wires are disconnected, the dome light/door ajar light will not come on . I then removed the rubber insulating hose that runs to the door and cut the (only 4, no power for me) wires and used male/femal metal crimp-on ends and plastic connector peices and made wire connectors. So now when i want to take the doors off, all i have to do is take off the 4 bolts that hold the door on and disconnector my wire connector.

As for the door hinges, i removed the 2 bolts/nuts that hold the hinge onto the truck, and on the lower hinge remove the two bolts that hold the hinge onto the door. Only takes me about 10-15 minutes to take them off now.

 

and you would do this why??

 

less body damage and better visability neil.



Ill be doing this for ure my nex trail run!!

 

better hope u dont see any mud or water or else ur screwd

 

OK - I will agree to those two points Gil

Probably fine for the regular cab, but the extended cab is going to flex all to hell and possibly go out of square without the support of the 'b' pillar
Plus without the suicide door you will have no seatbelt (unless you have a cage and 5 point belts) and that is an awfully big hole to fall out of

 

Thats why i said trails, not mud boggin, and besides, it has vinyl floors, it'll wash right off.

If i gets too bad, i'll throw some motocross goggles on .

 

well even if your on the trails your still going to get mud in there if your that much of a "HARDCORE" off roader then you should have no problems fabing up some half doors.. if you ask me i dont think it wwould be a good idea, b/c stuff could come through the door like a stump or something if you tip over and what not... iill put it this way if your a "hardcore" off roader then which would you rather have happen.. you tip over and you have a door to prevent a stump from crushing your body or would you rather have the stump come through the opening and completly obliterate you... i have tipped over a truck and i will tell you if there were no door there i would not be alive today... just doesnt sound to safe to me....

 

No one said "hardcore" anywhere? Did they, maybe?

And who's to say i'm not going to make some tubular half-doors?

And if it's that unsafe, then why do all the damn jeeps ridin around on trails have their doors off? They are alot more likely to tip over then my truck.

But yes I see your point, but with the added visibility of being doorless i would be less likely to get in a situation where I am going to roll.

 

well jeeps... there drivers speak for themselves... and you never mentioned anything about tube doors... even with the more visibility unless you have uber experience off road then i dont think visibility will help too much... and when i said hardcore i was just refering to your first sentence when you said something about for "us real trail/heavy off road guys...

 

I was just referring to **** me and gil do, not the type of trails that are scenic and mudding. And ya, I would say i have pretty good experience off-road myself.

 

well, you definatly can see the angle to the ground on the side better without a door

 

im not talking about scenic type of traills im talking about suff like uwharrie and tellico crackers neck and stuff like that...

 

I talking like rocks and rocks only here, I have been planning to try and make some tube frame doors for a few months now but no money=no doors.


im really excited to go offroading without snow for the first time this year and the doors WILL come off.

tube frame doors arent far out thouhg, im getting a second job real soon.

 

oh ok well good luck on those tube doors.. they should be quite a fab job... i saw a ranger the other day with half doors and it looked great... i got to talk to him and he said that it wasnt too hard to do... i never really did like rocks so good luck with that too.

 

it should be an EASY fab job.

makes front and rear brackets, mount brackets, bend tubes to length, tack weld, remove and weld then spray paint.



easy.

 

are you going to put a cross member in the middle like and X shaped thing to prevent unwanted things coming through....

 

not an "x" but yeah ill put protection.

 

well I would fab up an internal roll cage too so you can attach your seatbelt to it
no seatbelt and no door, you will probably fall out - or bend the hell out of your steering wheel
on a Wrangler the seatbelt is attached to the roll bar so removing the doors presents less complication

will your tube frame doors open Gil, or will you just climb over them?

 

well they will mount on brackets on hinges. I want to get 4/5 point seatbelts too, ill probably just buy cheap racing seats for now.

 

I havn't read the whole thread but saw this and wanted to respond to it. The issue with the Jeeps isn't as much about safety when they take the doors off. If you look at the side of a jeep, the largest section of metal you see that could take damage is the doors thus, remove the door and reduce the damage. There's practically no vertical sheetmetal on a Jeep. On a truck, it's a different story tho because the front and rear fenders are all vertical and ths you're not helping much by removing the doors.

Also keep in mind that Jeep doors are designed to come off thus there is no adjustment nor concern for the door gaps as that was engineered into the special hinges they use. Ranger doors are not designed this way and while it will take you 15 minutes to remove them, it may take an hour or more to align the doors properly. Jeeps are not made to be wind or water-tight so there is no concern whereas the Ranger is supposed to seal around the doors which you will not accomplish unless you take the time to align the doors properly.

Also, did anyone ever mention to you that it looks like *** to take the doors off a pickup??

 

Oh yeah, you're not gaining much in visability either because what you're able to see is already past the front tires which is the issue. Unless you're hanging out of the missing door, you're not going to get a better view of what's ahead. That's why you use a spotter.

 

no in fact the look i sort of like.



as for door alignment, you may be right. I havent yet attempted to line them up,but when it gets warm enough I plan on leaving them off for quite a while.


as for visability, what do you do when you a rock crawling?

you lean you head way out the windows, so you are tellin me that you dont think it will increase visibility???

Tom I respect your work as a welder and i see you make some good offroading things which shows me that you know your share about offroading but doorless runs have been going on by many, including trucks.

And since when was offroading supposed to be for pretty?

 

The part about it looking bad was my opinion. Let me tell you a little story... About 8 years ago, I was rockcrawling in an 84 GMC Jimmy. I went thru the pile with my spotter in his Samurai before he spotted me thru the pile. of course, I couldn't see crap outside the truck but that was his job to see for me. He told me to come down off a particular rock and when I did, a rock under the truck hit my transfer case and fractured the transmisison housing requiring a tow home and a new transmission housing. Why do I tell this story?? Because even without doors, I would not have seen that rock and if you're going to be putting in 4 or 5 point harnesses, you're not going to be able to lean out far enough to see under the truck if the harness is instaled and adjusted correctly. I've been hanging by a 5 point harness in an upside down racecar so I know a little about it...

My fabrication abilities by no means are to be any reflection of my ability to wheel. If you want to know about how I wheel, there are people here who can tell you better than I can. Yes, people go doorless all of the time, but is it the smart thing to do?? That's up to you, but I for one would not go for a ride in a doorless rig that wasn't designed to be that way.

 

well tomato, tomoto i guess.


thats what skid plates are for, and by time im really ready for some good rocks i will no doubt go without as many as i can equip.

the doors save your tcase, no. no doors save your tcase, no.

i never said doorless was gonn turn your truck into a plexiglass looking window, just better visability.

and when its hot out, no doors will give a nice breeze.



cheerio.



EDIT: and as for your ability to wheel, well thats all on the driver not what they are driving, but i say you know what you need when you wheel and I can respect anyone who knows that much.

 

I hope you have the 2 door model.. if you ditch the doors on a 4door model (suicide doors) The cab will flex and among other things you will probably break your front windshield.
Tom's point was taking off doors isnt going to help you with objects in front of the vehicle.
How would you like to rollover without a door... even with 4point harnesses you could get hit by a rock/log etc.

I'm not getting involved with this but I wanted to state my opinion that its a bad idea..
That being said I'm shutting up again.

Rand