JT Stabilizer ???'s

This is for those of you that have installed the JT Stabilizers yourself on your Cats. I am about ready to install mine and have read the directions a few times now BUT i am curious to exactly where you placed the very front "Stiffening Plates". My front trunk/storage area on my Cat has 2 holes (i am not going to use those) which appear to be center. They look like drain holes to me. The floor of the storage area seems thin but i just reread the directions and it appears that the plates are Doubled up on this particular section of the install. Is this correct and am i ok going through that thinner steel floor??? The other two in the front/the side ones seem pretty straight forward on the thicker frame section itself so that shouldn't be a problem. If you have any close up photos or can answer these ?'s i would greatly appreciate it. (I also have an e-mail sent to Mike aka-Shooter) Thanks again to a wonderful bunch of people that always have no problem helping out a fellow RV'er. I really appreciate these boards/forums like this. Mark

My Bracket is not the same as JTs but I made the base about 6"x4" and also put a 1/16" plate inside.

Thank You onetonford, sure looks like the doubled up JT Stiffening will work fine. Hopefully a few others will chime in. Thanks again. Mark

When I did mine I just presumed they were for the JT's, since you can order the JT's from the dealer. The front holes were a perfect fit. The side/front holes are in the right spot, I drilled another hole to use the spacer mount #4011. On the rear, mine had a bracket welded on already, again 2 more holes & used the stiffening pads. Couple hours on the driveway & ready to go. Gary

I did mine the same way

I used the supplied hardware and did this configuration per the instructions:

First off, I don't have the stabilizers on my Cat, but will be getting them this season.

From my experience installing safety cages on Jeeps and 4-wheel drive vehicles. If you are bolting mounting plates thru a thinner metal (sheet metal) you should NEVER use the same size (dimensions) for the two mounting plates.

See figure A-4 in Shooters post. One of those two plates should be larger than the other to keep them from acting like scissors and cutting the sheet metal that it is bolted thru. Vibrations and time will cause the sheet metal to break / cut / crack right at the point the two brackets meet. Add water and rust and the failure will happen even sooner. Mounting the bracket to a frame is the best option, but if you can't, try to get a slightly larger bracket on one side or the other.

Again, this is a known practice in the saftey cage (aka roll cage) world. Your life is not dependent on the stabilizers but over time it could save you some additional headaches and repairs to your Cat....

I shouldn't doubt a manufaturers installation instructions, but I just wanted to throw that out there.

That is why I used the 4 x 6 material the amount of force it takes to shear the metal on the cat would exceed the landing stabilizers ability to do such. That is why most sheet metal shears have their blades set at slight angle other wise the amount of force would be impossible to shear even the thinest of sheets. Also the blades are opposing not on top of each other and the brackets are of the Idea of sandwiching two plates together and increasing suface area thus decreasing the likelyhood of cracks that is why they also have rounded corners. BTW the box bottom is 14 gauge a lot thicker than the sheet metal of any vehicle which I measured on my pickup was 22 gauge.

Took your advice Schleprock and will be putting 2 different sizes of steel plate on thoe from stabilizer attachment points tomorrow. Everything you said made since to me s i went to local welding shop and the owner cut me 2 pieces of steel plate and din't even charge me. Painted them up and will be installing them tomorrow. Hope to complete the install tomorrow so i will post how it worked on our Cat. Thanks everyone for the tips and advice, i appreciate it. Mark