Sliding door — mod to clear wide tires?

[Carbonized]

I remember seeing some pictures of a mod to the slider center roller so the door can clear wide tires. I just spend the better of 3 hrs. looking for that post on the search feature and ended up reading about a lot of other things without finding that post:doh:. can any body help?

Btw beware of the search feature :rol:!

[TheCrippler]

Im also curious. I just put wider tires on and the door doesn't clear the wheel unless i pull on it a little. It rubs the tire as kinda force it open. 1/4 inch would probably even do it.

Ideas I've thought about but not tried, (could be some holes in these ideas)

Make a new middle roller that extends a little farther as it hinges open.

Try to extend/remake the little pins and roller that stick out from the rear/middle roller. Im not sure this will fit when the door closes.

Fit some sort of 2nd hinge in between the middle hinge and where it mounts to the door. When it slides open it could swing out a little farther.

Shim the track so it progressively gets farther from the van. (For the amount of clearance i need Im curious to investigate this one).

Screw the sliding and just weld a hinge at the top. Make it open like the back. It'd make a nice canopy too.

Any other ideas or a link to someone that went through this?

[Carbonized]

Make a new middle roller that extends a little farther as it hinges open.


http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/132164-Slider-door-hinge-extension-tutorial

That should take care of #1:yes:

[TheCrippler]

I spotted this from a chevy astro van forum. The astro van roller looks more similar than the Ford.

They removed the pin and added a second joint in the hinge. I like the simplicity if it fits when closed. Maybe it needs a spring too? Help it to fold the right way when closing.

http://www.astrosafari.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=68618

6409

[Carbonized]

Not so simple when you have to add springs or bump stop. You will also need both hands to operate the door as you need to pull the back of it away from the van, the double hinge will fold one way or the other if left on it own.
Also on our van both components are straight and square' no 15 or 70 degrees cuts and welds! Much simpler fabrication than the Ford.

6410


Darn! I could swear I saw it done on a Toyota van somewhere!

[TheCrippler]

I think what you're suggesting in that picture is probably the simplest.

[Carbonized]

Shimming the track is probably the simplest and cheapest if you only need a couple of millimeters. If I remember well, the track studs are not very long.

As seen here next to the washer pump.

6412

On my LE 2wd it might be all I need:

6411

[Hiaceinyourface]

I realize it's years later but did anyone get it figured out?

[terrence]

Just chiming in here with my solution after coming up empty trying to find what others did to remedy this issue. I am running 15x7 +0 wheels and 215/75 tires and needed about 2" of clearance. I ended up extending the slider bracket by 2.5" and insetting it in the door by the same amount, just incase I ever put something wider on. The inner door had to be trimmed quite a bit to accommodate the hinge in the new position. This ended up make the door flex quite a bit due to cutting out a lot of the structure. So I riveted a piece of aluminum on to brace it and added welded a new nut on the mount to attach it. I could only fit 2 bolt holes in with the new positioning but it seems to hold so far. After replacing the rollers with pvc pipe and lubing everything it seems to close about as well as it used to, which was not great, but it opens all the way now so I considered that fixed.


https://i.imgur.com/pEtsgep.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/fDmYDou.jpg

[nikifix]

nice pex pipe roller mod