I have not given up on this project and made a start on the cross member to do someting like the US one above with a twist. I started off with running a string line accross between the chassis rail to get my head around this:
and then making some mounts out of some 10mm x 8mm plate. I used this diagram PM'd to me on another forum before I bought the Hilux as a base for the mounts:
This is what I ended up with:
I drilled a couple of holes wrong, but I can live with that:
I had some 65mm x 35 mm x 3mm RHS on hand so I started with a plan (but please check all my measurements.
Then I started to do a bit of welding:
Pretty rough some of them, wish I could be consistent with the stick welder !
I am planning to weld the left mount straight onto the RHS and I still have to get the cross member finished. I have to work out how to mount it onth eright hand side. Wheter to make it bolt on to the mount or just weld it on. Bit worried about getting the measurements spot on for welding, and if it was bolt on, I probably would not need to take the exhaust off to fit it.
The other part of the plan is to make this airtight so it can act as an air tank which will bridge accross via flexible hoses to each slider which will use the same mounting system as what I am using on this cross member. I bought a 1/4" BSP tap and a few brass nipples today so I will be adding some threaded holes for hoses nad drains. It'll only be pressurised at 100 psi so I think it will be plenty strong enough. This cross member should hold about 2.5 litres and with the sliders, I will have about 12-15 litres of air on board.
Once I get the cross member in place, I have to workout how to mount the plate to it, but the front will hang off the TJM one in the front and bolt to the bottom part of the crossmember which won't hold any air. Shouldn't be too hard. The left hand bolt holding the TJM tranny guard is the reference point for the right side of the cross member annd you will note I marked the relative position of this bolt on my plan.