Kami and I have dreamed of building our rig since the day we met. About three years ago, we both sold our jeeps and united funds to buy our TJ and a fuel efficient civic. At the time this jeep was a perfect fit for us, as we were still living in apartments and it was a daily driver. It had D44s, ARBs, 4.56s, 6” long arm kit, and lots of other goodies. We drove that thing to and from quite a few trails, fully loaded with all our camping gear and a dog.
The time has now come to build our rig :greg:
We have two simple requirements for this build. First, we want an extremely capable family/recreation oriented rock crawler, capable of wheeling in a variety of different environments (and speeds ). Second, we don’t want to be left wishing we had done anything different, and have to revisit that later. This is not to imply that once this phase of the build is done it will be exactly how we want it. For example, the 4.0 will remain, possibly to be swapped later in favor of a V8 (a few years down the road). Enough said, right? Let’s get to the good stuff.
Here is the plan:
Drivetrain
Suspension
Other Details
Estimated completion: March 2010
edit: After broken promises by BHR, this build was completed by yours truly, with help from Casey Beach
The time has now come to build our rig :greg:
We have two simple requirements for this build. First, we want an extremely capable family/recreation oriented rock crawler, capable of wheeling in a variety of different environments (and speeds ). Second, we don’t want to be left wishing we had done anything different, and have to revisit that later. This is not to imply that once this phase of the build is done it will be exactly how we want it. For example, the 4.0 will remain, possibly to be swapped later in favor of a V8 (a few years down the road). Enough said, right? Let’s get to the good stuff.
Here is the plan:
Drivetrain
- Engine: Stock 4.0
- Transmission: Stock NV3550 – Auto will wait for the V8
- Transfer case: Atlas 2 Speed 4.3:1
- Rear axle: Clearanced 14 bolt 65” WMS, 5.13s, disc conversion, and a Detroit
- Front Axle: HP D60 69” WMS, Detroit, Yukon 35 spline inners/outers with “super” joints, Yukon drive flanges
Suspension
- Fox 2.0 14” coil-over remote reservoir shocks front and rear
- Fox airbumps
Other Details
- 40” Maxxis Treps
- 17” Walker Evans Beadlocks, black powder coated wheels, polished rings
- Custom tube fenders and highline hood
- Howe full hydro steering, single ended ram, load reactive valve
- Boatsides
- 108-ish” wheelbase
- The cage was built by Mig Off Road, a shop back east. They did a pretty good job, through the dash and tied into the frame. Some modifications will likely be done.
- We already have PRP’s with 5 point harnesses.
Estimated completion: March 2010
edit: After broken promises by BHR, this build was completed by yours truly, with help from Casey Beach
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