Yota Guy Gets a Jeep LJR

Great looking Jeep!
And Beautiful Ridgebacks!!
Thanks. I couldn't ask for better dogs. Oxide (the male) is 5 years old and 120 lbs of cuddle monster. Ariel (the female) is 6 months old and well on her way to being the boss of Oxide.

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Hows the sound with the 3rd cat eliminated? Did it change anything else when you took it out? I know it should not cause any CEL's.
It is a little louder, but not much. I think it sounds a little better personally. I'm going to add a cat back exhaust when ever Quadratec actually ships it. There is a small leak at the muffler currently otherwise I'd just leave it alone. It's kind of a while I'm here and spending money sort of solution. It does not cause any CELs.
 
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Definitely looks good and you got a heck of a deal on it as well! How are you liking the Geolanders?
I have no complaints about them thus far. I've only got maybe 250 miles on them though and pretty much no offroad time in them. I'll have to see what I need to air them down to when wheeling, how they wear and how they hold up to rocks / offroad. Thus far I'm happy with them.
 
So, I've never owned a Jeep, until a few months ago. I've had Toyota 4x4s of the '84, '85, '86, '88, '89, and 2000 vintage. I nearly purchased LJ Rubicon off the lot back in '06, but knowing that I was about to go back on deployment and it was going to sit and I'd probably have to move it to long term storage if I got orders to Oki afterwards I opted not to.

I've always regretted it and for years I've casually watched and looked for the Jeep I should have bought.

Well now that I'm retired from the Marines, and semi retired in general the universe handed me the Jeep I wanted. An '06 LJR popped up on Craigslist with the exact options I'd have specified from the dealer if I could order one new today. Stone white exterior, black interior, the automatic transmission. Even better it was less than 20 miles from my house, and it only had 43k on the clock.

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Semper Fi brother ! There are alot of us old breeds lurking in the shadows

BTW love the stormtrooper look
 
So it has been a long while since I have updated anything with this, but the jeep hasn't been neglected.

I succumbed and bought a Savvy Aluminum front bumper complete with the corner reinforcement kit, fairlead mount, winch guard and everything else. I powder coated it all a mix of textured black and semi gloss black.

I was initially thinking of making a front bumper, but the Savvy bumper is exactly what I'd make and if I made it out of aluminum like theirs I'd have to weld all the joints and frankly theirs is just better than what I'd be able to make and stronger as well given the reduced resistance to bending that would result from the change in temper to the aluminum as a result of all the welding. The Savvy aluminum bumper is just really, really nice.

I put the Quadratech round flood lights on the bumper and they are BRIGHT!

My wife bought the Superwinch SX10 as a birthday present, and that got put on as well. Superwinch might not have been my first choice, but the fact that it comes with the wireless control, synthetic line, and the IP68 rated waterproof and dustproof housing made it seem like a pretty decent tool. Time will tell I guess. Either way the blue goes well with the Bilstein blue so what the heck.

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If you are sharp of eye you may have noticed that I put a ORO Swayloc sway bar on there in the earlier picture. The idea behind the setup is fantastic. My only complaint at the moment is that the tires definitely hit the arms as I turn.

I have 1.25" spidertrax wheel spacers along with the factory Moab wheels (just powder coated black) and the 315/75R16 Yokohama Geolander MT tires (35" tall).

I don't have any thing that limits my ability to turn such as washers under the steering stops and the tires don't rub on anything other than the swaybar arms, so I'm going to cut and weld the arms to create an offset towards the frame prior to where the tires make contact. I'll post up photos when I get around to that.
 
I added a Savvy gas tank skid a while back as well.

I went with the Savvy skid for 2 reasons. It is WAY lighter than say the GenRight steel skid, and it can be mounted at different heights at different ends.

That makes it way easier to do something like this -
, cutting off the rear portion of the frame, moving it up and welding it back on, eliminating the rear gap from the body lift.

The only thing I did differently was putting a fish plate on the inside of the frame (rather than the outside) and I also added one on the bottom of the frame as well. I am horrible at remembering to take photos though, and never took any while I had the gas tank dropped, so I can only show the finished work as it looks now.

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Once I had the rear portion of the frame done, I finally got around to making a rear bumper like I wanted. I really wanted a rear bumper specific to LJs which have a larger overhang after the rear tire. I wanted the bumper to cover / protect that section of the body. Is it necessary? Probably not, but there was a specific look I wanted to I made my own.

There are only so many ways to skin the cat and the back of these jeeps are pretty much the same, but I continued the 1.75" tube around to the rear of the wheel well and ultimately cut it off at an angle roughly matching the fenders. I also completely tied in the 1/8" dimple died top plate to the tube around the bend. The bottom of the crossmember is 1/4" steel all the way out to the tube as well.

I made corner gussets so the bumper is tied in to the frame (don't know why anyone would sell a bumper without doing this) and there are loops for trailer safety chains integrated into the bottom of the bumper as well.

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The only thing I did differently was putting a fish plate on the inside of the frame (rather than the outside)

Had I known we were only going to do the one, I would have done the same. Glad to see you did it even better in that regard!
 
Had I known we were only going to do the one, I would have done the same. Glad to see you did it even better in that regard!

Are you behind that channel? If so, thanks for posting that! Fantastic idea! I can't believe it isn't more commonly done. I really appreciate the great way it was documented as well.
 
As I had previously mentioned while I love the idea of the ORO Swayloc, the tires rub the swaybar arms pretty decently. I got up off my ass and decided to do something about it. I figured I'd cut and weld the arms in an offset fashion to give me more room for the tires as the arms are straight and there is some room to be had between the arms and the frame.

Because of how tight the Savvy bumper fits I had to remove the bumper to get at it, but at least I didn't have to remove the winch too. I just unbolted the 10 bolts securing the bumper to the frame and slid it forward far enough to get access to the arms of the Swayloc. While the arms were still on but the links were disconnected I marked where I wanted to cut the arms. I gave my self just enough room to clear the steering box bolts on the driver's side and made the cut in an arc with the plasma. I then clamped it my welding table with a few spacers to offset the end (just before where the tire was contacting) 1/2" to the inside of the frame. I welded one pass on the arm and test fit it, just to make sure I wasn't going to do something really dumb. It looked good so I welded it out.

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Once I had the drivers side looking alright and welded out on both sides I moved to the passenger side arms and marked where I was going to cut them. I wound up flipping the inner plate (the 3/8ths plate is offset away from the frame on the mounting plate it is originally welded to). I offset the inner plate 3/8ths (the thickness of the plate). The arm is 1/2" thick so I offset it 1/2". These offsets result in the locking mechanism being properly located if you flip the inner plate's orientation. I cut the inner plate on an arc 2.5" from the center of the sway bar. I cut the outer arm on an arc 4" from the center of the swaybar. I clamped them to the table and welded them back together with several passes to make sure the thickness of the plate was consistent.

After that it was clean, a bit of quick spray paint, and re-install.

End result for all this... the tires still just barely touch the plate when I'm turning hard enough to make the steering box complain. It does not interfere and no longer limits my ability to turn at all. No washers under the steering stops, no extra wheel spacers. Well worth the time.

For those that might ask, I'm running the factory Moab wheels (they are just powder coated black) and 1.25" spidertrax wheel spacers. The factory Moab wheels measure 16x8 with 5.0in Backspace (+13mm offset). This basically means I'm running a 3.75" backspaced wheel. I've got the 315/75R16 Yokohama Geolander MT tires (35" tall) on the Jeep.

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