Another LJR Build

Burrows_Kyle

Burrows_Kyle

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2020
Messages
31
Location
Manhattan, KS
Howdy everyone! After about a year and a half of owning my 06 Jeep Green LJR, it's about time to start building and upgrading. This is my 3rd jeep I've owned. I've owned 2 TJs and finally found out I wanted an LJR. I bought it with 114k miles on the clock, 6 speed manual, 33s and a rough country 2.5" for $14.5k. I've only had one chance in that time to take wheeling in that time, and had a blast! With my job I've been gone for pretty much every summer so I get to miss most of the nice weather haha.

Recent projects have been the Savvy BL and Currie MML, 35in tires, and I also pulled the trigger on a Warn Zeon 8. There were some pretty good sales on the tires and winch so I kinda jumped my purchase list for those.

Future plans/ideas:

For now I am going to build for 35s and keep it as light weight as I can. My way forward is to pick up the Savvy or Currie 4 in lift, Savvy Tummy Tuck, probably Rancho 5000x based on a lot of recommendations on this forum, Black Magic big brake kit, axle shafts one day, re-gear, some armor and misc parts. I am hoping this will look very similar to @Midnight LJR build prior to his recent mid arm upgrade! I would honestly love the mid arm lift, but it is a little out of the budget and I want to do this all myself. One day I will hopefully get it, but I need to improve my non-existent welding and fab skills haha. With my budget being a little more restrictive, this might be a slower moving thread so I apologize in advance!

My uses for this jeep currently are for some mild offroading, explore back roads, enjoying the nice weather with the top and doors off, and just enjoy driving it! I want it to have good on-road and off-road manors, but be reliable enough to take off-road and get into some more technical stuff.

A few things I am hoping to accomplish with this thread is to document my process, provide feedback on my experiences, learn from all the more experienced members on the forum and build a greater knowledge of all things TJ/LJ/offroading!

I look forward to everyone's suggestions and help, thanks!

With 35s.jpg

With 35s_2.jpg

After winch.jpg
 
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Love this color, I had this on my Commander. Really jumps in the light. Looking forward to watching this progress
 
Looking forward to following your build.
 
Thanks guys. I took the jeep for a little spin around town to see if there was a big difference with the 35s over the 33s and so far it isn't horrible. I haven't taken it on the highway yet but I think I will be able to live with it until I am able to re-gear(will likely be a while). This is my first time with the mickey thompson MTZ P3s and they are surprisingly quiet and ride much nicer than my mastercraft MXTs. Time will tell if they remain quiet on the road or not.

I think I will install the currectlync this weekend. I've been saving it since I bought it for my last jeep, but figure it's time to knock it out now that it's on the 35s.
 
Love that color! Look forward to following the build. Let me know if you have any questions on anything I have done would be glad to help anyway I can.
 
Burrows_Kyle said:
Much appreciated! I do have a question in regards to your swayloc. What do you think of it over the antirock?
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I have not ran a Anti-Rock on the front of the LJ but assuming it is about as soft as the Sway-Loc when the Sway-Loc is in off road mode.

I will say there is nothing wrong with driving around on the soft setting. But it Is really nice to have the stiff setting while on the road. It really improves the handling response, mostly in the confidence I feel it gives me if I was to have to make an emergency maneuver like yanking the steering wheel if something ran out in front of me etc.
 
Midnight LJR said:
I have not ran a Anti-Rock on the front of the LJ but assuming it is about as soft as the Sway-Loc when the Sway-Loc is in off road mode.

I will say there is nothing wrong with driving around on the soft setting. But it Is really nice to have the stiff setting while on the road. It really improves the handling response, mostly in the confidence I feel it gives me if I was to have to make an emergency maneuver like yanking the steering wheel if something ran out in front of me etc.
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From everything I've seen, that's one of the bigger pros to it. Thanks!
 
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A little update for everyone:

I went to this local offroad park this weekend to just play around and have some fun! The jeep did great, and wheeling with the 35s were a lot of fun. I made sure to play it safe as not to break anything. I think since I did the body lift, my shifter sometimes slipes in and out of engagement if I don't pull it just right which caused some popping noises. I thought it was something in the axle but after pushing and pulling the lever it went away. Other than that it was a successful day wheeling!
ORV_Park.jpg


Earlier this week I started installing the Currie currectlync. It's a little awkward with just one person, but it went on without too much hassle. I'm worried I might have over filled one of the TRE due to it leaking out of the nipple on the side of the boot. Does anyone know if that's just for overflow? Anyways, I got it installed and torqued down. I found the one thread about how to do an alignment at home, so I went and purchased the tubing and measuring tapes. Unfortunately, since I only have the 2.5 in lift that the PO installed, I wasnt able to get the tape measure tire to tire. I may just have to get it street worthy enough to take to an alignment shop.
Currectlync.jpg

There isn't much more room to bring the parts in with it being the lower lift height, but I think it should be fine. I also had an extra steering stabilizer in the garage that was going to go on the last jeep. I figured it might be a while until I get my new lift, so might as well throw it on!
 
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Got the front end mostly finished up! (Except I may need to check the steering stabilizer location) The Currie Currectlyn feels amazing on the highway, and around town. Love the way it handles.
Currectlyn_2.jpg

currectlync_3.jpg


In other news, I was driving my Jeep today on the highway, when I had a semi pass me coming the other direction. The wind in Kansas is terrible enough as it is, but semi's on 2 lane highways are much worse. I had one come across me and threw a ton of wind and water is caught me off guard, and I could see the hood flutter. Then I had a second one later, that literally blew off my hood latch on the passenger side! Must say, I wasn't expecting that one. The passenger side of the hood flew up in the air quite a bit. Thankfully the driver side and safety latch saved the rest of the hood! It didn't look like the hood was bent or twisted, so that was a relief. Now I am looking for some replacements.
broken latch.jpg

Currently I am looking at these two styles for replacements for the latches.

https://www.extremeterrain.com/rr-blk-hood-catches-tj-1121015.html
https://www.extremeterrain.com/drake-hood-hold-downs-tj-jp190021k.html
Anyone use either of those latches?
 
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Midnight LJR said:
On mine, until I did the tummy tuck I had to remove the plastic bezel around the shift boot and it solved the popping out of gear problem.
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same here, I have mine removed since it felt like i was putting it half way into gear, I could never feel the end or the wall of the gear if that makes sense. 2nd, 4th and reverse just felt like putting pressure on a sponge.
 
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