My JK wheels were scratched, chipped, and one was cracked. The logical next step at the time was an upgrade to bead lock wheels. I found an awesome deal on some Champion alloy beadlocks. They were 17x9, 5x5.5, 4.75" backspacing beadlocks for $400. I mounted them with some 1.25" wheel spacers.
While daily driving the Jeep in Minnesota, I got pulled over a lot. I was hassled for the lack of tire coverage, doors, turn signals, plate light---one officer even gave me grief over the bead locks. What was commonplace in Colorado wasn't popular here.
I got discouraged and parked the Jeep in storage.
I went on to buy a pickup truck to daily drive, bought a house, met a girl (who is now my wife), and stepped away from the hobby and into other interests.
Fast forward from 2014 to 2020.
After a long 6 years, I had an itch that only a Jeep could scratch. I went out to my father in-law's barn, put a new battery in the Jeep, and she fired right up! As it turns out, my wife enjoys wheeling! Also, one of my best buddies from out west moved near by and brought his rock crawling Ford Ranger with him.
I was back in the hobby and back on the trail! We got some local wheeling trips in. I broke both the front E locker and a front axle shaft.
Locally, I sourced a narrowed Ford high pinion Dana 44 with TJ brackets and some 37" BFG DOT Krawler tires. The axle was installed with a new Yukon air locker, chromo shafts, Yukon super joints, Warn premium locking hubs, 4.88 gears, new adjustable control arms, track bar and mount, DOM/heim steering, and a steering box and hydraulic assist ram from West Texas Offroad. I also trimmed the front and rear wheel openings to fit the 37s.
With the new front axle in and adjusted, the wheelbase now sits at just over 100"
I then did some wheeling! We made a trip down to Indiana for some wet late fall fun.
More carnage!
So far, this Dana 44 front axle takes a beat down. With the Dana 44 front all set, it was time to turn my attention to the rear axle. Back in 2013 my rear air locker imploded on itself and I swapped in an open differential. This spring, I installed an ARB air locker in the rear Dana 44 and upgraded to 35 spline axle shafts.
With a new rear air locker and 35 spline shafts installed this spring, I was excited for the season. On memorial weekend we went to a local event across the river in Dresser Wisconsin. We had a great weekend but after some high RPM climbs, the transfer case was becoming abnormally loud. These TeraLow 4:1 kits had a reputation for failure especially due to high RPM use in low range.
Sure enough, on a climb near the end of the trail I heard a snap, crackle, and pop! The transfer case was now completely bound up and forward or reverse was burning the clutch. We ended up pulling the rear driveshaft and unlocking the front hubs so my buddy could tow us out of the park.
Here is a picture of the damage to the planetary gears. Not shown are all of the metal chunks from throughout the case.
