OP
Hmm. Beasley and I have briefly discussed MCEs a while back. He never mentioned the work Hendrix did. That would be very nice to know more about.
Daily Driver, Go Where I Want To Build
- Thread starter jjvw
- Start date
Hmm. Beasley and I have briefly discussed MCEs a while back. He never mentioned the work Hendrix did. That would be very nice to know more about.
OP
More pics of yesterday from others who were there. We were to busy enjoying the day to take a lot of pictures.
Nice shots! I can't wait to get out in a couple weeks! I believe Hendrix reworked his fenders when he painted Greg's LJ.
OP
Moab will be next year. A few of our local group are camping/wheeling Slick Rock trail towards the end of this month. Taking my RV and flat towing the jeep up to Lake Alpine to camp, fish, and hit the trails.
Great review. Nice to have your eyes on the product and sharing. MCE is a strong future consideration in my build.Several of us wandered the tangled mess of trails around Central City yesterday. One of the guys had recently installed MCE flares/fenders, so I finally got a chance to study them in person.
They are everything I expected them to be. Mostly I like the flares, but there are a few aesthetic issue that stand out to me.
First, the good things.
Generally, I like the overall look. The quality of the molding and fitment is very good. The surface texture is a light orange peel and looks appropriate to the Jeep. The shape of the flare looks right, similar to Poison Spyder DeFenders, in that the lip is not thick and heavy the way most tube fenders are.
Many people, when changing to aftermarket fenders, will move the turn signals to the grill, CJ- style. I think that looks really great. This would be the perfect excuse to do that.
I've mentioned the functional benefits several times, but these seen to go unnoticed by most. MCE fenders are plastic and flexible. Most people focus on the easy understanding that you can rub the fender against a tree or rock without damage to the fender or tub. But most do not grasp that this also opens up the possibly for more suspension up travel when compared to the factory fenders.
Just like Metalcloak, MCE flares eliminate the sheet metal extending beyond the hood, allowing the tire to flex above the hood line. If your front end is bump stopped to keep the tires out of the sheet metal at full flex (as you ought to be!), then you will be able to reduce the amount of bump stop extension to the next point of interference. With 5" of total lift, 35s and raised shock mounts, it should be possible to achieve over 6" of up travel.
Unlike Metalcloak, the wheel opening is the same. However, the Jeep I studied reportedly only rubs the bolts on the back wall of the wheel well. Short of adding bump stop, a quick fix would be to replace those bolts with a lower profile hex socket bolt. A little tire rub on a smooth surface is fine. It also looks feasible to cut the body and push the back wall of the wheel opening further back. It seems like MCE had this in mind with the way the rear of the flare was made. This would result in all the benefits of Metalcloak without the questionable video game war machine looks of MC.
There are a few aesthetic issues. The flare covers the remaining portion of the factory fender.
View attachment 46720
I feel like this is a lot of flat black space that would benefit from a body line or some other means to visually break up the space. This would be less of an issue on a black or darker color Jeep. Color matching the flares to the body would also be helpful.
The back side of the flare is only attached at the top and loosely at the bottom. The reason, as I understand it, is the allow the flare to easily detach without damaging the tub.
View attachment 46721
On the Jeep I looked at, the body was slightly rippled. I know most are. However, with the MCE not being firmly attached, the gap between the body and flare was very evident. If I end up with MCE flares, I might want to try to minimize this gap. Maybe the addition of a tab to the middle of the flare and attach it to the body with double stick tape. That is just my initial idea.
The transition from the flare to the grill isn't very clean.
View attachment 46722
At the very least, color matching the bracket to the body color would draw less attention to this area. The rest, I don't know.
The reason I have been considering MCE for so long is that I have built the suspension for maximum up travel. I do not want to lose the ability for swift comfortable travel both on and off road. The Jeep currently has 33s. If/when I move to 35s, then I will lose an inch of up if I keep the factory fenders. Traditional flat fenders don't offer any benefits to me. Metalcloak Arches/Overlines are ugly and out of the question. Poison Spyder, Nemesis, JCR, etc hi lines are the best solution for ultimate clearance. But I have so many extra things attached to the inner fenders that keeping and moving everything is a tremendous amount of work after losing that space under the hood. MCE may be the best compromise for my build.
I think that covers everything...
OP
@ac_
Others might be interested in this odd mod.
Here are my rear bumps with Currie 4" LJ springs and the air bags.
The upper (and lower) mounts are relocated factory. The bump stops are extended with body lift pucks.
The desired final ride height was achieved with a 1" spacer. Keep in mind that nothing in the rear end is stock, so the actual measurements won't apply to anyone else very well. But the concepts will.
Once your ride height and bump stops are where you want them, call AirLift and find a bag with deflated measurements that closely match the inner diameter of the coil and also the space between the axle pad and the bottom of the jounce at normal ride height. This is unlikely to be a bag intended for a TJ.
The double thickness of the bag wall will add that same amount of bump stop extension. Maybe 1/4". Keep that in mind.
This is my over-thinking. I don't want the bags to influence the suspension more than is necessary. When not in use, I run my bags empty with an open valve. When I want to use them, I want them to provide support and make contact with the jounce as soon as possible with as little air pressure as necessary to do what they need to do.
There is one more pic that will be helpful. I'll get it in a bit.
Others might be interested in this odd mod.
Here are my rear bumps with Currie 4" LJ springs and the air bags.
The upper (and lower) mounts are relocated factory. The bump stops are extended with body lift pucks.
The desired final ride height was achieved with a 1" spacer. Keep in mind that nothing in the rear end is stock, so the actual measurements won't apply to anyone else very well. But the concepts will.
Once your ride height and bump stops are where you want them, call AirLift and find a bag with deflated measurements that closely match the inner diameter of the coil and also the space between the axle pad and the bottom of the jounce at normal ride height. This is unlikely to be a bag intended for a TJ.
The double thickness of the bag wall will add that same amount of bump stop extension. Maybe 1/4". Keep that in mind.
This is my over-thinking. I don't want the bags to influence the suspension more than is necessary. When not in use, I run my bags empty with an open valve. When I want to use them, I want them to provide support and make contact with the jounce as soon as possible with as little air pressure as necessary to do what they need to do.
There is one more pic that will be helpful. I'll get it in a bit.
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@ac_
Others might be interested in this odd mod.
Here are my rear bumps with Currie 4" LJ springs and the air bags.
View attachment 46739
The upper (and lower) mounts are relocated factory. The bump stops are extended with body lift pucks.
The desired final ride height was achieved with a 1" spacer. Keep in mind that nothing in the rear end is stock, so the actual measurements won't apply to anyone else very well. But the concepts will.
Once your ride height and bump stops are where you want them, call AirLift and find a bag with deflated measurements that closely match the inner diameter of the coil and also the space between the axle pad and the bottom of the jounce at normal ride height. This is unlikely to be a bag intended for a TJ.
The double thickness of the bag wall will add that same amount of bump stop extension. Maybe 1/4". Keep that in mind.
This is my over-thinking. I don't want the bags to influence the suspension more than is necessary. When not in use, I run my bags empty with an open valve. When I want to use them, I want them to provide support and make contact with the jounce as soon as possible with as little air pressure as necessary to do what they need to do.
There is one more pic that will be helpful. I'll get it in a bit.
So my question is basically is that the air bag is bolted to the pad on the bottom, so all of your bumpstop is at the top correct?
So when you are sitting on the ground and you inflate your air bag does it lift your jounce? Or does it just stop the spring from compressing?
or both?
Basically set up the bumptstops on the top and cycle the suspension as usual then bolt the air bag to the bottom?
If that is the plan where did you find bolts long enough to hold that much bumpstop to the top?
OP
Two more pics.
I cut a slot in the axle pad to accommodate the air hose. The hose has a brass 90° elbow to keep the hose from crimping.
You are supposed to drill a single hole through the axle pad and feed the air line through it. Doing that will trap the coils to the axle, making things difficult to work on. The slot makes the mess a little easier to disassemble.
Here it sits. If I follow my own advice, I should find a bag that is a bit taller. At one point it "fit" better, but that was several steps earlier in the build.
I cut a slot in the axle pad to accommodate the air hose. The hose has a brass 90° elbow to keep the hose from crimping.
You are supposed to drill a single hole through the axle pad and feed the air line through it. Doing that will trap the coils to the axle, making things difficult to work on. The slot makes the mess a little easier to disassemble.
Here it sits. If I follow my own advice, I should find a bag that is a bit taller. At one point it "fit" better, but that was several steps earlier in the build.
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OP
The bag rests on top of the axle pad. See the pics I just posted. All the BS extension is on the top side.
The inflated bag lifts the jounce. The spring behaves normally. The bags are adding additional spring rate to provide more load support.
That's all there is to it. Except the bags just rest on the pad. Longer bump stop bolts came from the hardware store.
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OP
OP
It hasn't fallen off yet!
I just noticed this on the rear shock. See the zip tie on the dirty part of the shock shaft? That was pushed there from daily driving. The clean part of the shaft is the travel I used yesterday on the trails. So far, I've used more my 7" of up travel on pavement than off road.
I just noticed this on the rear shock. See the zip tie on the dirty part of the shock shaft? That was pushed there from daily driving. The clean part of the shaft is the travel I used yesterday on the trails. So far, I've used more my 7" of up travel on pavement than off road.
Wish I could have made that one, I saw it a day late.
I also need to return your 3 1/8" hole saw
OP
Next time. Unfortunately, I can't do the Holy Cross run next week. I have to go to Florida.
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OP
Found it. Beasley did not use the grill attachment bracket. He drilled and bolted the flare directly to the grill. That goes a long towards cleaning up the look. He describes it about halfway down in this long post.
https://www.jeep-owner.com/index.php?topic=42.msg348#msg348&gsc.tab=0
From what I gather, Hendrix opened up the rear wheel well before the repaint. I will need to do something similar if 35s go on.
Next time. Unfortunately, I can do the Holy Cross run next week. I have to go to Florida.
I wont make that one either--I want to get a few of us to run it later this month or sometime in August. I also hear Red Cone is now open...
What are you thoughts on the MCEs? I mean, aside from the review you just gave, are you still considering purchasing a set? I had them in my shopping cart a handful of times but could never quite pull the trigger. Just something about that backside of the flare...
OP
I'm still leaning towards them. Your PSs are better, but you've seen all the stuff I have crammed under the hood. Too much work. MCE's are ABS, so I should be able to cement a flange or tab along the back side of the flare to either better attach it or hide the light gap.
That white JK that slid down Radical Hill would have been terrifying. Falling off the last climb is almost as bad as slipping off of Red Cone.
