Daily Driver, Go Where I Want To Build

The following will be controversial. Mrblaine said it was hokey. I am proud of myself for figuring this out. :)
Reclaiming Unused Shock Travel

I had begun thinking my way a little further through shock lengths and coil lengths and realized that my front Old Man Emu N66 shocks have a compressed length of 13.2" while with my bump stop extension stopping my tires from scraping the fenders, I had 15" of available compressed shock length. That means that my shocks could be compressed an additional 1.8" before bottoming out. That unused shock uptravel can be moved into droop by decreasing the shock mount locations. I was pleased that Unlimited04 had come to the same conclusion years earlier, so i went ahead with mine.

Here we are at full bump and the shock's bar pin raised up on a pair of 1" steel stand off tubes.
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To avoid having the stand offs too tall, I assembled a stack of cup washers and fender washers to push the upper mount down.
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The final result is that I went from ~7.625" of travel to ~8.875" of travel. I left about 3/8" of compression to make sure I don't blow up my shocks.

Also because I had them, I threw in the 10mm (~3/8") spacers that Old Man Emu sells. The concern with coil spacers is coil bind. However, ftgiles posted this a while ago:

ftgiles;27847489 said:
ftgiles;27847489 said:
If you have the same length spring and increase the spring rate from 140 to 160 you will be reducing down travel .68" and increasing uptravel .68". If you increased the spring length by .68" you would get the same ride height increase and have the same down travel and increase your uptravel .68".

A .68" spring spacer will give you the same ride height increase and keep the same downtravel and also has the potential to also increase your up travel as long as the bump stop is set for other reasons than coil bind. If the bump stop is set for something other than coil bind that means you have unused spring up travel with your current spring that can be utilized by using a spring spacer.
Doing the math, I am several inches away from coil bind, so I see no harm in adding a small spacer for a little more lift.
 
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Thanks! Colorado is a great place to own a Jeep It's fun to see where and what it was 3 years ago.
Oh absolutely, i'm a Montanan so I know exactly what you're talking about. I love exploring ghost towns and stuff like that too.
 
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Oh absolutely, i'm a Montanan so I know exactly what you're talking about. I love exploring ghost towns and stuff like that too.
I'd like to spend some more time in Montana. I was in Helena and Butte many years ago. It felt very rugged up there.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
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Was there a thread on JF discussing the use of red vs white light and it's impact on night vision? This picture looks really familiar.
 
Was there a thread on JF discussing the use of red vs white light and it's impact on night vision? This picture looks really familiar.
That's the one. And that's the thread that explained why white is better in the real world. :)

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Many say it can't be done. To fit a 50cal ammo can under the hood of a late-model TJ with cruise control, you need to move the cruise control actuator.

I unbolted the mount on the flat part of the fender and bent the other leg to where it needed to go.
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One bolt in an existing hole in the fender.

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Take a hammer and mash down this corner a bit to clear the hood.

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Put your air compressor inside.

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I’m not sure what is more impressive... the build (dialed in, not mild and not wild), the amazing trail pics, or the fact that you have it documented to the T. Very nice!!
 
I’m not sure what is more impressive... the build (dialed in, not mild and not wild), the amazing trail pics, or the fact that you have it documented to the T. Very nice!!
There's a whole lot more to come!

2003 Rubicon
 
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What a great thread! Love your jeep and your travels! I think Colorado might be our first off-road trip once we get @Dave K. Rubi ready. So pretty.
 
February 2014

There technically isn't enough room, but here came a set of five 285/75/r16 Goodyear Duratracs.

View attachment 34120 View attachment 34119

Here they are in the Discount Tire parking lot at a teeth rattling 35psi.

Firstly I love this thread! Great stuff and glad you are sharing it.

I was wondering when you had your 285/75 16s how much lift were you running at the beginning? I have an OME 2" lift and hope to run 285/75's as well. You make me want to take a major road trip to CO and do some wheeling. Maybe that will be in my future. Sure are motivating pictures!
 
Firstly I love this thread! Great stuff and glad you are sharing it.

I was wondering when you had your 285/75 16s how much lift were you running at the beginning? I have an OME 2" lift and hope to run 285/75's as well.

I still run that tire size. The 1.25" body lift has always been in place with 33s. Spring lift heights have ranged from ~1.75 to my current ~4".

Knowing what I know now, my strongest suggestion is that 33's really need, at minimum, 3.5" of total lift (spring and body). I say it often. One of the main goals when modifying your Jeep is to always maintain that 4" of factory up travel. More is better. Losing it will cause ride quality to suffer. Cycling your suspension and correctly setting your bump stops will tell you everything you need to know to make this happen.

You make me want to take a major road trip to CO and do some wheeling. Maybe that will be in my future. Sure are motivating pictures!

The western states are a perfect place to have a Jeep. I would not have one were I still living in Chicago or Minneapolis. It never would have entered my head.

The Jeep you have seen so far can take on 75% of the off road trails in Colorado. It really doesn't require much. And a good driver can certainly tackle much more than that.

Can you believe I haven't been to Moab yet? Don't tell anyone...
 
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March 2015

It is time to revisit the ammo can wheel well storage containers.

The Tuffy boxes have their hinge on the long side. And the lid opens to the outside of the body.
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There is good reason for this. It is far easier to access the boxes from more positions in and around the Jeep with the lid this way.

WWII/Korea era 50.cal ammo cans also have their hinge on the long side.
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The 2" space for the soft top frame to sit inside, just like Tuffy.
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Proof that the rear seat fits.
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The ammo cans sit a little taller than Tuffy does. But that means more space. And it is more usable space.
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The best part is that the older cans have bullets and old timey cartoon bombs embossed on them!
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April 2015

A broken thermostat caused the engine to run cool. I replaced it with a Stant at the factory specified 195*F.
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Shortly after that, the failing fan clutch caused the engine to run hot.

I bought a new clutch at Napa, rented the fan clutch removal tool, and replaced the clutch in the parking lot before returning the tool 45 minutes later.

I can now say that with a properly working cooling system on your 4.0, that your temp gauge should sit just to the left of 210*F. if you read the temps off the computer, the range should be between 195-208*F. 200*F is just about right.
 
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May 2015

4380lbs Total weight with soft top, no rear seat, misc tools, and full tank of gas.
2100lbs Front axle
2280lbs Rear axle
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A daily driver mod.

I wanted brighter back up lights, but don't really have a great place to put auxiliary floods on the rear that wouldn't look thrown on. Like I said earlier, aesthetics do matter and I would the stuff I add to be reasonably integrated into the overall look of the Jeep.

So, what if I was able to make the factory back up lights brighter beyond just putting in a brighter LED? Here is how I did it using flashlight reflectors and 1156 LEDs.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads...rse-lights-in-stock-housing.9527/#post-147650
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Left side - LED with reflector; Right side - factory incandescent
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Left side - LED with reflector; Right side - LED w/o reflector
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