High travel, high clearance & high octane, a streetable adventure LJ story

toximus said:
Aside from main highways (meaning 2 roads in our town) everything has a blanket of snow or ice on it since they don't scrape the roads when they plow.

The Goodyear MT/R has been better than I expected. I wrote about my choice to go with them at some point before in this thread so I won't go into all of the reasons again but I knew that winter street driving would be a compromise. Over the course of my test drives the last few months I've had varying winter conditions to test the tires on. I never slid uncontrollably on ice topped with a dusting of snow like with a BFG KM2 which those have no hope of regaining control once they break traction. The MT/R doesn't have as much siping as a Duratrac which are better at biting on ice especially melting ice which is covered with a little water. Duratracs have been my go to and favorite for winter streets ever since they came on the market years ago. That's what I have on my wife's khaki TJ now and if they made them in a 37 I'd go with them for winter street driving and light trail duty on my red LJ. I think that having a boosted engine does help being able to quickly jump to higher RPMs and controllably apply power on turns which helps the tires find grip when there's just enough snow to grab. I've found that I'm doing the same turns on average several MPH faster in my red LJ with MT/Rs as I am in my wife's khaki TJ with Duratracs. My driving style is such that as long as the Jeeps handling is predictable and I have room on the road I'm fine if the back end kicks out on a turn even for daily driving. Obviously that does take experience to become comfortable with and know not to follow instincts to hit the brake. My point in saying that is that I may be more comfortable with the sudden loss of traction more than most people. When stopped on ice at a stop sign on an incline the Duratracs are the clear winner for traction to get moving again, with the MT/Rs I often have to blip the rear locker until I'm moving again. The MT/R does excel at paddling through deep snow.
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I have KM2s, and I relate to what you’ve said. Good to know the MT/R does a good job - I have been racing for many years so a little tail kick isn’t a big deal to me either...all comes down to what you’re comfortable with. I’ve never felt good with the KM2 on ice, exactly like you said.
 
Your LJ looks amazing. Hope you don’t mind a couple questions from someone still trying to figure all this out.

How much tire do you have sticking out past flare front and rear?

The JK brakes look like great option for rear. Do you know if is any way to run them on full float without using Currie setup you used?
 
someguysjeep said:
i'm not real slick on Co's but all the weight should be balanced on the springs still, no?
the shock inside should not have enough pressure to help support the weight of the rig, i'd think. this would translate into a stiff ride.

you should be able to bleed off or add shock pressure, going from soft to stiff for terrain changes and not effect the ride height, is how i thought they worked.
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Even though the oil (and pressure) can flow around the piston the shaft still takes up volume within the cylinder which wants to shoot out under pressure. When shocks get hot (mainly seen in a racing application) they can also raise the ride height a bit. I don't know how much force this actually is relative to the scale we're talking about though. Somebody else can hopefully provide more answers.
 
toximus said:
Even though the oil (and pressure) can flow around the piston the shaft still takes up volume within the cylinder which wants to shoot out under pressure. When shocks get hot (mainly seen in a racing application) they can also raise the ride height a bit. I don't know how much force this actually is relative to the scale we're talking about though. Somebody else can hopefully provide more answers.
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Pressure equals force over area. If you take the approach of physics and not real life application it’s pretty simple to understand. PSI stands for pounds per square inch. So if you have a 1 square inch cylinder running 150psi you’re gonna get 150lbs of force exerted. It’s easy to calculate the area of a circle (pi*r^2) so a 2” cylinder has an area of approx 3.14 square inches. 150psi would then be divided by 3.14 to give you 47lbs of force. The example you gave is a good representation of temperature increasing pressure - which then exerts more force! The equation for a closed system is PV=NRT or Pressure*Volume=(N which is the amount of gas)*(R which is a constant)*(Temperature)
 
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sourbluff said:
Your LJ looks amazing.
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Thanks!

sourbluff said:
Hope you don’t mind a couple questions from someone still trying to figure all this out.
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Fire away! I don't mind the questions at all.

sourbluff said:
How much tire do you have sticking out past flare front and rear?
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A lot. I've never actually measured because:

1) I wanted as flat of sides to the Jeep as I can get away with so there'd be less to get caught up on and get damaged offroad. Also fender flares that stick out further apply more leverage to the body when they do get hit which can also damage the rest of the body. Where I live it can be wet/mucky so flares are required to keep the windows somewhat clear.
2) We don't have tire coverage laws... ...that are enforced.

sourbluff said:
The JK brakes look like great option for rear. Do you know if is any way to run them on full float without using Currie setup you used?
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They are a good option but Explorer brakes are also a good option if they're available for your application. Currie does sell the JK full floater kit separately from their housings which you could adapt to a junkyard axle (fyi it isn't designed for the JK 44 and it's a weld on affair). I don't know of any other similar offerings.
 
toximus said:
Thanks!



Fire away! I don't mind the questions at all.



A lot. I've never actually measured because:

1) I wanted as flat of sides to the Jeep as I can get away with so there'd be less to get caught up on and get damaged offroad. Also fender flares that stick out further apply more leverage to the body when they do get hit which can also damage the rest of the body. Where I live it can be wet/mucky so flares are required to keep the windows somewhat clear.
2) We don't have tire coverage laws... ...that are enforced.



They are a good option but Explorer brakes are also a good option if they're available for your application. Currie does sell the JK full floater kit separately from their housings which you could adapt to a junkyard axle (fyi it isn't designed for the JK 44 and it's a weld on affair). I don't know of any other similar offerings.
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I want flares for sure. Actually need to check legality but considering the number of ‘redneck’ rigs I see even if law exists I doubt is enforced. I did get pulled over years ago on east coast, Boston I think, while on road trip in my XJ on 33s with no flares. He wanted to write up height, tire exposure etc but I reminded him of my MO tags and he let it go.

I saw the JK full floater kit on currie website but it would add $ to build that will already stretch my pocketbook. I did see JK backing plates but looks like they are unique to currie full float housing end. The only housing end they have listed my axle builder said is for semi float application. Guess need to contact them and see if fullfloat end is available other than in kit.

If going with explorer or 1/2 ton ford brakes would any changes to LJ brake system be needed? Planning on going through black magic for front so I think master cylinder will be part of that kit.
 
sourbluff said:
I want flares for sure. Actually need to check legality but considering the number of ‘redneck’ rigs I see even if law exists I doubt is enforced. I did get pulled over years ago on east coast, Boston I think, while on road trip in my XJ on 33s with no flares. He wanted to write up height, tire exposure etc but I reminded him of my MO tags and he let it go.

I saw the JK full floater kit on currie website but it would add $ to build that will already stretch my pocketbook. I did see JK backing plates but looks like they are unique to currie full float housing end. The only housing end they have listed my axle builder said is for semi float application. Guess need to contact them and see if fullfloat end is available other than in kit.

If going with explorer or 1/2 ton ford brakes would any changes to LJ brake system be needed? Planning on going through black magic for front so I think master cylinder will be part of that kit.
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The JK backing plates Currie is selling for the floater are stock except they've replaced the spring with a narrower diameter spring.

Do you need full float for what you're doing? It's overkill for my build. I only went with JK rear brakes because Explorer brakes weren't available on the full float and I didn't like any of the other options such as Wilwood.

Rear Explorer brakes are similar to TJ disc brakes. The bias works well with any of the BMB kits on the front.
 
IDK i watched a semi float 60 rip apart last year, i mean blew it up, on 39's. bigger tire sure but even at 37's removing that flange and supporting it on the hub is the way to go..........i don't think you overkilled it.
i think you built smart for a long lasting stronger axle.
 
On my test drives I've noticed:

1) I have multiple minor electrical issues. a) the headlights brights don't work (I solved this by seating the connector on the driver's side fender) b) the interior lights didn't turn on once (I'm still debugging this since it only happened once) and c) the transmission temp gauge keeps powering off (I found a loose connection in my wiring behind the dash which is the cause).

2) The shocks need tuning. I have the DSCs on the softest settings and bumps in the road hurt. I still need to pay more attention to what's happening but right now it seems that it's the "landing" that hurts more than the bump itself. It feels like there is no rebound happening and the compression is extra stiff during that second "landing" impact. I scribbled on the shafts with a marker and only about 2" of each shaft is being used which is exactly how it feels. I'll be coming back to this after more test drives.

3) The steering is scary. @mrblaine is helping walk me through dialing in the steering and he described it best as "non-linear steering response". It's not so much an issue driving slow but on faster roads with turns is when this issue really rears it's head. What's happening is that when I turn the steering wheel a little bit for the turn the Jeep only turns slightly, I then turn even more to try and get the steering response I want, and then slightly more, but then the weight transfers to the outside tire and the Jeep quickly turns way more than I'm expecting. It all happens in a fraction of a second and has had me pointed into the oncoming lane more than once. Which then results in me jerking the steering wheel in the opposite direction and veering right and left in my lane during a simple curve in the road. In my next update I'll post about how I'm going to correct this issue.
 
i'm sure you've seen this. but if not maybe it can help. the video mid page is pretty informative.
https://www.crawlpedia.com/coilover_springs.htm
are you thinking the steering a result of the way it's linked or could the HA be influencing it?

punch list points. you rebuilt the whole rig and that's a pretty short list for what all you've had your hands into.

sounds like steering is up 1st.
 
someguysjeep said:
i'm sure you've seen this. but if not maybe it can help. the video mid page is pretty informative.
https://www.crawlpedia.com/coilover_springs.htm
are you thinking the steering a result of the way it's linked or could the HA be influencing it?

punch list points. you rebuilt the whole rig and that's a pretty short list for what all you've had your hands into.

sounds like steering is up 1st.
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It is an Ackermann issue.
 
someguysjeep said:
punch list points. you rebuilt the whole rig and that's a pretty short list for what all you've had your hands into.
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I knew I'd be dealing with dialing in steering since day 1 of the build so it's no surprise. Once the 3 items above are checked off I will consider my build done. There's still other things on the punch list such as a couple of armor panels and the remote filler neck (I've been waiting on it to come in since December) but all of that stuff is more of an evening or weekend type project that won't have much downtime on the Jeep.
 
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