Jeep Wrangler JK: Maximum Fender Clearance Edition

Chris

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Need I say more?

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Because someone was sick of seeing forum posts "can I run 54s with no lift." and decided to change the answer to "Yes".

I just noticed... It still has stock axles but the rims have negative backspaceing... I bet that steers well. Not to mention, how badly do the rear axle flanges bend and how often does he replace wheel bearings.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
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The really funny part is when I see jeeps with only part of that kit. Now that looks really stupid. Just the windshield frame or just the grill hanging out with nothing around em.

I don't hate fab fours for making it, I weep for a future where there is enough market demand that making it is profitable.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
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Because someone was sick of seeing forum posts "can I run 54s with no lift." and decided to change the answer to "Yes".

I just noticed... It still has stock axles but the rims have negative backspaceing... I bet that steers well. Not to mention, how badly do the rear axle flanges bend and how often does he replace wheel bearings.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
It is unfortunate that you had to be the one to notice the front axle and the correlation between the issues it has and the axle design. Yes, it will steer like ass. I have had JKU's here before that could not turn the tires lock to lock sitting still with the engine running because they were running 1.5" wheel spacers to fit their 37's on the "stock" gusseted and sleeved front axle when the locker was on. The tires turn just far enough to take the slack out of the splines and locking side gears when one tire rolls forward and the other rolls back. Soon as the slack was gone, steering locked up because in order to turn further, one or both of the tires had to break traction. The reason for the correct offset on rims is to reduce tire scrub and attempt to pivot the tires around the middle of the contact patch.

As a consequence of that, the ball joints get abused because when the tires lock up, the steering is still trying to drag them around and that loads the upper with a lot of force it shouldn't really have to deal with which shortens the life span a fair bit.

Surprisingly and contrary to internet lore, the rear flanges on the semi-float shafts don't bend. What actually happens is the shaft gets over rotated past the elastic deformation limit and it distorts the concentricity between the flange and the splines. Shafts are crooked when they come out of heat treat. They bend them post heat treat to achieve concentricity between the splined end and the face of the flange with very little regard to the actual straightness of the shaft. As long as the flange runs true to the splines, that is all they care about.

It also appears that there are wheel spacers/adapters to go along with the shallow backspacing.
 
The really funny part is when I see jeeps with only part of that kit. Now that looks really stupid. Just the windshield frame or just the grill hanging out with nothing around em.

I don't hate fab fours for making it, I weep for a future where there is enough market demand that making it is profitable.


There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
I guess I'm one of the few that just is not bothered by what folks do to express themselves with regard to how they want their vehicles to look. I might get that from a background in modifying vehicles to lower them on air bags when I was helping the boys at West Coast Customs when they first started out. I view it as any money generated by building crap and making folks happy is good for all of us. That and I respect skill in most anything design and fabrication related and fully know that when a lot of folks see our lifted big tired rigs, there are a lot of them with a bit WTF??? look on their faces.
 
Looks like an extra from one the Michael Bay Transformers movies... "jeep-o-bot"

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
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