Johnep93's 2004 Jeep Wrangler Sport

Johnep93 said:
@Chris how much lift do you recommend for 33s? I've seen you give high remarks to the Currie short arm in other threads. What are your thoughts on manual locking hubs for the front axle to eliminate the unit bearings? Is it just marketing, or is there some real world advantage to having traditional wheel bearings?
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4" lift is the most commonly recommended lift height for 33s, which I fully agrees with.

I wouldn't run a short arm lift unless it was Currie or Savvy personally.

Manual locking hubs won't do you any good to be honest. The only thing they're good for IMHO is if you get stuck on a trail with a busted front axle shaft. With manual hubs you don't even have to fix it. You can just unlock the hubs and drive home that way. That's the only real advantage to them though.
 
@Chris so even with me wanting to do a crazy cross country road trip, you would just run the factory unit bearings? I like the idea of the locking hubs for the fact it's serviceable, in case something happened in the middle of nowhere.
 
Johnep93 said:
@Chris so even with me wanting to do a crazy cross country road trip, you would just run the factory unit bearings? I like the idea of the locking hubs for the fact it's serviceable, in case something happened in the middle of nowhere.
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Yes, the factory unit bearings are good for 100k miles or more if you get the Timken ones. In addition to that, they're much easier to find at any local auto part store than the replacement parts you'll need for manual locking hubs, which are going to be special order parts in most cases.
 
Chris said:
Oh... haha! Damn Khaki Jeeps, huh?
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Yeah! Mine is the first one I remember seeing in this color, and I'm super glad I got it! It draws a lot of attention. There's quite a few in my area, but I only saw one driving from Alabama to Ohio a few months back, was so disappointed. I honestly just stumbled into it. All I knew is I wanted a TJ.
 
Johnep93 said:
Yeah! Mine is the first one I remember seeing in this color, and I'm super glad I got it! It draws a lot of attention. There's quite a few in my area, but I only saw one driving from Alabama to Ohio a few months back, was so disappointed. I honestly just stumbled into it. All I knew is I wanted a TJ.
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It's a classy color choice. Do you have a hardtop? Mine came with the factory khaki hardtop:

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Chris said:
It's a classy color choice. Do you have a hardtop? Mine came with the factory khaki hardtop:

View attachment 60464
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Mine came factory with the soft top, but at some point it acquired a hard top. When I went looking I wanted the 4.0, 5 speed, full doors, and a hardtop. I wasn't thinking about the Dana 44 rear until I bumbled into one. My grandma went with me to look at it and I said if it is as nice as it looks and has a Dana 44 rear I'm getting it. The window sticker is in the glove box. Only thing it doesn't have that I really wanted is rear disc brakes. I get a discount at 4 wheel parts, so that's really not a heart breaker for me.

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Johnep93 said:
Mine came factory with the soft top, but at some point it acquired a hard top. When I went looking I wanted the 4.0, 5 speed, full doors, and a hardtop. I wasn't thinking about the Dana 44 rear until I bumbled into one. My grandma went with me to look at it and I said if it is as nice as it looks and has a Dana 44 rear I'm getting it. The window sticker is in the glove box. Only thing it doesn't have that I really wanted is rear disc brakes. I get a discount at 4 wheel parts, so that's really not a heart breaker for me.
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At least you managed to snag a khaki colored hardtop! That makes it all the better. I really like the hardtop in the Winter, especially with as much as it rains up here.

Oh yes, mine has rear disc brakes, but it's a Rubicon, so they all had rear discs on the Rubicon. Oh well, it's easy enough to convert to rear discs anyways! You did well... The Dana 44 rear end is a desirable feature.
 
Chris said:
At least you managed to snag a khaki colored hardtop! That makes it all the better. I really like the hardtop in the Winter, especially with as much as it rains up here.

Oh yes, mine has rear disc brakes, but it's a Rubicon, so they all had rear discs on the Rubicon. Oh well, it's easy enough to convert to rear discs anyways! You did well... The Dana 44 rear end is a desirable feature.
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My first car was a 95 xj, so I knew I didn't want a Dana 35. I want to move out west, so it was ok 4x4 that I trust to move me cross country flat towing a beetle. Was seriously thinking a taco or 4 runner and cried when I saw prices. But let's face it jeeps are like the chicken pox. You can never really get rid of the virus, so here I am with a tj that majorly needs a new throw out bearing, and a stupid p0161 code that I need to dig into, cause 13.5 mph is no bueno!
 
I had a number of XJs before my TJ as well! Tacomas and 4Runners aren't cheap, but neither are clean Wranglers. In fact, every single year Car & Driver does a report on the top 10 cars with the highest resale value, and EVERY single year the Jeep Wrangler is in the top 5, along with the Tacoma of course!
 
Chris said:
4" lift is the most commonly recommended lift height for 33s, which I fully agrees with.

I wouldn't run a short arm lift unless it was Currie or Savvy personally.

Manual locking hubs won't do you any good to be honest. The only thing they're good for IMHO is if you get stuck on a trail with a busted front axle shaft. With manual hubs you don't even have to fix it. You can just unlock the hubs and drive home that way. That's the only real advantage to them though.
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While part right. The real innovation behind the manual hub kits and why they came to market was a need for something more robust and reliable than the OEM shortcutted TJ Dana 30 unit bearing. Not only does the manual hub kit increase overall frontend durability and serviceability, it adds strength by using stronger parts and separating out the duties of the outer axle ends. Instead of using a unit bearing to handle both loads(BAD IDEA), the spindle and wheel hub now deal with the force of the vehicle weight, and the locking hub takes the force of the rotating axleshaft to move the wheel and tire. Spreading the duties out instead of consolidating the duties to one part; the unit bearing assembly.
 
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Fouledplugs said:
While part right. The real innovation behind the manual hub kits and why they came to market was a need for something more robust and reliable than the OEM shortcutted TJ Dana 30 unit bearing. Not only does the manual hub kit increase overall frontend durability and serviceability, it adds strength by using stronger parts and separating out the duties of the outer axle ends. Instead of using a unit bearing to handle both loads(BAD IDEA), the spindle and wheel hub now deal with the force of the vehicle weight, and the locking hub takes the force of the rotating axleshaft to move the wheel and tire. Spreading the duties out instead of consolidating the duties to one part; the unit bearing assembly.
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True, but I have yet to experience anyone blowing out a unit bearing on the trail any of the time I've been wheeling. Actually, I haven't even heard of it on the forum either. Not saying it's impossible, just saying that it's definitely not common.
 
@Chris well my throw out bearing is making a horrible racket. Since I have to drop the trans for that, if I did the rokmen tummy tuck with the 0.5" body lift, with my 2" lift would that put me in sye and new drive shaft territory?
 
Johnep93 said:
@Chris well my throw out bearing is making a horrible racket. Since I have to drop the trans for that, if I did the rokmen tummy tuck with the 0.5" body lift, with my 2" lift would that put me in sye and new drive shaft territory?
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Yes, it would for sure. That tummy tuck will give you the equivalent of another 3” of suspension lift in terms of driveline angles. You’ll need adjustable control arms for the rear, an MML as well as the body lift, and ideally the Savvy shifter as well.

And of course you’ll need a SYE and CV driveshaft too.
 
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