Justin's TJ

TJustin

TJ Enthusiast
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Joined
Oct 26, 2018
Messages
257
Location
Payson, UT
I've been perusing a number of build threads, most of which have been good at documenting along the way, and while I have taken pictures along the way, I am currently not working on a specific project (just finished a suspension overhaul) I figured I'd better at least throw something up.

Some backstory- My father had been into wheeling since a young age, he mainly focused on Early Bronco's, then went onto Full-Size Bronco's, then ended up in a YJ, which he's now had for almost 30 years. When it came time for me to get my first vehicle, I naturally wanted a Jeep. I settled on a 95 XJ. I put on a fancy Explorer Pro-Comp lift, and my dad's old set of 33" BFG Mud Terrains 0nd drove it around through high school years. Fast forward to the end of high school, I sold it and moved away for to do some things for my church.

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Upon returning home, my father had gone through the local classifieds and identified some potential vehicles. My current TJ was one of those. At the time it was 8 years old, had 43k on the clock, and had been in a minor accident, but had not yet been repaired. I walked away paying just under $5,500 for it. Good luck finding an 8 year old Wrangler today with 40,000 on it for 5k! In my area today, 5k would get you a well used TJ with 150-200 on the clock.

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I installed a Superlift 4" lift and commuted back and forth to college, doing mods here and there as time allowed. The first phase was the 31" BFG AT KO's that came on it with 33" KM2's, then came replacing the 3.07 gears with a Super 35, 4.88's and Detroit Lockers. Then came a Ford Focus commuter car. Eventually came a Ford 8.8, Antirock sway bars front and back, Rokmen control arms, 3" springs, body lift, 35" Kevlars, HP30, other miscellaneous mods, and finally the holy grail winch (at least in my eyes) a Warn 9.5CTI. 4 months after that, I did the wife-mod, and Jeep mods in general slowed down to a crawling pace. It stayed about like this for a number of years.



After we established ourselves somewhat, i slowly began to build the Jeep again. I found a TeraLow on Pirate that had been burned up, so I bought it from the guy, and drove an hour north to Teraflex, and had the unit rebuilt. I wheeled on it for 5-6 years without issue, until one day in 2018 while playing in the sand at Sand Hollow in St. George, UT, i overreved the planetary set, and ruined it. It was essentially scrap at that point because Teraflex had quit supporting them. I ended up parting out the AA SYE, 2 Low gear selector, and gave my father the old case and other misc items since he still has a functioning Teralow.

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6 weeks after finding out the fate of my NP231, my Atlas II arrived. I quickly installed it and was back on the trail.

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In early 2019 I installed a Poison Spyder Trail Cage, powder coated it, and hung my Yaesu HAM radio on it (Callsign: K6TJR), as well as purchased a 2-stroke shovel for playing in the sand. Back in high school I'd spend many weekends shredding sand on a '96 Yamaha Banshee. I had been longing for one since selling it, and opportunity presented itself in June 2019.

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Late 2019-early 2020 I decided that I wanted to change my suspension, so I installed what more or less turns out to be a GenRight Stage 1 Suspension with misc items coming from other various companies. I am fortunate enough to work at a place that welds daily as part of production (I work for Equal-i-zer Hitch, and Fastway Trailer Products) I was able to weld everything together over a 6 week period on my days off. While I was redoing the suspension, I stretched the front axle 2" forward. It is a simple mod (relatively speaking) mainly consisting of new coil buckets, shock, track bar, and sway bar mounting modifications. I have been out on a few wheeling trips since completing the suspension, and love how it handles.

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Going forward, in the near future, I aim to get the Savvy LED tail lights, and more long termI am looking to do a stretch to get to a 100" wheelbase. At that time, I'll be adding aluminum corner armor, tube fenders.
 
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Very cool, I can definitely see the stretch in the front.

I always thought these things looked really cool with the front and rear ends stretched out a bit, especially on the TJs. It gives it that aggressive look, and obviously there are a lot of benefits to be had from doing it. I've heard stretching 5" in the front is a pretty big project though.
 
Very cool, I can definitely see the stretch in the front.

I always thought these things looked really cool with the front and rear ends stretched out a bit, especially on the TJs. It gives it that aggressive look, and obviously there are a lot of benefits to be had from doing it. I've heard stretching 5" in the front is a pretty big project though.

Thanks, and agreed. I didn't research a ton into the 5" stretch, but got into it enough where I knew it was more work than I wanted to do at the time. The 2" stretch is a happy medium in my opinion.
 
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Thanks, and agreed. I didn't research a ton into the 5" stretch, but got into it enough where I knew it was more work than I wanted to do at the time. The 2" stretch is a happy medium in my opinion.

Yep, it's a lot of work to stretch the front 5" from what I've seen. 2" seems like a happy medium, and something is better than nothing (y)
 
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On a more interesting note, I took the TJ to a local exhaust shop to have the exhaust installed since the factory routing was not compliant with the new 4 link. I dropped it off right at the beginning of the COVID shutdown, so things were dead in the shop, but were able to stay open since they were deemed essential. At any rate, I told them what I was looking to have done, and the shop manager explained that he had done several TJ's in the past with long arms and should be a slam dunk. He ended up calling me an hour later explaining that there was nothing they could do, and asked me to come pick it up. I brought it home and got looking and identified a way to have it routed that would maintain clearance and cleared everything.

I ended up ordering a whole bunch of bends from Summit Racing and welded together my own exhaust. It took me the greater part of a Saturday to complete it, but now I'm legal. Disclaimer: I struggle with overhead welding, BUT there are no exhaust leaks.

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After driving it around town, I noticed a rattle coming from the rear of the Jeep. The factory setup with 2 90* angles with a rubber isolator allowed for too much movement, and when put in the right situation, the tailpipe would rub on the gas tank. I searched in several places, and settled on this weld-on mount from Paul Horton's Welder Series in Canada. I installed it over the weekend, and it is working fantastic.

When I get more time, I'll pull the tailpipe out and cut off the remainder of the OE style exhaust hanger.
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Went down to Moab this past Friday and Saturday. Ran Moab Rim, (the sandhill on top defeated me) Fins N Things, and Hell's Revenge. Friday was HOT, and Saturday was very rainy and cold. Both ends of the spectrum in 2 days. I've been down there my fair share, and have NEVER seen a storm like it. Made for some cool pictures though. The links below are some videos uploaded to Google Photos

Z-Turn

Z-Turn Part 2

Devil's Crack- Moab Rim

Hell's Revenge- Flooded Wash

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The TJ has been running well. Went to the Vernal rock rally, and had a great time. Over the weekend, found a set of Walker Evans Racing Beadlocks on 37" Cooper STT Pro's. Took it out to West Mountain near Payson and flexed it last night to check out clearance issues. I apparently had too much bumpstop on 35's because at full bump, the tires were still .5-.75" away from body panels. Just need to trim the front fender flare by the turn signal to accomodate the tires with a bigger stretch.

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Flexed
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Oh man, Walker Evans 501 wheels! I absolutely love those wheels, hands down some of my favorites.
 
Oh man, Walker Evans 501 wheels! I absolutely love those wheels, hands down some of my favorites.

Agreed! My personal all-time favorite wheel for Jeeps, SUV's, etc. When these popped up on the classifieds, I was anxious to have them. They don't seem to last long in my area when they get posted for sale at a reasonable price.
 
Agreed! My personal all-time favorite wheel for Jeeps, SUV's, etc. When these popped up on the classifieds, I was anxious to have them. They don't seem to last long in my area when they get posted for sale at a reasonable price.

Yep, and you don't see them in the real beadlock version that often either. They are 17", right?

Either way, they look killer!
 
New, they are not! Over $1700 in wheels alone. I sold my old tires for $800 and threw $800 on top of it to get them. I feel that I came out looking pretty good. The tires seem to be in decent shape too.
 
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I've been perusing a number of build threads, most of which have been good at documenting along the way, and while I have taken pictures along the way, I am currently not working on a specific project (just finished a suspension overhaul) I figured I'd better at least throw something up.

Some backstory- My father had been into wheeling since a young age, he mainly focused on Early Bronco's, then went onto Full-Size Bronco's, then ended up in a YJ, which he's now had for almost 30 years. When it came time for me to get my first vehicle, I naturally wanted a Jeep. I settled on a 95 XJ. I put on a fancy Explorer Pro-Comp lift, and my dad's old set of 33" BFG Mud Terrains 0nd drove it around through high school years. Fast forward to the end of high school, I sold it and moved away for to do some things for my church.

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Upon returning home, my father had gone through the local classifieds and identified some potential vehicles. My current TJ was one of those. At the time it was 8 years old, had 43k on the clock, and had been in a minor accident, but had not yet been repaired. I walked away paying just under $5,500 for it. Good luck finding an 8 year old Wrangler today with 40,000 on it for 5k! In my area today, 5k would get you a well used TJ with 150-200 on the clock.

View attachment 164790

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I installed a Superlift 4" lift and commuted back and forth to college, doing mods here and there as time allowed. The first phase was the 31" BFG AT KO's that came on it with 33" KM2's, then came replacing the 3.07 gears with a Super 35, 4.88's and Detroit Lockers. Then came a Ford Focus commuter car. Eventually came a Ford 8.8, Antirock sway bars front and back, Rokmen control arms, 3" springs, body lift, 35" Kevlars, HP30, other miscellaneous mods, and finally the holy grail winch (at least in my eyes) a Warn 9.5CTI. 4 months after that, I did the wife-mod, and Jeep mods in general slowed down to a crawling pace. It stayed about like this for a number of years.



After we established ourselves somewhat, i slowly began to build the Jeep again. I found a TeraLow on Pirate that had been burned up, so I bought it from the guy, and drove an hour north to Teraflex, and had the unit rebuilt. I wheeled on it for 5-6 years without issue, until one day in 2018 while playing in the sand at Sand Hollow in St. George, UT, i overreved the planetary set, and ruined it. It was essentially scrap at that point because Teraflex had quit supporting them. I ended up parting out the AA SYE, 2 Low gear selector, and gave my father the old case and other misc items since he still has a functioning Teralow.

View attachment 164793

6 weeks after finding out the fate of my NP231, my Atlas II arrived. I quickly installed it and was back on the trail.

View attachment 164794


In early 2019 I installed a Poison Spyder Trail Cage, powder coated it, and hung my Yaesu HAM radio on it (Callsign: K6TJR), as well as purchased a 2-stroke shovel for playing in the sand. Back in high school I'd spend many weekends shredding sand on a '96 Yamaha Banshee. I had been longing for one since selling it, and opportunity presented itself in June 2019.

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Late 2019-early 2020 I decided that I wanted to change my suspension, so I installed what more or less turns out to be a GenRight Stage 1 Suspension with misc items coming from other various companies. I am fortunate enough to work at a place that welds daily as part of production (I work for Equal-i-zer Hitch, and Fastway Trailer Products) I was able to weld everything together over a 6 week period on my days off. While I was redoing the suspension, I stretched the front axle 2" forward. It is a simple mod (relatively speaking) mainly consisting of new coil buckets, shock, track bar, and sway bar mounting modifications. I have been out on a few wheeling trips since completing the suspension, and love how it handles.

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Going forward, in the near future, I aim to get the Savvy LED tail lights, and more long termI am looking to do a stretch to get to a 100" wheelbase. At that time, I'll be adding aluminum corner armor, tube fenders.

Did you reuse the stock upper mounts when you moved them forward? How did you deal with the frame getting wider as you moved forward? I'm fixen to do the same thing to my TJ because I need to move my axle forward for clearance around my engine.
I'm going to cut the stocks mounts off and then I'll decide if I want to try to reuse the stock mounts or use the upper mounts that Artec sells.
 
Did you reuse the stock upper mounts when you moved them forward? How did you deal with the frame getting wider as you moved forward? I'm fixen to do the same thing to my TJ because I need to move my axle forward for clearance around my engine.
I'm going to cut the stocks mounts off and then I'll decide if I want to try to reuse the stock mounts or use the upper mounts that Artec sells.

For the frame side, I used the GenRight 3 link frame mounts. I bought the kit where you weld the brackets together before welding them to the frame. You can locate them anywhere along the level part of the frame from what I remember. I located mine where the arms were further back than a mid arm, but not quite as far back as most long arms.

For the axle, you will need JK coil and shock mounts. I then purchased a Savvy front truss and modified it to prevent contacting the driveshaft on compression.
 
For the frame side, I used the GenRight 3 link frame mounts. I bought the kit where you weld the brackets together before welding them to the frame. You can locate them anywhere along the level part of the frame from what I remember. I located mine where the arms were further back than a mid arm, but not quite as far back as most long arms.

For the axle, you will need JK coil and shock mounts. I then purchased a Savvy front truss and modified it to prevent contacting the driveshaft on compression.

Okay I guess I misunderstood what you had done. I thought you had cut the upper coil/shock mounts of the frame and moved them forward.
 
Okay I guess I misunderstood what you had done. I thought you had cut the upper coil/shock mounts of the frame and moved them forward.

Fortunately no. The frame side spring and shock location is stock.
 
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So, I went out wheeling mid june, and put a dent in the passenger rear corner. I hopped on my local classifieds again and bought a used pair of Genright Aluminum corner armor. They were originally black so I sanded them down to get them back to raw aluminum color and used some scotch brite pads to give the corners a brushed look. On top of that, with my 37's, I needed to cut larger holes for the tires. The process of cutting took the majority of the time for the project. I think overall it turned out good.

Just got my new rock sliders today. I ended up going with the Barnes 4wd variant, and also finally pulled the trigger on some Savvy tail lights. I've drooled over the Savvy tail lights for years and now finally talked myself into getting them.

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