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Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
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I have gotten a couple of private messages about this so I’ll post a little more detailed explanation of the wheel situation here.
———————————-
When I dropped the Jeep off at Blaine’s, It was running Quadratec Moab wheels
That had 5.25” Backspace + I was running a JK bolt pattern adapter that was 1.25” thick.
So effective Backspacing was 4” on a JK bolt pattern.
Once we decided to move forward with the hub conversion. That changed things.
The hub conversion pushes the front axle mounting surface out 1” per side.
So now if I ran the same setup as before I would have ended up with the front wheels sticking out much farther than necessary. No reason to have them sticking out farther than necessary.
The front would have had 3” of effective backspace and the rear would have still been at 4”.
And I would have still had to deal with the annoying Adapters that hide your actual lug nuts. in addition to this the hub itself would not fit through the front wheel so we would have had to machine out the inside of them all.
So Blaine gave me the ideal new backspacIng and I began looking for wheels with that backspace and TJ bolt pattern. I was only able to find 2 in a 17” wheel.
So now in the front we are running 4.75” Backspace wheel. But remember the hub conversion pushes that out 1” so it’s effectively 3.75”.
In the rear we are running the same 4.75” backspace wheel buy with a .625” spacer because the rear tire was rubbing the new out-boarded shocks. So the rear backspacing is now 4.125”
Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Installed Quadratec door hanger in the garage today.
Cool little product, it’s gonna work out nice.
Also I was very grateful last night, a good friend who’s family member passed away gave me all this for working on the Jeep.
Cool little product, it’s gonna work out nice.
Also I was very grateful last night, a good friend who’s family member passed away gave me all this for working on the Jeep.
Can you currently tig? You may need a new jeep to weld on though. The LJ doesn't have much left if anything to do to it.
Those door hangers are awesome. Do you have a rack for all 3 sets
Those door hangers are awesome. Do you have a rack for all 3 sets
Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Can you currently tig? You may need a new jeep to weld on though. The LJ doesn't have much left if anything to do to it.
Those door hangers are awesome. Do you have a rack for all 3 sets
I currently cannot TIG, I have always wanted to learn and now have a good excuse.
I am like hmmmm might be time to build a new light offroad trailer to replace the one I sold, with matching paint and wheels to the Jeep of course.
Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
Original poster
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Got my front license plate holder installed. Still still need a frame to spruce it up a bit.
If anyone is looking for a very impressive solution to mounting your front license plate, this is it. Takes about 10 seconds to remove, its rock solid when attached and you can barely see the bracket for it when it’s removed.
Don’t mind the bugs.
If anyone is looking for a very impressive solution to mounting your front license plate, this is it. Takes about 10 seconds to remove, its rock solid when attached and you can barely see the bracket for it when it’s removed.
Don’t mind the bugs.
Maybe I missed it, but have you had a chance to really put the hydro-assist to the test yet?
I plan on doing hydro-assist on mine, so I'm curious
I plan on doing hydro-assist on mine, so I'm curious
Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
Maybe I missed it, but have you had a chance to really put the hydro-assist to the test yet?
I plan on doing hydro-assist on mine, so I'm curious
No real test yet, waiting for trails to open. I can say I see no reason not to have it on the street with @mrblaine kit. It’s invisible to me, or maybe not invisible because steering is way better than it was before.
My understanding is the steering on the trail should now require the same amount of effort it does in the driveway.
That's mostly what I was curious about was how it felt on the street. If it's invisible like you say, that's good news.
I don't intend for this new TJ to be a daily driver, but I still want the road manners to be good for when I do drive it on-road.
It sounds like the hydro-assist will be a nice addition, especially with some of the wheeling spots nearby at the new casa.
Air conditioning will be used more
You and @lowranger have envy inducing trailers. Now @MountaineerTom too. I want to get a small trailer one day!
Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
Original poster
Supporting Member
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Thought my soft top was gonna get here today but it was just the new door uppers. I decided to get a set of these sliding ones with my new soft top so that I could try both. @Alex01 said I didn’t have enough door options so now I can choose between glass or plastic uppers on the half doors. ;-p
Here’s a bunch of photos because I had trouble finding many when shopping them.
omparison of the plastic vs glass uppers.
View of the latches and seals. You can slide them forward or backwards.
Side shot and overall.
They seem interesting I will likely not use them as much as the plastic window just because they a fair amount heavier. But they will be nice if I know I am going somewhere muddy, etc. because I don’t have to be concerned about scratching them if I have to wipe them off like the plastic ones.
I will update once I get some freeway time on them and figure out if they are any quieter.
I just don't understand how you even leave the house. So many options.
Have you noticed any noise difference?
Have you noticed any noise difference?
Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
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Just took it for a 15 min test drive on the freeway.
Maybe they are a tiny bit quieter. It’s probably a bit skewed because my plastic uppers are brand new too. I imagine these will stay quieter much longer than the others.
They are much clearer to look through, although the black line down the center keeps catching my eye.
/shrug
I will likely run these when using half doors with hard top, and the plastic with the soft top, then full doors in the winter and Savvy on the trail. That should be a good system to justify owning all these.
eeny-meeny-miney-moe pick an upper and let’s go!
You sir are out of control! IMO the half doors with hard uppers is a perfect compromise vs. a hard top and full doors, provided you didn't cheap out and not get the twill soft top. Tell me you didn't cheap out at this juncture?
Midnight LJR
In search of Rubicon flares.
Original poster
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
I did not cheap out, Bestop did. They don’t make twill upper for the LJ. :-(
Epic fail for Bestop! Well, sailcloth will just have to work. Damn LJ's! Lol!
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