jeepster1407
TJ Enthusiast
Nice work. That warranty claim seems to have gone smooth for you? Which brand shaft was it that broke?
Ten Factory. I emailed them in the morning and they shipped it that day.Nice work. That warranty claim seems to have gone smooth for you? Which brand shaft was it that broke?
For the rear axle... Look at Colorado's. It's a leaf spring, but it's the same M220 Dana axle that they put in the JL. Your gonna have to strip brackets and weld new ones on anyway. Might be a cheaper way to go from a junk yard... Plus... You might get lucky and get a ZR2 with the e-locker.A lot of net surfing and thinking this week about my rig. Since I bought this thing, I have been wanting to move the fuel tank from under the rig and into the cargo area and push the rear axle back approx 8". I have also wanted to hi-line the front and then run 37's. Unfortunately, I think I am always going to have this in the back of my mind.
However; after much deliberation this past week, I don't think I want to move my fuel tank into the cargo area for quite a few years, possibly never. Without this critical step, I don't think I will be able to fully obtain my original desired build. So, I had to do some serious thinking about what I want to actually do with this thing.
I think I have come to the following conclusion:
I want a TJ that:
Needing the room for camping gear and also the back seat, requires the fuel tank to stay under the rig. I also need a fuel tank large enough to carry enough fuel for not only a few days on the trail but also to get me back to the trailer at the end of the trip. Some areas like the Dusy, you won't be able to get fuel (or it will be hard to come by) not only on the trail, but also on the road back to the trailer on the loop back. So the requirement for having a larger fuel tank under the rig, is my limiting factor on any significant wheelbase changes. Thus, the limiting factor on tire size.
- I can use to rock crawl most of the hardest trails in the SE and Midsouth/Midwest (Hawk Pride Hot Springs, AOP, Iron Gap, Harlan, Windrock, SMORR, Green Acres, etc...).
- Do some camping out of at the Cove and possibly in the Ozarks and Ouachitas.
- I also want a rig that I can take out west and run not only hard trails, but also longer multi-day trails. My list would include JV, Rubicon, Fordyce, Dusy-Ershim, etc....
- It will be trailered to the trails and won't be a daily driver, but I still want it to be able to perform decent on the road so that the wife and I can jump in it on a Sunday afternoon and drive it to a local brewery for a beer OR if something happens to one of our daily's I could get by with driving the jeep to work for a week or two while the daily gets fixed.
- I want the ability to throw camping gear or the back seat in when needed, but mostly the rear cargo area will just be used to carry my normal day trip rock crawling gear.
I am currently at:
35" tires
93" wheelbase
Frame height - 20-1/4"
Lowest height at skid - 19"
Current issues with my jeep:
- Lifting of front drivers side wheel when in steep climbs.
- Short Arm bounce when I loose traction on steps.
- I have no rear sway bar because I either break the links or the actual sway bar when I run a sway bar (yes I have snapped two stock sway bars) and it gets a little unstable and possibly aids in the lift of the front wheel.
- Constantly breaking stuff related to axle (shafts, lockers, spiders, R&P, I have broken it all front and rear) and this is with crawling, not bouncing or mudding.
- Drive shaft issues (ujoints, centering balls, etc..) mostly on the rear due to the shortness of the shaft. Also, I am currently cheating my pinion angle a little down in the rear in order to keep the track bar from hitting the fuel tank skid which is putting additional stress on the shaft.
- Body is pretty beat and I am having trouble with getting doors to close.
Good things with my jeep:
Current plan:
- It goes! It pretty much does everything I want, but it gets a little sketchy sometimes.
- I like it, which goes a long way.
- It is a toy and will be treated as such.
Since I can't push my wheel base to an adequate length for 37" tires, keep the 35" tires and try to remove some of the sketchiness.
I just purchased a GR Crawl23 tank which will require the rear shocks to be outboarded. I also have already purchased the towers and shocks to outbd the rear shocks.
A lot of typing just to help me get some of my thoughts out and "down on paper".
- So Step 1 is going to be to outbd the rear shocks and install the fuel tank. This is going to be a multi process step because I need to get my ride height with all the weight (including fuel and normal crawling gear, camping gear will be the outlier and not accounted for) in order to properly outbd the shocks and I will also want to push the rear axle back slightly and to rotate the pinion to correct angle so I will need to remove and install parts numerous times while measuring, etc... to get everything set correct.
- Step 2 - with the pinion angle hopefully set correctly and inline with the driveshaft, see if I need to add a center limiting strap to avoid excessive stress on the drive shaft.
- After I get the fuel tank installed and the shocks outbd, I will most likely take for a wheeling trip and see if the outbd shocks improve the stability, if it does not improve enough, then Step 3 would be to install a rear antirock.
- Step 3 is going to be to do something about the short arms and the antisquat issue. TBD. I have preliminarily designed my own single triangulated 4 link which will cost about $1200 or just bite the bullet and buy the savvy mid arm for $2800 and do both the rear and front. Right now I have been focused on the rear and haven't even thought about the front yet.
- Step 4 is going to be to do something about the axles. I honestly don't want to go with 1 tons because I don't want the larger size differentials with the 35" tires. So it is going to have to be living with the stock Dana 44 (and figure out how to upgrade), upgrade to JL Dana 44's, or go Ford 9inch.
- I already have chromoly shafts in the rear, RCVs up front, brand new front and rear lockers, new front and rear R&P, so not sure what I can do to make the current axles more stout. Everything has a great warranty on it and has been warrantied at least once, but it is not about the cost it is about breaking. A great warranty doesn't do anything to help you finish the trail.
- Hopefully, as more and more JLs get modified, there will be more and more JL/JT rubicon axles for sale and I can grab them. That little extra beefiness should be enough with the 35's. Also, the extra width would help with my stability.
- Aftermarket 9 inches are just plain sexy, but out of my budget at the current time (unless I can find someone dumping a set).
- JL/JT Rubicon D44s with brakes included is my current wish list, so if anyone comes across a set for sale let me know.
Great looking Tj- aren’t you from Pennsylvania? Seems we used to see you there all the time years back?I moved away from Pennsylvania when I was 23 yo, 23 years later I caught myself telling people that I was from PA and it occurred to me, NO I am not, I am from Tennessee so I added a TN flag plate to the front of my 04 Rubicon as a reminder that I am from Tennessee not Pennsylvania and that plate has been all over and beat to heck and back but is still hanging in there. So Tennessee Red.
I had CJs when I was a kid, my first vehicle was a '67 CJ5 with the Dauntless 225 V6, I then had a '76 CJ5 with the 258 and a 4sp which I wrecked and then got a '77 CJ5 with the 304 V8 and 3sp. I pulled the drivetrain out of the wrecked '76 and put it in the '77 because I liked the inline 6 and 4 sp (3 sp with a lo) better. Anyway, years and years after selling them and life happening I got the urge to buy another Jeep so in 2015 I bought a '98 TJ which I still have and is basically still completely stock. It was my daily driver from 2015 thru June 2020 and it will now go to my 16yo once he gets his driver's license. I enjoyed having the '98 TJ that I found the 04 Rubicon in 2016 and I purchased it and it is now my toy.
View attachment 198247
This thread will be about the 04 Rubicon, for now I am keeping the 98 as stock as possible (including the milk jugs) so that my 16yo has something that he can decide the direction he wants to go.
For the 04 Rubicon, From 2016 thru June 2020, it was driven to the trails, and wheeled pretty hard, but always got me home at the end of the day or weekend. In June 2020, I bought a pickup and trailer and since then I have broken something every trip (5 for 5), coincidence?
I am actually not that great at remembering to take pictures, but I will hopefully get better.
Not yet, I still haven't hooked up the fuel/vapor lines yet but looks like there is plenty of room. Also, as you are aware, it would be impossible to route the exhaust back past this tank. I learned a few lessons on why it is dangerous to give an Engineer a grinder and welder, but other than that it has not been an issue.Nice Vic - any other fitment challenges getting it in there?