Great Lakes 4x4. The largest offroad forum in the Midwest banner

No longer basic, no longer DD TJ build

33K views 256 replies 34 participants last post by  JohnnyJ 
#1 ·
I decided its time for a build thread, since I have actually been building this jeep since I bought it. I've owned 6 XJ's over the years, two with rusty's 4.5" lifts on them. My first two xj's ended up in MiniBeast's hands, cj7on44's now has my other 2 door, and I just sold my lifted 4 door xj because I found a good deal on a lifted TJ.



Thats the only picture I can find at the moment before any modifications. It has a 2" spring lift, and 2" body lift, on 33" BFG's, 4.0, 5spd, 4.10 gears with lock rights front and rear. D30/35 combo.

First up were new bumpers:





Big thanks to JCR for working a great deal on these, those guys are great and are building some awesome products.

Along with the new bumpers came a new smittybilt xrc8 comp winch, I wanted the synthetic line for weight savings and ease of use. I can tell you after dog party, that it performed very well.



Need more ground clearance, hung up on shovel and fuel tank skid here, once out of the ruts she crawled right up this hill. Made that line the next time around without winching.



I also have a pair of GenRight 4" flare tube fenders waiting to be mounted, since the stock ones have the usual rust on them.

Future plans are as follows:

Install the tube fenders

3-4" long arm lift, loose the body lift.

Upgrade axles: currently planning on a pair of waggy 44's unless you guys can talk me out of this for some reason. The cost of mounts, gears and lockers may end up reaching the point where I'm better off finding a set of rubicon 44's ready to go. I plan on running 4.56 or 4.88's and a 37" tire.

Once axles are upgraded, I plan on purchasing a set of of trailworthyfab's recentered h1's with the 37" mtr. Since this is my DD, the tires will hold up to the street well, the double beadlock will let me air down low enough that the tire should have decent traction offroad (especially if we groove them), and replacement tires are dirt cheap.

Those are the plans at this point, I'm open for criticism, ideas, concerns, etc. Especially open to ideas for axles, I'm not really looking to go to 60's though, just don't want the weight and cost involved. I would be open to an 8.8 rear and 44 front, or 9" rear, something along those lines, just don't want to go full width, I'd like to keep it a little narrower for the trails.
 
See less See more
5
#96 ·
So...time to start things moving forward again. Wheeled at twisted tails dog party a few weeks ago on 35's and managed not to break anything Land vehicle Vehicle Car Off-road vehicle Motor vehicle


As soon as I can get my d44's ready to go in, I'm going to start that process. Lately though I've been doing a lot of web wheeling and found some interesting opinions. I'm almost convinced to buy some currie flex arms and skip the long arms. General consensus seems to be that for less than 3.5" of lift the long arm kits actually hang up more than they help. A good flex joint short arm system seems to be the way to go for lower rigs like mine, unless you go full custom, which I don't have the time to do. Anyone have opinions on short arms vs. long at 2.5-3" lift?
 
#110 ·
When I did mine I clearances the pads, calipers and brackets to get the farther in to clear my 15" wheels and pressurized the calipers to set the placement and clamped nuts between the bracket and rotor for final welding
 
#120 · (Edited)
the currie arms with the jj's on both ends will flex way more than your jeep can on factory spring and shock locations. they are dirt simple, rebuildable, and strong. its a perfect setup for most rigs under 4' of lift. long arms unless frenched into the frame often drag. long arms cost way more. once u go long arm you aint going back. many off the shelf long arm kits have garbage geometry too. i just got currie arms for my rig.

i wanted to build my own arms, but the cost of all the pieces, cost near what arms do.
their welds are better than mine too.

i got lucky, and found a savvy aluminum gas tank skid, and front upper and lower currie arms for 350 used.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top