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'97 XJ Project "Body Shot"

Using 3 lithium batteries. Did a lot of research and talking with the tech guy at Shorai. I had experience with one of these on a sport bike and fell in love. 2 would be powerful enough, 3 was to protect them during charging.
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My deaver coils unseated at full droop. I fought with either limiting travel, custom springs etc. In the other previous pic you can see I switched to the longest metal cloak "true dual rate" coil. Accutune offroad actually felt that the deaver has too high of a spring rate too.
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Using 3 lithium batteries. Did a lot of research and talking with the tech guy at Shorai. I had experience with one of these on a sport bike and fell in love. 2 would be powerful enough, 3 was to protect them during charging.
30180318_1742580589167976_1797294590_n.jpg
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Forgot to add the other details on these. They (combined) are shy of 10 lbs! Stock lead battery is 30 lbs.

I cut 5 lbs out of the hood. Engine is 40 lbs lighter. Ditching A/C. Should be something like 100 lbs reduction off the front.
 
Also I weighed my jeep with 4 corner scales. My goal was 3500 lbs. I did not hit that!

Initial weight after majority of build. Full tank and spare in the back

Total=3,870
Front=2,130 (55%)
Rear=1740(45%)

I'll be switching to this spare carrier. http://www.offroadxtreme.com/engine...e-wilco-offroads-hitchgate-solo-tire-carrier/

I found the way to calculate how much your distribution is affected when you move weight out past the rear axle. So after moving some weight rearward and reducing some from the front my final numbers will be:

Total=3,910
Front=1,950 (49.9%)
Rear=1,960 (50.1%)

I was shooting for more than 50% to the rear. This is the best I'll get.
 
You're at 3900lbs without a cage or do you have one? Are you planning on racing? If so why did you go with 2.0s vs a 2.5 or 3.0?
 
No cage. Not going to race this thing anytime soon. It's a fun weekend warrior. I had a detailed budget for this, couldn't afford larger than 2.0's due to cost. I though initially it'd be good to get up and running to see what I do and don't like. Mounting shocks in stock location was quick and easy too.
 
I'd also like to add I have experience with fox 2.0's on my 2013 JK 4 door. I romped on that thing good and did not experience noticeable shock fade. So I knew for what I like to do some remote res 2.0's would fit the bill
 
I have been working with Ryan at Accutune offroad. I have changed my front metal cloak coils out for some 25" long 130# rate PAC racing springs. I have come to the conclusion now that you should only have enough spring rate to support the weight of the rig, and let the shocks do the rest.

I'll actually be installing the longest fox remote res shocks for the JK in my XJ. They have .5" more travel front and rear than the longest ones for the TJ/XJ. But the compressed and extended lengths will work well for me. I'm speaking of the 2.0 remote res shocks they make for specific vehicles to mount in stock locations.

I threw some straight cheap RC shackles on the rear. I had rustys boomerang shackles, then switched before the build to Synergy boomerang shackles. However I ended up needing and installing Ironman4x4 shackle relocation brackets. NOW at full compression the stupid shackle hit the leafs so I switched to a standard straight shackle to solve that. With the stock shackle location and deaver leafs you need to run the boomerang. The longer shackle is going to work well with the slightly longer shock for the JK. (1" longer on extended length)

On this run here my drag link contacts my oil pan. I added another hockey puck. During removal of the metal cloak coils I cycled my front suspension and adjusted LCA's and track bar so the front bumps would contact the hockey pucks much better. Compromise is that at ride height the axle is slightly to the driver side. https://vimeo.com/280090332

I also did a very poor job of welding my upper control arm mount on the axle and it broke off in that video on that landing. It's way better meow

Here's a jump I didn't really intend https://vimeo.com/281040784

Here soon I'm going to get much better pictures and videos of this thing.
 
Alright I'm going to keep updating this thread....

Flexed out


New springs


Happy with my shackle angle


Here you can see the bare metal on the main leaf where it was contacting the boomerang shackle.


My current front limit straps are 27". New ones going in with 1" longer shocks are 28". I mentioned previously I threw in another hockey puck up front so I've just moved my travel down an inch to keep things from hitting other things. I am SO tempted to throw on some 35" KO2's. They're the same weight as my 33" toyos

Here's a look at my rear bump stop as well. Had to trim it up a bit. They are working well and have definitely been used.
 
I also ditched my old modified air box. It did in fact suck in water. I think it was largely due to my 2" holes in the sheet metal under the intake opening. I was trying really hard to make sure I got plenty of cool air to the intake. Everything is a compromise between offroad reliability and practicality, strength, weight, reliability etc.

I threw on this HUGE K&N air filter + drycharger pre-filter
 
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