ORS build. What a silly little jeep.

[Action Fab]

I'm going to put together a little build thread here for my XJ. I own Off Road Specialties and this is my personal beater. My plan is to keep it small, simple and very capable. I'm trying to think outside the box as much as I can here. I want to keep this rig very street friendly. I am driving this jeep nearly 600 miles a week, so reliability is another big concern of mine. All of which is a contradiction to off road performance. My solution is small tires and no lift (I did add a 2" puck to level out the front with the winch). The biggest benefits of large tires and lift is the ground clearance. Well I have some tricks to gain ground clearance without the need of a higher stance.

Specs:
32" Kenda Klever MT's on 17" trailready beadlocks
D44 rear with spool and 4.56's and heavy shave
HP30, chromos, spartan, 4.56's, wj outers, OTK steering, heavy shave
mid arm front 3 link
frame plating with belly up skid
ORS extreme stubby bumper
Superwinch ep9.0
boat side
231sye with CV driveshaft.
through the roof cage.
custom fender-well fuel cell.

So here it sits with the 255 BFG's that I am swapping out for the Klevers tomorrow. The Kendas are about an 1" taller. I did a basic fender cut and rear roll, lost the front sway bar and added the 2" BB spacer in the front. Very basic set up so far.

I'll get these mounted up tomorrow.

Here is the rear axle that I shaved this past weekend. I still need to build the cover for it. But I got an inch of clearance out of it.

 

[FlexdXJ]

Looks like a neat build. I'm a fan of the Hellas in the grille.

 

[ibjeepin95]

Sweet! I'll be watching this one.

 

[kastein]

damn, you were not shy about cutting into that 44 housing. Think it'll have enough rigidity still? It looks awesome clearance and fab wise but I don't know my ass from my elbow when it comes to figuring stuff like that out.

 

[Action Fab]

damn, you were not shy about cutting into that 44 housing. Think it'll have enough rigidity still? It looks awesome clearance and fab wise but I don't know my ass from my elbow when it comes to figuring stuff like that out.

I've done quite a few of these heavy shaves over the years without any issues. The way I build them with the ring that gets welded plus bolted to the diff and the ridged diff cover and the axle truss. They are pretty solid. I'm not concerned a bit.

Here is a 60 I did back in 09, under a JK running 40's. It has lived for four years now under Daily driver/Weekend warrior conditions. And it gets beat on pretty good.

 

[Outlander560]

thats awesome....very talented and I really like this build, different then what I have seen. I'll enjoy keeping up with this thread.

 

[Action Fab]

Thanks for the good words.

One thing that I keep going back and forth on is my gears. Right now I'm running the stock 3.55's. I'm averaging 19.5-23 MPG with the 32's and beadlocks. Like I said, I drive the piss out of this thing so gas mileage is important to me. This is my 34th jeep and never have I gotten this kind of fuel economy. I'm kind of scared to dick with it now. Most of the time deeper gears help mileage with over-sized tires. On this thing, it may hurt me.

 

[CobraMarty]

What year? Auto trans?

 

[Action Fab]

What year? Auto trans?

99, no cat, CEL on for bank two out of range, borla muffler, stock air box, aw4, welded 8.25.

 

[XJLI]

that is a bad ass shave job. jeep looks slick, nice and clean. i like it.

 

[sunburned]

Thanks for the good words.

One thing that I keep going back and forth on is my gears. Right now I'm running the stock 3.55's. I'm averaging 19.5-23 MPG with the 32's and beadlocks. Like I said, I drive the piss out of this thing so gas mileage is important to me. This is my 34th jeep and never have I gotten this kind of fuel economy. I'm kind of scared to dick with it now. Most of the time deeper gears help mileage with over-sized tires. On this thing, it may hurt me.

I loved the 32" tire and 4.56 gear combo back in the day. It was great on the road and even better on the trails. No idea what the mileage was though, never really measured it, but I put a ton of highway miles on it as a DD for a year or so. That being said, if you are really getting that mileage, I don't know what to tell you about changing it. You'll have more low end power and better gearing for crawling, so decide if that's worth possibly losing a few MPG (not sure how you would though).

 

[Action Fab]

Yeah, I ran 4.56's on one of my ZJ's with 32's and was very happy. I have the gears sitting here already. So I'll probably do it anyway.

 

[Red91Laredo]

Looks like a sweet build, subscribed!

 

[94XJFAB]

NICE BUILD!

 

[DeftwillP]

Looking sexy. Always loved your stubby.

 

[Action Fab]

Looking sexy. Always loved your stubby.

So you going to buy me a drink now or what? :smootch:

Anyway, I got these Kenda's mounted up and I really like them so far. But 4.56'
s are definitely finding their way in. These are quite a bit heavier and taller than the BFG's and I can feel it.

 

[GordoSmasho]

Those wheels are tits man!

 

[Action Fab]

So I went wheeling today and all I can say is DAMN! Those Kenda's are absolutly the shit. I have run just about every tire out there in one fashion or another. These by far had the best traction on dry rock of any tire I have ever run except comp compound Krawlers. But they beat out everything else. Went and ran all the four and five diamond trails that usually requiter lockers front and rear along with at the very least 35's. These tires let me walk up it with an open diff. At one point I was on a very steep slab with my rear quarter hard into the crack, and the driver front 4' in the air free wheeling and the jeep crawled right up with just the rear tires... I have been shut down on this very same slap running way bigger tires and lockers on a few rigs. What is even more impressive is that these are new. New tires never work worth a crap. I can only expect these to get better as they break in.

No one got any pics or vids but here is the slab I'm talking about for reference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwPMKPdhrYk

 

[XJLI]

are they the same kenda that makes mtb tires?

 

[Action Fab]

are they the same kenda that makes mtb tires?

Yes, which is one of the biggest reasons I bought them. I loved my Kenda mtb tires.