proracedriver616's "jeeplife" story

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Lotsa work done over the last few weeks, some crappy cell phone pics:

Hd Offroad shackle relocation brackets, JKS shackles, and Ruffstuff perches set to 1" stretch all installed in the back. Teraflex lower control arms, Rough Country control arm drop brackets, Deaver coils, T&J upper shock mount conversion brackets, and Ruffstuff shock mounts are welded to lower control arm brackets...all on the jeep now. Also re-tubed and rebuilt front and rear driveshafts with the rear converted to 1330 rear yoke.

I got my Hyline Offroad hood vent kit in the mail last week and laid out the template and traced the holes tonight, may get a chance to do some cutting this weekend

The tan paint cans are colors im debating for the jeep when the body work is done

 

[YELLAHEEP]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Whoa....... how much venting are those gonna provide? :looney:


Oh and what tan paint cans??

 

[adrenalinepirate]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Looks good. Assuming tan like desert sand?

 

[jeepfreak1020]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

What's your final length from outside tire to outside tire?

 

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

What's your final length from outside tire to outside tire?

I just went and measured...about 81" in the front and 80" in the back, from the widest part of the tires, so those could be + or - an inch.


I got all sorts of goodies in the mail today, first Fedex stopped by with my HD Offroad rear frame stiffener plates. Then an hour later UPS stopped by with my polyperformance order consisting of: a trailgear rear shock hoop kit, 4 synergy dimple die frame outriggers for the shocks hoops to sit on, a pair of synergy hoodpins, and a pair of 14" travel remote resi fox 2.0s

And Troy, the big metal template for the holes on my hood came with the hyline offroad hood vent kit...heres a pic off their website of the vents that will cover up all the holes im cutting in my hood(and the color im thinking about going):

 

[in4aride]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

@^ bighorns. Such an underrated tire.

 

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

My original plan was to weld on the frame rail stiffeners, then cut two 1 3/4" holes in the floor on each side for the hoop legs to poke through, weld the legs to the dimple die plates, then weld the plates to the sides of the framerails.....but it didnt quite work out like that...

The rear drivers side leg of the shock hoop was going to interfere with the fuel filler hoses, so I decided to take some ruffstuff spring retainer plates i had laying around and weld them over the frame rails in the back and keep the rear legs of the hoops inside the cargo area. This affected how the shocks mounted to the hoops too. I originally just had 3" holes in the floor between the frame rails and wheelwells but without notching the framerail i decided the best way to get the shocks to clear everything and work well was to weld the shock tabs so the shocks are outboard of the hoops and then notch the wheelwells out a little. Everything fits great back there now, i just have to get nuts/bolts/spacers for the lower mounts.

I thought this was gonna be a super quick deal, but working around keeping the back seat functional and the fuel filler hoses in the stock location turned this into a little bit of a project. I thought buying prebent hoops would save me running around buying tube and getting them bent, but in the end i would have been better off getting custom ones bent up. The only saving grace of the TG kit is that its chromoly.

All in all it turned out pretty good, and ill get my shocks mounted up tomorrow and take a few poser shots sorry for the shitty pics, the camera on my new phone sucks balls

 

[in4aride]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

You going to cover it some how to keep the outside out and the inside in?

 

[YELLAHEEP]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Secksi fab work Seth. :thumbup:

I'm looking forward to seeing where you're going with all this. Anticipating a 4-link rear or something? Not sure why you need such long travel shocks for a leaf sprung rear suspension..... :dunno:

 

[in4aride]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Shoulda jut put em in like this :roflmao:

 

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Shoulda jut put em in like this :roflmao:

I originally planned something similar but like I said, the tg hoop kit kinda screwed that up...plus those are standard shocks, fox 2.0s are inverted so the body take up a little more room.

I plan on splitting 3" exhaust tube and boxing the holes in...with rubber boots at the top. The shocks are just 14" foxes, they just look so tall cause the lower mounts are on top of the leaf spring plates

 

[in4aride]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

No I was totally kidding I like your set up way better. The one I posted was a joke.

 

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

I see what you did there

 

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

I got the rest of my hardware today and bolted my rear shocks all up! Man does it drive nice! It feels firmly planted in the rear now and not at all bouncy or wallowy like it was before. Now that the back feels so nice it really makes the front feel like spongy shit with those procrap shocks up there. Anways onto some pics

After a while of driving around hitting all the speed humps and whoops i could find it was off to flex it out and see how well i mounted everything. I need a little longer shocks in the front, the front right shock was fully extended and there was still plenty of droop left in everything else. Nothing was binding anywhere and the coil spring had not started to unseat yet. I need to trim my rear wheelwells up and back a little more so i can get another inch or two of stuff out back.

I still have about 2 3/4" of uptravel left when fully stuffed...and i have about 3" of downtravel left in the shocks when fully drooped, so plenty of travel left in the shocks lol. The one thing i did notice is that at full droop the axle swings forward enough that the shock body is about 1/32" away from contacting the body, so i need to trim the shock slots i cut in the wheelwells out a little more.

I cant wait to save up a little money and get a pair of 2.0s for the front! Then it needs limit straps and eventually air bumps front and rear...but for now its finally ready for moab:clap:, minus a few little things here and there.

 

[DutchVDub]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Looks awesome man, great work.

Where did you get those front shock mounts? I need to replace those adapters I have.

 

[in4aride]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

looks great :thumbup:

 

[xj5280]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Came out really nice. Those T&J front mounts look great and the rear looks amazing.

Just out of curiosity cause I don't know crap about fox valving- what did you end up having them set too? Also what's your travel Numbers from stance, did you just break even or did you cater too more up travel or vise versa more down travel?

 

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Thanks for the compliments guys, im super happy with how things are turning out. The front upper mounts are from T&J performance.

I measured how much uptravel i would have if i trimmed the rear up about 1.5" and still wanted to have 1/2" to 1" left before i would bottom the shock out. It worked out to be about 6 7/8" of uptravel and 7 1/8" of downtravel...so very close to breaking even. Im going to either make a bastard pack or buy a pair of 3.5" leafs to get the rear sitting up a little so the jeep is more level. I was also thinking about staying with a 3" leaf and finding or building a pair of shackles that are 1" longer then the jks ones i currently have. I think (in theory) if i went with a little bit longer shackle i could get more travel out of the rear end, from what i have read anyways. Any insight in this would be appreciated.

I did tons of reading over the last few months on the jeepspeed forum on naxja as well as some threads over on dezertrangers and a few other prerunner type forums. A lot of the guys building prerunners go with 7100s and those have "off the shelf" valving options to choose from, so i figured since thats what most people run i would go with the same valving as some of the bilsteins. I went with 255/70s in the back and plan on buying a pair with 275/78 valving up front. I think ill be able to fit a pair of 12" travels in the front, but ill have to unbolt my shocks and flex it out to know for sure.

 

[proracedriver616]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

got my hood all cut and drilled for my louvers but misplaced the baggie of nuts :flamemad: so i didnt get them mounted. I did get my hood pins mounted but no pictures of those.

Finally got my rear hannemanns, the owner of code4x4 had a pair for sale on co4x4 and was nice enough to arrange for his brother to bring em to denver for me. I bought them months ago and finally have them lol, taped em on this afternoon to get an idea of how they will look

 

[in4aride]

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

oooohhhhhh man!!!