proracedriver616's "jeeplife" story

Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Bringing my jeep and this thread back from the dead! After getting my jeep back and contemplating dropping it down and putting it back on 33s I made the right decision and kept building it. I threw a set of 37" maxxis trepadors on that i got this last summer at truckfest and then lowered the jeep a little, down to around 4.5" of lift. I made a custom pack of mj/xj leafs that are military wrap, so they should last longer then my last few packs. I threw a crane knuckle and highsteer arm on my 44 and built a 7075 drag link. I bought a shittybilt winch and built myself a tube bumper, welded on some hooligan boatsides, and thats how the jeep has been for the rest of the summer and all winter.


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Then I spent the week out at johnson valley, wrenching and pitting for the rock addicts (all 5 qualified this year!) Needless to say i came back all excited to start wrenching on my jeep! I started trying to build the big green jeep that i used to own to do Dirt Riot racing, but ending up selling it to troy a few years back.

Now ive got the serious itch to build my jeep for mod trail class and do some dirt riot racing this summer. Two days after getting back from the hammers i ordered up 65 feet of 1 3/4" dom tubing and a 20 foot stick of 1 1/2. I picked up a steel wheel to mount my spare, and bought a pair of corbeau baja rs seats and got to tearing into the jeep a little.


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr




Out came the headliner and carpet to start cagework, and in went the new seats


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Yeah that's my snapon epiq that I bought last year, probably the last box I'll ever buy...hopefully
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

I like the black trim on it, I should've gone that route when I ordered mine last year. And yes, Extreme Green looks great on the tool box.




Looking forward to seeing the build progress. I think you'll really like those seats too, they're pretty comfy.
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Got a little more progress made on the jeep, i made floor plates for the D pillar bars and got them both welded in behind my existing plates for the shock hoops. I got both D pillar bars fitted and welded in, along with the sandwich plates on the roof.

I will be building internal B, C, and D pillars and doing external A pillar bars that go throught the fenders and back along the drip raills. All of the internal cage will be tied into plates sandwiching the roof and then tied into cross bars on the outside of the roof. Basically im building a "hybrid" cage as most people call them, its necessary for me to build this type of cage to have some headroom, expecially when wearing a helmet.


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr


image by proracedriver616, on Flickr
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Looking good.

The prospects of that project is why I went back to a Wrangler. :D
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Out came the shock hoops.....
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.....and in went more tube....

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....then i made new upper shock mounts and laminated them....

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Got both sides done and the shocks recharged and remounted, now the shocks will be tied into the cage and the cargo area looks a little cleaner. I made the "hoop" a little taller to fine tune my shock travel. The shocks also moved back to the furthest mounting hole on my u bolt plate and i was able to inboard them a little, so although the holes in the inner fenders are actually bigger, i will be able to make bolt in cover plates that fit the shock a lot tighter and have less of a gap then before.

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Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

ive always thought it would be a great idea...but.....
the way you have that hoop now, if you decide to add 1/4 protection, any plans to tie it in through the body into the tube to really strengthen it all?
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

in4aride said:
ive always thought it would be a great idea...but.....
the way you have that hoop now, if you decide to add 1/4 protection, any plans to tie it in through the body into the tube to really strengthen it all?
Click to expand...

It's funny you say that, at work today we were talking about doing that exactly ! Lol. When I do quarter armor later on I will probably do a couple stansions off of the cage to plates inside of the quarters.
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

:thumbup: ways thought it was good idea. Just never had the stuff or skill to do it.
 
where have all the good cherokees fs gone

Any plant to tie the b a c pillars together or are you needing the access?

Are you going to put the spare on the floor behind the fuel cell? I think it looks cool with the hole cut in the hatch for it to stick out.

Great work so far btw, can't wait to see it finished and in person.
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

I apologize for it being kinda dark in a lot of these pics, but i am doing all of this work at night after work. Once things are a little further along ill take some good pics during daylight.

I got the my x brace all fitted and welded, kinda hard to tell in the pics but the x brace runs diagonally between the bottom of the C and top of the D pillars. The lights in the back are; an amber dust/follow light, and blue limited class strobe. I didn't technically "have" to install these, but if you have ever been out to hammers or really any offroad race you can attest to how dusty it gets and these will give me a little more visibility from behind.

I want to start getting away from doing the basic fabrication that everyone does on rock crawlers, i feel that rock crawling is in the stone-age compared to a lot of other forms of motorsports. I have always been a fan of rally racing and decided that i wanted to make FIA style saddle gussets on my cage. They were a little more time consuming then simple tube gussets, but they are a lot lighter, and look way cooler. I feel they are just as strong if not stronger due to the fact that they are 3 dimensional in shape and in the fact that they are dimple died, also there is a large weld area on them.

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Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

That's sweet. You should just make and sell those gussets.
 
Re: where have all the good cherokees fs gone

DutchVDub said:
Any plant to tie the b a c pillars together or are you needing the access?

Are you going to put the spare on the floor behind the fuel cell? I think it looks cool with the hole cut in the hatch for it to stick out.

Great work so far btw, can't wait to see it finished and in person.
Click to expand...

Thanks dutch, I would love to add more bars to the interior part of the cage, tying the c and b pillars together, adding door bars etc. I dont think i will add a ton more though as this is my daily driver and i have to keep it somewhat practical for my girlfriend and daughter to ride in there with me. I wanna keep it easy to get in an out of and also safe to ride in on the street by minimizing the change of hitting your head on bars.

I had the spare in the other night with the cell mocked in place, ill think ill tilt the front of the tire up and have the back stick through the hatch, trimming as little of the hatch as possible. I really like the loosenuts rig, thats a big inspiration for how i wanna do my tire.



in4aride said:
That's sweet. You should just make and sell those gussets.
Click to expand...

You can get them through cagethis.com and a few other sites, but they are pretty expensive. It was fun making my own, but i dont think it would be worth my time to make them for resale. Plus every single one is different based on the angle of the intersecting tubes
 
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