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Why I won't be doing any wheeling this year.

man your work is so clean that it makes my rig look like a blind man with no arms welded a bunch of random metal together with his toes.
 
It depends on how you wire it. Mine is wired to a circuit direct to the battery so the engine can be shut off and it still has power (and remains engaged). If you wire it to a switched circuit, it would disengage when you shut off the engine. I intend to use it only for short periods of time, mostly on the trail if I need to park on an incline and get out of the vehicle. I need it to remain engaged whether the engine is on or off.

i like this idea. My ebake has never worked anyways
 
It depends on how you wire it. Mine is wired to a circuit direct to the battery so the engine can be shut off and it still has power (and remains engaged). If you wire it to a switched circuit, it would disengage when you shut off the engine. I intend to use it only for short periods of time, mostly on the trail if I need to park on an incline and get out of the vehicle. I need it to remain engaged whether the engine is on or off.

I assumed you had it on a mains circuit, I was just curious if by chance their was a latching type solenoid option rather (magnet holds it in position rather than power). I love the idea though. It's just I question how quick it would draw a battery down. About like leaving your dome light on or something.

Still though, your build is inspirational
 
Yes..... and I'll eventually need one of those fancy LED light bars!

I´d get a set of LED headlights and driving lights first... the headlights from J.W.Speaker (modell 8900, running them myself and love them) and the additional driving lights from Vision-X (how about two small LED bars instead of the round driving lights?)
 
For a mostly trail vehicle, no way I'd spend money on some fancy expensive headlights made to only light up certain parts of the road. When on the trail, you don't need to worry about blinding people, you want all the light you can get.

A grand can get you those headlights or a 30" E-series bar from Rigid.
 
So.... last weekend we went to Bronco Canyon and I busted an upper link mount on the rear suspension. This moved the axle to the side about 5 inches and my passenger side coilover was hitting the framerail. Could have gotten real ugly but as it was I was able to limp it off the trail. Tore it down today and thankfully I don't think it did any damage to the coilover except just some scrapes on the springs.

Here's the damage to the mount.

3455.jpg


Once that brace let go, the 1/4-inch plate bent.

I thought that the weld broke but to my surprise, the weld was fine but the tube broke above the weld. It was 1.5" x .120" wall HREW.

3459.jpg


The good thing about this is at least I didn't have any more trips planned for the Jeep this year and now I can take some time to repair and of course figure out a way to brace this better so it doesn't happen again. Also I don't think it happened suddenly but was probably stressed until it finally decided to break. I had done the Rubicon, Pritchett Canyon at Moab, and multiple other trails in the last few months, but I was on a hard obstacle on Bronco Canyon when it went.
 
Time for some chromoly from PP?
 
is that .120 wall?

a piece of .188 wall or even with a piece of 3/16" plate as a web tied in the gap formed by the piece of tube would solve that problem.
 
Yes .120 wall. I need to leave some room under the tube to access the bolt that goes into the side of the frame. You can see the hole for that in the bottom pic.

I see that now.

does the bolt go in that side, or the nut? if its the nut, you could just weld it on there and not have to access it.

if it is the bolt, you could weld a tube sleeve the right ID for a deep socket on a short extension around the bolt and tie that into the brace for the UCA mount.
 
i'd just replace the tube with a vertical piece of gusset plate. with a cutout for the bolt access.
 
Eric, What are your axles measurements WMS to WMS? I asked you on the Rubicon but I forgot what you said.
 
Alright.... I've been working on the repair slowly over the past few weeks.

Here's the repair with added gussets. That vertical gusset is 1/4" and the square tube allows access to the bolt.

9125.jpg


Top view. You might notice I had to cut the bottom plate to align the mount back into position.

9128.jpg


The scary thing is I found cracks in the driver side brace also. If both happened to go, it would have been catastrophic. So I welded the crack and braced that side also:

9129.jpg


Then while I had this thing tore apart I decided to address the exhaust issue. Yes it has a horrible droning sound at the rps I cruise along on the trail. So that is annoying. Maybe a different muffler will be better. But of course the 4-link doesn't leave me with much room. Got a cheap glasspack from Summit Racing. If its worse, I'm only out about $25.

9137.jpg


In the garage the glasspack doesn't sound any louder than the Magnaflow so that is good. Won't know until I get it out on the street and trail to see if the droning goes away...

9143.jpg
 
I have been happy with my cheap glasspack.

louder than stock certainly, but no drone.
 
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