Here are a few pictures of my vehicle in Aztec, New Mexico in an area called the rockgarden. The prorock competition ended really early today. The day two course was :rainbow: . After it ended, I explored a few dirt roads here and there.

I really enjoyed Sam's pictures, so I hope that you guys like these to. It is neat to see different wheeling areas.

Way

Another picture

Yet another picture

4 of 6 picture

5 of 6

Last one. After I got home, I cut my fenders a few inches bigger so that my front tires would no longer rub.

Way,

The pics are nice man. Looks like the trimming will be a good thing!

The articulation is pretty sick! I thought to myself (man, I hope he has a bunch of spare K-car CV's), then DOH!, I realized that the whole reason you did all of this was for the 44! Sorry!

Now I just hope you either have a pocket full of 207x's, or some caaaysh for the CTM's. I'm going to shell out for the CTM's I think when I do some axle upgrades later this summer.

Let us know how the UJ's hold up!

Later,

Michael

PS Now your weak link is your rear axles????

cool pics there Way, nice bit of travel there,shame about the front fender rubbing.

Jamie

Nice :beer: :beer:

Adam, What spring rates you running. Are your springs clamped at both ends or do they become unattached. Dont suppose you know what your rig ramps (just for me and not any of the other unbelievers :flipoff2: )

What shock travel are you running??

Good stuff!!! but a bit hard on the panels.

Sam

HOLLY ANGLE OF THE DANGLE BATMAN!

Rubbing the body is no big deal. As soon as I roll it, I will turn it into a buggy. :D I am contimplating skins right now.

I have made some homemade retainers for the top and bottom, both front and rear. The top fronts are simply four hose clamps. The bottoms are a 3/16" plate with a single hole in the center. I use eye to eye shocks that use a Rubicon Express stud to eye adapter. I simply bolt the adapter through the plate and it holds the spring in place.

For the rears I cut a round circle out of 1/4" plate. I drilled two hole about 3" apart. I then welded to nuts to the plate. I turned the plate upside down and sat them on top of the spring perch. I 4" piece of steel with corresponding holes then clamps the upper spring. For the bottom I use a 1/4" plate. I place a 1/2" plate below so that when I crank down the bolts that it doesn't crunch.

Really simple and less than $5 of material. I can show some pics for those interested.

I run 12" travel shocks up front that limit my travel. (27.5 extended, 15.5 collapsed). The rears are 14" travel that are raked forward. I use the Rovertym long travel shock mounts. They extend at 35" and collapse at 21". I do not use there full travel yet. The spring is what limits the travel in the rear.

Spring specs.
Front 200-240 progressive. Free length close to 18.5" When under vehicle close to 15.5"

Rear spring DS 21.5" Rear spring PS 20.5". 300-340 progressive. Under compression these squat to around 17.5" the rig sits about 3/4-1" higher in the rear than front (unless loaded down with gear).

As far as RTI, I have never ramped it. However I frequently drive up on large boulders to see how it flexes and to see where trimming needs to be done. The largest bolder was about 4 feet. I had to build a ramp of rocks to get on this. It felt a little tippy doing this, but it didn't roll. I would roll my vehicle far prior to lifting a tire. So on a 20 degree ramp lifting a tire 48" with the standard rover wheelbase of 101.1"(I think). This would equate to a 1388. (I would hypothetically travel up the ramp 140.34") Stock 92 Range Rover County ramps a 670, making it the most flexy rover make and year in their line up.

Way

The articulation is pretty sick! I thought to myself (man, I hope he has a bunch of spare K-car CV's), then DOH!, I realized that the whole reason you did all of this was for the 44! Sorry!

Now I just hope you either have a pocket full of 207x's, or some caaaysh for the CTM's. I'm going to shell out for the CTM's I think when I do some axle upgrades later this summer.

Let us know how the UJ's hold up!

Later,

Michael

PS Now your weak link is your rear axles????

I run the larger Dynatrac U-joints with chromoly axles (297x spicers with no zercs). I should be fine up front. I expect to destroy hubs first. The nice thing about those being the weak link is that Warn warranties them. I have a lot of confidence in the 24 spline rear axles. I pulled them a few days ago and after a few years of running them they don't even have twists in them. I am curious what the wink link is now after the hubs? Regardless, if I break I wont hesitate to buy CTMs. They are sweet. Well worth the money IMHO.

One thing to consider about the axle is that the previous owner competed with it in ARCA for over a yeat without breaking. He was running 38" tires and lower gears as well.

Adam,

What are the 297x joints with no zirks (or whats a zirk??). I just bought some new spicer 297x joints and they are cross drilled and have a grease nipple in one cap (and even these were hard to find in Aust.) Are the ones you run stronger???? What about 760 joints have you heard anything about them. These were starting to become the rage but the CTM joint came out soon after and all the talk was about the CTM and not much more was said about the 760 joint (although I carnt source these in Aust either)

:beer:

Sam

Our club?s experience with 44's in the front is that the weak link is the u-joints. I see these break all of the time, especially with 38" tires. The warn hubs fail less often. I would estimate that I see about 5 u-joints fail for every hub failure. R&p failures are very rare.

The CTM?s are very strong. However, the forces are then transferred to the ears of the half shaft, causing them to distort.

Sam, zirk is our slang for grease nipples. Because drilling the joints for the zirks weakens the joints, the heavy duty versions are not cross-drilled.

Sorry about the ?'s. There is some incompatibility between MS word and I forgot to correct this.

Rich