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Project White Cracker

363K views 364 replies 124 participants last post by  Swag Off Road 
#1 · (Edited)
Project White Cracker....Daily Driven TJ on 40's

I have ran and broken many, many parts in my day with a 91 Cherokee and 35” tires. These parts include (15+) broken Dana 30 parts, this includes ripping out the ball joints on a trail run, one busted front carrier in Moab, spider gears in Rubicon….I live in Oregon (2) Tera 4:1 Transfer case, Steering, Cracked frame.......uni-body, rear hatch, tail lights, lockers, and even managed to flop it on it’s side twice.

Once my life of being the poor college student had subsided, and my broken ass Cherokee was sold. I set out to build a dependable off road, daily driven TJ on 40’s
 

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#261 ·
Do you have any trail clearance issues (hitting rocks etc) with the pitman arm and drag sticking out there exposed like that? I'm probably going to go to a reverse rotation box like this one but instead of moving/rotating the steering box I was going to see if I can have a custom pitman arm built. Instead of a pitman arm with a drop I'd like one with rise. For anyone who has NOT seen a reverse rotation box mounted with a flat scout pitman arm this probably will make no sense whatsoever. Anyone that's seen a set-up like yours will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Who makes 'custom' pitman arms?
 
#262 ·
To date I have never hit my pitman arm, with the old bumper it was better protected that it is now. What I have is a reverse rotation PS box from PSC. I rotated the box up and back a couple inches to keep the pitman arm up out of harms way.

I walked the wrecking yard isle of pitman arms and found what I was looking for, something relatively flat with the correct spline count. You could always cut out the splined portion and flip it around then reweld it so your pitman arm will point up instead of point down. Custom pitman arm would be a waste of $ all you need is the splined portion and a big old chunk of iron to make a custom one.
 
#263 ·
Cut and flip the spline...that is an idea I had not considered. Thanks!
 
#264 ·
I took the Jeep down to KOH, wheeled it for a week straight, ran every trail at JV then drove it to work on Monday.:grinpimp:

I did however learn a few things.

Lesson 1) those nice overbuilt tube fenders we like to run are only as good as the factory sheet metal tub we bolt them too. I have a 1.5” ripple here the cowl meets the flat sheet metal. I barely bumped a rock on the outer edge of the fender, didn’t think much of it, lost a few chunks of paint but it transferred the energy back into the tub.

Lesson 2) High steer arms, In addition to the 4 studs provided in the kit it is a good ideal to weld the high steer arm to the knuckle, or you might end up like my friend Cory. If you have the style similar to BTF design you can do so and still have access to the kingpin.

Lesson 3) Make sure your ring gear is locktited to the carrier, and your carrier bolts are tight. My ring and pinion held up but the carrier took one for team. A new ARB will be installed this week.

Lesson 4) A ½” grade 8 bolt in single shear is not strong enough for a limiting strap. It sheared the bolt clean off.

All and all I had a blast; I will definitely go back next year for KOH 2010.
 

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#268 ·
I know I am a month late, but here are a few pictures for KOH. I had a blast It was my first time there. I can honestely say that spending a week in the desert is like spending a month at the Rubicon or Moab. That terrain wil test every component you have and try to break the week link. Mine was my Ford factory limited slip. I have since swaped in an ARB.
 

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#266 ·
love the design of it.

question about your draglink and panhard being non parallel. do you have bump steer on the road with it?

I raised my vehicle to get more uptravel and with a panhard and draglink not being the same length; the angle between the two looks identical to yours now.

thanks,
 
#267 ·
It is all how you look at it, in the pictures it looks off, but if you bend down it looks correct?

These pictures are when I first finished the rig, however I have not changed a thing suspension or steering wise.

I do not get bump steer. However at KOH I ripped one of the small upper RE superflex cages in half off the axle. with only one upper and wore out bushings it rides like crap and the front end wonders a buch as the caster angle has ~10 degrees of movement:shaking:

I am currently working on that this weekend.
 

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#271 ·
Troy, I had no idea that you had a build thread here on Pirate. I spent the better part of a rainy afternoon trying to absorb all of it. Got your email about your site, Shot you an email on the change of my email address. Totally awesome build up!

Thanks for sharing!

Reed
 
#272 ·
A few more pictures from this past weekend, in Prineville Oregon.

Since the last post I have replaced the RE front uppers with a single full lenth 2" .25 wall DOM upper after one of the RE small superflex joints units broke at KOH. I also out boarded my rear shocks to get the bottom shock mounts out of the rocks.

Since I finished the build up of this Jeep I have put 23,000 miles on this thing and it keeps taking me to and from the trails in one piece. This past weekend I logged ~450 highway miles with the wife, dog and 10 month old boy :smokin:

If anyone is intrested the cage is still for sale, $1,000.
 

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#276 ·
After 3 years of rubbing my Jeep in all the wrong places, I came out with a set of high clearance and nuke proof replacement body mounts for the Jeep Wrangler.:smokin: They are pure beef and made up of 1/4" and 3/16" steel.

They will definately do a better job at helping me slide off the rocks as they are an inch higher up in the frame and angled on 4 sides to act as a skid and not an anchor like the factory Jeep design,

If anyone is interested in a set check out the website. http://www.swagoffroad.com/Wrangle_High_Clearance_Body_Mounts.html
 

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#281 ·
Well, since you are pimping sales in the wrong section, I will mention how nice they are, but seriously overpriced. Don't get me wrong, they look great and lots of people need them, but $180 bucks? Seems a bit much to me.
 
#286 ·
Awesome build man been watchin man i knew i shoulda hit up prineville that weekend. U know my boss Dave Robinson he told me u guys all where gonna stay at his house in bend then truck it over. Says u guys do some serious shit lol. Keep up the great work by far one of my fav jeeps
 
#287 ·
didnt see any really good pics in the build thread, but do you have any better pics of the bike tray rack you built? I am working on building one to hold two DH bikes and I am looking for ideas on how to secure them other than ratchet straps. got any close up pics or details?
 
#289 ·
That bike rack was a last minute effort to take the wifes Jeep to Moab. It was a piece of channel just wide enought for the tires to fit into and angled up on the ends to center the bike and protect the wheels. They were velcroed to the channel. A piece of tube bent into a 90. One end welded to a 2" receiver and the other end had a destaco clamp on it that would capture the peddle and pull it back into the tube.

Confused I am :laughing:

It was never ment to be sexy or last that long. I did bent it up in Moab that year so it did it's job and protected the bike.

Sorry no pictures.

I would ask the expedition forum on here see what thoes guys do.
 
#290 ·
Ok,

I thought I would add a few pictures to my build up since after all I just logged an additional 1,600 miles to the Fordyce, Rubicon & back.

I had a blast and didn't break anything, all was going well until 10 miles from home. :flipoff: I know its the law :shaking: but it was 90 degrees outside and my tires are going bald, so throwing rocks is out of the question. Considering this Jeep has logged some 25K miles and only one fender flare ticket.....not too bad.

I thought I would share a few more tid bits of information.

Steering, with a flat Chevy Astro pitman arm that is 6" long I had ~28 degrees of steering, yeah it sucked. I had to run the joint off the pitman arm on the top or else I had gnarly bump steer, however the joint would bind at full drop and while playing at KOH I bent both the one ton TRE and a 3/4" heim. So I went to the wrecking yard and found a Ford Superduty pitman arm that is 7.125" long with a 1" drop in it.

The spline count on the Ford did not match the spline count of the Jeep. I used a hole saw and cut out the Ford splines and Jeep splines then beveled the crap out if it welded the Jeep spline in the Ford arm, however I flipped the splines so the pitman arm so I had 1" of rise. I can now run the heim on the bottom any my track bar and tie rod are with in 2 degrees of each other.

It was a major PITA and took all day. The end result, I now have ~42 degrees of steering and no binding of any steering components. I'm running 14" shocks with out limiting straps.
 

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#291 ·
Other random tid bits.

I hit my PSC tube fenders against a rock, I would call it barely a love tap, I knew I would rub a bit of paint off the fenders but dam. My buddy saw me rub the rock and said HOLLY S***, what its just paint. Nope it was structural.

Note: tube fenders are only as good as what you bolt them too.

It is hard to tell from the pictures but it is pushed in a bit over 1.5".

I did change the breather location on the front axle. It was puking oil out of the breather at high altitude. Stock location is where the allen head screw with silicone is.
 

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