Well I've been on pirate for a while and pretty much just read and tried to learn things and have slowly been building up my jeep and I think it is maybe finally pirate worthy. I definately don't have some fab skills and knowledge as alot of people here but hopefully I can get some insight on my build.
Well I got a stock 2000 xj a couple years ago started driving through mud puddles and all that fun stuff. Well I wanted to do a little more and lifted it with a re 4.5" kit and put some 33 mtzs on it. And wheeled it for a while like that.
Well I was getting into some "harder" stuff and did a little more. Put on a bumper and winch, aussie locker in front, sliders and some other little things. Kept wheeling it like this for a while, got to go to tellico before it closed and kept wheeling windrock.
I decided I wanted to go to 35s and knew I didnt want a dana 35 and wanted to polish the 30 a bit, yea a waste of money, so I did a 8.8 swap with 4.88s, lockright, and put yukon inners and outers in the 30 and geared that. I got a set a 35 ltbs brand new and went and wheeled the jeep with the new axles and tires on time before everything took a turn for the worst.
Only pics with the 35s, and no comment on the wheel weights. I wanted as smooth as a ride as possible and wanted them balanced.
Well I met a guy named Matt(rredalty) who is a horrible influence on my wallet but great for my jeep, and he insisted I go wheeling with him and some naxja guys. Well at the time he had his mj on tons with a stroker, and he was wanting to go to a built 30, 8.8 set to take advantage of the speed his jeep had. Well he gave me a pretty good deal and we traded axles and my wallet became empty and then the fun began. I give major thanks to Matt because like I said I dont have much fab skill and I wouldn't have tons if he didn't help me build my jeep and use his tools and knowledge to help me out. So we took my axles out and put them in the mj and started on the tons build. The axles are out of a 2002 f250-hp dana 60 and a sterling 10.25, geared to 5.38s, welded and solid diff covers. I also put in an essentially offroad cage, which we will be adding more to but for the time being it is better than nothing.
So the tons build started and in the process we pretty much re did alot on the jeep. We made a 3 link using ballistic joints, bushings and mounts and we built that off of the frame stiffners. Me and Matt swapped coils, so I'm running re 7.5 coils and the rear I still have the re 4.5 lift component and also a set of h.d. offroad engineering shackle relocation brackets. The tires are 38x14.50 toyo mt, with diy beadlocks. I do want probably 40s eventually, thinking about the ltbs.
We put the sterling in first and then put the 60 in.
Then it sat like that in the garage until we could make the 3 link and get that and the frame stiffners on. So we finished up that stuff and brought it over and bolted everything up. Overall I'm very happy with how the 3 link turned out, we'll see how it performs when it's not sitting in the garage but I think it will do good.
We then hooked up the steering and swapped in a durango mc and finally got it out of the garage!! And into the back yard...
Well we got it over to Matt's and finished the welding of the frame stiffners and got all the loose bolts tightened up and finished everything enough to drive it and took it for a little test flex.
The test was very satisfing and I think it will perform pretty great actually wheeling. We still have some stuff to finish up but hopefully, weather permitting, we will take it for a shakedown this weekend. We, mostly Matt, rebuilt the steering box today and tapped that for the hydro assist. I will be running a psc ram with a rebuilt box, and a cooler and all that crap. We have to tie up all the loose ends but we have mostly everything done so hopefully I will have some wheeling pics this weekend. Well tell me what you guys think and hopefully I wont get flamed away! I had more pictures but I had a limit, I probably will be needing to get the red star soon also.
Well I got a stock 2000 xj a couple years ago started driving through mud puddles and all that fun stuff. Well I wanted to do a little more and lifted it with a re 4.5" kit and put some 33 mtzs on it. And wheeled it for a while like that.
Well I was getting into some "harder" stuff and did a little more. Put on a bumper and winch, aussie locker in front, sliders and some other little things. Kept wheeling it like this for a while, got to go to tellico before it closed and kept wheeling windrock.
I decided I wanted to go to 35s and knew I didnt want a dana 35 and wanted to polish the 30 a bit, yea a waste of money, so I did a 8.8 swap with 4.88s, lockright, and put yukon inners and outers in the 30 and geared that. I got a set a 35 ltbs brand new and went and wheeled the jeep with the new axles and tires on time before everything took a turn for the worst.
Only pics with the 35s, and no comment on the wheel weights. I wanted as smooth as a ride as possible and wanted them balanced.
Well I met a guy named Matt(rredalty) who is a horrible influence on my wallet but great for my jeep, and he insisted I go wheeling with him and some naxja guys. Well at the time he had his mj on tons with a stroker, and he was wanting to go to a built 30, 8.8 set to take advantage of the speed his jeep had. Well he gave me a pretty good deal and we traded axles and my wallet became empty and then the fun began. I give major thanks to Matt because like I said I dont have much fab skill and I wouldn't have tons if he didn't help me build my jeep and use his tools and knowledge to help me out. So we took my axles out and put them in the mj and started on the tons build. The axles are out of a 2002 f250-hp dana 60 and a sterling 10.25, geared to 5.38s, welded and solid diff covers. I also put in an essentially offroad cage, which we will be adding more to but for the time being it is better than nothing.
So the tons build started and in the process we pretty much re did alot on the jeep. We made a 3 link using ballistic joints, bushings and mounts and we built that off of the frame stiffners. Me and Matt swapped coils, so I'm running re 7.5 coils and the rear I still have the re 4.5 lift component and also a set of h.d. offroad engineering shackle relocation brackets. The tires are 38x14.50 toyo mt, with diy beadlocks. I do want probably 40s eventually, thinking about the ltbs.
We put the sterling in first and then put the 60 in.
Then it sat like that in the garage until we could make the 3 link and get that and the frame stiffners on. So we finished up that stuff and brought it over and bolted everything up. Overall I'm very happy with how the 3 link turned out, we'll see how it performs when it's not sitting in the garage but I think it will do good.
We then hooked up the steering and swapped in a durango mc and finally got it out of the garage!! And into the back yard...
Well we got it over to Matt's and finished the welding of the frame stiffners and got all the loose bolts tightened up and finished everything enough to drive it and took it for a little test flex.
The test was very satisfing and I think it will perform pretty great actually wheeling. We still have some stuff to finish up but hopefully, weather permitting, we will take it for a shakedown this weekend. We, mostly Matt, rebuilt the steering box today and tapped that for the hydro assist. I will be running a psc ram with a rebuilt box, and a cooler and all that crap. We have to tie up all the loose ends but we have mostly everything done so hopefully I will have some wheeling pics this weekend. Well tell me what you guys think and hopefully I wont get flamed away! I had more pictures but I had a limit, I probably will be needing to get the red star soon also.