jbain

I went ahead and lengthened my Limit Straps 3.5 inches today by using 3 links of chain. This made a huge difference in my Droop. I also took the strap off an old paintball mask and made some flexible straps to hold my limit straps against my springs. Before I added the extension I took it to the hill I use as my RTI ramp and my Clinometer said 23 degrees when I started to teeter. After the extension I pulled up to the mark I made and I was only at 17 degrees…. So the extension helped a lot. Here are a couple pics. After the last trip to IVY I had to borrow my brothers taillights from his racing MJ because I had broken both of mine…. So I made a couple covers out of sheet metal. As soon as my LED’s arrive I’ll pull them back off and hang them but this should work for next weekend’s trip. Then I decided to take one of the ratchet straps I got for Christmas and make a “Jerry” “Rigged” suck down strap. I plan to add a 2500 pound Harbor Freight in the future but for now I just wanted a way to keep the nose down when climbing. My trackbar has a bar the runs from frame rail to frame rail just below the oil pan. So I modified the strap a little and this is how it turned out. With very little effort I was able to pull the front down 2 inches. Then I drove it for a few miles on rough road and put it on an incline. I’ve been on this bank a few times and it feels pretty steep… but with the strap on it felt much better…. From the pic you can see how much the front is down…..

Very nice work..... and in a short amount of time.....

Here are a couple more pics that show the pucks a little better.

Was finally able to get the bump stops and Limit straps finished up. Here is the front a full droop The spring upseats about 2.5 inches This is full stuff on the opposite side This is what it looks like on the bump… before I bottomed out the shock… now I have about 1 inch Here is the rear at full stuff This is what it looks like on the bump

I was at 6.5 to begin with..... I just added a XJ leaf to the rear SOA and it set pretty good. When I decided to go back to 4.5 I just removed the extra spring.... normally this would result in about a 1 inch rake but with my Bed Box and spare tire along with the Bed Cage it sat pretty good. You seem to have plenty of wheel well so you could always drop to a 4.5 inch front spring and bump stop it.... regardless it's moving along really quick....

Right on..... I ask because I think it's got a really good stance.....

I'm in......

Some pics I had of the build....

I wasn't there when he put them in but I know he just mocked them up in the hole and filled in with sheetmetal. I may have some pics as well....

I may have missed it earlier but how much lift are you running?

I wanted a double bar for that very reason... but went with a single bar because we have to wear helmets when we wheel IVY... so the more room the better. If your never planning to wear headgear I'd say go with two....

you get your cage in PM me before you start on your dash.. I've got some tips that may save you a bunch of time and headaches. Good luck and hit me up if you need anything.

I think the cage was the easiest part (of course our Club's "Cage Guy" is really good at his craft) the worse part was getting the dash back in and fitting tight. I ended up going through 3 of them before I was happy with the fit...... I've probably got 40 hours just in the back glass alone..... since the bars run at an angle it's not just a round hole.... instead it's oblong.... then the radio wouldn't fit and I had to build custom mounts on the side..... blah... blah... blah. Now that it's finished I'm glad I did it but I don't think I'll ever do another one..... next time it's an EXO all the way. Better protection, more room inside the cab.....

On mine I didn't go through the frame (but probably should have) but I did tie into my pinch seam..... sandwiched it between two pieces of flat stock.... drilled and bolted....alot of strength in that pinch seam...

Yea but the guy I had bend it up did a crappy job so I just mounted them for a ride and planned to take them off and have them rebent.... but you know how things go and once something is bolted up and functional it gets sent to the bottom of the list..... the best armored bedrails I've seen are on H3RESQ's MJ (the grey one posted above) or Reson46's.... he added a rub rail that I really like........ by the way I like the blue paint, I have a 81 Camaro that's almost that exact color

I always thought that truck need black wheels..... now get a set of rock rings cut... weld them to the inside lip of your wheels and paint them body color..... or like one guy on here did he just painted the outside edge of his rims..... regardless this is on my list for top 5 comanches on the planet..... make that top 3....

Good luck on sthe sliders.... it's nice to be able to drop a slider on a rock and pivot on it. Things get real tight in the West Virginia ravines so if you can't pivot your in a real pickle. Make sure you take lots of pics for me to look at Monday Morning.....

My bad I thought you had a metal skid...... I definately wouldn't trust a plastic one.... chase my link back when you get a chance and check out my pics of our local wheeling. Great job on the build.... keep up the good work......

Here are a couple pics of how I did my tubing...... rolled them up a little to help protect the body when I slid off rocks off-camber.

I was worried about running a factory skid at first but after Harlan and IVY and everything in between I've come to trust it..... I eventually plan to put a fuel cell in the bed but now I've moved that mod further down the list.....

Right on..... mine however is just a tow rig..... My hockey pucks came in the mail over the weekend so I drilled them and countersunk the top puck. I'm off Thursday so I hope to drill and tap the spring perch and get it bumpstoped. How many pucks are you guys running? Now that I'm down to 4.5 inches of lift I only have 3 inches of uptravel. Not that I think I need any more than that but I'm stacking 4 pucks to keep the shock from bottoming out....

I really don't like the rake these trucks came factory with.... I really like how it looks with the leveling kit but on the negative side when I'm towing I set down in the back instead of setting level.

Just a leveling kit for the front.... but that kinda makes it look like it's lifted....

I wanted something to make the front of Chief look a little different than all the others...... but I'm still not sure if I'm loving them or not..... best part is if I decide to chuck them it didn't cost me anything to build them and other than 4 small holes in my Bezel's it's no worse for wear.....

Finally got the radio installed in the MJ…… haven’t been able to because the cross bar for the roll cage runs behind the dash and makes it too shallow for a normal install. I built a custom bracket and then picked up a cover for a cavalier and trimmed it to fit. I didn’t want to put the speakers in the doors since they are removable so I mounted them to the roll bar…. At least now I’ve got Tunes when I’m wheelin’ Earlier today I took some leftover pieces of lexan and built some headlight covers…… I eventually plan to put a couple red KC decals on the covers to make it more like a Pro Truck…..