mvusse

The tire shop that mounted my snow tires used beads to balance the tires and they have worked well. I also take my truck off road, and air down the tires when I do. This way there are no weights to get knocked off, and if the tire spins on the rim it makes no difference. So far (drive from work to home) they seem to stay balanced, but I have not gone faster than 60mph yet. After I move my front axle a bit forward to better clear the flares when steering I will take it on the freeway so I can check speeds up to 70mph.

Actual mileage corrected for tire size is 24mpg going 60-65, 19 going 70-75, 15 around town, 17 mixed driving. That is an 87 (Renix) 4.0, AW4, 3.55 gears, 4wd, P235/75R15 extra load range at 41psi. Mileage has stayed the same after 4.5" lift.

I usually have a cap on my truck. I take it off when I go wheeling. Actually, I also take off the tailgate and loose all unnecessary weight out of the back carrying just tools, fluids and spare tire.

Got my rear brakes fixed now, after a couple of handfulls of sand in the drums ground of ALL brake material off the shoes. And then today I played with tires, mounting my used set of 33x12.50s on my new Cragar rims. Research told me to use about 8oz of beads in tires that size, which means 1100-1150 .20 gram airsoft pellets. I bought a pack of 5000 at Wally World for $11, measured it out to be about 900ml, so I measured 225ml of pellets for each tire. Should be 1250 give or take. Took me about an hour to mount them, really not that difficult. I have no clue why MiniBeast was complaining so much. The hardest part was seating the new valves in the wheels; even with thick insulated gloves I think I bruised my fingers from pulling too hard. A larger tool to do this might work better than my little mini one. So here's the first tire beside my spare to show the size difference: In front of the wheel well: bed full of tires, tools, jack and jack stands: Didn't use my jack, as this was much quicker. No that is not held up by the bumper. It's held up by the class III receiver which sits below the bumper: Rear is done, now I need to turn around. This could actually look all right with the front dropped down to original ride height and a blower sticking through the hood about 2 feet or so: All done: I can't steer very sharp before the front tires rub the back edge of the fender flares, but they have room to spare in the front. This weekend I will move the front axle forward a bit.Attempting to stuff a rear tire didn't work, as they are too wide. They will hit inside of the fender wall, the top of the fender flare and the back of the fender flare. Next up will be lifting the front another 2", soa in the rear and play with different (custom) leaf packs and shackles (stock MJ, stock XJ and lift shackle) until I get a ride height I like. After that I will flex it out again to see what I need to cut (if any) to maximize flex without fender damage. Even if I don;t get the lift done by next month, I may still take it back to JeepSkool, but keep the sway bar connected and try not to flex it too much.

Got the brakes done yesterday, and the truck will actually stop when I depress the brake pedal now. As for today: 4 used tires (33x12.50) 4 Cragar Soft 8 rims 4 valves 5000 .20 gram Airsoft pellets 1 tire spoon and about an hour labor This all culminated in this:

No, that's the only pic of it. It wasn't a wheeler, it was the tow rig. Rusted all to heck too. If you look carefully, you can see the white Flatfender on the trailer behind it.

It's not my thing either, but I like it because it's different. Lift an MJ? It's been done a million times. Slam an S10? Done a million times. But an MJ laying frame stuffing 20s, you don't see that every day.

Tore the rear brakes apart to find that a couple of handfulls of sand in the drums can grind down brake shoes from 1/8 brake material down to the rivets in 2 days time. Truck is currently on jack stands with the wheels off and brakes apart because I wasted too much time talking to the neighbor over the fence and ran out of daylight.

May they blew a D35 and this is what they happened to have laying around?

1 3/16 may fit, but it is a metric 30mm bolt head. It probably has loc-tite on the threads, so a little heat is your friend.

Even though it's called JEEPSkool, it's open to anything 4wd. This weekend I saw Toys (both p/u and FJ), Zukis, Blazers (K5 as well as S10), Broncos (full size as well as II), S10 p/u, rangers, Nissan p/u trucks, and old WW2 army Jeep, 2 full size Chevy's and a full size Dodge. In the past an H2 has been spotted as well. One of the trail leaders drives a ZR2 Blazer. Next ride is April 4/5. The only requirement is that you create a user name on JeepSkool.com.

Well, it got me high enough on that rock to lift a rear wheel a foot into the air... it performed unbelievably well. Wranglers running 33s and 35s couldn't get up some stuff because of sand or mud or just being wet, lots of rain Friday night/Saturday morning with a few thunderstorms dumping hard, great Saturday afternoon, 70 degrees, only to have steady rain all day long Sunday. Then I tried and made it look easy with my puny 29s. There were a couple of places I couldn't get up because it was just too slick. those places I made it up a ways till all momentum stopped, so I put on the brakes and slid the whole way down with all 4 wheels locked. I did have the same mud problems as Badlands last fall: ruts that were too deep and front axle acting like a bulldozer blade. After we decided we couldn't not finish that trail we turned around and tried to exit the way we came. The first Jeep couldn't make it, the second winched himself, and after that it was too badly rutted that only 1 person made it (out of 11) without needing winched. That guy was running MK2s and locked front and rear. After a 2 1/2 hour winch party the only vehicle left was a stock Liberty. 2 trail leaders were sent out after it and spent the rest of the day getting it out. Rocks gardens are not a problem of any sort any more, and after I get my other tires on, deep ruts may not either.

Found a pic of one of the other Comanches:

Never knew a D35 could be that loud when it snaps an axle. It was louder than the 50 calibre at the gun range. (Yes, this property also has a class III licensed gun range, registered fully autos allowed.) Too bad, really. Before trying everyone was saying no way he'd make it to the top. It's too wet and muddy. Maybe in August. Up to the point the axle snapped it looked like he was actually going to make it. The driver was like 16 or so, and absolutely fearless. Got out of the rig, got his cell phone out, dials a number, and says "bring me a shaft", and hangs up. Just like that. He was back on the trail Sunday. The ride back to the "factory" took him a while, though. It's about 4 miles, his girlfriend driving and him walking (sideways) alongside kicking the tire back in every ten feet or so.

Went to JeepSkool this past weekend. 1498 acres of safe-legal-fun (It's their motto). As of this morning, March '09 JeepSkool has been renamed Mudfest '09. Mad flex: Might head back next month if I get the next stage of my build up finished by then, or at least think I can keep the 33s out of my fenders. Then May will be the shakedown run for the June Badlands trip.

There were at least 2 Comanches besides mine. One completely stock one, and one on 31s I believe I carded. Sorry, no pics of them. Here's what photos I do have: Gathering: Winchfest at Photorun Extreme (with Robocon as trail leader): Blueberry Hill: Rock Garden: Flexing: ME TOO! ME TOO! Flex and lift: Climbing Robocon's Last Stand: Whoops: Cherokee stuck in the quicksand (Sunday):

There are good reasons for a SYE on a Comanche, even a stock one. But it is not needed for a 5.5" lift.

There are exceptional cases where you don't want it to always be engaged. I have a front locker and because of that want the axle disengaged when winter comes back while in 4wd. I could just unplug the lines, but I think I'm going to run the while CAD deal through a home made posi-lock, and see if I can run the axle engage vacuum line on the transfer case straight to the light switch. Then again, my light quit working at some point this winter, and I'm thinking burnt out bulb.

Made it lift a rear tire about to flip when I tried to go past full articulation in a rock garden. Spotter yelled "whatever you do, DO NOT GET OUT OF YOUR TRUCK!". Also got the wheels covered and filled with mud, which then washed back off driving through the water, as we had some thunderstorms come through dumping a bunch of rain. Got it stuck in the mud, needing winched. Unlike Badlands where I was spinning 2 wheels bulldozing with the front axle, this time I was spinning 3 wheels bulldozing with the front axle. Still need bigger tires. Actually, I have some sitting in my basement. I also showed up a bunch of Wranglers on 33s and 35s by climbing stuff they couldn't. Love the Aussie!

Rubicon Express has a good reputation. My personal experiences with Motion Offroad have all been good, and their customer service is outstanding. Don't know anything about Rough Country.

On trucks with the CAD (all 4x4 MJs?), the light tells you when the front axle is engaged.

Skid plates behind the bumper and under the transfer case are easy to find, as they are shared with Cherokees. Gas tank skids are rare. If your truck had skid plates from the factory, the gas tank would have had one. If someone added them later it would probably not have the gas tank one. Whether all Chief's came with skid plates or not I don't know.

Do NOT use a drop pitman arm. The pitman arm will not be parallel to your track bar any more causing bump steer, and the added stress on the steering box from the added leverage of the pitman arm will cause the frame to tear around the steering box bolts. This is a 4 linked front suspension, not leaf sprung. A drop pitman arm serves no purpose with our suspension. I run a 4.5" lift (all spring) with adjustable upper and lower control arms going to the stock brackets, as well as an adjustable track bar. Doesn't ride that bad. When I move up to 6.5" I will probably still use these control arms for the time being until I have the money to upgrade to a long arm set up further down the road. Motion Offroad has 6.5" lift springs, I'm sure other companies do as well (RE?). If they get screwed on with self tapping screws I would stay away from the control arm drop brackets. I have not heard a lot of good thingds from RRO. Also do not get anything from Rusty's.

Except it's a full size, much wider than a manche.

I agree with getting the rear axle if possible, as 5th gear with a 3.55 axle will be next to useless behind a 4 cylinder. Transfer case would not be a bad choice, even if you don't install the rest of the parts for 4wd it'll give you a low range, but you will need the drive shaft as well, or have your current one shortened.