Pete M

a lot depends on the particular strap. some stretch way more than others.

so it does... :hmm:

I've had plenty of instances where one of those cheap canopies would have been reeeeally nice. :drool:

have you tried a mechanic's stethoscope or large screwdriver to narrow down the location of the noise?

frames and even to a certain extent rockers and floors are structural items. the bed is not. if repairing the bed looks like a fun project, then go for it. :D just keep in mind that rust can be a losing battle. I gave up on my 88 years ago and now I just patch over the holes with sheetmetal and paint it all to match. as long as it looks ok from 20 ft I'm ok with it. some day I intend to remove the outer skin of the bed and make it look like an M-715 bed. :D

MJs have a pretty long wheelbase. make sure they'll work for ya. :thumbsup:

I assume you've tried tightening it down?

driving without use of the clutch is a great tool to have in your arsenal. :D been there, done that.

do you have a Chiltons or Haynes manual?

but how else are we going to let everyone know that a particular thread is worthless without pics? type it out?! that's just crazy talk. :rotf:

If you think your current tires work great, then you really need a set of mud terrains. There are basically 2 different grades of "mud terrain". Those that are designed mostly to be a more aggressive allterrain (meaning they still work good on pavement), and those that are balls-out mud tires (meaning, well, you know). go with the first ones if they are your only tires, go with the second if you have street tires too.

If muddin' is your thing, either stay away from the bfg AT, or just have a second set of rims/tires for muddin'. The bfg MT would be a good dual use tire.

it may be a bit tedious to tabulate, but if you go to individual member pages, there's a posts per day number. I'm guessing that the number is derived using number of posts and the days since signing up. though we do have a lot of members that lurked for months or years before becoming more active. I don't think it's the panacea you're looking for, but it can be another data point.

story of my life... :D

I have a feeling that the tires aren't balanced because he can't find a shop that's willing to try, and the sway bar isn't installed because he or the previous owner snapped the bolts off and can't get the pieces out. be afraid, be very afraid. I'd run away from that one and find a stocker that I could build up. There's nothing worse than trying to fix someone else's thrashed-to-hell basket case. :( but if you do buy it, we're here to help. :thumbsup:

2x2" square and I think 1 3/4" tube.

http://www.comancheclub.com/forums/view ... =2&t=14889

be careful with the crossmember bolts. spray them with PB Blaster or the like for a few days before attempting to undo them. they like to snap right off. :(

crossmember relocation?

I haven't used an XJ leaf yet. But when I was mixing in Explorer leafs, I drilled them all out to the bigger Explorer diameter. had to break out the "nice" drill bits for that one. and use plenty of cutting oil. that spring steel doesn't mess around. :ack:

the poll feature is broken. :( I vote on, and painted black. :yes:

It's not hard to build your own, though MJ rails have a few challenges to them. namely the frame is sheetmetal, and many of us don't really have any pinch seam left to supplement the frame mounts (plus the pinch seam doesn't extend past the cab). I worked around both issues by drilling holes through the frame and pushing the stringer bars through and welding them to both sides. I've dropped the MJ on them. :D I tucked my in to the body as much as I could, but you could extend them out more for use as a step. oh, and if you weld, be sure to use an adapter plate so as to spread out the load on the sheetmetal.

snazzy. :D

keep in mind that you might have tire rubbing on the bed wall when the rear tires flex up. a set of quality wheel spacers should fix that (as well as make the front and rear match in terms of tire sticking out from the fenders). or you can extend the bumpstops. or both. :thumbsup: extended bumpstops up front might be good too.

33x10.5s will work great. 33x12.5s, not so much. It's not just width of the tire vs width of the rim though. 33x12.5s on factory rims will pull that big fat tire in reeeeeal close. aftermarket rims will push the tire out for more turning radius. but again, 33x10.5s will work in that aspect too.