derf

I'm looking at doing the same thing. I'm moving into the new house on Friday and that's one of the things I want to set up. I'd prefer to use a wired camera setup though. Jamming a wireless camera is far too easy.

I lump the CJ10 in with the SJ Gladiator/M715/J trucks. It was built on a J10 frame. If you call a scrambler a truck then every CJ and wrangler would be one. The only thing that made it a "truck" was the half cab, which you can do on any of the others.

Thanks. That helps. Sort of.... I'm working out a cage/suspension plan and I want to use that point as a "node" that ties underneath to the frame and has a mount for coil-overs. The bed would sit on a plate there. On top of the wheel well and bolted through to the suspension mount I want a cross bar "strut tower brace" and also custom tube coming back from the top of the exo-cage behind the cab. But I also want to be able to use the bed so knowing where the cross over bar would sit helps know what I have to work around. It's lower than I want but I have a couple different ideas on how to work with it where it would sit.

Yeah, just looking at the distance from the floor to where a factory roll bar would sit. Short bed, with the flat face on the top of the wheel well. I'm bored at work and thinking up a plan for my MJ build now that I'm moving into my own house and can get started.

I don't have my MJs at the house yet but I was pondering an idea for a plan but I need a measurement. Searching has failed me unfortunately. Can anyone tell me how tall the wheel wells are inside a short bed? Basically, I need the measurement from the pad where the roll bar mounts down to the bed.

Yeah, the guns I'd put on would be modified like my Jeeps. See that line on the ground that says "safe". Yeah, that's mine past that line over there...

I'll echo what Eagle says. I'll also add in that where you live will make a huge difference. If you're in the flat lands of the midwest prairie, you don't need as much gear as you do if you're in the mountains, especially as elevation goes up. Depending on your original tire size, stepping up to 31's needs at least 4.56 gears minimum to return to "factory" performance. Even then, you will want better than factory so 4.88's would be a good choice. If you're at high altitude with lots of hills, 5.13s would be better.

I got that a lot when I had my J10. Everyone wanted to buy it. Then I put a price tag on it. Everyone vanished like a fart in the wind.

As long as it actually shot something, anything, it would be awesome.

I suspect that people replacing a worn out booster for a new dual diaphragm booster attribute much of the improvement to the fact that it's the newer booster. When in reality, the old worn out booster was the problem and replacing with an OEM style replacement would have given you a lot of the same improvement. It's like anything else. On the full size Jeep groups there is a common upgrade to the Ford TFI ignition system from the older style Ford ignition. So you do new plugs, wires, cap adapter, rotor, and coil. A lot of people say it was a night and day difference. Of course, their 30+ year old plugs, wires, cap, rotor, and coil were completely shot. Replacing it with factory parts would have made a huge difference too. Sure, if you're replacing a part, it doesn't hurt to upgrade if you can cheaply. But really, as long as you have new factory spec parts you should get at least "decent" performance. I'd replace the booster with a dual diaphragm since you can get "cheap" factory replacement parts. But there's nothing wrong with factory replacement part on a mostly stock MJ.

I don't care that I'm old enough to be a grandfather. I want one.

Carburetors have a very difficult job to do. They need to properly meter air and fuel over a really wide variety of conditions. By the 80's they had gone about as far as they could. The fundamental problem is that carburetors just don't offer the fine control over air/fuel that's needed. There's just no way to account for everything going on that affects your mixture. The attempts to add computer control was a patch while they worked on their fuel injection systems. And they are, without exception, a disaster in the long run. I won't keep a computer controlled carburetor on any vehicle that I own. They're just not worth the hassle. My old Grand Wagoneer ran great with a Truck Avenger carburetor on the 360. Did everything I wanted it to. The off camber capability of that carb was great. One I had it dialed in, it actually got relatively good fuel mileage for a brick on wheels with an out-dated V8 running a carburetor (mid teens). It started up and ran great around town and on the trails. But it was still a carburetor. Compared to fuel injection, even the best of carburetors are cold blooded. And taking it from Texas (where I lived at the time) to the mountains meant I had to rejet somewhere on the trip. Sometimes even 2 or 3 times. If it sat for a while and the fuel bowls dried up, I'd have to crank for a while for the pump to get fresh fuel into it. And then the emissions issues compared to fuel injection are all there (if you care about that). A car with a carburetor pollutes more while sitting in the driveway than a modern fuel injected car does while driving down the road. Those fuel bowls, even with evap systems, still evaporate raw gas into the atmosphere. And then there's the fact that carburetors require regular maintenance to stay in top running condition. Fuel injection may need some work from time to time but nothing like a carburetor. You can run a FI car for years without touching anything. A carburetor requires minor adjustment at least once a year, if not more often. Hell, some need to be tweaked a couple times a year to deal with the weather changes. For me, getting a good fuel injection system with aftermarket support is the answer. The computer can just naturally do things that a carburetor can't. Depending on the system, it can compensate for altitude changes. It's way less cold blooded than a carburetor. You get better fuel economy across the board (within reason). You can darn near run the engine upside down if you could get the oil system to keep working so they are great off road. Given the variety of aftermarket fuel injection systems out there, along with factory donors as options for a swap, there's just no good reason to run a carburetor in anything any more. Unless you're driving a nostalgic vehicle or you just want to.

Heat buckling that bad usually happens because of shortcuts taken or mistakes made during construction. It's a known phenomenon and dealing with it is pretty straightforward. You have to put enough room for expansion in the road bed. If you don't, you get buckling like that.

x2 While it seems unfair, this is the unfortunate reality of used vehicles. If you're not a big professional restoration shop with a great reputation, you aren't going to get a lot more than KBB for a Comanche. You look like you have a lot of skill doing this kind of work. If you want to make money at it, you'll need to work on vehicles that have room in the price range to cover labor. Finding rare old muscle cars and making them like new probably has more potential for profit. Good restorations or restomods go for many tens of thousands. Either that or use builds like this as your resume to get hired on at a shop that will pay you for your labor.

I'd pick an AX15 over a T5. A 4.3 V6 would swap in easily. Push it forward a bit and you would have room. A 4.3/SM465/Atlas combo would be pretty sweet too. Adjust the axle gears for the highway but you'd still have plenty of crawl ratio.

Best manager I ever had ended up getting the best training he could possibly have before he got into engineering management. He was an elementary school teacher. A surprising amount of skills transfer directly over.

The Gladiator is actually the 5th line of trucks Jeep has built. First was the Willys truck. Second was the FC 150 and 170 Third was the (real) Gladiator Fourth was the Comanche Fifth was the JT.

The northern prairie states (WY, MT, SD) tend to have some pretty significant winter storms. Nothing you can't get used to but the wind can be brutal if you're not accustomed to it. Good luck in your search.

I'm working on that plan too. Got 38 so far. With a couple different road trips I'll finish 48. I mostly just need New England and the Pacific Northwest. AK and HI will take dedicated trips to get.

It's just a flat plate with a curve and some bolt holes. They're easy to fabricate with just a couple of tools.

It's certainly not safe. However I have seen things like this often enough to conclude it isn't entirely uncommon.

They are mirror images of each other. They have pockets for the side screws. They take a standard oval trailer light. The side is curved to match the profile of the bed side if I'm not mistaken.

I bought two of the Rusty's metal light fixtures when they were on closeout. I'm going to use one on the MJ that's already beat up and will be mostly for trail use. Not sure what I'm going to do with the other set yet. I'm inclined to use actual tail lights on my other MJ that will be intended for more street use.