Incommando

Shocks: I decided to go with plain old Monroes over the basic white-bodied shock that most everyone sells. Although they each claim them as their own shocks if you look into it they are all the same and are made by Tenneco... who also makes Monroe shocks. From my experience and net sleuthing it appears that the Monroes hold up just as well in most apps and may provide better flex. Although I would not use them for a high-speed desert racer they should be fine for driving and most off-roading. Time will tell. Again I kept my budget in mind here: these shocks are $60 cheaper as delivered than any of the generic white-bodied shocks were without shipping charges even after I purchased the BPE's. As an added plus the BPE's are an upgrade to front shock performance as well.

Could you link your MAXJA build?

The Harbor Freight ( yes, them) generic 12,5000 # winch gets great reviews and is $299

Get the spare tire carrier from the rear of a TJ/YJ/KJ. Bolt that to the bed floor. Then mount the wheel onto the carrier and use locking lug nuts. As that tire is about 30.5" in diameter I am not sure it would fit under the bed anyway but this will take up a large portion of your bed, though. I am doing it as my truck will cease to function as a truck when I am done with the mods. My truck will be my DD '14 Patriot 4x4 with a 5x8 trailer. There are mounts out there that attach a spare to the side of the bed so that it sits upright. Mounting one right behind the driver would cause the least line of sight incursion. You can go from mild http://www.reese-hitches.com/products/RHTC-35 to wild http://www.tiregate.com/shop/universal-bed-mount-angled/ https://www.google.com/search?q=spare+tire+mounted+in+bed&rlz=1C2RNAN_enUS436&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=IGYjU73sMujOyAHSzYCQCA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=653

That makes sense. Thanks

No your shock length will change depending on your lift amount and mount location. The best way is to flex your suspension and measure the max extended and collapsed length between the mounts. Estimates run from around 26.5/15.5 to 29/17. I lean to the longer to increase droop and to keep from overly extending the shocks. Then use bump stops to keep your shocks from bottoming and to keep your tires from hitting the body. No lift is complete without them but many lifts ignore them. You can possibly get by without them if your biggest obstacle is a pothole. Flipping and swapping the factory mounts to keep the short shocks may work for a pavementpounder but will really limit flex if you have higher expectations. It all depends on your goal for your Jeep

The short answer is that yes you can run 15" wheels on them. It has been done dozens of times as a google search will show. You may need to stick to a steel wheels, though. as they are of a thinner construction. You will also need a wheel with less back spacing. Say 4" vs. the 5+" FWD-inspired back spacing of the last few decades of jeeps. Conventional Wisdom ( the "they" in "you know they say..." ) was that you could not run a 15" rim on a KJ,WJ, or MK due to the disc brakes. As in 90% of the cases CW is pure BS. You can run them if you use spacers or the rims have less back-spacing which is the same as adding spacers. You could even use your stock wheels by using 1.25" adapters to adapt the 5x5 lug pattern on the rotor to the 5x4.5 lug pattern on the rim. The issue is that some alloy 15" wheels are made too thick to gain the necessary strength. Such thickness is rarely recorded anywhere as it does not effect the main dimensions of the rim and this makes pre-determining fitment for such wheels difficult. In short steels wheels of the proper dimensions will work but not all alloy wheels will.

I know this post is two years old but jeez... did this guy ever figure out that his swapped-in axles with god knows what axle mounts going to god knows where body side mounts may not be in the exact same places as the factory mounts? :doh: Most suppliers will not reveal tech details of their products but I know from measuring the eye-to-eye length of RC & Rocky's fixed bent LCA's for a 4.5" lift that they are both 16.25". Does the measurement change from bent to straight short arms? Do you still measure in a straight line eye-to-eye for bent LCA's?

what rims are you referring to? Factory rims are generally hub-centric while after market may not be.

Adapters and these types of spacers will allow you to have the same thread engagement as stock. If you know people who are having trouble with thread engagement they are using shim-style spacers and those are nothing like the adapters/spacers you need. That type is more common with the ricky ricer set and uses the original stud to hold the wheel on.The adapters will have holes for your original studs to pass through and into a well on the adapter. You will then tighten lug nuts onto those studs to attached the adapter. Those nuts and studs will not extend past the well. The adapter will have new studs in it and you attach your wheel onto those. You will end up with 5 studs & nuts holding the adapter to the mounting surface and five different studs & nuts holding the wheel to the adapter. Go to any web site that sells these and look at the pictures of the adapters/spacers and it is self-explanatory. If you have the type of adapter described above remember that you need to use small open lug nuts on the vehicles studs. Then neither the stud or lug nut will extend past the well. http://www.wranglerforum.com/f274/both-tires-rubbing-both-lca-after-rock-krawler-2-5-max-travel-installed-187726-4.html#post2815035 In this pic the small lug nuts will actually get used on the vehicle studs when they pass through the open holes and you will use the correct nuts for your wheels on the studs pressing through the adapter. If you can attach the adapter but can't get the wheel on the adapter you may have other issues. If you can only get the lug nut started a thread or so then the stud and nut may not be the same thread size. If the wheel will not set onto the adapter's studs to allow them to pass through the well far enough to firmly seat the outer lug nuts then you may need longer studs mounted in the adapter. Alloy wheels can be thicker in this area than a steel wheel and as the non hub-centric units are generally cheapie imports they may have scrimped and the stud length may not be long enough for your particular wheel.

What is acceptable to some will not be to others and has a lot to do with how you will use your truck. I had no problems on road or off with my '88 auto with 32's and 3.55's. I honestly think that I hit it harder off-road in it than the majority on here do, as well. Badlands, Haspin Acres, 491 were all parks I hit and I didn't shy away from anything that any other similarly tire-sized vehicle went on. I would have preferred lower gears and they were on my to-do list but we do not have the type of technical rock climbs and the like that make them absolutely necessary. Play with your numbers here: http://www.grimmjeeper.com/gears.html

x 2

On a related note many dealers offer "packages" on vehicles and sell them as if they were factory. 30 years ago when I was a kid at a parts place people would insist that their 1977 Jeep Big Jumbo Texas Tenderloin Edition needed special parts just because some dealer installed cheesy tape graphics onto it....

Well I gotta use them front and rear to get the Jk wheels to fit they are 5x5 how else would I do it? Is this what guys are doing to run late model wheels? Yes, you are correct in needing them front & rear. IIRC 1.25" is about as narrow as you can go to adapt a lug pattern. Some places do offer wider spacers at least (don't know about adapters) if you wished to get a wider set for the rear to even out the track widths.

That is a good price. Morris 4x4 has a quality set for $85/pair regular price if you can't find the Spidertrax deal. They are easy to deal with, too. http://www.jeep4x4center.com/wheel-accessories/wheel-spacer-synergy-manufacturing.htm

Hub centric spacers/adapters are the preferred way to go. But the danger of using non-hub centric sets is over stated. For decades few aftermarket wheels, particularly the generic steel wagon wheels and d-windows preferred by the off-roaders, were hub centric. They were a universal design that had a matching lug pattern and that was it. These were used on massive wheel/tire combos without issue. They are still out there being sold as are rims with "universal" lug patterns. Just as there are stories of BOTH kinds of spacers failing you can also find people blowing up "unbreakable" 1-ton axles on a Jeep. Do you know how everything in today's society is becoming more wussified? A kid gets called one name it is bullying? Everyone is supposedly allergic to peanuts and gluten? Every team is a winner no matter how badly they lose? The same thing applies here. Sure your kid is infinitesimal more safe wearing a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, shin guards, a mouth guard, a tail-bone protector, and pillows zip-tied around his torso to ride his bike in the driveway. But is it realistic? Such worriers is one reason there are so many poser jeeps out there: modify it to look like an off-roader but dare get it dirty??? NEVER!!! :doh: The best place for these people is home on their couch. But wait...most accidents happen in the home! Whaaaaaaaaaa..... I would rather die while I'm living then live like I'm dead. J. Buffet :soap box:

While the botched install is a likely culprit especially if it more grinding than whining those gears are notorious for whining. They are cheaper for a reason and they include sets that did not meet the quality criteria to be sold under the Yukon brand. They are great for use in a front end with lock-outs so that they only turn when actually four wheeling but the noise complaints rack up quickly when they turn all of the time

There is a drive shaft length chart stickied on here somewhere. it will change depending on your rear axle as the pinion lengths on the diffs change. EDIT: Gotz it: http://comancheclub.com/topic/18925-looking-for-driveshaft-lengths-of-stock-trucks/ A lot of info in the DIY projects section

The Power Trax No-slip is acknowledged as having the smoothest & most quiet operation of any of the drop-ins with no loss of performance. It is the most street friendly. The penalty is price. I ride in 3 jeeps with No-slips on a regular basis and they are smoother than an Aussie or lok-right, also made by PowerTrax. A soccer mom friend has one in the rear of her lifted KJ and dd's it even in our winters. I have no personal experience with a Spartan.

I ran without one for a bit on my '88 with 4.5" of lift. It was OK in most driving situations but anything approaching an emergency lane change maneuver caused more body roll than most people might be comfortable with. Once I got the longer links I re-attached my bar and I liked it much better. I have quick discos for the new build.

this is excellent info. thank you. i never checked but always thought the chrysler stuff was 5 x 4.75. I'm not a fan of big rims on an mj, but some look ok, and there's tons of deals out there on bigger tires. 5x4.75 is primaily GM. 5x4.5 has been used by Most Chrysler and many Ford's for decades.

Mud flaps.com really came through. Those RE springs arrived within 5 days of ordering them. The price is great. I am using them for the RE1660 HD adjustable track bar with new mount RE1665 as it is a quality set and is over $30 cheaper than IRO when you included shipping. As budget is a part of this.... A shout out to Barnes as well. Extremely well-built product on my door step 2 days after I ordered them without ridiculously inflated shipping costs.

mudflaps.com has some great prices on RE coils...and Free shipping. My 5.5" springs were $86/pair to my door. You can't beat that. Research the part # you want and then search them up on www.mudflaps.com

The Lokka people used to make the Aussie in Australia for TorqMasters. Then Lokka shipped production to China and began using Chinese sourced metal. The number of failures skyrocketed. TorqMasters canned Lokka and moved production the the U.S. using U.S. metal. They also refined the design making it smoother. Lokka continues to sell the previous Chinese produced design under their own label. As the real Aussie is only about $30 more including shipping on fleabay the choice between these two is pretty obvious were it me doing the choosing. If I remember to do it when I get access to my photos I will post pics of my Chinese Aussie after it committed suicide. The Spartan has a good rep and so does the lock-right. The gold standard of drop-in lockers is the very smooth but more expensive No-slip. I will probably get an Aussie or my second choice the Spartan for mine to save a few bucks over the No-slip as mine will not be a DD

Chrysler called it quits with the Comanche and later the Cherokee killing off what so many people are still bitter about. Our final huzzah from Jeep was created when AMC still owned the name forcing others to think that Chrysler is really to blame for today's "Jeeps". AMC had some fantastic engineers that tried driving the company to success that Chrysler later bought up. Jeep has to conform to modern standards to keep other models available leaving them no choice but to start producing SUVs on car platforms. Car platforms have shown still somewhat capable with today's Jeeps. To expand: 1. Although the Comanche died the Cherokee never did. The XJ's replacement was the KJ. It was called the Liberty in America but still retained the Cherokee name everywhere else. It made the step to IFS but it was hardly the first to do so as Jeep pioneered IFS on SUV's with the 1963 Wagoneer. In many ways, such as structural rigidity, it was superior to the XJ. Its engine made more power but that was hidden by the 700 pound weight gain over the XJ. Purist deny the connection but the lineage is clear. My old 6-speed stick '05 KJ with 31's on 2.5" of lift and an Aussie in the back would go anywhere that a 4.5" lifted XJ on 32's with a welded rear diff would go and I have the pictures to prove it. Having owned a 4.5" lifted MJ on 32's at the same time as that KJ I can tell you from first hand experience (something that most here lack in such a comparison) including running the same trails that my KJ was clearly superior off-road to my MJ. A KJ configured with the 6-spd and 210 horse 3.7L got you an honest to goodness NP241 transfer case instead of the 231 found in most other Jeeps of the era. This combo also yielded a crawl ratio of 48:1. That is equal to an automatic TJ Rubicon and much better than the 26:1 of a comparable XJ. The rear was a 29-spline 8.25 with disk brakes and you could get 30" all-terrains from the factory. No XJ could touch it for factory content and the XJ used what amounted to passenger car all season tires. No factory XJ could touch those specs. The great advantage to the XJ was the ease of modifying it past small lifts when compared to the KJ. 2. The ChryCo produced TJ is still arguably the most capable Jeep ever. Although our nostalgia blinders say otherwise the truth is that they are superior to any of the CJ's ( I have owned 4 CJ's from a 2A to a 7) and the Rubicon is unmatched in factory performance. 3. When did AMC engineer anything? The truth is that they limped along producing marginal products by modifying the basic products that were in place when they purchased Jeep from Kaiser. The FSJ line, including the pick-ups, and the universal line remained virtually unchanged beyond mods necessary to adapt existing AMC engines into them. And frankly most years under AMC, including the de facto Renault ownership years, saw the Jeep line become ever more poor in terms of quality and reliability and neither were that high to begin with. 4. Under AMC Jeep pioneered the SUV being based on a car-like platform with the unibody XJ. This Jeep was universally hated upon its introduction. It looked like a Volvo 240 station wagon and had terrible engines and other issues. The weakish unibody construction that caused the Jeep to warp if you opened the doors on a lift rack was hardly "truckish." The quadralink was developed for on-road comfort, not off-road prowess, if you look to the sales literature of the XJ's introduction. 5. Many of today's "car platform" Jeeps are more capable both on and off road than the AMC offerings. A new & stock Grand Chero would wipe up the trail & the road with a stock Wagoneer especially any built from '84-'91. The Patriot had weird transmissions until the 2014 introduction of the 6-spd auto but has dimensions very close to that of the XJ . They are by far the best off-road vehicles in their class. As with the fact that a modern V6 family sedan like an Accord would defeat most of the "muscle car" era offerings in acceleration, turning, and braking we tend to overlook jaded history due to "nostalgia blinders" that glorify things that reality shows really weren't that glorious.