DirtyComanche

Unfortunately Amazon.ca, which is the site OP needs to order from for free shipping, doesn't have them. Summit Racing might be worth checking, they ship free to Canada over a certain dollar amount. I'd agree with your thinking though, he's probably better off just going SOA with quality stock replacement springs versus gambling on lift springs. It's the route I will be going with my current build. I did like the idea of using GM C-truck springs SOA to get about 4" of lift, but it's not been done (that I know of) and is quite a bit of money for me to gamble with given the shipping costs. Plus it turns out I probably need 6"+ of lift anyway.

The tank behind the coolant reservoir is the wiper fluid. The 2.5L already has the best coolant reservoir because it fits so nicely there, at least short of building one yourself.

The wire will go through, Canadian customs doesn't care, but you have no recourse if they ship you junk or the wrong stuff. If you pay by Visa you can tell them to make it right, and if they don't, tell Visa to do a chargeback. It's amazing how fast vendors change their tune when they realise the payment has been clawed back. I got in a fight with a vendor over a defective product, they wanted me to pay to ship it back and charge me a restocking fee, uh nope, I was being nice by trying to work it out, one call to Visa got my money back and they suddenly found it in their heart to send me a prepaid shipping label to return it.

Yeah, I wouldn't do it. It's going to drive and steer poorly too.

Roger dodger. For me bending down for longer than a few minutes is a problem in it's own anyway, so it solidly looks like the brush saw is the best tool for the job.

One guy swears by using pro-grade hedge trimmers. I'm not sure if that's a great idea because we're trying to cut everything off low.

I take a bigger Husky saw (I forget what it is, a 562XPG or something, way nicer and way more saw than I should own), and generally don't use it. The Milwaukee M18 one gets used 95% of the time because it's instant start/stop. Either way you run into the issue that the scrubby stuff tends to just pack up in them and throw your chain off. I'm not sure if I'm doing anything wrong that leads to that (chain tension is some sort of debate akin to religion or how to cook a steak), but everyone I've been out with has it happen too and considers it to be normal. This isn't going to be pretty landscaping at all, it's just trying to make it passable enough that you can drive through it, and hopefully enough people keep driving on it to stop it from encroaching for a few years. Some of the terrain is rather nasty too (half the point), so something lighter might be better anyway. It's good to know that a more mid-grade version worked fine, since they're half the price of a pro one. The space it takes up isn't a big deal, I'd be taking it only with the intention of doing this, basically as long as it fits somewhat okay in the back of the XJ (without a rear seat) it's not bad. If I had to strap it to the roof rack and unstrap it constantly it would get old. I might want to measure one or test fit it first though. That's a steal of a deal. I've been looking for a used one, this probably isn't the time of year to buy one though, and no dice so far, save for (very nice) used pro grade stuff for 80-90% of new. I have a set of similar ones and actually planned to buy a bigger version (you can get them up to about 40") to do the one off trees/branches quickly. No starting anything, or even pulling the chainsaw out of it's holder, just hop out and lop off the offending piece of tree. The sheer amount we need to clear makes them unsuitable for anything more than that though.

Boring video that shows how bad it can be, well, actually it's worse in a lot of places:

Who has experience with brush saws? Backstory: Some local guys want to host an off-road event, and we need to clear out some old trails to do this. In this region we get a lot of alder and poplar that will spring up in a hurry anywhere below about 5000' elevation, so anything that isn't driven on every year tends to start to grow in and then eventually disappear. This stuff is often pretty thick and twisted, mostly it will be only 1/2" to 3/4" diameter, but sometimes it will be up to 3" or so. For the big stuff a chainsaw works nice and quick. For the smaller stuff it tends to catch your chain and rip it off. Sometimes we'd just cut the big stuff and then drive over the small stuff, if you do that a few times it tends to break it enough that it dies for a few years, but this isn't as good long term as cutting it off at the ground. How thick of stuff can a mid range brush saw go through? Something like a Stihl FS131 or Husqvarna 336FR? These are both about $650-700 CAD. Does the Milwaukee M18 version (Quik-Loc trimmer with the brush cutter head) perform similarly to the mid range gas units? I have the 16" chainsaw and use it for cutting the larger brush normally, but it has impressed me in it's ability to cut 1' to 2' diameter logs for firewood, etc. I'm I stuck buying a $1400 Husky 545FX (or similar) to actually have a less painful experience with this?

That would be an annoying fix but not too hard.

That's interesting, because they used to take credit cards. Must have had one too many chargebacks for defective products and said eff it. I would look at what gogmorgo said regarding the ship centers that will hold the package for you. You're not far from the NY border and I'm sure there will be places there. Then you can just order it with your Canadian credit card (they won't know) using their website. I wouldn't wire them money personally. I'm sure they would ship you a product, but as to it being the product you wanted and not defective, well, that might be a different matter. Plus whatever they charge you for shipping will likely be outrageous.

I'd love to have that just to annoy people.

I can not in any way endorse putting money into a D35. If you're going to do that you might as well also get a chryo treated and micropolished gearset to ensure that you've wasted the maximum money possible when it fails. The 8.8 width issue is a real depending on what wheels and tires you run. There used to be a C-clip eliminator kit for them, and it made them wider. I don't know what happened to that, maybe somebody is making them again.

There is but, no, it's not how to do it; as other than MJ axles, everything that has the same perch width is the wrong overall width/bolt pattern/etc. Get a suitable rear axle (XJ 8.25, XJ D44, Explorer 8.8, Libby 8.25, etc, whatever the cool kids swap in now because I don't know) and get somebody to weld new perches on. It's a job that a welding/fab shop would probably charge you an hour of labour to do, which could be anywhere from $50-200 depending on locality, or you could look around for somebody that does that sort of work or the side, or ask around at a 4x4/Jeep club and see if somebody will help. This is by far the right solution. The Explorer axle is easily available in 4.10 and has disk brakes.

It works but it's not really an upgrade with the ports so badly mismatched. If I was you I'd wait until you have the HO head and swap it all over at the same time. Too bad the pictures in my thread are broken. It showed how bad it is.

I've still got my magnet on the fridge: It would suck to stop offering them and the decals, but I don't know what to say. Forums as communities have unfortunately been displaced by the (inferior) Facebook, so it's hard to garner the same level of interest. I don't go to shows but I do mention this place whenever I run into a Comanche owner, either they already know about it or shrug and say they're in whatever Facebook group. Maybe it's time to switch the designs of the decals up some?

Absolutely. I bought a whole truck for $1200, sold the doors for $400, hood for $200, tires for $300, seats for $200, grill and headlights for $150, taillights for $50, tailgate for $150, tcase for $250, kept the engine/trans/wiring/ECU and scrapped the rest. Granted I have a trailer and had some time/space to blow the truck apart to do that, but it at least netted me a complete engine/trans for negative cost. I could have made a lot more on the part out if I was willing to wait longer too.

What brand of bulbs were they? I bought some off ScAmazon and they weren't even as bright as the standard incandescent bulbs despite being advertised as "super bright".

Here's what I did. Not going to say it's the best/cheapest way, but it did mostly what I wanted. If you were retentive you could caulk the gaps and it would look even better. Basically it's an outdoor rated electrical box installed in the wall, reason for using them is they're sturdy, have an integrated cover, and since they're for conduit they have NPT threads in them. That said, it's a bit of a trick to do what I did, and I don't totally remember how I did it, I think I internally threaded a long bushing from both ends, then screwed it into the box from the inside (the wrong way), and put a PEX/NPT elbow on the back. Reel one: The one for the reel doesn't have a cover and was a mistake to use the box like that, I should have just used a standard PEX "drop elbow" like this: Anyway, there's lots of PEX fittings out there so just be creative. Maybe the kits they sell for air fittings are better now, but when I looked at them 8~ years ago they weren't any better than what you could do with PEX and were a lot more money.

You can just buy a 1/2" PEX to 1/4" NPT and do it that way, or use a standard 1/2" PEX to faucet bib stub-out and sweat/thread a fitting on, or whatever, then just screw your regular air coupler on (they're all either 1/4" or 3/8" N or F MPT). I have a picture of how I did it somewhere because I wanted a true clean install, but I'll have to take one tonight if you want to see, because I'm unlikely to find it in the eleventybillion photos on my phone.

Ground fall off the side of the block? Or any other obvious cable damage? Terminal ends are in good shape and tight on the battery?

I'd hope so too. The stockers are very dim by modern standards.

I plumbed my shop for air using PEX. I would do it again. IMHO all the "kits" are gimmicky proprietary stuff, where as you can buy good quality PEX and fittings from anywhere and have it all work together and it's incredibly economical. I put a manifold in the attic and ran separate drops from it in each of the walls, plus one high up to run a reel that's mounted on the ceiling by the big door. If I'm filling tires I use the reel, otherwise I use shorter lightweight hoses from each of the drops. But if you want to buy a kit, I'd say go ahead, people have good results with them. Ditto on the 240V welding outlet. I put three of them in my shop because it gives me more flexibility, and I can plug other high power equipment into them if needed, but that's overkill for most people. If you don't feel you need one, but you're planning to stay here for a long time, I'd at least future proof by running conduit for one or whatever else to make it easy to do later. I put 120V outlets about every 8', but both at baseboard height (12" or so) and work bench height (52" sort of thing). I don't regret that. I do regret not putting a couple in the ceiling that were switched. This would have made it easier to change some of the lighting later, or to plug in an extension cord reel.

I'd wait to see these on a truck before I passed judgement.

I hate shelves, and would recommend cabinets instead. I put cabinets along the top of my shop on both sides (sans doors, so they're technically still shelves so I hate them, but that's a project I keep meaning to get to), you need a ladder to access them so they're only good for things you rarely use. However, when you start looking around you realize there is a bunch of stuff that you rarely use. I then bought some filing cabinets, bolted them together, and then put casters on them and built simple cabinets on the top of them, all for storing stuff I normally use. You've got super limited space so you might not be able to fit anything that big. The other thing is almost everything in my shop (everything but the lathe and mill actually) is on wheels/casters, because that way you can move things around as needed, or just straight up roll something outside if you need more space for a short period of time. If plywood is too expensive, look at OSB. At least for the lower 4' OSB is a lot nicer than drywall, because it will get beat up. I didn't do the entire interior of my shop in OSB, just parts that I thought would take the most damage, and the rest is drywall. It's okay, but I'd probably just do OSB for everything next time. Paint at least the top half of it and the ceiling white, it will help a ton with lighting by just doing that. My next biggest tip is to build a "garden shed" and fill that thing with everything that shouldn't be in your garage/shop. This was so successful for me that I had to build a second one. Then I put lean-to additions on both of them. I then built a small cabinet style shed down the whole outside of the shop and filled that too. Anyway... Also, I put my compressor in an "outhouse" type structure behind the shop, then plumbed for air. Lots of work but saves a lot of floor space. Initially I had a small one and I was going to put it in the attic, and even build a place for it, but I scored a big vertical unit for cheap so went the outhouse route. Again, it's all just about saving the space. Also cuts down on noise. Your little compressor could probably go in a cabinet built high up on the wall, or in the attic, if possible. Oh, buy one of those portable tent buildings and get your wife to park in there. Bam, freed up a whole bay. (I'm joking on this one, as I assume that's not going to happen )