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Truck is getting better and better! Oddly, I have the metric ton springs with a leave removed and soa with hardly any axle wrap at all. It'll hop once very lightly under a hard downshift or if I floor it over a imperfection in the road. But your jeep is coming together great. I like the awd launch in the snow, looks like it grabs and goes. I like the noted part where the pipes fall off and it gets suddenly loud, mine used to do that as well, ironically. Keep the updates coming!

 

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The siped KM2’s did pretty well in deep snow, and ok on cold snowy/wet roads, but with the new power the truck was liable to get pretty sideways with small throttle movements. I found some 33” tall snow tires that looked like they had pretty aggressive tread, almost like an all-terrain but with softer rubber and more siping, so I decided to get a set. I found some 16” wheels from a 2009 Ford Ranger sport to mount them on.

 

In hindsight these wheels were a poor choice. The Ford center bore diameter is ~1-2mm smaller than Jeep, so they need spacers to move the wheels out past the hub bore of the Dana 30. The wheels fit fine on the Ford 8.8 however. The spacers are also good because the wheels have more backspacing than the Cragar Soft-8’s my KM2’s are on, but all the spacers and thicker flange of the aluminum wheels meant I needed extended lug studs. I used ARP 1007703 on the front and Dorman 610-523 (I think) pressed into the 1” spacers I currently have on the rear axle. A Lisle 22800 wheel stud installation tool made installation easier. This went fairly smoothly, however just buying wheels more suited to the truck the first time around would’ve saved some headache.

 

The tires are Yokohama Geolandar I/T G072 in 285/75 R16. They work out to 32.8” tall (same as 33” KM2’s) and 11.25” wide.

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I’ve taken them up the the northern part of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula a few times now, and they’ve done pretty well. The snow hasn’t been deep enough lately to test the floatation properly, but the road traction is hugely improved over the KM2’s, and so far the off-road traction hasn’t seemed to suffer at all. The tread has been clearing well in the warmer wetter snow we have currently. If we get anymore fluffy powder and I get a chance to play in it I will update with my impressions.

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Truck is getting better and better! Oddly, I have the metric ton springs with a leave removed and soa with hardly any axle wrap at all. It'll hop once very lightly under a hard downshift or if I floor it over a imperfection in the road. But your jeep is coming together great. I like the awd launch in the snow, looks like it grabs and goes. I like the noted part where the pipes fall off and it gets suddenly loud, mine used to do that as well, ironically. Keep the updates coming!

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

 Thanks! I've almost got the build thread caught up to where the truck actually is now. I've been having too much fun with it lately to stop and write build thread posts :)

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Truck is getting better and better! Oddly, I have the metric ton springs with a leave removed and soa with hardly any axle wrap at all. It'll hop once very lightly under a hard downshift or if I floor it over a imperfection in the road. But your jeep is coming together great. I like the awd launch in the snow, looks like it grabs and goes. I like the noted part where the pipes fall off and it gets suddenly loud, mine used to do that as well, ironically. Keep the updates coming!

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Thanks! I've almost got the build thread caught up to where the truck actually it now. I've been having too much fun with it lately to stop and write build thread posts :)

Haha yeah, these trucks are great fun. I follow the build more up to date on your Instagram though, is there any other big plans going on with the truck in the future? I ask because, you've got a nice axle, a great engine, only things bigger than that are cage links and even bigger axles, are those planned? Or is this where you want the truck to stay?

 

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Truck is getting better and better! Oddly, I have the metric ton springs with a leave removed and soa with hardly any axle wrap at all. It'll hop once very lightly under a hard downshift or if I floor it over a imperfection in the road. But your jeep is coming together great. I like the awd launch in the snow, looks like it grabs and goes. I like the noted part where the pipes fall off and it gets suddenly loud, mine used to do that as well, ironically. Keep the updates coming!

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Thanks! I've almost got the build thread caught up to where the truck actually it now. I've been having too much fun with it lately to stop and write build thread posts :)

Haha yeah, these trucks are great fun. I follow the build more up to date on your Instagram though, is there any other big plans going on with the truck in the future? I ask because, you've got a nice axle, a great engine, only things bigger than that are cage links and even bigger axles, are those planned? Or is this where you want the truck to stay?

 

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

 

 

I'm not really sure. I'm not really that interested in building a dedicated rockcrawler, I want more of a do-anything adventure truck that I can use to explore trails, get outside, go camping, etc... I'd like to go up to 34's or 35's, and maybe a dynatrac 44 in the front at some point if/when the d30 blows up. I've been thinking about an exo-cage and bed sliders like reson46 or H3RESQ/ryanatrocks@yahoo.com have on their trucks, but all of that is way in the future. The current combo of LS2, d30, F8.8, long arms, and 33's is lot of fun both on the street and on the trail, so I'm happy with leaving most of that as is for at least a little while before I really rip it apart again.

 

The next medium sized project will actually be getting some storage systems built into the bed. I have a way of holding all my normal wheeling stuff in the bed right now, but it's not very secure from theft, not very space efficient, and not very flexible to different loadouts. So this spring/summer I will be building something that will hopefully solve those three issues.

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trucks looking great!

 

seeing all these rigs on 33s and 35s almost makes me wish mine was less built... almost lol 

 

Thanks! Your truck looks great on the 40's!

 

Agreed. Keep it road worthy, trailer queens are a very dedicated purpose. If it's road worthy it can still be used to pick up materials at the lumberyard!

 

And haul cut up old cars and parts to the metal recycler!

 

So I am in the middle of swapping a ls in my Comanche and have been following your thread, how far does the intake stick out of the hood when closed? Looks cool just wondering how tall a scoop I may need.

 

The TBSS intake manifold I have sits about 2-3" above the hood at the throttle. I think the regular truck intakes are a little bit shorter, they might stick out 1-2". If you get a car intake manifold from a camaro, GTO, or corvette it will fit underneath the stock hood (like what Comanche SS has on his truck). I may end up going this route down the road. Technically the TBSS intake manifold I have makes more torque on the low end, but that's at wide open throttle, and if I'm doing that I get above 3000rpm really quickly, and then the tall TBSS manifold really isn't any better than a car manifold. So I may swap to a low manifold in the future to get a cleaner hood line.

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A couple weeks ago I went on an offroad rally event here in Michigan put on by a new company called 4 Wheel Rally. We met up in Pontiac MI, took some Hellcat rides around M1 Concourse, and headed north for some wheeling around Mesick MI, before staying at a nice hotel in Traverse City. The next day we headed south east towards West Branch MI for some more wheeling, before heading back to the Detroit area. They had a professional photographer ( Steve Choryan http://www.facebook.com/ChoryanPhotography/ ) and videographer (Kris Barclay http://www.facebook.com/AOPkbarly/ ) along taking tons of cool photos and videos.

 

Recap video on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2O34UnCryo

 

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They were always egging me on to floor it up the hillclimbs, and they took a video of the exhaust on one  :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ_ku_8ghxt/

 

They just announced the summer rally will be June 8-11 and we'll be heading up to Drummond Island and the Eastern Upper Peninsula. If you're interested check out their website for more info and to register

http://4wheelrally.com/

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Dillithium, I'll send you a PM about the bumper

 

I took the truck out to a local off-road park, Bundy Hill, and had some breakage. Before the breakage, good times were had:

 

Pulled out a friends Colorado:

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Climbed a steep hill

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video link, it's on a friends facebook so I'm not sure if it'll be visible: https://www.facebook.com/cdaiscool/videos/10104900640139792/

 

Flexed out in a ditch

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Another facebook video link: https://www.facebook.com/cdaiscool/videos/10104900642200662/

 

followed a trail through the woods

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But then I tried to pull size mall-crawler off an obstacle they should have no problem with, and my T-case went pop and i lost drive to the front axle. I played around with friends a bit for the rest of the day, and had to use the go-pedal to get up some shallower climbs, but it was still fun and the truck drove home without an issue so all-in-all, still a pretty successful day. 

 

Spend the next day taking apart the t-case, and I found this:

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This is the AWD/4WD shift selector sleeve thingy, P/N 83503542. It slides into the center differential of my NP242 to either provide AWD or, if it slides in further, it locks the front and rear together for 4wd

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You can see some of the sheared teeth on the magnet and inside the differential

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So I ordered the parts to get this fixed, and while the truck was down I finally installed my Currie AntiRock front swaybar!

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I got the transfer case fixed and AntiRock installed just in time to head up to Drummond Island with a couple friends of mine. One was driving a Rubicon JK with a 2.5" lift and 35" Nitto Ridge Grapplers, the other JKU Sahara totally stock except for JCR skidplates. There was a fair bit of water (I need to figure out how to raise my intake a bit, I'm thinking cowl induction instead of a snorkel) and some good rocky trails. This was my first time on rocks of any kinds and it was more fun than I thought it would be. On to the pictures!

 

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Crossed the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula

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Quick stop along Lake Huron on M-134

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On the Ferry to Drummond Island

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First ledge, the truck had no problems. The 2dr JK struggled a bit, I think just due to the shorter wheelbase

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Sahara almost gut stuck in this mudhole, with a little back and forth he got himself out though

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Shale Beach

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Marblehead as the sun was setting

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Going down the steps

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As close to the cliff as you can drive

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We had to take some LED light photos from the top of the steps before we left

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Glen Cove

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Beautiful stars

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Putting our lights to good use on the way home in the dark

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We had some hard rain on and off the next day, made for some slick rocks and mud, and deep water holes

 

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Hit the hitch coming down this ledge

 

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We sent the Rubicon with the snorkel in to investigate this one

 

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mad flex yo!

 

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Lots of these cool cedar woods on the second day, kind of creepily dim and little to no undergrowth

 

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Day 3 was abbreviated as we had to drive back to Detroit, so we made a quick trip up to fossil ledges before heading south

 

 

Spotted a deer on the way

 

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After that we headed south for the long drive home! Great weekend

 

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