Long Bed: Awesome Wheel Base, Or Rear End Death Sentence?

[Onda_Rks]

I bought an 88 long bed back in August or so for 800 bucks, runs like a dream, had a wobble due to wheel bearing.  A real steal if you ask me.  guy didn't know what he was selling i guess.  But it is a long bed, and as a rock crawler this presents a potential problem.  the butt of that thing sticks out for miles past the rear wheels, i sense some hard drops in my future, possibly doing real damage to the bed.

 

I've considered 3 options:

 

1. Suck it up, hey maybe it won't be that bad?

 

2. Trade for a short bed, but then i lose the wheelbase, but my cherokee does fine. (this is my preference)

 

3. my buddy said make a big plate under there connecting from the rear bumper to somewhere under the bed before the rear axle.  leaving some room for a compressor and tank for air tools? nothing huge but enough to save my butt on the trail.  I havn't even began to look under the truck to see if it would work cause i have a feeling it wouldn't.

 

Any suggestions?  i understand it's gonna get dinged up, but i don't need my bed bent cause i came off a rock too hard.

[mvusse]

One trip to Badlands Offroad Park with my long bed I was accused to driving mine like a mini truck. When I asked "How so?" the replied consisted of a number of photos, all taken at different spots, all with my rear bumper and trailer hitch dragging the ground. That was with 6.25" lift front, SOA rear and 33" tires.

 

Since then the bed has disappeared, the front went up to about 7", the tires grew to 37" and the frame got shortened a few inches. Bumper and trailer hitch also came off. I still parked the rear of the frame in the ground on one occasion last fall. Sitting on level ground the bottom of the frame rail is 36" off the ground.

 

Plan for the future is to leave the wheel base the same, but flip the rear spring around (long side forward, short side toward the rear) and hang the shackle off the bottom of the still to be constructed new bumper. This should move the back of the truck (bumper face) about 15 or 18" forward from where the frame ends stock and give me ~80 degree departure angle.

[Jeep Driver]

Like a dog with worms......huh?

[dasbulliwagen]

Do a bed Bob. There are a few on here in the projects section. Might be just what you need as the truck sounds like its in good shape.

[willbur16g]

i agree with the bob. what i plan to do with my future mj :thumbsup:

[ejndssn]

if the bed is in great shape i would re-consider since they are hard to fine. if it has seen trees and other natural objects then cut away. just a thought

[mnkyboy]

IMO my short box has a little too much wheel base, a long box would be even worse.

 

If it were mine I would bob both ends of the bed and shorten the frame or cut the rear frame off and link the rear to shorten the wheel base some.

[HOrnbrod]

Look through Willy's (reson46) "Wife's MJ" build thread. He details the bed bob and did a great job on it.

 

http://comancheclub.com/topic/8516-wifes-mj/