Just some pics underneath the Jeep while it was on the hoist.
When I got the jeep it had 4.5 inch springs installed all round. I felt that it was too high and there was no way I could get it engineered with such a high lift so some 3 inch springs were installed. Here’s some pics showing the droop. Because of the diesel motor being alot heaver than the petrol it sat alot lower in the front than in the rear. I also found that after it’s first shakedown trip to Cobaw that my front shocks were bottoming out. So we put the 4.5 inch springs back in the front and it has now levelled out the stance. I’ll post pics of this later on in the build thread...
Yeh seems to be the biggest issue, the front sagging.
May end up following your train of thought.
Beats coil spacers!
I bought an OUT4X4 roof rack system ages ago and was waiting for the jeep to be drivable so that I could install the roofracks. It required that I had to remove the hardtop to install the frame which runs on the inside of the hardtop and transmits the load from the roof down to the body. It is a really neat system.
Here’s the internal frame for the roof rack system.
I went with the rhinorack roofracks because it allows me to run a roof basket later on for when I want to do some big touring trips. But for the moment all that roofracks will be used for is to put my surfboards / snowboards on.
A couple of pics of the jeep topless...
So I put the hardtop back on the jeep and I was pretty happy with the end result.
I also installed some OUT4X4 thermo roof panels. They are supposed to stop heat transfer through the hardtop and as a side effect they also make the stereo sound better.
Ever since I owned the Jeep a mate of mine said that when he got married he wanted to use the jeep as his wedding car. He loved the Jeep so much he went out and bought a black JKU as well. So when he popped the question to his girlfriend the race was on to get the jeep finished and registered in time for the wedding.
WARNING : These images may offend some viewers. Please view with caution... haha...
The work involved making the jeep look more standard. This meant removing the flat flares and replacing them with stock flares, removing the A pillar lights, removing the lightbar and fitting 33 inch tyres. It made me feel sad to do this to my jeep, but I had to go to the local Jeep dealership to get some parts and I parked next to a stock JK and I instantly felt more manly about my jeep. Anyways, so I got the rwc, got the Jeep registered and then began the joy of re-instating all of the cool bits
It was a great feeling finally getting the jeep registered and wacking on my custom plates which my wife got me for a wedding anniversary gift. In case your wondering RPM is my initials. It was a sunny day on the way home from Vicroads, so I decided to remove the freedom panels for the first time. Oh man... what a buzz... I was loving it! I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I’m really looking forward to summer when i can remove the whole roof. I’m also keen for some half doors as well.
So I put all the gear back on and thought I would take the jeep down to my local flex ditch to check for clearance. I was pretty happy with the result I soon realised I needed to find a bigger ditch as I couldn’t get it to fully flex to the bump stops. I used to max out the suspension travel on my zook through the flex ditch, but I guess the Jeep has heaps more travel so it was always going to out flex the zook.
Anyway, I put the 3 kids car seats in the back of the Jeep and off we went upto Albury for my mates wedding. The Jeep drove like a dream. It cruised on 110 km’s all the way up the Hume without breaking a sweat.
We washed and detailed the Jeeps ourselves. I nearly went through a whole can of tyre shine shining up five 37’s & five 35’s... haha... I think the Jeeps came up awesome. Even the bride was happy with the Jeeps, even though she had to use a step ladder to get in and out. But she did it very gracefully
My mates JK.
This was one of the pics that the official photographer took in front of the Albury train station. Pretty awesome pic if I do say so myself...
Since the Jeeps official wedding duties had been completed it was time to do a shakedown trip offroad. Some zook buddies had organised a trip to Cobaw and asked me to tag along. I haven’t got any pics of the trip, but I think there will be a video pop up on youtube in the future. It was a good trip and it was great to get behind the wheel and drive the Jeep for what it was built for. We actually hooked up briefly with the MJOC, so it was nice to see a few other Jeeps out there having some fun.
It was obvious from the get go that I wasn’t happy with the 3 inch front springs. The shocks where to long for the springs and would bottom out if I hit the bumps to hard. This was a blessing in disguise because when the 4.5 inch springs were re-installed it got rid of the rear biased rake that most jk’s have. It now sits perfectly level and feels alot better offroad.
On the Easter weekend I was down in Lorne surfing the point, while my wife and kids were playing on the playground. On our way home we decided to go to a local waterfall and check it out. At the top of the road that leads to the waterfall the bitumen turned to a dirt road, so instead of driving all the way back to Lorne we took the kids on a little 4x4 adventure. They loved it and were laughing their heads off everytime I hit a bump, or drove through some mud. We did some pretty challenging tracks including a creek crossing with a crazy off camber entrance where the ruts were probably over a metre deep. Once we were through the creek I had to drive over a fallen log which took about 10 go’s to get over, then we turn the corner and there is literally a winch wall in front of us. I had a half go at driving it, but it was too steep and slippery, so we busted out the winch and winched up the wall. It wasn’t an ideal situation with the 3 little ones in the back, but there was no way I was turning around and driving back over that log and then back through the creek. The pics never do steepness any justice, but I struggled to climb up this wall, it was that steep...
This is the entrance to the creek. Not a very good pic... (taken by the good lady)
And this is the winch wall with me trying to climb upto the top.
Again the pics don’t do the steepness any justice...
So then on Easter Monday I hooked up with a couple of buddies and we did some local tracks around Anglesea and Paddy’s swamp. I’ve posted this already in the Pics section of the JK section of the forum. It was nice to wheel with three black JKu's all setup a little differently. Conditions were pretty dry compared to what it's usually like, but we still had to bust the winches out on one hill through the pine plantation. All in all it was a good day with no damage... Anyways here's some pics.
And some vids Sorry about the bad iphone quality...
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RPM's JKU - Custom Hex Housing Diff Build
