Sunday, September 27, 2009

Busy weekend

I installed a body lift and the corresponding transfer case shifter drop over the weekend. Today I had a nice soo doo bu (Korean tofu soup), nice and spicy. I like :). I'm about to go downstairs and try once more to come up with a mount for my GPS that will hang it above my mirror, or if I can't do that, at least a mount for my iPhone that could put it up there. We'll have to see how that works out...

- Badtux the Busy Penguin

4 comments:

  1. Body lift ? Ruh Ro , bring your crash helmet , roll-over tme .
    Did you do it for larger tires , are you going on the Rubicon , or have you ever seriously met an obstacle that you couldn't get around with stock body height ?
    I have been 4 wheeling since 1971 in various vehicles and the only thing I can surely say about "lift" is that it makes roll-overs much more possible . I started out 4wheelin to work in Humboldt County rain and muck with a 4 door dodge 3/4 ton 4x4 at 5 days a week and still I can't see a reason to raise my vehicle after living in the Sierras as well . Then again I don't feel compulsieve about going down roads with the ditches as deep as my pickup bed , that's when we get out the MK1 (model 1.01 for you tech tyes) personal transportation device , we walk .
    a curious w3ski

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  2. Bigger tires. But I also pushed my wheels further outward (widened the track with a different wheel offset and wider tires by about four inches total). I also have fiddled with the alignment so that the front doesn't try to tuck and lift during turns the way that it does with the stock alignment specs, the wider tires mean I don't need as much toe-in to keep the Jeep from wandering on the highway. I am currently setting up to run 33 inch tires on the Jeep with 3 inches of total lift (2 inch suspension and 1 inch body), which is doable with the different offset and the bigger wider flares that I've put on the Jeep. Basically, if you make the Jeep 4 inches wider and 3 inches taller, you don't affect its handling significantly, especially if you tweaked the alignment so it doesn't have the horrific understeer that for some reason Detroit thinks every vehicle they produce is supposed to have...

    Basically if you're not doing lift to put bigger tires on the thing, there's no reason to do it. LJ's unfortunately are not set up to run large tires out of the box, the stock 30 inch tires would rub the insides of the fenders at full flex disconnected...

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  3. Ummm , a wide stance !
    Cool tho , I love my Chevy over my wifes' 15 year newer Ford for the same reason .
    I've seen too many over-lifted vehicles on their sides and roofs , and had a good friend badly hurt basically from a poorly done lift job .
    Didn't want to read Yahoo News about a jeep found in some remote spot with a Penguin splattered on the road nearby and pieces of circuit boards scattered like confetti .
    a concerned w3ski

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  4. Jeeps have fairly good roll cages nowdays. The only weak spot is the windshield, which tends to crush inwards. However, the OR Fab bolt-on bar system to reinforce the windshield area works very well even though the lower part bolts to the firewall rather than going all the way down to the bottom of the tub. I know someone who has one of those, he rolled his Jeep doing stupid things in an off-camber offroad situation and while the Jeep's body was all bent up, the roll cage wasn't even dented and he was completely unharmed. A big f'ing hammer to the body, replacement of the windshield frame (which was bent behind repair), a bit of bondo and fresh paint, and you can't even tell his Jeep was ever rolled.

    Basically with my setup I'd have to go above 4 inches of total lift to impact the handling over the stock handling. I have no intention of doing so. At present, my Jeep is actually *more* stable than a stock Jeep, due to the wider stance and the revised suspension tuning.

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