Quality shop time and another axle down.

[JeepAddict]

Where do you buy your metal stock?

[Richl35]

Looking good, those skids should protect those shocks fine. I just raised my rears and added skids too, can’t have too much skid

My wife might not agree with you...

[Richl35]

Where do you buy your metal stock?

I have AAA Metals in Hanson just down the street from me. I also use McMaster-Carr here and there and Speedy Metals online as well. Speedy is usually really cheap if you can wait a few days.

[Richl35]

And I got the truss welded up. Slow job welding it all in small increments. Preheating and slowly cooling after. Long process...

[Frank]

I would think the truss should go at least half way to the flanges. That part is great for a custom 4 link uppers , but leaves a lot of tube unprotected . Just sayin . I like your welds better than a good grinder. FjR68

[Lisah311]

Wow. Beautiful welds, Rich!

[Richl35]

I would think the truss should go at least half way to the flanges. That part is great for a custom 4 link uppers , but leaves a lot of tube unprotected . Just sayin . I like your welds better than a good grinder. FjR68

I agree with you Frank 100%. It would be nice if the truss extended further as well but when I finish up the project you will see there isn't any more room on the axle tubes after welding on the control arm brackets, spring perches and bump stop mounts. But being all made from 1/4" steel maybe they will add a little support themselves? The stock stuff is like tinfoil as you know. At minimum I welded the tubes to the housing and the truss will lock everything up so I don't make a custom high pinion like another member did here one time..

I would love to do a custom double triangulated long arm 4 link sitting on some 16" ORI nitrogen air shocks but that will be for the buggy build some day....

[Richl35]

Wow. Beautiful welds, Rich!

Thank you!

The stand makes it a lot easier. You can rotate the axle around and get into positions where you can get comfortable which really helps. It wouldn't look as good if I was laying on my back under the Jeep doing the install...

[Richl35]

Got another couple hours on it this afternoon. Just need to locate the bump stop mounts and burn all the brackets in.

[Richl35]

To all the Dad's out there today... Happy Fathers Day!

[Richl35]

Just a small project to post up since I wasn't able to get back to the axle housing for a couple days here.
I am prepping the Jeep for the sport cage install and needed to relocate some switches I had installed along the drivers A-pillar. Picked up this neat little 4 switch panel that mounts to the stock windshield trim panel. A little cutting of the trim panel to mount it up there but it worked out great. It's made by S-tech. They make 6 switch panels as well and full relay box kits. I just needed the panel.
Added a couple rocker switches and a USB port with a voltage gauge in it to plug a trail cam in. Made up a wiring harness with a watertight connector to ease the install.

[Richl35]

Finally got the axle welded up! Clean it up a little with a wire wheel and off to powdercoat.

[Richl35]

And finally, after a 2 week hiatus in NH on vacation and a couple work related trips I am home and ready to get back to work on what is really important... My Jeep! Hahaha.. Ok just kidding but my powdercoating was ready so this happened today.

The Poison Spyder trail cage in Candy apple blue w/ silver vein.



My rear axle housing I built in satin black to match the PC on the front Teraflex housing.


Now to get them installed!

[Richl35]

Quick little review here... I, like most, find hood flutter a little unnerving so early last year or so I installed the Rugged Ridge hood latches. They are solid and work well but mine started to corrode. Looking closely at the JL hood latches on my friends Jeep I purchased a set and they almost bolt on. The slightest modification to the stock holes in the hood and fender, a little bit of paint and boom... the latches are installed and work absolutely perfectly! Not to mention I got them for about $45! A bargain for sure.

Oh... ignore the dust. Was sanding in the shop.

[Richl35]

So I have another small upgrade to share. Remember my Jeep is NOT a hard core buggy. It is a driver and I need it's on road manners to be as good as it's off road abilities so everything I do here is a compromise. When I can build the buggy it will be a different story but in the meantime I do some mods here and there just to make it drive a little better.

So my front end consists of a Teraflex axle that I built last winter and used all Steer Smarts Yeti steering components. I really like the setup. The axle was built for my lift height and had caster correction built into the geometry. This allowed me to have proper pinion angle and yet still have 5.8 degrees of caster making the Jeep steer and track exceptionally well. Factory like you might say. Even with 4 inches of lift and 37" tires. Very happy!
The Steer Smarts tie rod and drag link are 1.5 ton units and huge compared to stock JK components. But beyond the beefiness of the parts themselves they have a nice anti flop design feature that keeps the rod ends from rolling over when steering making the steering feel very tight and very responsive. An excellent upgrade I suggest to anyone who is upgrading their steering component to consider them!
So the combination of the axle and steering gave me a very nice handling Jeep. I can blast up the highway and there is no steering wander or instability at all. Prior to the upgrade highway was a white knuckle ride for sure. The last of the items that I wanted to get on the front end was a steering stabilizer. No, I did not have any issues with death wobble or anything like that but just wanted to protect the steering box a little and decrease the feedback of square edged potholes back thru the steering wheel. My issue is I ran a set of high steer knuckles and along with the HD steering components this left very little room to fit a stabilizer in unless I wanted to leave it exposed under my tie rod. That wasn't even an option so I went on the search to find something that was compact enough to fit above the tie rod along with a mounting solution. I ended up with the following.

So Steer smarts came out with an inexpensive stabilizer that supposedly was tuned to their Griffin drag link attenuator which I was running. I will tell you right now I don't believe that there was any SPECIAL tuning so any compact stabilizer would probable work as well but it fit so I went with it. To mount on the axle side I picked up a Synergy stabilizer bracket PN: 8007. The bracket bolted into some existing holes on the axle but relocated the stabilizer up above the tierod. Perfect! The tie rod end I used the Steer Smarts 1 5/8 stabilizer clamp PN: 41035001. This bracket is milled out of solid steel billet and is surely going to take the hits off the rocks without complaint! The Steer Smarts HD-N stabilizer was PN: 73011011. It all fit together like this...




So my thoughts? Excellent! If it was a trail only rig I wouldn't bother doing this. It would be a waste of $$$ and just another component to damage off road but for a street driven rig, one that sees 2 - 3 hour blasts up and down the highway fairly consistently, is driven 60 miles round trip across town to work a couple days a week and sees dirt and rocks as often as I can make time for it has been a very good addition. It has taken A LOT of the jarring out of square edged bumps. I feel almost NO feedback in the steering wheel when hitting big potholes or sunken manhole covers. It has had no noticeable affect on ease of turning and hasn't effected the steerings return to center at all. It has just made the Jeep just a little more pleasurable to drive overall. I'd do it again in a second!