[AssBurns]

Started working on a skid plate tonight. I got most of the big stuff done. Still gotta make a couple more tabs for it to bolt up to in the front and middle. I'm using the stock two bolts on the crossmember by the LCA's. The other 5 or so bolts will obviously be fabbed up. Still need to add a few gussets and mounting tabs before I decide to weld it up. Here is the progress so far.
Initial mock up.

Things already looked like expected.

Holding itself up by the bolts.

Got the wings tacked on. I plan to add another bolt from the wing to the tube for more strength.




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[Konkordmusk]

Wow. That radiator cage is actually something I'd probably do. Very well done!

[Rockdawg84]

I don't know how I missed your thread. Great to see someone else wheeling and upgrading their 3rd gen. Love it. Keep up the great work.

[AssBurns]

Got the skid plate all finished up. Turned out really well. I should be able to bash it pretty hard with no issues now. I was always nervous about smashing my radiator and front diff on the harder trails. Planning to go up to Big Bear in a couple weeks to do John Bull and Holcolm trails. This makes me feel a little better about not destroying important things. Didn't get any pics of the top side, but I have a few gussets welded in to stiffen things up.


Hopefully I can get started on a full bumper soon. I need to get my hands on a 1-3/4" die for my buddies tube bender. I may have to suck it up and just buy the die myself or negotiate a split price with him. Either way, I plan to build a bumper in the next month or two.


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[Jedrattle]

Nice build. The rear shock mounts came out *****in. I like that you are really wheeling it

[AssBurns]

Skid is actually 100% done. I had to fix a tab that was off a little bit and grind out a little material so that the front of the LCAs don't smash into the skid. Finished painting the tabs and bare metal areas. Also got some pics of the top side while it was off.



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[3rdgenfan]

Nice skids.

[AssBurns]

Decided to go for a little offroad adventure with my fiancé and daughter just to kill some some and get them out of the house.

Teaching her to tread lightly and leave our spots better than we found them


Nice view while we stopped to have a beer and relax behind the Seven Oaks Dam



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[AssBurns]

So after seeing @midcoma 's tire swing that he created, it motivated me to actually put the idea that I had in my head for a while into a physical form to see if it will even work. I made a little fixture out of some scrap wood I had laying around the garage. I made it semi-close to spec (scaled down of course) if the swing went the whole width of the bumper 5' and a 33" tire mounted. You can see the cross section up top that is supposed to represent the width of the tire to see if it would clear. The way the "spindle" is set up at the moment is, it is angled in toward the passenger side about 15-20° and back toward the front of the vehicle about 30°.
The idea behind this design was for a couple reasons:
1) It doesn't swing out very far back so that if someone is parked close behind you, you can still open the hatch
2) When parked on an incline or off camber, the tire swing doesn't want to swing open or closed super hard with gravity
3) Gravity actually helps keep the tire swing closed, if for some reason the latch ever fails
4) Saves space when opened without being in the way like a few other designs.
5) Should be easier to lift that the swing down or swing up (lambo style) designs

I took a couple photos and a video of the VERY Rough draft that I created tonight. I may try to make a bit more accurate model out of some tubing sometime soon, but at least I know my idea should be able to work. I wish I know how to use CAD programs to get things really accurate but for now, it will be old fashioned trail and error.

Let me know what you all think and if you have any suggestions for the design.







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[Bandit Runner]

Very interesting! Can't wait to see more.

[AssBurns]

Finally got around to completely finishing my Hi-Lift mount that I made a few months ago. I didn't like how much play it had at the very top and I was nervous if I got in a bad accident that it would rip out and hit myself or someone else. I added another mounting point on the wheel well to add some rigidity to the whole thing. Also finally painted it.





My neighbor was having a yard sale and noticed that he had a 20lb CO2 tank for sale so I stopped by to ask about it. He sold it to me for $10. Pretty stoked to have a good source of compressed air now. I almost always air down when off-roading to at least 25psi just for comfort reasons and much lower if I'm actually doing a difficult trail. It will be nice to have something that is easily accessible to do quick air ups. Now I need to decide where to mount it. Any ideas? I've read that they need to be mounted at least a 45° angle because it's liquid CO2.


Finally got around to replacing my broken rear UCA. I decided to save some dough for the moment and just get a stock part since it was almost free with my discount. I went with Mevotech control arm since they are supposed to be well made. The stock UCA is .55" diameter and the Mevotech is .75", so that should hold up for another few months till I build some new ones.




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[AssBurns]

My grandpa gave me this old canvas army bag and the first thing that came to mind was a Trasharoo bag. I just used some extra paracord a had laying around to fix the drawstring then tied it to the whip mount I made on the rear spoiler. I know this won't hold all that much weight but a few empty beer cans and miscellaneous trash won't hurt anything. Once I build a tire carrier I will mount it on that.



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[AssBurns]

Went for a last minute offroad trip on Labor Day. My brother and I took our family and a friend and his family up to the San Jacinto mountains by Idyllwild to go offroading for the day. We covered about 40 miles of dirt roads and trails. The best trail was forsure 4S21 - Indian Mountain. It's rated Black Diamond (most difficult). We saw an XJ at the trail head, and he was saying that our rigs would have a real tough time on this trail. It ended up being pretty easy compared to the way he made it sound but it was still a whole lot of fun. Our buddy with the ZJ doesn't have a locker and he didn't really have any issues, he just had to pick his lines more wisely. Overall we had a blast and the kids had even more fun playing every time we stopped. This was our first time offroading in this area and we plan to explore more trails soon.
Of course some pictures of the trip..



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[AssBurns]

Went up to Big Bear over the weekend and ran a few trails with my brother, dad and a bunch of friends that just came along for the ride for my bachelor party. It was only the BeerRunner, and my brothers and dads XJ's with all 12 of us. We rented a badass cabin up there and partied all Friday and Saturday night until we couldn't function anymore then woke up at super early to go off-roading. We ran John Bull Trail and Holcomb Creek Trail and a few easy side trails that we could go fast on. On the fast trails I was bottoming out like crazy with 4-5 grown ass men, all my tools and a few cases of beer in the back. I should have aired up my shocks more in the rear for the trip. The front did alright since I put my 5100's on the second perch and all the weight towards the rear. John Bull was pretty damn fun since it was tough enough to need a spotter and Holcomb Creek was pretty awesome because we were able to just cruise right through everything without any spotters. I'm super glad I finished the skid plate and radiator guard before this trip because it saved my ass more than once on the trails. I didn't get any pics from the trip and haven't gotten any from my buddies but if I do, I will post em up. Here is some of the trail damage from the trip though.



My brother wouldn't move his jeep out of my way so I ended up backing into him, kind of on purpose, kind of on accident. I lost this battle. He had no damage at all.

Bumper is way more trashed than before with all that weight coming down off of ledges. I smashed it on everything it felt like. Can't open the hatch at the moment so I guess I'll ditch the bumper and try to come up with a new one soon

Gary Johnson got a little banged up this weekend hahah



Overall we had an absolute blast this weekend. Can't wait to go out on another good trip again.

[AssBurns]

Decided to take apart the CV Axle that I broke last year to pull the inner part of the axle off. This way if 2 axles break while on the trail I can just slap this in without having to tear apart an axle to get back on the trail without leaking fluid out of the front diff. I always carry at least one spare CV axle while on the trail so if I break a second I'm not stuck covered in grease trying to repair the problem.




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