I have put some of this detail inside of my build thread but felt it deserved it's own thread.
When starting out on the plan for my build this was something discussed early on, but was done roughly 1 year after the suspension and wheels tires were installed.
I own both a '12 Limited and '19 Off road and all of this work has been done on the '19.
Some might ask, what is a tummy tuck; well if you look under your 4R just behind the front wheels we have the center cross member, exhaust crossover, and transfer case which hang down quite low compared to the rest of the center of the vehicle.
Below is a picture from under the '12 to clearly show it and the corresponding ground clearance. this vehicle does have a BP-51 suspension under it so your vehicle may or may not sit lower.
So, what does the tummy tuck do, well in simple words it's the single best investment you can make to gain ground clearance. It's less expensive than many lift kits especially when you add in the upper control arm, etc and you will gain more ground clearance than with a lift. With our stock vehicles it's one thing to drive over something with our front wheels but it's another to get to clear that same obstacle with our back tires if it's too large and we high center on it.
The tummy tuck is your answer for this, short of trying something just crazy which we would never get over. The tummy tuck in essence removes the stock center cross member and replaces it with one much higher. The driver side cat also was moved up since it sit's lower than the passenger side. Then the entire exhaust system from the exit of the cat's to the muffler was replaced to raise it up.
Overall I have gained just over 4" of ground clearance from the bottom of the skid plates to the ground compared to what I had prior. I have not had the pleasure to out and use this yet but will this upcoming weekend and will be sure to post some more photos / videos of it in action.
This entire job was performed by the highly skilled team at BudBuilt here in NC. They will have some exciting news about this in the near future.
When starting out on the plan for my build this was something discussed early on, but was done roughly 1 year after the suspension and wheels tires were installed.
I own both a '12 Limited and '19 Off road and all of this work has been done on the '19.
Some might ask, what is a tummy tuck; well if you look under your 4R just behind the front wheels we have the center cross member, exhaust crossover, and transfer case which hang down quite low compared to the rest of the center of the vehicle.
Below is a picture from under the '12 to clearly show it and the corresponding ground clearance. this vehicle does have a BP-51 suspension under it so your vehicle may or may not sit lower.
So, what does the tummy tuck do, well in simple words it's the single best investment you can make to gain ground clearance. It's less expensive than many lift kits especially when you add in the upper control arm, etc and you will gain more ground clearance than with a lift. With our stock vehicles it's one thing to drive over something with our front wheels but it's another to get to clear that same obstacle with our back tires if it's too large and we high center on it.
The tummy tuck is your answer for this, short of trying something just crazy which we would never get over. The tummy tuck in essence removes the stock center cross member and replaces it with one much higher. The driver side cat also was moved up since it sit's lower than the passenger side. Then the entire exhaust system from the exit of the cat's to the muffler was replaced to raise it up.
Overall I have gained just over 4" of ground clearance from the bottom of the skid plates to the ground compared to what I had prior. I have not had the pleasure to out and use this yet but will this upcoming weekend and will be sure to post some more photos / videos of it in action.
This entire job was performed by the highly skilled team at BudBuilt here in NC. They will have some exciting news about this in the near future.
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