Ok to start with a story to see how i wound up with this build, if the story bores you, skip it... It has little to do with the new build I just thought i'd share as I haven't posted here since I got rid of my "Big Blue" 96 2500 12V 5 spd w/12" and 46" XL's...
I bought a 98 ZJ from a friend, it was setup pretty good for a toy, body cut to hell, decent 3 or 4" lift, 33x15.50 SX's on 8" wide wheels, 4.88's, lock rite rear locker, and came with a lock rite for the front (not installed). It had a 4.0 that smoked over 3k rpm, solid auto trans and the desirable Selec-Trac t case and also had the U joint style axle shafts up front. Dana 35 rear, 30 front. I took it out once to a small local trail and played for a bit..... we had a few weeks til the next actual wheeling trip so it sat... night before the trip I threw the front locker in and welded up a hitch insert up front to slide my winch into (it's mounted on an insert)..... we went to Haspin Acres... had a good time, it went everywhere I pointed it pretty much... went with a couple buddies that have lifted Zj's as well, open diffs, one on 33" Trxus MT's and the other on 32" BFG MT's. I played tow truck all day Saturday then that night I knocked right front tire off bead while winching (had air tank with but no high lift? Someone forgot to grab it out of the shop), and busted left axle joint at basically the same time (apparently can't turn full lock and go in reverse under any load with a locked Dana 30)... figured i could limp it the short way to the main trail and get it on the trailer from there... wrong... apparently breaking an axle joint in a Dana 30 results in a broken ball joint if you continue to try to move in 4x4 (needed due to conditions and tire being off bead).... so I wound up with a severely crippled jeep down by redgate area if anyone knows where that is... some older guys with large well built CJ's tried to get me out and didn't get me very far... Pete pushed it out with the dozer the next morning which mangled the core support, inner fender area, hood, fan, radiator, tube bumper up front, etc..... so between the body damage that'd be hard to fix, the worn out engine, the damage to front axle (axle shaft, ball joints, brake line, etc) and the fact that I'm just not a Jeep guy, I decided to part it out. This is where the new project comes in....
I'm a big Dodge guy and miss having a full size rig. The jeep was fun but it just doesn't cut it for me. A few weeks ago I hauled a buddie's CJ a couple hrs away to trade for a big ZJ on Waggy axles n 36's, the guy also had a 94 1500 360 auto 4x4 he offered to sell me cheap. I had no interest at the time so I passed on it. Another buddy has a Dodge Dana 60 front with 4.10's, a Ford Dana 60 rear with 4.10's and a 14 bolt dually rear, he collected these to put under his Cherokee and decided not to go full size after all. Another buddy has some very well worn 36" Iroks he previously mentioned he would give me... upon returning from Haspin and trying to decide what to do, and what I could stuff the Dana 60's under, I remembered the Dodge 1/2 ton. I contacted my buddy to see if he had the guy's number still, he did and I made contact with him to see if the Dodge was still available. It turned out he still had it and so I made arrangements to pick it up this Wednesday. I struck a deal trading some of the parts off my Jeep to my buddy for the Dana 60's (getting a smokin deal on ALL THIS STUFF!!). Called the other buddy to make sure he still had the Iroks and that they were still free. He assured me they were mine anytime. Another buddy has a tire groover. Its crap work but for free99 I will give it a shot.
So the truck will be a 94 1500 360 auto on Dana 60's, 36" Iroks on a spare set of stock steelies I have (until I can find something wider, I know these will rub the control arms bad with 36's), as little lift as possible up front, lots of cutting, no bed, 4 linked rear, shortened wheelbase & frame, eventually a tube bed in the rear and an exo cage. Possibly a fuel cell or at least a relocated tank I'm sure. Eventually I'll long arm the front, but the rear will travel so much that I won't need a lot of movement out of the front and will probably need the stability on the heavy end.. For now the focus is to slap it together to get it wheelable and take it out once or twice this year, new baby due early August so won't get much riding in this season. Then I can mess with it all winter and have it much better for next season. I have a 5 gallon on board air system I had setup on a previous work truck I sold, it used the stock a/c compressor. I will likely install this on the new trail truck. I also have a vision of a framework structure on the rear of the frame that goes up a couple feet, with a snatchblock, so the winch can be mounted on the rear, run the cable over the snatch block pulley and hook onto someone's axle and lift them up like a wheel lift on a wrecker and tow them out, so if something happens like did to me with my Jeep, it will be easy to get them out.... it was too much of a struggle to get mine out and the only practical means of extracting it resulted in destroying the front end... Since I always had the one of the bigger more powerful trucks around years ago with the big 96 diesel, I wound up being called a lot to do off road recovery and it's become a thing of mine LOL so for a few hours of cutting and welding I can pretty easily set this truck up to be an off road wrecker I think.... everytime we go wheeling we see a rig with a broken axle or busted wheel or something along those lines... could probably make a little cash helping someone out of the woods. I paid the Cj guys $10 each for the fuel they used trying (only got me 20 yards, but a big block and a small block running for over an hour had to burn that much in fuel) and the guy with the dozer charged $20. Those fees are cheap to me and anyone should be glad to pay that. I'll probably wind up helping someone in a bind anyway and most are glad to throw a few bucks your way, heck another guy gave me a ten spot after winching him out I didn't ask for anything. It all helps pay the fuel bill for the weekend and I have fun doing it. So why not? LOL
So with 4 linking the rear and using probably pretty soft coils, I gotta figure out a way to keep the rear suspension stiff if I lift one end of a disabled rig. Maybe air bags? Not sure. I'd have to inflate them when towing and deflate when wheeling, and have them not anchored to the axle so it can droop as much as needs for max travel. Then like a cup like a spring bucket for it to reset itself when the axle up travels. Any ideas? I don't know much about air bags. That will come much later on but I like to get details figured out in advance....
Anyway I'll get pics posted once I get the truck home and start collecting the parts... Got the Jeep stripped today, hauling the carcass to the crusher tomorrow, got to get the shop cleaned out of all the Jeep junk in there now... anyone need any parts?
Eric
On Edit- just found out a buddy has 6 of my old 39.5 Iroks floating around still.... and they are available cheap!!!
Patience young grasshoppers LOL I don't have any of the parts laying in front of me yet.... going to pick up the truck this evening.... the axles and tires all have my name on em..... Just got back from hauling the remains of the jeep to the crusher LOL
Yes I'll be making all my own stuff..... Built not bought is my thing, and to me it doesn't mean bolting on a bought lift kit, it means building all the components possible... Obviously I don't build my own joints and springs but hey maybe one day LOL......
Well got the truck ok. On way back a fuel injector line Got a hole rubbed in it on my p pumped 24 valve tow rig. Special order line from Scheid diesel. Awesome. Buddy on his way with rollback to take my tow rig home and other buddies dad on his way with powerstroke to pull my trailer and the 1/2 ton home. Fml. Waiting on them all to show up right now.
Finally got everything home at 3 am.... Apparently trans in green truck has issues :'-(
Gonna check fluid in it tomorrow. Maybe it's just almost out. Idk. It pulled through the guys yard and onto trailer just fine but we unloaded it at my neighbors parking lot, left it running and unloaded my dually from the rollback which took a few minutes, probably almost ten minutes. Jumped in green truck and had no forward or reverse. Finally got it to pull reverse enough to park it out of the way. I'll mess with it tomorrow.
It's got vinyl seats and floor, power windows n locks, manual mirrors. Radio works, a/c seems to work, just gotta figure out trans issue. Think I'm gonna take front fenders off and do tube fenders to make room for the 39.5's with as little lift as possible. Low center of gravity sounds good to me and it's not gonna be driven on road anyway.
Anyone need bed and fenders? Beds pretty nice, fenders look good so far but don't know what's under mudflaps yet.
06-02-2011, 08:26 AM (This post was last modified: 06-02-2011 08:27 AM by Mikeg1005.)
My I recommend you skip on the rear dana 60... For the effort you have to go through and the money you will spend you are better off find a 35 spline dana 70 or going with a 14 bolt.
You "can" upgrade the dana 60... Mountain ram did to his and its holding up good and he beats the [censored] out of his truck... but IMHO the amount of effort you have to go through (bore out the spindles and get 35spl shafts) to make it stronger is not worth it... and as far as ground clearence goes... my shaved 14 bolt has almost as much ground clearence as my front dana 60... if no the same(but thats due to the front being heavier)
What wheel base are you going to go for??? I was thinking about shortening mine one day... I think I'd shoot for 123-125" ... should work out perfectly with 39s or 42s.
To each his own on 39.5" Iroks... I have seen those things start chunking if you look at them funny. As far as rims go... if you want low price alloys... find your local H2 dealership and ask them if they have any H2 stock rims laying around.... I bought a set of 4 for $125 and I know that right now the service dept. is selling them for $50-60 a rim.
Well, I picked up the axles tonight, got a 14 bolt dually rear in the deal also. All are said to have 4.10's. The front 60 seems in good shape from what i've seen so far. Not sure about the dually rear widths, actually i'm gonna go measure that in a second. A buddy has an empty 14 bolt single wheel housing i can probably have. Well I think its got axles and hubs just missing the chunk (can use dually one for that). So I have some options on the rear axle. The 14 sure is a lot beefier looking. Just figured with only a 360 that the 60 would hold up and be a bit lighter and better clearance. The 14 is probably worth it though.
Not sure on wheelbase yet, haven't really gotten that far just know i'll probably shorten it somewhat. I haven't gotten the drawing board out, just collecting the main parts while the deals are good.
I've ran lots of 39.5 Iroks and always had great luck with them, love those tires. We don't have lots of rocks here its just trails and the mud is optional.... Haspin is a favorite hole of ours but we want to hit Dirty Turtle, Redbird and Interlake as well. I want to see Badlands too sometime. I'm not sure if the Iroks he has left are bias or radial. He had gotten a lot of my spares from me at one point and i had like two sets of radial and one set of bias. I'm not sure what the ones he has left are but he has 6 of them. Hopefully bias but the Radials will do great too. The bias is softer and balloons more when mounted, I think its actually wider even though its supposed to be the same size. Bias ply seems to usually be larger than radial with same size.
Thanks LegendKiller!!! I've had Dodges the whole time but just now getting another Dodge off road toy.......
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