Practical Truck for the Over Prepared Woman

[john#21]

I have finally graduated to the big leagues… @Discount Tire hooked me up with 40s (they were back ordered when I tried to buy them a couple weeks ago ) and they arrived 4 weeks sooner than expected!

Going to have to cut my bumper a little tomorrow morning due to rubbing at full lock (then I’ll test under articulation) but the fit is pretty nice.

Truck felt a little slower driving home (still on 4.10 gears), but the 220 lbs of extra tires sitting in the bed couldn’t have been helping either.

that is slick , looks good!

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[Kindafearless]

Did I miss you going to 1 tons? Or is that in the future now?

Keep going Lady, I get more jealous every day.

I’m still on the 44s, I’ve just been building them up. Tentatively budgeting for some sort of 60-ish axle in 23, but I want to see how far I can go with these 44s.

I love how light my truck is, and would hate to throw some big heavy axles under it without giving the 44s a chance to show what they are made of.

If nothing else it will give everyone here some more empirical evidence about what they can handle if you aren’t doing stupid youtube stunts with them.

 

[Discount Tire]

Wow, what an amazing look with the bed shortened and bigger tires, what a beast!!!

 

[kevman65]

I’m still on the 44s, I’ve just been building them up. Tentatively budgeting for some sort of 60-ish axle in 23, but I want to see how far I can go with these 44s.

I love how light my truck is, and would hate to throw some big heavy axles under it without giving the 44s a chance to show what they are made of.

If nothing else it will give everyone here some more empirical evidence about what they can handle if you aren’t doing stupid youtube stunts with them.

The biggest hurdles are the cast aluminum knuckles and the FAD on the front. But you can work around both of those problems.

Just keep being you, because the you that shows up in the truck is awesome.

 

[rharr]

I’m still on the 44s, I’ve just been building them up. Tentatively budgeting for some sort of 60-ish axle in 23, but I want to see how far I can go with these 44s.

I love how light my truck is, and would hate to throw some big heavy axles under it without giving the 44s a chance to show what they are made of.

If nothing else it will give everyone here some more empirical evidence about what they can handle if you aren’t doing stupid youtube stunts with them.

Looks good, as a side thought, those D60's are bigger and heavier, but the weight is down low which helps drop the center of gravity and gives a touch more stability.

 

[Free2roam]

Gonna need more power said "Tim the tool man Taylor" Hemi swap!

 

[Cavitt]

I just stumbled across your build thread and am amazed at what you've done. I think you should change your screen name to KindOfaBadAss! You left Fearless behind when you cut the ass end off your Gladiator!

Great build.

 

[Elff]

@Cavitt has a very valid point.

You don't Yolo when scared.

 

[Kindafearless]

Last week was a big week of projects:

* Reid knuckles installed
* Synergy Ball Joints installed
* 4.5" Coils swapped
* Swapped the SteerSmarts Trackbar brace for the Synergy Trackbar brace.

I went with EVO HD 4.5 coils up front and the Rock Krawler 4.5" coils in the back. I left the 3/4" spacer in the front since the truck is very front heavy at this point.

After driving it around Sunday:
The ride is stiffer on the road and I can feel the ball joints tightening up the front steering play. The 4.5" lift cleared up any rubbing I can test with the tools/terrain at hand.

The Synergy Brace is about half installed. I swapped to it because it has that nice little bearing to protect the steering box. With the bigger tires, I figure why not, and its still compatible with the PSC I hope to add at somepoint this season. The 46 mm socket arrived yesterday, so now I can finish that up. I seriously thought I had a complete set of sockets with up to 36 mm represented... it never ends.

This weekend is the first trip of the season, so excited to get everything looked over and put the truck back on the trail again!

 

[Kindafearless]

Got to test everything out on the rocks this weekend. It was... AMAZING! We spent most of the weekend on blacks and reds at Rausch. The 40s + 4.5" lift are just big enough to avoid hitting the armor under the truck going through most obstacles. Break over angle was not a problem at all, and I climbed a few steep ledges to test it out. With the bed bob I only had a couple light taps under the rear bumper coming down off of shelves and big rocks, so mission accomplished.

Take Aways:
* If you smash a speed/ABS sensor line, you lose the ability to turn on e-lockers. I was still able to turn them on in a couple emergency situations through J-Scan, but they would not engage through the stock switches. Luckly, thats a $20 part and it was a freak accident that won't likely happen again. But FYI.
* Need to remove the front inner fenders
* I'm now firmly in limit strap territory. Ordered some from TMR to install this coming weekend.
* Definitely feeling the 4.10 gears climbing mountains, time to go to 5.38

Conclusion: I really like where the truck is right now. It's strong enough to avoid whacking things around, but still not so over built that things are too easy.

 

[kevman65]

How did the knuckles and ball joints do? Feel like it tightened things up a bit?

I can't decide if I want to go forged steel or cast iron knuckles and when I do I was leaning heavily towards the Synergy ball joints.

 

[Elff]

Sounds like your build has just passed quality control testing in the real world.
Congrats and well done.

Next time you are planning a trip to RC or AOAA, please let me know.
I'd love to join you.

 

[Kindafearless]

How did the knuckles and ball joints do? Feel like it tightened things up a bit?

I can't decide if I want to go forged steel or cast iron knuckles and when I do I was leaning heavily towards the Synergy ball joints.

Regarding knuckles: I did like that I was able to flip the draglink without using my flip adapter. I didn't notice the extra weight at all, and the orange gives me serious trail cred I guess... Other than that, can't rate the knuckles. The aluminum ones I removed were still in great shape somehow, so this was a precautionary replacement for me.

The ball joints I could feel. Steering is noticeably tighter. You still have to move your wheel around a bit as those huge tires follow changes in the road, but its less sloppy and loose.

 

[Kindafearless]

Sounds like your build has just passed quality control testing in the real world.
Congrats and well done.

Next time you are planning a trip to RC or AOAA, please let me know.
I'd love to join you.

Thanks, I was bummed I couldn't make it up the previous weekend with you all! I hope that went well and you had better weather. We ended the weekend winching up BFG due to all the rain :/ Not that I'm complaining, any weekend on the trail is a good one.

 

[Elff]

We had crazy weather
Started off sunny and not terribly cold
Then rained a little
then got cold and changed to snow
after lunch we had a litle bit of hail
then the last 2hrs were sunny and 50+ degrees.


But the day went well, just a little bit of scrapping but no one broke.

I think I had the biggest failure.
Driving home the Gladiator blew a fuse which broke the connection between my brake pedal and the 7 Pin harness for the trailer. For safety sake, I manually braked the trailer once I noticed this issue.

The month of April is insane for me, so it looks like the next time I will be Rock Crawling with be May 22nd at AOAA. i will drive up on Saturday to camp at the Campsite right there. This is with my Jeep Club, so if you find yourself in need of a trail fix, let me know. I'll be with the Black Trail group all day.

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