Building a Mojave on 40's

[Mojave40]

I found some online build plans to build door storage racks from PVC. This DIY rack took me about 1-2 hours to build and cost around $100 in parts. The rack holds my tube doors curently but will soon be ready to hold the full jeep doors with the nice weather we're having in Southern California.

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[yoda13]

Your truck is coming along quite nicely!

 

[SSinGA]

So its been a little bit between posts and upgrades but during that time I've been on a few Off-Road trips up in Big Bear. The Jeep continues to preform very well completing a lot of the extreme trails up there (Dishpan / Holcomb / John Bull).

The biggest component taking a beating on the Jeep was the rear plastic bumper. Originally I had ordered an Addictive Desert Designs pro bolt-on bumper but they decided to discontinue making that design so I was back to the drawing board. After a ton of research I ended up ordering the Artec rear bumper. I'm very happy with this decision as it has very good body lines, beautiful welds, and was about $300 cheaper than the ADD brand.

I spray painted it with the same Textured Rustoleum as the front bumper to make it easy to touch up when I drag it over rocks. This bumper utilizes the factory tow hooks which I thought was kind of cool since I have 2 orange Mojave hooks. It also comes with a step plate I decided to plate blue to break up the black. 2 LED license plate lights finish the bumper. Here are some shots from different angles.

Are you planning any kind of skid for the portion of bed left unprotected? Like to look of that Artec bumper but I'm leaning toward the Motobilt or NVM due to the built in bed protection.

 

[Mojave40]

Are you planning any kind of skid for the portion of bed left unprotected? Like to look of that Artec bumper but I'm leaning toward the Motobilt or NVM due to the built in bed protection.

I personally don't like the extra bulk a skid plate or bumper extension or even a full bumper wrap around looks. Its too much in my opinion (kind of like a full width front bumper vs mid-width vs stubby).

I also know of a few cases where the factory Rubicon skids in that section get pushed up into the body and still cause damage. I'm going to do one of two things. Either take my chances of not hitting my bed in those areas and if I do then cut my body (highline it) or highline cut the body before a do any damage.

I like the look off cutting the body right at the seam where the plastic trim piece is. I don't have my exhaust back there anymore so you won't see that. By cutting the body up say 4 inches the bed frame becomes the lowest point which is perfect. I'll attch a picture of what I mean.

 

[Invictus Off Road]

I am doing truss aga

I've had a front and rear Artec truss sitting in the garage for a while. Finally had a little time to get the rear installed the other day with the help of a friend with a welder. Nice to have that added strength to the Dana 44.

The other quick upgrade done that day some to add some MetalCloak rear swaybar reinforcement brackets. I didn't even know these were a thing until I had 2 friends with Gladiators rip off or bend their swaybar brackets up in Big Bear. Apparently this is a weak leak and MetalCloak designed a fix. I believe the 2 brackets cost arounf $79 and took about 30 minutes to install.

I am doing Truss and re gear this week! I also didnt know about that bracket I ripped them off twice in my last gladiator but it was Body side not axle side.

 

[Mojave40]

I'm feeling good about my Axle situation at the moment. I always felt confident with the strength of these latest generation Dana 44's on my Mojave but now I have more confidence having added front and rear Artec trusses and some very HD Teraflex diff covers. I head out to the Rubicon Trail in less than a month so we'll see how the Mojave does. I did sell my Quadratec sliders and ordered some VKS frame mounted sliders that I will have welded on. Pictures to come on the sliders.

 

[Elff]

very nice

 

[duvinclunk]

I may be ignorant here, but what does a new diff cover do for strength? Never really researched that.

 

[yoda13]

I may be ignorant here, but what does a new diff cover do for strength? Never really researched that.

I know it adds impact and peel back protection…

 

[Mojave40]

I may be ignorant here, but what does a new diff cover do for strength? Never really researched that.

The Diff Cover is much thicker and stonger than the factory stamped steel cover. Since the differential is a low point on the Jeep when Off-Roading it takes lots of hits from rocks. It can take a lot of abuse plus the mounting lip is much thicker so it won't peel back if caught on a rock. Lastly, the added strength and thickness stiffens the axle housing which helps reduce deflection which makes the gears happy.

On the Teraflex Diff Covers they also have recessed bolts that dont get smashed with rocks plus a large fill / inspection port at the top which most don't offer. At $171 dollars each on sale it was cheap insurance.

Most of the axle strength I added was the front and rear trusses. The combination of trusses with the HD Diff Covers is just a smart pairing. From here if I need more strength it will probably be Dana 60 axles.

 

[zuki_dan]

Nice build!

How donyou like the front Antirock? Is it the bigger .850" bar?

I have the rear Antirock installed on mine and I love it. It removed a lot of bind from the stock sway bar in the rear suspension and now needs some shock tuning. No chance of ripping out the frame rail mounts either.

I am currently on 5.13's front RCV's in stock axles and 37 Patagonias and have 40's on backorder.

 

[Mojave40]

Nice build!

How donyou like the front Antirock? Is it the bigger .850" bar?

I have the rear Antirock installed on mine and I love it. It removed a lot of bind from the stock sway bar in the rear suspension and now needs some shock tuning. No chance of ripping out the frame rail mounts either.

I am currently on 5.13's front RCV's in stock axles and 37 Patagonias and have 40's on backorder.

I went with the standard .77" bar and I'm very happy with the performance. I get good articulation out of this setup with some sacrafice on-road (increased body roll). Because I have the adjustable Fox Shocks I just dialed in the shocks to get the ride quality I was after. In an ideal world I would go with rear Antirocks as well but the price of them is double what the fronts cost me.

 

[Mojave40]

I made a few additions recently in preperation for my upcoming Rubicon trip at the end of the month. I added a front bed molle rack from JCR. I built a CO2 system to fill my tires. I finally got around to adding fender chop brackets from Rugged Ridge without lights. Finally, I welded on some VKS frame mount rock sliders.

 

[Mojave40]

Here are some pics of the JCR front bedrack molle system.

 

[Mojave40]

Here are some pictures of my Rugged Ridge fender chop brackets without DRL lights. I was able to retain the factory plastic inner fender liner.

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