Ideal wheel base?

Anyone have thoughts on this? I'm starting to plan out my suspension on the MJ and I'm trying to decide on wheelbase. I'll be running a minimum of 39" tires. I'm thinking in the range of 105-107".

I'm sitting at 106.5 with my xj, at first it was strange and took a while to get used to, but I'm ok with it now. if I were to do it over again, I think 103 would be the magic number.

I agree with brent....

my cj-6 had a wheelbase at around 106" (rear axle back 1" from 105") and I felt it was just a wee bit too long......

101-103" seems to be a nice target.

Will you be scooting the rear axle forward? Chopping the frame? How did you plan on removing the inches?
Jeep on!
--Pete

Most custom rock buggies are being built with a 100-103 inch wheelbase. That's humerous to me, because when we first started to show up at hard rock trails, we were told by the SWB crowd that we would have trouble with our long (101") wheelbase. Now, all those CJ and YJ guys are extending their wheelbases to 98-101".

There is no ideal, it depends on what terrain you'll be wheeling in and what tire size. The guys who are running BIG everything, and 44's, are going 120-125". The longer the wheelbase, the better it will climb......so what are you going after in the build up?

Before I rolled my XJ, and ended up chopping the back off, I was going to build an MJ. My target wheelbase was 108-110", and with a good chance of sticking with the stock 113" wheelbase of the short bed MJ.

Have fun,

The Rovers come in 90" and 110" and they find one to short and the other too long. They now often run the Range Rover cahssis under them as find it perfect at 100" which supports most comments here!

So around 103" seems to be the consensus. Here's another wheelbase related question. Right now I have a 305/400. I'm thinking of hanging a 241 off the 400 and a divorced 205 behind that. Will a 103" wheelbase handle all that?

Basically I want a built trail runner. It'll be a trailer queen for sure. Be running places like Paragon and Attica etc. I'll be using the MJ as a guinea pig of sorts. I know what I didn't like about my XJ, so I'm changing those things and experimenting on a few new things.

But *how* did you plan on shortening the Comanche? Inquiring minds want to know! Will you be hacking/shortening the frame? Moving the leafs? Do you have a longbed? If you've got a shortbed, it seems like a LOT of work to lose a measly 10 inches. How much lift are you going for? I mean, there are a lot of tall Jeeps out there that would kill for the extra driveshaft inches that the Comanche wheelbase affords. I don't mean to be the wet blanket, but man I get tired just *thinking* about all the work involved! Is it really necessary? Does 10 inches really improve your break-over angle all that much when you're running 39" rubber? What will you be doing with the bed? shortening it? Custom flat bed? The questions are piling up!
Jeep on!
--Pete

The bed is coming off. I'm going to be running 53" chevy rears with a johnny joint shackle hanger (ala toyotas). After I have that all in whatever is hanging behind the shackle hanger is getting torched. I'm really not concerned with a certain lift number. It's not going to be any taller than it needs to be.

As far as a bed, I like this one.

Ahhh, you're stripping it down bare and starting fresh. That makes more sense for fitting the 39s. So then you'll just be welding on leaf mounting points wherever they end up, eh?
I've never seen that particular bed before. I like it! Simple and effective with what looks like a functional platform up top for camping gear. (although a couple down bars for that roll-bar might be better) I'm sticking with my original bed for now (mainly because I don't have my own bender or worthwhile welder yet), but if it dies a horrible trail-death, I might have found a couple ideas to steal for a new bed. Careful about welding to the "frame". It's only sheetmetal after all.
What suspension were you contemplating for the front? Leaf? Longarm?
Jeep on!
--Pete

tpi,

thats a pretty neat rig you have there....

Timmy Flowers is gonna start doin' an MJ, i know he'd be interested in seeing some pics of that thang.