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Flying?

JOeJOe

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Monterey, CA
So i live near Pismo Beach here in California now and i was wondering how well our xj's handle some slight jumps... i have trimmed fenders running 31x10.5's on 8" wide steelies and GC front springs with Skyjacker Nitro shocks up front and a bastard leaf pack in the rear with the stock shocks. Any comments?
 
truss your axles or you will bend them.
 
I read on here, I think, about a guy that did a pretty good jump fully loaded XJ. Actually I think he did it twice. It was so bad (he drove it home) that his insurance company totaled it.

I would "jump" and XJ only if I had to. Like being chased by a T-Rex in Jurassic Park.

Seems like the major part of the damage was the wheels were tilted in at the top, so the truss might make a big difference.
 
Real life ain't the Dukes of Hazzard. A little air is harmless fun, big air[more than once] requires massively overbuilt rigs, especially with our unibodys. Even full frame rigs will taco. Taco is the perfect word to describe what happens when you land, for sure.
 
Several years ago, down at the Badlands park in Indiana, a Jeep took 6 or 8 feet of air (don't remember XJ, or ZJ, but it did have a front D30.) It came down and SMILED. Cracked the front differential housing. It got a replacement front axle mounted before it left the park, a few days later.

So, truss your axles (or go BIG and still truss your axles,) and reinforce what little frame you have.
 
as bad as an idea it is in any rig, its a horrible idea in a cherokee...UNLESS youve completely dedicated your build for it, which nobody outside of jeepspeed stuff has done.

unless its on 2 wheels IMO it belongs on the ground. doing a little wheelie coming up a hill climb and stuff is ok. but any idiot can take SUV point it at a hill and hit the gas as long as theyve got the money to fix stuff afterwards.

if youve got about 5-6 inches of lift, and smallish tires, cage, braced unibody, etc you can get away with it a few times. but id never do it. i break enough stuff on the ground
 
I have heavily trussed and gusseted axles, with acos+aluminum bumpstops.

I jumped my rig about 6 feet last year (you could see it over the hood of a YJ), destroyed both shocks+mounts (bilstien 7100's) and bent both inner C's, my trackbar and a lower control arm.

Its better to just not do it.
 
I was at the Vermont Nationals a couple years ago. An XJ entered the Tuff Truck competitoin. The first jump was good. On the second one he landed on his nose and endoded onto his roof (which pretty much collapsed). I guess he survived but the Jeep certainly didn't. I just don't think it's a good idea.
 
Also, you don't need to fly at Pismo. Plenty of fun can be had running normally there; flying is pretty dangerous considering how crowded it gets there.
 
You should never jump your XJ :D

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