Truss and rear shock cage! ZJ

[Cache96]

A 16" in the front?

Yea cutting through the stock location and making an engine cage for them.

 

[grandrunner]

u shoulda just ran a deaver coil with a bypass. you may be doin a lot more work than you need with the engine cage. for maybe the same amount of coin. im runin and 11inch stroke 2.0 with deavers and its plenty stiff now. jumped it a few places where i used to bottom and its fine. bumps are goin in next

are you still going to box the arms like your baja fab sketch? man my rear is in need of long travel. might have to go drop it off with your buddy. ask him if hes interested in building another set if i like yours.

 

[Cache96]

Nah i decided not to box the arms in.. about the rear I actually told him about making one for you and said he would be glad to do it. He already has all the designs from mine and he will be getting a plasma cutter in a few weeks so it will make cutting the brackets alot easier. He is thinking of making them to sell as weld on kit.

The only reason i want to do a engine cage is because eventually it will be tied into the cage and i still want coilovers up front so that would work great with the bypass and coilover.

 

[crazyjim]

Yea cutting through the stock location and making an engine cage for them.

You planning on using the entire 16"? Gonna keep 4wd?

 

[GrimmJeeper]

concerned at all with that heim resting on the bracket at full droop like the pic shows?

 

[Skullver]

Nice! Are you going to have a "cross member" to tie the two sides together? Not much weld area on those brackets to that thin unibody either, I would be a little concerned about those portions but looks like a great start.

 

[Cache96]

concerned at all with that heim resting on the bracket at full droop like the pic shows?

Very true, i will be at his house tomorrow and will let him know.. thank you!

You planning on using the entire 16"? Gonna keep 4wd?

planning on 6-8 up travel(more or less), yes, keeping the 4wd the front driveshaft is custom made. The long arms pushed the axle forward.

Nice! Are you going to have a "cross member" to tie the two sides together? Not much weld area on those brackets to that thin unibody either, I would be a little concerned about those portions but looks like a great start.

I was thinking about a mini crossmember to tie them together, just need to figure out the exhaust that is why it is cut off. (claytons uses this setup and it seems to work fine without a crossmember) but hey it wouldnt hurt.

 

[dirtbagXJ2103]

you figure you lose an inch for coil hardware an inch of strap and 3/4 to an inch with bump now your down to 13" stroke, better than starting with a 14"

 

[Supermanxj]

I run the same shocks, they work great

nice build. I gotta warn you thought, I think my shock hoop played an integral part in the current state of my XJ. I would get your cage built and tie into that hoop or do something to stiffen up the back end before you really start using the travel that those shocks are going to allow you to have.

I'm not sure if the grands are the same, but on my XJ the rear hoop I built is tied into the tops of the "frame" rails, and from the looks of the floor in the back now, it seems that the hoop pulling up on the rails has really done a number on that area. the entire rear floor is buckled and even shows some creases in some places, and the top of the body in the back is pulling spot welds out and coming away from the unibody. If I were to do it again with no cage I'd do something to brace the frame rails together from underneath, maybe run a couple re-enforcement bars across from rail to rail under the floor.

Do you think that something like this except extended more into the framerail and tied into the shock hoops would help prevent something like this happening???

http://naxja.org/forum/showpost.php?p=244373966&postcount=1

Also.. Grimm. did you have any rear frame stiffening???

I started with the mounting system first. I wanted to have the beefiest, most overkill mounts possible. Little bit of measure confirmed the fact that a 4"x2" rect tube would fit inside the framerail. This meant trimming the rear crossmember, trimming the shackle bolts, and removing that one spot on each side where the factory nutstrips jump up and over.

Once the 4"x2" fit inside, it was time to drill out the mounting holes and make a new nutstrip outta a 1 1/4" wide peice of 1/4" that would fit inside the rec tubing. all mounting hardware is 1/2" Grade 8 bolts and nuts.

 

[Cache96]

Heres a pic of the rear arms.... they look a little low but i still havent seen them in person... right now all the arms are being powdercoated and everything should be installed by the weekend.. all there is left to do now is the unibody stiffeners.

 

[Cache96]

Finished!!!! I will have more pics tomorrow once i pick it up.

 

[grandrunner]

awesome!

 

[grandrunner]

so where are the updated pics. test run them yet?

 

[Cache96]

nah not yet... havent had time for nothing... plus im waiting on my front shocks to get here so we can make the front shock hoops to mount the bypasses. probably wont be done until mid sep.

 

[grandrunner]

well at least it will be ready for glamis haha pm me the info on the rear long arm setup. i need to save to get mine done.

 

[Cache96]

well at least it will be ready for glamis haha pm me the info on the rear long arm setup. i need to save to get mine done.

yea i know... 550 for all the parts, arms,4 link bracket and unibody stiffeners (clayton style). all you would need are the joints and bushings.

 

[Cache96]

got my front shocks in from sonny @ www.downsouthmotorsports.com man they are pretty..hahaha, I will be making the upper and lower shock mounts and the front frame stiffeners. Then i can finally test it.

 

[Ryan93]

sexy time! 16s?

 

[grandrunner]

oooo i want bypasses.. drool

 

[Cache96]

12's... they just look a little longer than they are ..lol