Finally done (for the most part)

[mrblaine]

Delivered it to JV yesterday morning and spent the day with Jon swapping tires, getting ready, waiting on Thor, and running Sledge.

Works very well. Needs a tiny bit of fine tuning on the shocks, but it has no bad habits.

After Sledge, Jon decided to go mess around on the entrance to Back Door. After he made through it with zero issues, he tackled the first two falls and scampered up them as easy as any rig I've ever watched. I was quite impressed.

Huge thanks to Erik, Chris and Tammy for the assistance and day on the trail. btw- in case anyone is interested, Erik's rig is one of the nicest working rigs I have been around. He drove the top of Sledge unassisted and made it look like a walk in the park. Nice Job!

[Jerry Bransford]

I'm groaning in ecstacy Blaine, I'm glad I was able to see it in progress. If I ever win the lottery, you'll have Carte Blanche on my TJ.

[tomb raider 940]

that is badass.

Nice rig


any action shots??

[JeepGal]

A very impressive build! Even more impressive in person

Kudos to anyone that had anything to do with this build-up...Blaine put an extraordinary amount of thought and effort in its design. I asked if there was ANYTHING he'd do different, and he replied "NOT A THING". Im glad that Chris had the opportunity to help Blaine with it. Good work guys!

We did learn a lesson on Saturday morning. Dont forget to use Anti-seize on your bead lock bolts! What we thought was going to be a quick tire change, took hours, but we persevered and got the job done We also perfected the two vehicle use of removing a tire from the wheel

Im happy to hear that the Jeep performed flawlessly, as expected, if not better. Its one thing to design and build it, what a joy it must have been to drive it as it was intended! Congrats Blaine!

All in all, Im sure Jon is ecstatic with it!

Now... off to plan some changes on my Jeep!

Tam

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by JeepGal

Its one thing to design and build it, what a joy it must have been to drive it as it was intended!

No driving here unless you count getting it off the trailer. Jon did all the rest.

[Kiwi]

Originally Posted by mrblaine

It flexes really nice on that curb

[Joe Dillard]

Wow, very nicely done.

Nice to hear how good Eriks rig is performing as well. Congrats on that too!

[NAILER341]

that surely is a nice rig. it looked like it was grabbing onto the rocks and doing everything it was supposed to do from behind. the flex was phenomenal, and there were no times that it appeared uneasy in off camber situations. it grabbed onto everything even on some of those bazaar lines it was being tested on.

the workmanship is clear in every aspect of the build. there was such attention paid to detail that it was hard to take it all in. i'm sure Jon is pleased.

as far as my rig working well.... it sure does. i wonder why?
it was fun riding out there with just the 2 rigs. everything did what it was supposed to do, and there was no rush to get through the trail.

i did manage to break a hub, but i guess i was just trying to be too cool and keep up with the perty blue jeep
an easy fix, and on down the trail we went.

this little day run has got me itching. lets get some more seat time in SOON.
Tam, get your junk together to play in the rocks.

GREAT work on the jeep guys. you make a nice team.

[Provelogear]

Originally Posted by Kiwi

It flexes really nice on that curb

You know asians can't drive! That's me!

Alot of cool one off stuff in this Jeep. Now if I can just get my done!

How did it do in the whoops. I know it glided over the speed bumps and wash by Blaine's house!

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by Provelogear

You know asians can't drive! That's me!

Asians can drive just fine, but only if they are over 6' tall.

Alot of cool one off stuff in this Jeep. Now if I can just get my done!

How did it do in the whoops. I know it glided over the speed bumps and wash by Blaine's house!

Needs some work on the spring rates and ride heights, but we knew that already. The valving seems fine.

[steelman]

Blaine,

Nice work! I haven't been to your place in a while...by looking at that rig, I can see you've been busy! Very nice.

[Lawrence]

Very nice work Blaine & Co. Although it looks really nice, what makes it even better is all the quality of work and clever ideas that you can't see in this pic. If anyone has the chance, get under it and check it out, quite impressive.

[Jerry Bransford]

That Blaine designed the winch so it can attach to the front axle so it can suck the front-end down was also very cool. Like was said above, a lot of work and thought went into that rig's design. My son saw it in progress in Blaine's garage and on the drive home he said "Blaine's kind of a mechanical design genius, isn't he". Yes indeed.

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

That Blaine designed the winch so it can attach to the front axle so it can suck the front-end down was also very cool. Like was said above, a lot of work and thought went into that rig's design. My son saw it in progress in Blaine's garage and on the drive home he said "Blaine's kind of a mechanical design genius, isn't he". Yes indeed.

I can't take credit for the winch idea. Jon told me he'd seen someone else do it, so I just made it work on the one he had.

[JeepGal]

Originally Posted by mrblaine

No driving here unless you count getting it off the trailer. Jon did all the rest.

Regardless who was behind the wheel, Im sure it was still a joy to see it perform as designed.

[TObject]

Looks great ? lean and mean, like a good mixed martial arts fighter.

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by JeepGal

Regardless who was behind the wheel, Im sure it was still a joy to see it perform as designed.

It was most pleasant to watch it work. I'm very well impressed with how much traction it makes and how well it climbs.

So much so that I'm reconsidering changing the springs. I really don't want to mess up how well it works on the trail.

[Larry Nickell]

That looks well done.

What's next? Short vacation?

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by Larry Nickell

That looks well done.

What's next? Short vacation?

If by short you mean that I still need to get my rear axle that's laying on the cart in the garage under my rig, then yes, a short vacation.

[Larry Nickell]

Originally Posted by mrblaine

If by short you mean that I still need to get my rear axle that's laying on the cart in the garage under my rig, then yes, a short vacation.

Why did it fall out?

Do you want David to come over with his new jack and help out?

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by Larry Nickell

Why did it fall out?

Do you want David to come over with his new jack and help out?

It fell out because I have abused an aluminum center section on 39's for three years and loosened up the pre-load on the carrier bearings due to housing flex.

That let enough misalignment take place that it rolled the outer o-ring off the shift manifold for the ARB and cut a 1" long section out of it on the edge of the o-ring groove.

Not being a simple fix, it was easier to pull the axle and drop it off at Currie who then put a new manifold in, new bearings, and set it up with a lot more pre-load than before. I also changed the diff cover attachments to tie the heavy cast cover in better. All the holes were countersunk with flat head allen bolts, but you can't get them very tight because of how small the driver is.

So, I took an allen bolt down to the machine shop and had tapered cone washers made that fit a normal hex head grade 8 cap screw. That will let me get some torque on them to tie the cover in better and slow down the housing flex. I figure if I get another 3 years out of it after what I've been doing to it, I'll be very happy.

John did offer to swap it out for an Iron version and I politely declined.

I don't think David will help me after the wild goose chase I sent him on with regard to lining up his serpentine belt. I really messed that one up and he probably figures I owe him at least a couple of hours of time somewhere. Stupid mistake on my part.

[Materdaddy]

Nice work Blaine/Chris/whoever else!

[mrblaine]

link to some more pics

http://www.justaddrocks.com/jonsjeep.htm

[speaceman]

Very cool blaine.

[Joel77]

Blaine what WMS width do the axles have? And what is the Backspacing with those wheels?

Very clean work

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by Joel77

Blaine what WMS width do the axles have? And what is the Backspacing with those wheels?

Very clean work

Not sure on the front, but outside of tire to outside of tire is 83" with 3 3/4" BS.

The back is 63 1/2" WMS to WMS.

[Rockjeep]

Once again nice work there. Question on your rear axle. After the problems you had, would you do the alum center again or go with steel. I'm looking at buildind a rear for the cj5 and I'm stuck between a spider 9 housing and a the currie 60.
Kory

[mrblaine]

Originally Posted by Rockjeep

Once again nice work there. Question on your rear axle. After the problems you had, would you do the alum center again or go with steel. I'm looking at buildind a rear for the cj5 and I'm stuck between a spider 9 housing and a the currie 60.
Kory

Did you miss the part where John offered to convert it to an Iron one for me at no charge? Nope, I wouldn't trade it. I've wheeled the snot out of it and for 3 years it's been flawless and John's not sure that the o-ring groove wasn't damaged when they installed it.

However, I would not recommend one if you plan on building another trail pig. You like to carry a mobile truck stop and for that, you might consider something a bit heftier, Dana 80 maybe.

[Rockjeep]

This will be a lite one. There is little room in the 5 and when I recess the tank up 5 inches there will be less. I was looking at the spider with a true hi 9. This will become my buggie and take some of the hardcore abuse off the scrambler. The poor little jeep is just wasting away in the garage.

[ABQ TJ]

Good looking rig!