Accidentally building an LJ

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Believe that old tube buggy is still around! I built that thing pushing 20 years ago! I’m amazed every time I see it pop up
 
Cleaned off the CNC router and made an overlander drawer for the back. Mostly so I could have a way to secure some stuff by locking the tailgate. I guess I forgot to take an actual finished pic but it’s got 20” locking slides on it now. It’s bolted to the floor and pretty much uses all the space between the seat and tailgate.

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I added some coil spacers in the rear to gain a little more uptravel for the 24hrs of Appalachia rally. And while I was already there, took a sawzall to the rear upper shock mounts and re-made them so the shocks no longer bottom out before the bumps do. So it’s sitting roughly an inch higher than normal but has 2” more uptravel than it did before. They’re welded on the frame rails and painted but I guess I didn’t take a finished pic. I also dropped the pressure in the air bumps so it’s not as harsh of a transition into them. Next up is adding a couple extra gallons of fuel and rerouting the exhaust around the corner of the tank.

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Rnuovrcj5 said:
I added some coil spacers in the rear to gain a little more uptravel for the 24hrs of Appalachia rally. And while I was already there, took a sawzall to the rear upper shock mounts and re-made them so the shocks no longer bottom out before the bumps do. So it’s sitting roughly an inch higher than normal but has 2” more uptravel than it did before. They’re welded on the frame rails and painted but I guess I didn’t take a finished pic. I also dropped the pressure in the air bumps so it’s not as harsh of a transition into them. Next up is adding a couple extra gallons of fuel and rerouting the exhaust around the corner of the tank.

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Glad you bought that because I really didn’t need to spend the $.
 
Threw a little zig zag in the tailpipe to snake it around the Genright tank. Tank install kicked my butt. Mocked it in place, marked the front mount holes, dropped it, drilled and sleeved the frame, drove to the feed store to get shorter bolts, fought the fuel pump gasket for a WHILE, finally got it in, installed the tank, fought with the fill hoses for a bit, dumped 6 gallons of gas in, then discovered the strainer/filter for the pump in the bottom of the factory tank 😢. Dropped the tank back out and broke the tee fitting on the vent hoses. Luckily the Napa right down the road had a brass one so hopefully I won’t break that one. Got it all reinstalled and then rerouted the exhaust. That actually went pretty easily and I think it only added 2-3” of length into the pipe. Drove it to the gas station and got it to 22 gallons before it wouldn’t take any more.

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Mounted up my temporary lightbar in prep for the 24 Hours of Appalachia rally. Seems like it’ll do what I want for now.

After learning a bit more about how the rally goes, I’m going to mount this 24 gallon boat fuel tank and pump in place of the rear seat for the event. Then run a fuel line into a fitting in the fill neck to be able to transfer fuel to the main tank on the move. That along with a gas jug or two should make it to where I should have enough fuel to run the whole event without stopping to fill up. Or at most I shouldn’t need to more than once. The tank will go in sometime later this week after I pull the seat and get everything fully ready.

As part of getting everything ready to roll for 24HOA, I loaded it up yesterday and ran it up to Mayberry to have some guy named Matt Cutler work his magic on some front inner fenders. It should be ready in a couple days and I’m looking forward to seeing what he comes up with 😎.

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Got it back from Matt last Monday and I’m super happy with what he came up with. After picking it up, it was full on thrash mode for the next 3 days to get everything ready for the 24 Hours of Appalachia rally. As soon as I got it home and off the trailer, I yanked the back seat and started figuring out how to stuff everything in the back. 24 gallon gas tank that came out of a boat I used to have got strapped to the floor and the Rtic 20 on top of it where it could be reached from the passenger seat. Chain saw fit pretty nicely on the rear driver fender well and the Tauler jack went on the passenger side. Pack out boxes on top of my drawer with tools, air compressor, and a first aid kit. We ended up with a pack out cooler in the back too full of water and pepperoni rolls that we heated up on the intake during the rally. Because I assumed it was going to be muddy, I got the windshield washer stuff working with some universal nozzles and a 4 quart tank/pump combo for a Freightliner. I also had a 2 gallon garden sprayer strapped behind the passenger seat in case we needed more.

Loaded it up and rolled out Friday morning to Hinton, WV. After my buddy got there all the way from Michigan, we got registered, tech inspected, and stickered up. Then it was a hangout until the drivers meeting. Saturday morning we crossed the start line around 730 and proceeded to rally our way around rural West Virginia. 19 hours and 33 minutes later we rolled across the finish line to take 7th place in our class. 504 miles, 26.1 mph average speed, and 19 minutes of stopped time. It was super fun and we’re qualified, invited, and signed up for the October final in Kentucky. The jeep did great through the whole thing with the only thing we opened in the back being the coolers and we only popped the hood to throw the pepperoni rolls on the intake or get them off to eat them. We made one fuel stop after lap 1 with the intent on not having to use the 6 gallons in the gas can but ended up dumping it in with about 20-25 miles left in the last lap just in case. The fuel light had been on for a while at that point. Running the big 24 gallon boat tank worked out great but it definitely rode and handled WAY better once we transferred it to the main tank. It did leak some fuel out through the cap before the race while parked on a slope so we decided to run without the rear window which may have been a mistake. There’s LOTS of WV dust on everything inside now. I’ve only given it a quick look over for damage so far but I’ve only found a 2 loose bolts on the fenders, one loose lower link jam nut, and both rear upper coil spring retainers are missing. I’ll wash it and give it a more thorough inspection this week. I’m super pleased with both the Jeep and how we placed.


AI tag on the last pic is from my buddy editing pop up tents and trash cans out of the background.
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I’m ramping this thing back into rally mode for the 24HOA final event in Booneville, KY in a couple weeks. Mostly little stuff that we thought would have been nice to have during the last one.

I’m replacing the boat tank with the leaky cap with a 22 gallon fuel cell to use as a transfer tank since gas fumes and running without the back window because of them wasn’t something I want to do again.

Not so much as a safety thing, but my buddy and I both felt that 5-point harnesses would have been nice to lock us in the seats better so we wouldn’t get tossed around as bad. I made a removable harness bar and while the seats were out, I tightened up the webbing in the more worn one and finally installed the seat heater elements that I’ve had for like 2 years. Maybe I’ll actually wire them before the event 😂🤣.

Both of my soft tops are currently getting rear window zippers replaced so I should be able to run the rougher “trail” top and not scuff up the windows on my nicer one.

Yesterday I knocked out most of a mount for some more lighting. It’s getting 8 Amazon special lights across the top edge of the windshield in an effort to throw a little more out in front of us and maybe run a little quicker. 4 of these in white and 4 in amber. I’m still thinking if I should wire them all together or amber/white. EKXAP 5 Inch 50W LED Driving Light, 5000LM Offroad Light IP67 Waterproof Round Work Light Spot Flood Combo for Wrangler, ATV, SUV, UTV, Trucks, Pickup, 4x4, F150 - Pack of 1 https://a.co/d/7ss6Zvj

Probably the biggest impact thing I’ve done so far is revalving the rear shocks. It’s always felt like the rear bottomed pretty easy and like the axle wouldn’t drop out and keep the rear tires down through holes/drops. So you’d either get tossed around when the whole jeep would drop to one side in a hole or it would be off the ground and then blow through the shocks when the rear landed again. I 3D printed a couple sets of soft jaws for the shock bodies and shafts and tore them down. They had Fox’s off the shelf 30/90 valving in them and now they’re set up with 75/30 and fresh oil. I decided not to swap any seals for now since everything looked good and there weren’t any leaks. There’s a huge difference in how it rides now and it should make the rough roads/trails way nicer.

Along with the shock revalve, I’ve got a set of 3” BDS rear springs on the way. Single spring rate instead of the progressive RockJock springs in it right now. They’re roughly the same extended length but shouldn’t sag as much with the transfer tank and tools/spares loaded up. We were riding either on or really close to the air bumps until we used up the extra fuel at the last one.

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And someday I’ll maybe own a house with a creek that I haven’t been stuck in, but it won’t be this house 😂🤣. Second pic is pretty much looking straight down at the creek. The rears dug a hole when I bellied the skid plate out on top of the bank and the rear bumper was in the bottom of the creek.

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I’ll take some time and do a real update on this thing in the next few days but the highlights are a 6th place finish in the Kentucky Invitational 24 Hours of Appalachia with only 10 finishers out of 48 starting, the ORIs got rebuilt/repaired after KY, it’s been getting driven a good bit after getting them back, and I finally took it to Uwharrie yesterday and ran all the “D” trails along with a couple others in less than 3 hours 😂🤣.

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