Arizona Rock Crawler

Tob said:
The bent belly skid really highlights the need for a rear stiffener as is on the Savvy version. It sucks that they’re not available for early model TJs. Are you able to salvage your existing skid or is it kaput?
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It’s not ideal but I’ll run it a while longer. My trans doesn’t mount to the welded on crossmember so I’m not worried about the cracked welds for now. I’m sure one day I’ll hit a rock and crunch that thing up. Hopefully I get to that project beforehand. I was hoping to wait to do that project until I had a better tcase than a 231 though…
 
Back to the pinion angle. Brian mentioned it too but just before that I called @mrblaine and he said “pinion angle” pretty fucking confidently so we hung up and sure as shit pinion was 3* low due to the bent skid. Raised it up to just about even with the driveshaft and it’s almost entirely gone.. There is only the smallest hint of shudder if you are looking for it while flooring it off a dead stop. I’ll drive around some this week and see if I notice anything more in daily driving and adjust as needed…
 
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Can’t remember if I documented this here or not but new tires meant checking alignment specs. The thrust on the front axle was off by 7/16”. I knew I’ve bent a lot of stuff since last I did thrust but damn! So passenger side got a 7/16” stretch 😂
 
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kmas0n said:
I learned that when I had my Gladiator on 37's that I would drag its ass all over the place, constantly hitting the rear skids, bumper and hitch on everything... but, it could climb like crazy... often the front wheels would have already have crested the obstacle before the rears had even started climbing. It was great. and terrible. There is probably a wheelbase sweet spot for Johnson valley. and other for the Rubicon, and another for ocotillo wells. There is probably even a double secret wheelbase for a rig that can do everything. So, I'm agreeing with you. Its all relative to what you do.
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Having extensively observed a Gladiator on 40s with the equivalent of a 6" lift.. even that isn't enough to overcome the 137" wheelbase IMO.

I agree that the ideal wheelbase is somewhat relative, but sometimes one has to accept that a boat is a boat, and there are better platforms available for crawling.
 
PNW_LJ said:
Having extensively observed a Gladiator on 40s with the equivalent of a 6" lift.. even that isn't enough to overcome the 137" wheelbase IMO.

I agree that the ideal wheelbase is somewhat relative, but sometimes one has to accept that a boat is a boat, and there are better platforms available for crawling.
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Which is why the belly height is often part of a wheelbase discussion. When and where these things matter, both need to increase together.
 
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jjvw said:
Which is why the belly height is often part of a wheelbase discussion. When and where these things matter, both need to increase together.
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Agree.

In the case of the JT, I don't think there is a tire size/belly height big enough to overcome the extraordinary wheelbase, while being small enough to be manageable onroad. At least not for my intended use.
 
PNW_LJ said:
Agree.

In the case of the JT, I don't think there is a tire size/belly height big enough to overcome the extraordinary wheelbase, while being small enough to be manageable onroad. At least not for my intended use.
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Following the JV formula of ~66" between tire faces, the JT is looking at roughly a 71" diameter tire. I estimate that to be whole lot of belly height after the tires are made to fit.
 
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jjvw said:
Following the JV formula of ~66" between tire faces, the JT is looking at roughly a 71" diameter tire. I estimate that to be whole lot of belly height after the tires are made to fit.
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Doesn’t the space between tires increase as tire size increases? I know many use 115-116” for 40s which would be 76” between tire faces
 
starkey480 said:
Doesn’t the space between tires increase as tire size increases? I know many use 115-116” for 40s which would be 76” between tire faces
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It's a floating number. But if you math out the various JV tire size to wheelbase recommendations, then 66" tends to be the minimum distance across the board.

Both of our goals is to get to about 101" on 35s. Mine has 60" between tire faces, which is consistent with my plan for a 6-7" rear stretch.
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jjvw said:
It's a floating number. But if you math out the various JV tire size to wheelbase recommendations, then 66" tends to be the minimum distance across the board.

Both of our goals is to get to about 101" on 35s. Mine has 60" between tire faces, which is consistent with my plan for a 6-7" rear stretch.
View attachment 525000
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I understand what you’re saying but what I’m saying is that 66” number doesn’t apply across all tire sizes. That would put 40s at a 106” wheelbase which is too short

Edit: I missed that you said “minimum ”
 
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Damnit. Shudder still there. I wasn’t hammering it hard enough in my neighborhood because I didn’t want to squeal the tires on our slick streets and piss off the neighbors. Now that I’m out on real streets I can feel it again.
 
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starkey480 said:
Damnit. Shudder still there. I wasn’t hammering it hard enough in my neighborhood because I didn’t want to squeal the tires on our slick streets and piss off the neighbors. Now that I’m out on real streets I can feel it again.
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U-Joints?
 
starkey480 said:
I’m now remembering what driveshaft related vibration and shudder feels like and it’s not that. It’s more harsh like driving over really bad washboard road
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My guess is the centering ball on the rear shaft. I used the exact word “shudder” to describe it. Only under load, disappeared with speed. I coudn’t pinpoint it so I put my phone on the road and started a slow mo video. As I drove over it was very clear that the sound was just after the TCase output, which is how I identified the problem location.
 
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JMT said:
My guess is the centering ball on the rear shaft. I used the exact word “shudder” to describe it. Only under load, disappeared with speed. I coudn’t pinpoint it so I put my phone on the road and started a slow mo video. As I drove over it was very clear that the sound was just after the TCase output, which is how I identified the problem location.
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The only thing is I replaced the centering ball a year ago and I pulled the shaft yesterday and it all seemed fine. Maybe to test I’ll pull my dads shaft and put it on my rig
 
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