Dual Purpose TJ Part III

From a TJ that's stocking to one that's rocking today on Xtreme 4x4. Part three of our ultimate Wrangler bills from bulletproof axles to all the goodies that make Jeeps cool. Plus a family that crawls together. Also spars together. You aren't relaying what you want.

Don't cuss they can't put it on the TV.

What's

up everybody? Welcome to Xtreme 4x4 and part three of our G TJ build a rig that we can drive every day to work and then on the weekends blasted down the dirt roads to the trails for some serious rock crawling.

And then after a good day for

throwing this thing on a trailer to get it home, we had to jump behind the wheel and drive it down the highway. Now, by the end of the show today, we'll have all these mock up parts out of here and the thing will be sitting on the shop floor as a true rolling chassis. And to think it just started as an insurance write off,

we found what we wanted in the 2003 TJ from Davy's Jeeps.

And although our donor Jeep was very complete, we stripped it down to basically a drive train, a frame and a body tub

and

I will base for a Jeep is about 100 inches and a stretch out. Our

Jeep, we used a complete package from J right off road, which includes a front three and four

link as well as longer rocker guards that go hand in hand with these heavy duty crusher corners. And then finally we installed king coil over shock on all four corners mounted to some mock up

Ales. So the first thing we're going to do today is install some upgraded axle assemblies underneath our Jeep.

Now you guys have seen us build a lot of axles here at extreme. I mean, every project usually has at least two

and we're always putting in larger spine count shafts to make them stronger. And I'm sure some of you guys are wondering why.

Well, when you slide an axle shaft into a gear, it may look like all these teeth have lots of area to bite onto when it starts to grip. But if you were to look at that with a microscope,

you would see that as the shaft turns, it's only contacting the gear in very small spots as it turns around in its rotation.

Now, those small spots add up when you have 35 splines on that axle. So therefore you have a lot of contact patch and therefore a stronger axle and the opposite is true in a low spine count axle. It's not a very big contact patch, therefore, not as strong. But what the axle is made out of also makes it stronger. A chrome

mole

axle shaft if you could be inside your axle housing, when your wheel is bound up, actually deflects or turns on its own axis up to 360 degrees before it even thinks about breaking.

So when your tires are in that bind, the axle has a little bit more give before it's gonna pop. Stock shaft can't turn that far. That's why I set a high spine count. Good chrome Molly axles will make any axle assembly a lot stronger.

When it comes to lockers for this project, we had a lot of choices but we opted for the air B air lockers, both front and rear and just like any other cool off road part,

you can't really appreciate it until you take a look inside.

Now, this cut away shows that when the air B air so

is activated,

the locking ring slides over the side gear alignment tab completely locking it in place.

Now, even if the two aren't fully aligned, the locker will still activate. And once the actual turns just in the slightest bit, the locking ring will move into its lock position. Now, once the air pressure is released, the differential works as it normally would and it will drive and turn just like an open carrier.

Now, we could have rebuilt this rear axle and made it pretty stout considering that it's a day in a 44. But we knew that this front assembly was destined for the scrap heap as soon as the Jeep rolled into the shop because our goal is to make our drive train bulletproof. So we called the guys at solid axle and they suggested we use their line of TJ complete replacement axle assemblies. Now, the front is a high pinion Dana 44 unit with alloy usa

chrome moley shafts, 30 spline A RB and 488 gears. Now, the housing itself is an upgrade from stock with three oil galleries for more lubrication, extra ribs for added strength and yet has more ground clearance than a stock in 44. Now, these machine surfaces on top of the housing not only make installing suspension parts and steering parts a lot easier, but they're safer because we don't have to weld

on the no

iron house,

but you don't have to build a custom suspension like we have to get all the benefits of an upgraded axle. So Ale

makes these killer data 44 units as direct bolton replacements for a G TJ

with all the brackets and the tabs break lines, even a rear dis break set up from will would with an integrated emergency break makes this

a upgrade a super easy installation.

We ordered our axles with bare tubes, no brackets since we have a custom suspension, both front and rear

and since this truck is less than five years old. A set of crate axles was the obvious choice.

They come with a full warranty. They are all new from flange to Flan.

This will give us peace of mind when driving this jeep on the interstate

and the trail

and with all the link mounts measured and tacked into place.

We're a few steps closer to wheels and tires.

Welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 and Ian's messy office. Well, you know, they say a clean office is a sign of a sick mind.

You know, professional rock crawling is a team sport where spotter and driver need to work together. Things can get pretty hectic and when your old man is your spotter, things can get very interesting.

21 of the top super mod drivers came to Spring Creek off road park for the We Rock National Championship.

One backup one cone

can set you back 1012 places to get into the sixth driver, one obstacle title shootout. These men had to endure a brutal qualifier stuff out here just breaks. That's part of the sport.

Kind of ask yourself, should you go for broke or should you play conservative and to get into that shootout after winning five stock mod titles, Cody Wagner made the jump to the premier class three seasons ago. We wanted to go against Tracy and Shannon and Jason Paley and see how good we really were competing in the highly competitive Western division,

California native finished the year third overall. We just wanted to step it up a class to see if we were good or if we were average and we found out we are pretty good and

we kind of have an idea where we're headed at the season's biggest pro rock crawling event. Cody Wagner was ready to join the Sports

Elites.

We're here to win

on his first obstacle of the two day competition.

Cody backed up his talk with a near perfect run. Oh,

it was great.

It was a good run.

Hell

on that

first one

since turning pro in 2001. His father, Jim has been out front spotting.

It's been an honor that he asked me to spot for him

and really exciting. He's who I trust 100% to guide me through really death defying obstacles. Ok. We're good here.

Come on. Yes. Come on, driver.

Driver

good.

Just missed it at 56. Jim may be the oldest spotter but on the rocks, he proves that age is just a number. He was in pretty good shape, but even got in better shape. He does his heavy hands and his walking and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my dad. It's worked out great. I work hard at it to stay in shape and do what he needs me to do. Yeah, you're good. This is quite a challenge for me and it makes me feel good ready for today. Ready

under the pressure of the pro series. Even the best relationships get tested,

we actually got some help. We had, I call him a shrink. Come in. It's really worked to where, you know, I understand what he's thinking and he understands what I'm thinking. You know, sometimes we still, I mean, like any relationship have issues but

it's been good. We have both strong personalities and

we've learned to

somewhat control them with Cody's wife and daughter, cheering them on. I hope that they ace it. Not any mistakes.

Then they're happier at the end of the day. They nailed a perfect score on day one's final course. It was great. It was a great end of the first day.

Coming into day two, a spot in the title shootout was within their grasp. We're in a good position. Third place, pretty much. We got to run four good courses. My advice today is stay consistent.

We'll get through it right from the start. The Waggoner struggle

threes

we

have

as the afternoon continued to unravel the frustration boiled over

way.

You aren't relaying what you want.

Don't cuss they can't put it on the TV.

I had my, tried my dad's line and it didn't really work. We weren't lined up the way we needed to. And then I tried my line not knowing how close I was to the cone. I hit the cone. So was that my mistake? It was

falling just outside of the top six, a good run on the final obstacle would keep their shootout hopes alive.

We're going to give it all we got and see how we come out. They were unable to salvage the day

ending. The event back in nine doesn't always go the way you want it to.

And that's part of the game. Just things weren't,

weren't going as smoothly as they could today

in the competition there. I mean, you got to be right on. If you're not right on, you'll be 1/9 while the nationals were filled with frustration and disappointment.

At the end of the day, blood is thicker than rock. We came out here as a family and we'll leap together as a family and,

you know, we'll talk about it on the 1600 mile drive home and,

and back to work.

Now, Cody admitted that this was possibly the worst weekend of competition they've ever had but with 19 wins in seven years, one bad weekend, not too shabby.

These are Ian's favorite boots. I only wear them to karaoke when I'm singing my favorite eighties hair band rock.

It's all good, man.

Hey, guys, welcome back to Xtreme 4x4 with our deep new axle mountain in place. We can go ahead and slip in a set of wheels and tires into the project.

But before we put any tires and wheels in this Jeep, we're gonna have to deal with the steering.

We had blue torch fab send us one of their Dana 44 high steer kits.

It comes with new billet, upper arms conical washers, as well as the misalignment spacers and the tubing adapters for Q A one rod ends. All we have to supply is some dom tubing.

The front end of a Jeep TJ can get a little crowded with everything from the track fire

drag link, steering links and soon we'll be putting in a hydro assist.

So once everything is in,

we'll pull the spring from the coil overs

bottom the suspension out and measure for the bump stock.

Ok.

This

is going to be a dual purpose project. We wanted to choose a tire that was going to do well, both on and off road

and the obvious decision was going to be the new BFGKM 240 by 14 5.

Now, the tread design is a cross between the popular crawler and the original much

with the dual grooving pattern and alternating tread block design

plus the super thick side wall is made with a three by construction, making it 33% stronger to

help increase puncture and cut resistance. Now, we're gonna mount those tires on a set of Allied racing 17 by nine aluminum bead locks. Now, this is a brand new wheel design from Allied and it's got some great features like a machine finish that's not gonna need to be polished. The outer bead lock lip is machined into the wheel itself, not a welded on ring. Now the recessed valve stem inside the wheel, as well as the extra thick mounting flange make this rim legal to run on core race trucks.

Yes, I'm actually going to attempt this again 10 times. The jar

like 382nd times the charm.

Thank you.

Now, getting a tire on a room is extremely difficult. That's why they make machines for it. But for me

just look at all of my prior attempts.

That's all you get.

Yeah,

lots more to go on our extreme Jeep TJ. So stay tuned. But right now it's time for an Xtreme 4x4 tech tip.

Now there's no question that a good set of dimple dyes like this one we have here from light racing can not only make a piece of flat steel look a lot better, but they can actually make it a lot stronger. The one downfall has always been that you need to have a press to squish the two dyes together.

And since not everyone has a 50 ton hydraulic press in their shop.

Here's one we made out of simple

rectangular tubing and a $50 bottle jack. I'll

place the jack between the two sections of our homemade press and use the pressure against the top and bottom sections

to put the dimple into the sheets. So

there you go, a pretty good looking speed hole in the plate

and all just for $25 worth of scrap steel and a little bottle jack. And the nice thing is this setup is portable.

We're back on extreme and our Jeep is finally sitting on all fours again.

Now, we can start taking care of a bunch of odds and ends that will make this Jeep more trail worthy and more comfortable

when you're building a truck like this. There's always going to be a long list of parts that you're going to really want.

And the great thing about Jeeps is there's companies like Quadra

Tech that have all the parts that you need in a one stop shop.

And considering that the Jeep is one of the only vehicles that you can actually mail order a complete new frame for. We knew that we could get everything we needed in one spot, everything from a new soft top to some suspension seats, a winch steering wheel off road lights, fair. Lead air b, air compressor, some tube doors, some hinges and some skid plates. I mean, the box that stuff came in was as big as a house. I'm gonna move into it at the end of the show.

First thing to go on is a Ramsey 9500 UT. So if we can't go over the rocks, we can pull ourselves over the rocks.

We definitely don't want the airbag to deploy while we're wheeling. So we're going to remove the stock wheel and replace it with a shiny new grant. One

can't go willing

at night without some r

so some rock lights in the back and

some

up front,

nothing says awesome. Like a high left jack mounted to the hood of your Jeep. So everyone at the mall knows your hardcore.

They stainless inches not only look better, but they're not going to rust clothes like the stock one

set of tube doors will not only look cool but to protect us when we're out on the trail.

Although personally, I'm a fan of topless wheeling.

Sometimes when it rains, you want a roof over your head. So a soft top will keep us dry.

Consider whenever you're in your vehicle, you're actually sitting in a seat.

So a good set of seats makes a lot of sense and a suspension seat makes even more sense for comfort.

Now, these Mastercraft by

our

seats have been all the rage since they first came out because they're actually a recliner seat, which is what the R stands for.

So not only is it easier to get in the back seat, but it also gives you driver comfort.

And for a rear seat, we decided to install a Mastercraft rear suspension bench.

Now, they can make these benches up to 60 inches wide. And for vehicles like the TJ have mounts included that will bolt right into the stock location

and the front seats mount directly to the stock seat brackets, making this installation

easy as pie. Now, considering that this TJ came in here, basically stock but a little banged up. Look at this thing. Now, what do you think, Jessi? I think it's looking pretty sick, I think. Not only does it look like a hardcore wheeler? Well, it's built like one too,

even though we could just toss in some drive shafts and hit the trails. This truck has one more trick up

sleeve with the drive train.

Bet you didn't know the truck had sleeves, did you? Well, it does and up those sleeves is a

hammy. Yeah.