Trail Grenade build

[murdered out manche]

ok so ive owned this thing for like 5 years, it used to be the plow truck but it hadnt been used in 3 years. so last spring i decided to dig it out of the weeds, put some bald 31s on it and use it for trail cutting at my house. ive beat on it for the past year and the renix 4.0 and pukegoat 5spd are still holding up fine.. well a month ago i broke both front shafts at the same time..




so with rausch creek opening 1200 acres and my love for trail cutting i decided to make it a little bit more rock reliable. so i pulled an 8.8 with 4.10s at the jy and at the same time i pulled the gears out of a 4cyl comanche. i installed the gears in a hp non disco 30 i already had with 297 shafts.
then i started bulding the 8.8.. i tig welded the spider gears up first and then
i bent up some tube for a diff guard and welded it to the stock cover after i plated the lower lip


then i built a removable pinion guard for it


and fabbed my own u bolt eliminator spring perches that use 5/8" bolts and have integrated bump stop pads


so once my 8.8 was ready to go in i decided that i didnt want to put it back in sua because of the crazy loss of clearance.. but my leaf springs were in awesome condition and would have given me like 8" of lift if i put them spring over.. i decided to inboard my leaf springs to the inside of the unibody rails and up about 5" i fabbed new spring pockets on some stiffeners and welded them up




next i built new shackle boxes and set them up using some 1.5 shackles to get a nice nice shackle angle


while i was working on the back half i recessed an xj gas tank down in the floor in the front of the bed to get it up out of the rocks and protected



right now it has beat 3" coils in the front and its sitting level

i got some 33" dunlop mud rovers with like 75% tread in trade for a gas tank skid i built for some one

its a work in progress and needs to be finished for my trip to rc the weekend of may 1st.. i have a lot of work to do still

fab front diff guard
fab front stiffeners and bumper
fab new crossmember and flat belly
fab boatsides
fab rear bumper
fab rear shock mounts (upper and lower)
install dual brake booster and zj prop valve and all new brake lines and hoses
install front shocks
install new u-joints
wire up electric fan to a switch
install renix sending unit into tank (so my gas guage works)
figure out exhaust
and a bunch of other random junk

ill keep updating as it comes along

[grundlepunch]

that spring plate looks a tad thin, hope it holds up
lookin good though

[murdered out manche]

yea, the 3/16" was all i had laying around and i needed to bolt it up for mock up.. it will be replaced by 1/4" or 5/16" plate

[murdered out manche]

So i have recently started another major project on my comanche. I got sick of working around and fixing the stock bed and "frame" behind the cab, and decided to cut the frame rails flush with the cab and start fresh. I have a trip to rc planned for the weekend of october 29th, therefore it will need to be finished up and ready to wheel by then. With that said, on to the plans and progress.

stock spring soa, inboarded, flipped
stock wheelbase 113"
14.5" white body's
slip and twist traction bar
5" frame "z"
8.8
rear crossmember with shackle mounts frenched




you can see here, it was a little tweaked





cut and folded the pinch seam along the back of the cab and started working on a plate to cap the back of the cab, frame rails, and tie into the boatsides




Tonight i cut some plates out to connect the cab cap to my already existing frame stiffeners on all 3 sides of the stock rails









That's where im at right now, i hope to get a couple hrs in a day to work on it.

[justtorchit]

sex....

[Bigbike]

Awesome, when I had my mj I wanted to back half it

[murdered out manche]

so now im debating whether or not i want to leave the springs regular or flip them, ive never had an issue with axle wrap before and i know that will become a factor if i flip them. im thinking its not worth the extra effort to gain a 3" better departure angle, especially with such a short deadline.. also, im building slider boxes for the back

[justtorchit]

i think you would be better off spending your time to flip teh springs, french em in, and run a nice shackle right off the back.... i like the idea of the slider boxes, but why?

[murdered out manche]

I think way to much Into things, I'm going to take a good look at it tonight and get a game plan together.

[justtorchit]

yeh, i just dont see slider boxes being beneficial for you. i understand on a cherokee when your limited to space for a shackle to swing(hitting the back of the shackle box, not optimal shackle angle), but on a back halfed manche i see that as more of a downgrade because a nice sized shackle at a good angle would take up less space and be more beneficial in the end.

have you looked at coreys build on his manche? its not back halfed but bobbed and we rotated the springs, frenched them in, and hung the shackle right off the back of the bumper because it was the best setup we could come up with with the leafs. we put quite a bit of thought into it and it worked like a dream afterwords.

infact i was always jealous of the damn thing and it would show my cherokee up on pretty much everything.

[murdered out manche]

i remember corey's build, i do not remember him having a traction bar, did he have issues with axle wrap?

[justtorchit]

i remember corey's build, i do not remember him having a traction bar, did he have issues with axle wrap?

no traction bar, but the axle wrap wasnt that bad. i do remeber the pinion shooting up under load, but any setup will do that without a traction bar.

[murdered out manche]

had a chance to make a little progress.. my 8.8 is unbolted and i pulled the 2" wheel spacers off of it, i always hated how wide it was but needed them for shock and frame clearance. now its waiting on my decision of flipped springs or not..



also got my rear crossmember/bumper/shackle mount tacked back together.. decided fuck the sliders for now..

[Zullock Holmes]

I think way to much Into things, I'm going to take a good look at it tonight and get a game plan together.

Tube? 4 Link? Air Shocks?


Simplicity at its best


I'm required to post that, ya know this thing looks great though! Nice Fab work man

[murdered out manche]

im a broke bastid, therefore, the leaf springs stay

thanks man, i appreciate that. hope to make some more progress shortly.