I have been pre-occupied by the 95 XJ I bought, fixing it up and just sold it for a nice profit. Gonna miss that little thing though.

 

Since the battery cables on the 95 were corroded big time, I took the 4awg cables off my 01 and put them on there. That gave me a good excuse to order some custom cut 1/0awg cables from custombatterycables.com with heavy duty military terminals. I think that should be plenty for a 1200w power inverter, 500w amp, LED lighting, 10k winch, ARB air compressor, ARB fridge and a second battery one day.

 

Also I got some Napier V2 fender flares and installed those over the weekend. I am usually a perfectionist and I think I could have done a better job installing these to be honest. Nothing against the product, I just rushed to beat sundown so I can get a recon inspection in Hawaii this week.

I love the flares though, perfect look and coverage for 10.50" tire on 15x8 wheel with 3.625" BS. If you want coverage on 11.50, I would recommend 3.75"-4" BS though, cause mine are right on the edge or maybe even 1/8" past the flare.

 

Only in Hawaii do flowers litter the street.

 

Took it out today and finally remembered to take some pics. The wrangler guys I was wheelin with were quite impressed. The dual rate coils are outstanding, very flexy going over uneven bumps and valleys, yet firm and controlled on the road. The rear setup with shackles and brackets worked extremely good as well.

It was very interesting to see how a very flexy 4.25" suspension like this performed over uneven ruts and valleys vs. a very stiff 6" skyjacker lift. I am very happy with this setup so far.

 

Great build I'm loving the slow carefully planned out execution of everything! I'm a lurker still I've had my xj for a little while and have already done a lot to it including those same fender flares PITA right? Mine came out good but if you take them off you see the Fubar job I did on cutting lol but fort Stewart ain't that fun although I was in 4th brigade who's post is separate from main post and I was an 11B working in brigade... Fml one thing I learned is never volunteer especially when they offer ranger school that equals really bad detail... Anyways tho your build is awesome and has me feeling like **** since I got mine partially lifted and mine is a hack job but it's looking surprisingly good.

 

Thanks man! Yeah the Napier didn't go on as perfectly as I'd hoped, but I'm happy with them overall. Also I used an angle grinder, which isn't the best tool for the job.
Everyone does their XJ differently and makes it their own. Good luck with yours man.

I hear you on working for BDE, my BN is trying to snag me up and my 1SG is fighting to keep me at the company. I'm trying to get my team leader time, not work in the S3 shop, lol. Oh well, we shall see what happens.

EDIT: Oh and welcome to the forum man, lots of good people, ideas and information here.

 

Installed my Napier Hood vents today. I wanted to mount them a little farther apart, but I didn't want to drill or cut into the hood structural support so I ended up with this location. Measure top and bottom twice and cut once. Then I put a fresh coat of plasti-dip on there. Turned out good, now to test it out in the rain and traffic.

 

loving the hood vents!
I have been wanting a set of these for a while, have any more pictures?

 

I really enjoy this thread! My XJ is very similar, but not quite as tall. I have the MetalCloak 3.5" ARB lift as well, but no shackle relocators or anything. The rear end on mine does sit just a little high, but I figure by the time I do the tire carrier bumper (145ish lbs) the gas tank skid, and a storage/cargo box inside, I'll probably be sitting much closer to level. You're looks pretty much perfect as far as level goes. I dig it!


Quick question, if it isn't too terribly much trouble, do you have any pics directly from the side to show the lift height and tire size combo you have with the Napier flares? I'm considering the flats, but haven't decided!

 

Thanks bro, I've always got more pics. Just didn't want to upload too many.

 

Thanks, nice to see a fellow cloaked XJ! Yep I figure once I do front and rear bumpers with winch and spare tire, armor underneath, roof rack, storage drawers and even an ARB fridge in the distant future, I will always have a few options.

1. The whole suspension settles evenly
2. The rear sags and I put the 3rd leaf back in
3. The rear sags and I pull the 0.75" coil spacers out
4. The front sags and I pull the spacers and get ACOS instead

The clean picture above the hood vent install is the best I got for a side shot for now. I am about to go into the field for a couple of weeks and will take more pictures when I get back and get her all cleaned up again.

Basically the 31x10.50 is starting to look a little small in the bigger Napier flared wheel opening at 4.25" lift. I will more than likely go 32x11.50 after I regear and bumpstop accordingly.

 

Makes sense to me man! I want to install shackle relocation brackets and some beefier shackles like what you've done, but I don't want to go any taller at all. I'm going to wait until I get the rear bumper/tire carrier on, see where that puts things, and then figure out how I want to proceed. The rear end is a bit stiff over bumps, but certainly not unlivable at all so I don't mind waiting.


When it comes to removing a leaf from these springs, which one comes out? I've toyed with the idea of removing one and seeing where that puts the back end until I install the bumper I want.


Do you have any idea which bumpers/roof rack you're going to go for with this build?

 

According to ARB, you should remove the 3rd leaf from the top and that is what I did. However some people remove the flat overload leaf from the bottom, since it is thicker and have had good success. I didn't want to go this route, because I like the extra security of the overload leaf.

I am going to go with the JCR Vanguard PreRunner winch bumper in the front and the JCR Vanguard rear bumper w/ Tire carrier in the back. If Metalcloak ever comes out with any XJ bumpers, I would take a serious look at them first though.

I want to sell my ARB roof rack and buy the Front Runner Slimline II roof rack. But if I can't sell the ARB, I'll probably just buy the mounting kit and put it on.

 

That sounds like a pretty awesome plan there! Every discussion I've had with Metalcloak has included me saying they need to get XJ armor going lol. I'd also give it a serious consideration if they come out with it. The JCR bumpers are pretty bas *** man. I got to see the Hope Floats jeep that Matt did with BleepinJeep (YouTube, if you haven't heard of it). It's got the JCR rear bumper with the tire carrier and man it's really cool! I just wish the price tag wasn't quite that high.


I'm looking at the Rockhard 4x4 tire carrier bumper and possible a JCR front of I may try to fab something that will tuck the winch in where the front crossmember is.


Thanks for the info on the leaf, now at least I know what to look for if I decide to remove on. Just depends how the ride gets once I add the bumper, skid plate and interior organization stuff.


Can't wait to see your XJ progress!