Lowrange2

So, in the 10 years I’ve owned this Jeep… I’ve never done a build thread.

Figured I’d give it a shot.

From the beginning:

I bought this Jeep on Ebay. “Excellent condition 1993 Jeep Cherokee. AW4, NP231, 3” lift, 31” tires.”

Sketchy ad. $100 deposit. Picked it up the next day in Franklin, NC. Got there and the guy told me it had a “built” racing transmission and that’s why it “growled” when it shifted into second gear… Paid the remaining balance and drove it home.

(Side note: On the way to pick it up in my 93 Mazda 626 I rear-ended a brand new Crown Vic full of old people in the rain. Scuffed the paint on both cars, no one was hurt, no claim was made and we were on our way.)
This is what I brought home: (This was actually one of the pictures from the Ebay ad.)



Didn’t have a single scratch on it. Body was in excellent shape. Interior was super clean.

Drove it like that for a little while. Then bought some retarded tall 8” Rusty’s lift, 33” BFG A/T’s.





Then, one day some woman pulled out in front of me and I hit the ditch, smashed the a-pillar, windshield, drivers side fender and trashed the front suspension. Insurance company cut me a check for more than I paid for the Jeep but let me keep the clear title. I spent that money on new 35” BFG KM1’s, Rock Krawler 3-link, swapped in an 8.8, built the D-30, and somewhere around then I built that front bumper.



Then after that I built the Waggy 44, added a cage and chopped the top.



Built a new front bumper, bought some Lawn mower tires and changed a few other small things but other than that the last few years have been uneventful with the hatching of my youngest kiddo.





I obviously skipped a lot of stuff but that pretty much brings us to today…

Lowrange2

I’d grown pretty bored with the current build. All my friends are running 40’s and tons… I liked the challenge of keeping up but the Jeep was taking a serious beating in order to keep up. Then, my bestest buddy, Will, offered to build some boat sides on the Jeep for me. After several days of talking the plan had turned into lots of tube and a lot less sheet metal. I started cutting away stuff and ended up with a sad looking unibody…







Loaded it up with 220’ of DOM tube and towed it down to Carrollton to Will’s house.


Left it sitting here:


Sold the cage, axles, rear bumper, wheels, tires, and a few other things to fund this little change. Bought a set of 05+ Super Duty Ford axles, looking for a set of 39-40” tires and 17” wheels. Also in the process of rounding up parts to build a 231/300 doubler. Keeping the rear leafs for not but building with rear 4-link in mind for the future.

Now, here it sits:

SatiricalHen

There isn't much gold left on your "gold nugget" haha

Lowrange2

Nope. I'll do something to keep the name. Gold skins or something.

SatiricalHen

looking forward to what you come up with and how it turns out. Have a certain date you're trying to get it all ready to ride by?

Lowrange2

The original plan was to have it finished by the end of June for the Crawl in Harlan but we'll have to see what comes of it. No super rush.

The sooner the better, though.

Lowrange2

Every time I do anything remotely interesting I always tell myself I’m not going to tell anyone until I’m done but I talk to much so I won’t even bother here.

Once I got the Jeep to Will’s house and he sold all the good parts off of it for me he started cutting…

Shortening up the rear a bit:



Shackles off the rear “Bumper” for now until I can pay for links…



MUCH better shackle angle than before. Going to either build or buy some better shackles, obviously.

Lowrange2

You people aren’t very lively. Maybe it’ll get more interesting farther down the road.

Boat sides are well under way.







Pretty significant difference between D30 brakes and F250 brakes… lol

88whitecomanche

Interesting boat you got there...think it'll float? Lol jk
Good progress can't wait for the outcome...never really seen a buggy build before...

Lowrange2

lol, I have a feeling it will definitely not float. In fact, I'm fairly certain it will sink like a rock.

Desertfox1023

So D50 front 10.5 Rear? Or all all the 05+ F250s D60 Unit Bearings?

Lowrange2

Unit bearing, ball joint D60. These things are beefy. The only disadvantage I see is the amount of bracketry that has to be cut off and the metric bolt pattern. Both of which are easy obstacles to overcome. I'll likely be redrilling the hubs to standard 8-lug.

The 10.5 is very comparable to a 14 Bolt but more ground clearance.

adamk

Aftermarket support of the 10.5 is far far less than a 14 bolt. But, unless you're going for a rock bouncer, it should hold up to 40's pretty well. Why not stick with the 8x170 lug pattern if you have a matching front and rear? It seems for me, every time I go looking for new wheels, the only decent used 8 lugs are super duty pattern.

Lowrange2

As long as I can get chromo shafts and gear sets for the 10.5 then I'll be fine.

Keep an eye out for some decent used 8x170mm 17" beadlocks for me if you come across them frequently. I haven't seen a single set. The only reason I planned to switch back to 8x6.5 is because I can do it for free and 8x6.5" wheels are much easier to find used.

If I couldn't find a good deal on used wheels then I planned to just order 8x170mm wheels new.

I also figured if I needed a spare on the side of the trail I'd be much more likely to find someone willing to let me use their 8x6.5" wheel.

Lowrange2

PLUS, the 10.5" shafts are bigger and come stock with disc brakes.

I'm just going to weld the carriers.