The 50% rule.
50 percent being roughly half the tire height is where the belly sits.

Seems like a good rule of thumb. Most of the competition crawlers with shorter wheelbases stay fairly close to this.

It seems to work pretty well. Belly draggers that is. Keeps a very low center of gravity. They all run close to the same wheelbase as the cherokee.


So a cherokee would basically never get over 3in of lift. Kind of what I was wanting. Like to do a full skid also.

Just curious to what people think.

Thanks

More cool picture!

 

I think those competition buggies do it and put it to good use with all the extreme cambers. What terrain do you wheel on again and why do you need to stay so low? I've always wanted to clock the tcase and do a belly pan. But is that really a priority over stiffeners and other armor? Not at all

 

Its really not that low. With a 3in lift your cross member sits about 15in on 32's. A 5in lift and 32's would put you at 17in normally. I have a cross member that gives me almost 3in more gc but I have to relocate my exhaust so I can get a full skid on.

Where I am from everyone has them jacked to the moon. I am always the smallest truck in the group. But I can't remember one time where I high centered enough to stop me.

Where I wheel it seems like I am always on an off camber. About 8 times so far in the last 6 months I have had it on two wheels ready to tip. Never tipped. A little gas will pull you out of it. I need to widen my stance about 5in. When I get the larger tires.

Anyways those are some cool rigs.

 

Also on the stiffeners. The main thing I worry about is crushing them(stock frame). What do you think about just a full skid and no stiffeners?

 

I think I wish I had stiffeners because I've bounced my unit frame off the rocks a couple times. if you want some inspiration for a real low xj build, here's the one I've been drooling over. I really like that it's bobbed

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/jeep-...ng-limits.html

 

I blame your spotters...lol

 

Just make sure there are no weak points underneath with a flat belly and have at it.

This is where lockers are awesome, often you can't get enough momentum going with just 2 tires, and if you do get hung up, if one tire is still getting traction, you can usually work your way out.

The one thing worried about most was my rear driveshaft/pinion yoke. Usually end up cracking the yokes and the U joint cap keepers which allowed the u joint caps to pop out when any torque was applied. Get an sye and angle the yoke up and that helps a bit. My new rig has a pinion skid, which is pretty awesome.

 

that is pretty cool but it quit being a cherokee a long time ago! LOL

 

I have one locker, may steal me a posi unit for the 8.25.

Pinion skid is a good idea. even in my areas I have hit the pinion pretty hard.

 

KTM how much droop are you running? I set at a 50/50(up/down) with a 3in lift.

Thats why I am thinking about going back to a 2in lift. Little less up travel, more down travel.

 

at one point i ran about 20/80 for crawling (even a bit less), once I started doing more jumping and high speed fooling around that progressively turned into about 50/50.

 

Yea, lol, i guess your avatar and a couple of inches of up travel may be rough. You must of had some mean bump stops!