What's the best way for me to flat belly my xj?

 

This https://www.tntcustoms.com/jeep_part...ng_arm_upgrade is the closet youll get with out clocking up the t case and making your own belly plate.

 

I've clocked the transfer case...

Any examples of what people have done next?

 

http://img1.pirate4x4.com/forum/gene...er-design.html
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/jeep-...elly-pans.html
Most of the hardcore off road stuff you will find on pirate4x4.

 

I looked at doing a belly pan on mine, including clocking the t-case, and after really getting under my rig and seeing what things look like, I opted not to. On an XJ, you just don't gain very much. The exhaust has no space to fit any higher, and the rear drive shaft comes so far forward. Unlike a LOT of what you see on the CJ's that are belly-panned for extreme crawling, our XJ's just don't have 1) a lot of important stuff that can be protected, or 2) room to move it all to fit in that small space.

Don't ge me wrong, I wheel my rig HARD, with some big tire guys. I've got a thrashed cross member and muffler, chips out of my t-case and have peeled my rear diff cover (before I went to Ruffstuff covers front and rear!).

I'm going exactly the OPPOSITE direction of a belly pan. I'm REALLY gentle on the skinny pedal and T-cases are CHEAP at the JY - for $100, if I blow mine up, I'll just go pull one from the JY and swap in with 4 bolts. Even if you have an SYE, for an afternoon in the driveway to tear down the old one and swap the parts into the new case, you are still ahead of the game.

 

this is where you lost me. once you start playing in the real rock obstacles you see the necessity for a flat belly immediately and a TNT belly pan is cheap insurance. if you're out on the trail and you split your tcase it's game over you're dead weight


building a good belly pan from scratch is really difficult. if you can't design and build one yourself I would recommend to anyone simply plating up your factory cross member and welding a t-case skid to it. easy and cheap

 

how can you wheel hard but be gentle on the skinny pedal?

furthermore, how in the world does it make more sense to break t-cases instead of having a nice belly pan.

 

I have a JCR skid under it, I then clocked the tcase, looked at it and thought well it's more than just clocking a tcase to flat belly one from what I can tell I was just going to see about getting rid of the standard JCR skid and flat plating it.

I did stiffen the frame so there is stronger metal there

 

i went the tnt route, super strong & flat . i dont see any point in trying to get it any higher.

 

So no need to clock the case with that crossmember then? That's pretty sweet.

 

sometimes clocking a tc opens a can of worms w/ other issues unless you have lots of room up there. xj's dont, did it once on a cj but w/ a 2" body lift its easy. just some shifter linkage angle things to deal with. i thought about trying to do it my xj , looked up there & the thought was gone real quick.