More testing ending in a pile of mud.

 

PDid a late night wheelin trip tonight. Just one of the local trails. There is a part that branches off and there are 2 trails we have not tried. This was one of them. We probably only went half way up. The trail went up and on for many more miles. Still a really good veiw of the city and the sky. Need to take the real camera next time.

 

 

Ill get some better pictures next time. Will bring the Cannon and a tripod and do some nice long exposure pictures. I am pretty sure the trail led up the mountain another 2000 ft in elevation so those should be some awesome pictures! Current picture was taken from about 3000 ft above the city.

 

I finally pulled the trigger on doing my shackle relocation for the 2nd time. Got the no lift boxes coming from HD Offroad (Brian is an awesome guy to deal with. Highly recommend) and some adjustable Core 4x4 shackles. Cant wait to get a smoother ride, more travel and have this thing sit level. Hopefully the parts make it in by the weekend so I can install and test.

 

Good choice! Love my No Lift SRB's. Great picture too! Wish I could get get high enough to get a picture like that of Detroit. Not very hilly/mountainy in the city though.

 

Thanks! I hope they do everything I am hoping they will. Mostly the ride height part. I can deal with the bumpy ride but the stink bug look is torturing me! What length shackle are you running with yours?

The whole area around here is just odd. The mountains to the east are full of huge trees and snow. The ones to the west just have random bushes everywhere, no trees and are always dry (have caught on fire many times). On the north side of the mountain, its a desert. On the south side, its a valley. But it is pretty cool to go to the top of the mountain in this one specific area. You can see both the high desert and the whole valley. The trail that takes you to that spot is closed for who knows how long due to a fire so I wont be going up there any time soon. I am just stuck to using the mountains on the east side for now. Which is fine with me since one of the main trails is 5 min from my house and those mountains are a lot bigger.

 

I'm running JKS shackles. With an almost spot on 45* angle, I ended up with about a .5" or so extra lift out of it which was what I was going for. That said, I'm thinking about getting Boostwerks shackles for a tad bit more. Not 100% sure on that though.

 

Thanks for the info!

Speaking of shackles, I just made a call to see if mine shipped yet. Nope. I guess since I got a custom length, it takes about a week to make them. So I will be lucky if they show up by next weekend. I am halfway temped to just throw my current shackles on with the relocation brackets. I have a feeling they will rub but probably only when fully compressed. That is something I can deal with for a week. It supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow so that will be a perfect time to throw the Jeep in the garage and start hacking off the old shackle boxes.

 

Yeah, any time. BTW, I had stock shackles before. JKS shackles went in with the SRB's.

Have fun! Hahaha! It's a pain cutting those boxes out. Plasma cutter is the way to go. Don't have one, so I went with a combo of 4" cutoff wheels (couldn't get much), and like 20 or so little cutoff wheels on my dremel.

 

No plasma for me either. Been wanting one but would rather get a TIG first. I have heard the whole cutting out process will not be fun. Hoping I can get away with cutting just the spot welds but I highly doubt it. I have multiple sizes of cut off wheels and a mini sawsall. Hoping that will be enough to get through the job.

 

Actually... thats a good idea. If you could find a "spot weld" drill bit, and can get to all of them, it might work out perfect. Roninofako used one to remove his lower control arm brackets when he installing his RK 3-link, and it worked out nicely.

 

I have got spot weld bits from 1/4" up to 2-1/2". So that part isnt a problem. Im just worried that the shank is going to be too short to get to some spots. We shall see!

 

Well the new shackle relocation boxes went in today. Went very smooth. I drilled out as many of the spot welds as I could and was left with one 4" section to cut. Took the mini air powered sawsall to it and problem solved in 10 seconds. The whole box just fell out at that point. Cant complain at all. Sits at about a 30° angle now. As soon as the new shackles show up, I'll set it to 45°

 

Awesome! Glad that worked out! Wish I would have been that smart when I went at it.