In this issue we offer up two very different approaches to the same process, that being building up a Jeep (although the lessons apply to any brand) for trail duty by beginning with a humble vehicle at the start and working home-garage magic until it is ready to go.

Before beginning anything like this, you need to consider some very important things such as: How will it be used….hardcore, easy stuff, daily driver? How much can I afford? What are my fabrication abilities and limits?

Assuming you have all this figured out there is one more question that needs to be addressed. Where do I live? Not me of course. I KNOW where I live. Where do you, oh reader of this article, live, and more accurately, where do you wheel? Why build a rockcrawler for Florida where mud and sand is more the terrain? What makes sense in the tundra of Alaska would be silly in Johnson Valley and a moon buggy would be lost in the depths of an Arkansas mug bog.

Since we at C4x4 don’t know too much about the mud stuff, we will look at two Jeeps that are built for serious trail use and rocks. One resides in Southern California and one in Oklahoma. Both are amazingly cool, both are garage built by skilled home-fabricators and both work very well on the turf they call home.

Mike Cross’s California CJ-7:

Mike resides in sunny So Cal where he makes a living as a contractor. In between work and family stuff, he found time to turn out this smartly built Jeep. Mike does pretty much all the design and fab work himself, only farming out stuff that does not make sense time wise or tool wise, but with a lathe, welder, drill press, bender, bandsaw, etc, he is pretty setup for most things that come along.

The specs are listed below, but some of the decisions reflect Mike’s focus on efficiency and simplicity. For instance, he chose to stay spring under the axles rather than follow the trend of SOA conversions. He likes the stability it offers and although he gives up some ultimate flex in the process, he made the fender mods to accommodate a 37” tire when the 35s are replaced.

Mike lives for the little details like the gussets and clean lines of the cage and bumpers but only changes something if it makes sense and ties into his mantra of “Lower, Lighter, Simpler”. It works well and looks great, especially since CJs are becoming a bit rare on the trail these days.

Rather than focus on the extreme rockcrawling side of life, Mike built this with an eye to excel on trails rated from 0 to 8.5 out of ten. In Southern Cal and the west in general that means rutted and rocky dirt roads, boulder fields, sand washes, and moderate hill climbs. Typical desert stuff. Here a Jeep has to be nimble, not too long or wide, needs low gears for the all day crawling and has to be able to do a lot of things well. On a ridgeline trail or working it’s way up some dry wash, Mike’s Jeep is in its element and simply gets down the trail with no fuss-no muss.

Specs:

1978 CJ-7
Built AMC 401
TH400 with valvebody mods to allow for compression braking
Dana 300 t-case
Rear axle - Ford 9” out of an early Bronco (59” wide), shaved, trussed, Detroit Locker, 4.88 gears
Front axle – Ford HP44 re-tubed with the pumpkin offset to allow for engine clearance, 62” wide, cut and plated for ground clearance, ARB and 4.88s
J.E. Reel driveshafts
35” BFG Mud TAs
Wheelbase stretched to 97”, rear axle back 2.5”, front forward 1”
Custom made gas tank to allow for diff clearance
Custom bumpers, body protection, tire carrier, etc.
Tubed fenders to allow for low lift and big tires
Custom roll cage ties into the cowling at the dash for strength
More little details than I can list.

If you like this Jeep, wait till you see what he is working on next!

 

Brad’s Blue Beast II:

Well, what do you do after you win the Top Truck Challenge in your home built rig? Why you sell it and start over of course. At least, that is what Brad Austin, TTC 2004 winner did. He had some ideas of what he could improve upon the next time and so he started with a blank canvas in the form of a 1989 YJ and began the cutting. Brad wanted this rig to be lower without giving up trail clearance. He wanted more gearing options, and he wanted a unique but functional look that gave more comfort in the bad winter weather of Oklahoma.

The ledges and hills of OK are usually muddy, loose, steep and require a combination of wheelbase, power, tire size, and strength that is quite a bit different than the dry West Coast desert terrain. A 35” tire on a narrow axle and a stock Jeep wheelbase is pretty terrifying at Clayton, OK, if you want to run with the Big Dogs. And, since Brad IS one of the Big Dogs, he needed something that, when he pressed the loud pedal, would keep the rubber side down as much as possible.

We think he got all that done and more.

Here are some words and specs from Brad:

1989 Jeep Wrangler
Custom built frame with 1950’s style custom built pickup style bed and Jeep Scrambler ½ top

AXLES: 2 ½ ton Rockwell steering axles F/R with Detroit lockers, shaved turtle pans on the bottom, built using USA 6x6 disc brake kits

SUSPENSION: Four link rear, 3 link front, 16” front Fox coil-over long travel shocks, 14” rear Fox coil-over long travel shocks

STEERING: Front is full hydro steering which is run off the power steering pump using a WMS hydro ram to a high steering arm. Rear is full hydro with a WMS ram to high steering arms powered with a 12 volt hydro pump mounted in the bed. The pump is operated with a toggle switch mounted on the shifter.

ENGINE: Chevy small block 400 bored .040 over with flat top pistons and Vortec heads fueled by a Commander 950 Holley four barrel fuel injection system. Engine produces about 425 horse power.

DRIVETRAIN: A built TH350 transmission coupled to a WMS 203/205 doubler transfer case. It has a custom 3.2 to 1 low range offering me a choose of 1.9, 3.2, or 6.4 to 1 low range. The 205 is twin sticked. The 203 is mounted upside down and the 205 is mounted sideways for clearance. The 203 is shifted by way of a custom built cable shifter. The front driveshaft is 2 piece with a carrier bearing for better drive shaft clearance and a totally flat under belly. The drive shafts are custom built by Blumenthal with 1410 u joints. The motor, transmission and transfer case have been raised 3” by cutting the floor pan out of the jeep and rebuilding it around the housings so it would not have to have a body lift. This was done to help keep the center of gravity low. The Jeep will handle more than a 45 degree side hill with no problems.

TIRES AND WHEELS: Tires are 42” Iroc Swampers mounted on USA 6X6 custom built double bead lock rims.

"I built this Jeep to outperform the original Blue Beast (winner of TTC 2004). I took everything that I liked and duplicated it and improved the things I did not like about the original Beast.

With the big, monster rock ledges and slippery rocks of Oklahoma, wheeling requires big tires and a lot of ground clearance. With the steep and loose dirt hills it takes horsepower. For the tight wooded trails it takes maneuverability, thus the 4 wheel steering comes into play.

It has over a 90 degree approach and departure angle and will ramp over 1000 on a 30 degree ramp. With the turtle pans on the diffs and the 42” tires it has 14” of ground clearance under the diffs. With the rear steering it has a 25’ turning radius. It is decked out with 2 API seats, a B&M shifter and a JVC stereo for the tunes. Fuel is held in a custom built fuel cell mounted in the bed of the truck.

When this is all pulled together it creates a very versatile rig that can handle what ever I throw at it. Though I have had a very limited amount of seat time so far, with Easter Jeep Safari 2006 pretty much being its debut, it has done everything I have asked of it and made me proud.

BLUE BEAST 2 IS WALKING TALL"