Project OREO - 2006 LJ Overland and General Purpose Rig

[Krytos]

Mud is the enemy.

It's a mantra, a manifesto, a rallying cry.

The only problem is, I live in South Florida. A very muddy place, if not the mud capital, then definitely a mud prefecture.

But I loved Jeeps, so I bought myself an LJ, bigger and better equipped than my old 2001 TJ. I started modding it with no actual plan or path, I knew I wanted a lift and I knew I wanted 33inch tires. I knew just enough to get myself into trouble but not enough to know what I was doing. Basically the sweet spot of ignorance.

Which is not to say I know what I'm doing now, but I'm moving forward.

So here she is, in all her stock and unmodified glory, when I picked her up:
New and Unmolested.jpg

And later that week during a typical Miami Monsoon.
jeep doggin.jpg

She had about 46k on the odometer and the soft top leaked like a sieve. This led to my first mod, a new NX Top from Bestop. Around the same time I got my lift done by the fine folks at Karnage Motorsports out in North Miami.

New Lift 2.jpgNew Lift.jpgUpOnLift.jpg

It was a Zone Offroad 3 inch lift, which used the stock control arms and the stock front trac-bar, just drilled in a new location.

The tires were BFG All-Terrain K/Os, which was probably the only good decision of the whole process.

So what now?

I have a general "plan" of action, to make this into a more capable and reliable Overlanding rig.

My first area of attack has to do with the suspension. My plan of action includes some work to un-"fix" the front trac-bar bracket and fit a Currie Adjustable front trac bar, more specifically the TJJ model with an offset johnny-joint. Also on the docket is a set of Currie adjustable control arms. Rounding out the suspension mods is a complete overhaul of the springs and shocks. I plan on running Savvy 3inch progressive springs and an as of yet undertermined brand of shocks.

So what will this build thread contain? Interesting trips, a log of my mods, and hopefully some entertaining bits. More than anything, I hope for a good exchange of ideas.

I'm a neophyte when it comes to auto work, but I'm quick to learn and willing.

Which helps...I hope.
Urban Crawl.jpg

[jscusmcvet]

Nice LJ! You will learn to love wrenching on your jeep. There are write ups on just about anthiing you can imagine. If you cannot find a write up on a specific project, ask and someone will be able to help you find it.

Welcome to Expo!

John

[hamr26]

Good luck with your Jeep. We are about at the same stages of Jeepdom, I've had may LJ for about 5 months and am planning a lift for 255/85-16's before winter. Life has ways of interrupting Jeep budgets...

[HARDTRAILZ]

Best of luck with the venture. Seems like a solid platform to start with and a good plan.

[hansonian]

As another Florida resident I agree that mud is the enemy. What front bumper are you running?

[bob91yj]

You're learning things the hard way by doing them twice already. Put the brakes on and quit throwing parts at your Jeep. If you keep up with your current approach you'll end up with a vehicle that is so miserable to drive that you'll hate it. Trust me, I've seen it happen countless times.

What is it that your LJ won't do in it's current state that you need it to do? Get out there and use your vehicle, see what works for other people in your area, do some of your own research.

Generally you are going to find that cheap lifts/parts are exactly that, CHEAP lifts/parts. Save your $$$, do your research, put together a co-ordinated plan to build your Jeep to meet YOUR needs, not what some jackass like me tells you to do from a keyboard 3000 miles away. My '05 is built to run across the SoCal/Baja deserts at near race speeds while maintaining some rock crawling capability and cruise comfortably at freeway speeds/daily driver. My build recommendations would be based on my experiences. Unless a lot has changed in FL since I was there in the early '80's not much of my terrain matches yours other than the pavement. I'm happy with my mod choices, built the Jeep right the first time because I had a clear goal in mind and knew what worked for others in my area. Before you think I'm some blowhard that doesn't make mistakes, other than the basic spring over on my rock Jeep it's been through countless "do-overs" through the years. I learned from my past mistakes when I set out to build the '05.

[Krytos]

The bumper is a stock bumper with an Olympic Bull Bar attached, I mounted the Hi-Lift to that. I kind of want a new bumper, although it would be completely aesthetic, this bumper does everything I could ask of it.

I'm planning on pulling the Hi-Lift off the front and sticking it on the spare. The stock hinges aren't up to it, but I have an Exo-Gate that I haven't had a chance to install yet (work, school, and life have intervened).

Bob91yj, this is something I've given some thought. I have a set of goals I'd like to achieve, basically 90% daily driver and 10% adventure finder. I don't rock crawl but reliability and livability are important to me. I'm having some trac-bar issues as of recently, I'm going to try to post a video later in the week. Regardless, the trac-bar is something that I've wanted to address almost since I got the lift. I'm trying to avoid something like this:
bracket.jpg

Drilling a new hole affects the strength of the trac-bar mount:
redrilledtrackbar.jpg

This is preventative, trying to stamp out mole hills before it becomes a mountain. As for the control arms, Currie makes good arms and I like the jonny joints whch retain some torsional flex in the arms. An added bonus comes when getting an alignment as adjustable arms allows for more range in adjustment. Fixed control arms are cheaper, and BDS makes a good set for a three inch lift, but that seems like I might be handcuffing myself when it comes to castor and the other adjustment.

But hey, that's what I'm here for, to learn. What do you think of the setup?

[irish1371]

one thing about the stock front bumper. You may think it does the job, but one off camber slide down hill into a tree at 3-5 mps will show that the three now lives in your engine compartment.

They are about as strong as tinfoil double folded over for simplicity and price procomp and smitty both have a front bumper that is light and about the same dimentions as stock for 100 -140.00. They are their bar bones "rock crawler " bumpers your bar would mount to them also I believe.

Nice thing is they are made of 3/16 thru 1/4" plate and hold up well w/o being overbuilt pricy bling magnets

[bob91yj]

Your track bar issue is a prime example of three more mods to make the first one work right. A well engineered lift is going to come with the correct track bar as part of the system. Sure, you can cobble together your own parts list, and some trial and error will eventually get it correct, my YJ is a prime example of that method.

[Jim K in PA]

Welcome to the "club". The great thing about Jeeps is the unbelieveable number of options for modifying them. That is also the frustration for many. Heed Bob's advice. You will be amazed at how capable a stock Jeep is, even a non-Rubicon model. I drove my '05 LJ Rubicon for nearly 5 years and well over 100k miles before I touched the suspension. And I put over 80k of those miles on 255/85-16 tires. No suspension lift is needed to run them, but I did install a small (1") body lift.

I do recommend getting rid of the "shovel" ASAP. That was the first and best modification I did to my LJ. I used a Rokmen TT belly pan, and when installed with the 1" BL and a 1" MML, all driveline angles were maintained and no vibrations were caused.

Get out in the woods and enjoy the ride.