The new KJs first run at URE

NCJeepin · **Posted:** Tue Sep 22, 2009 11:07 pm

Well took the new KJ for its first run to uwharrie this past weekend.. Been a long couple of weeks to try and get it ready for its big offroad debut....

Mods Installed:

Rustys 2.5" Full Kit
Full set of Mopar Skids
Custom set of home brew Rock Rails
5 245/75 Goodyear MTRs
Radio Shack CB with Lil Wil Magnetic Mount Antenna
Pinch Weld Beat down with a little air dam trimming

First trail went great, it was the easy one so the KJ kicked its butt pretty good... Trail #2 didn't go so well...

It was a slight hill climb with some rocks, and in one of the curves in the climb it was rutted out, and took a little petal effort to even get to that point.. On about my 5th or so atempt, i got further then I had on any other, the jeep must of hit the rocks just right, one tire spun and then evidently got fast traction... A loud pop and a hollar from my group telling me they saw fluid...

This is what we found...

The D30a split right in half.. Not good... Currently looking for a replacement and a locker for it to give it every chance of preventing this from happening again.

Drove it off the trail like this in 2wd and back to camp.. I was surprised something else didn't snap driving it around like that. It got me back where i needed to be..... Had a buddy tow the camper home and the liberty went on a trailer.. Sitting in the driveway now waiting for me to buy the new parts... Thankfully payday isn't too far off.....

ohv_kj · **Posted:** Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:45 am

well i have seen you drive and your pretty hard on your jeeps...sorry that happend... what is your girl going to drive now? i guess the sas will come alittle quiker then what you wanted...lol... well need help you SHOULD still have my number...

oh brendan never installed a lock on mine, just gears, you deff should get a collar for the diff...it's not so much the gears, it's the diff that's weak, Alumininninimumum...lol

WickedKJ · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:09 pm

Ouch! Stinks you got all that work done so quickly and didn't really get a chance to run it. Were you able to get any pics on the trail you did run? Well since you have to replace a axel might as well go SFA! lol

NCJeepin · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:14 pm

Throwing a stock front end back in it for now.. Found one with the right gearing for 250.00, will be getting that the end of the week..

Also looking to get a DTT and a collar to try and help it hold up.

I'll prob throw it in next weekend, it shouldn't be too hard of a job now.

Sucks it is alum, I never had this prob with the first liberty, but then again i wasn't too hard on it... I actually wasn't hard on this one either, because i knew i had to drive it home.. Well I knew i wanted to drive it home! haha.

It broke at a really dumb spot in URE, right after this picture was taken, i picked up a tire, and came back down with it spinning.. blah blah blah!

As for heather driving, we have a couple of other vehilces to drive, so thats taken care of..

WickedKJ · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:31 pm

Well seems like you got a good deal to get it back up and running pretty quickly. Is Uwharrie alot of very rutted out trails or is there mild trails? I cant afford to break stuff there its to long of a drive home for us!

NCJeepin · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:35 pm

You will be fine on most of the trails if you have rock rails. This one was in a wierd state of disrepair and i hit it just right to break. Honestly it was sort of a freak break...

When are you moving down here anways?

WickedKJ · **Posted:** Tue Sep 29, 2009 10:48 pm

Well some changes in plans...Took a promotion at work and now I have to wait 1 yr. to put in a transfer so the move will be pushed off at least one year, couldnt pass up more money. Hopefully the house market will be better by then as well so that we can sell our house for more. I noticed that the market down there has seemed to pick up a bit, houses are going for a little higher than they were a few mths. ago. Seems like winter is a better time to buy in that area anyway.

NCJeepin · **Posted:** Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:58 am

Yeah its picked up down here quite a bit.

I'm in the process of buying a house down there under a short sale. Luckally we locked in the price before it started in inflate, the same house now is going for about 40K more...

beforedawn · **Posted:** Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:50 pm

thats on the dutch john trail. that chute gets more and more rutted out every year

strange how you cracked it on that part of the trail ive driven it many times and never had a problem but i dont have a front locker so i dont stress the front as much

rescu2000 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:11 pm

He didn't have a front locker either. An LSD may (and that is still just a maybe) have helped. My theory is that this may boil down to quality control, porosity in the casting, etc. Under the same conditions, maybe one out of ten would break. Again, that's just a theory. There is always variability in any manufacturing process. The diffs on the lower quality part of the curve could be weaker. I coud have SWORN I would have broken mine on Daniel last time. I twisted a CV axle in half... Snap. Diff held up... Doesn't make sense, that was a lot of stress.

The new KJs first run at URE

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