Hello everyone,
I posted a few times but waited to introduce myself until my current project was done. That ended up taking about a week and a half longer than planned!
I have a khaki 4x4 2003 KJ Sport that I ordered from the factory the way I wanted it. Mainly it has the offroad and tow packages, and a sunroof. I just wish I had ordered it a little earlier so it had the 45RFE auto transmission instead of the 42RLE. Of course I had no clue about that at the time.
I grew up on a farm with lots of 4WD pickups. Ground clearance was never an issue with those. So I was a little disappointed how much we scraped bottom and how much spotting was required on a trip to SW Colorado (maybe around 2005?). So I bought the 1.5"/2" Daystar lift as an experiment. At the same time I bought five used Moab Rubicon wheels and a set of Wrangler Silent Armor P255/70/R16 tires. I was quite happy with that setup. I expected the ride to be bad, especially in the front. But it worked great. So to anyone on a budget, or to anyone who wants to experiment, I highly recommend that simple lift. The tires were great, except I did have a number of punctures. Part of that could be luck. The first two happened in town, during the height of the construction boom. So there were screws and nails and stuff everywhere. The third happened near Crested Butte, CO. That was definitely a rock puncture. It wasn't much of a rock, and it happened on a dirt road, nothing serious. Can't remember if it was the sidewall or the tread. In fixing the flat I managed to strip two studs IMMEDIATELY. I've fixed a lot of tires over the years and never done that. Between that and having no spare we had to spend a day in Crested Butte. Not a bad place to get stuck.
After that though I decided I was done with P load range tires. I liked the Silent Armor tires, so I looked for something similar to a 255/70 size but in a LT/E load range. There wasn't much available and supply was poor, so I switched to the BFG T/A KO LT245/75/R16/E tires and bought another wheel so I'd have two spares for expeditions.
I had lots of rubbing problems with that combination. Maybe I should have just pounded down the pinch welds, but used that as an excuse to install a second lift. This is around summer 2010 when the Jeep has maybe 77K miles on it. I installed a Rockfather Deluxe lift but put Rancho RS9000/XL shocks in the rear. That solved the rubbing problems. Still need to deal with the pinch weld at some point as the liner is worn away. I want to have a thin plate welded over it. I'm not a welder which is one reason for procrastinating.
Like many I've had recurring problems with rear window regulators. Those windows only get opened by accident. I had at least five failures, split about 50/50 between driver and passengers side. It usually wasn't a problem, but the last time our boat trailer was hitched behind, the cab was full of gear, and we were pulling out of our driveway for a week! The window failed worse than ever, so we took the boat back to storage and threw our gear in my wife's Subaru.
I was so mad and my wife wasn't happy. I had permission to trade the KJ in immediately for a Wrangler. But later I ordered a couple of the Steiger regulator repair kits. One is installed and the other one is ready. Feeling better about the KJ I decided to put some money in it for the future. The plan is to drive it into the ground one way or another.
With about 80K miles on the odometer I just put 4.10 gears and front and rear ARB lockers. I wanted to buy that steel JBA D30 front diff and maybe 4.56 gears, but couldn't justify the expense. It took close to two weeks to have the gears installed as the diff shop had not installed lockers in a Liberty. As part of that process I installed an AFE Stage 2 intake, following Troy's example. The diff shop had a custom plate fabbed for the back of the heat shield. I'm thinking maybe the plate should have been a little bigger. I just picked up the Jeep this evening and put 40 miles on it (two stretches of 20 with a rest in between).
I have something of a plan for the future. By the end of 2011 I want to install a CB, dual-band HAM radio, front off-road bumper, maybe a not-so-expensive winch, and some basic off-road lights. By the end of 2012 I'd like to install a rear off-road bumper, fuel carrier, and jack carrier. We'll see. I'm feeling very poor after the diff work.
Here is a picture of the Jeep with the old lift but the new tires.
Here is a picture with the new lift, but no roof rack. I need to do something so I can leave that on all the time. The problem is the tire carrier with the taller lift. It's prone to corrosion and scrapes the garage door.
One big reason I got the Jeep was to tow my sailboat, which I built from scratch in my garage. I say this because for the next couple years I should really be using the tow capability rather than the offroad capability. Here is the boat on Lake Pleasant.
That's enough for now. This is kind of long for a Howdy post. I've benefited a lot from the site over the years. Don't know much I'll be able to contribute but wanted to say thanks!
Ernie
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