The Lone Ranger – Kage’s ’94 X-Cab Leaf SAS and Bed Bob

[Kage]

15th Offroad Trip – Flat Nasty 3-9-13

After a quick battery swap Friday night, I was ready to hit the road Saturday (first time I've ever had a battery short internally). For the first part of the day, we hung around in the south portion of the park, jumping up and off several trails out there. In the afternoon, we wandered around the mid section (trail 20) and a few other places.

Travel:

Once we aired down, we jumped on the Bunny trail and wandered around from there:

After Lunch, Bray D arrived at the park. His day hadn't started out well, and unfortunately, it didn't end well either. On the way down, he managed to lose a wiper blade during the rain storm, which delayed them quite a bit as they went looking for a replacement. It was nice to finally see the truck up close since it was his truck that inspired my build:

Group Shot:

We left the entrance and ran part of Hill and Gully to the waterfall. Unfortunately, this is where Bray managed to frag a shaft and bend up his bed side pretty good (less than 45 minutes on the trails at this point). Made for some pretty shots though:

We all heard the nasty POP when the shaft went, but he was still able to crawl out of it (You hear the pieces of the U joint fall out in this vid):


Another View:


So brought an abrupt end to his fun for the day. We got him back to the cabin and went on our merry way as he fixed his broken joint. The rest of the day was a casual cruise on trail 20 (tight!) on to the creek trail down by the camp ground:

Hmmm I think you're stuck there bud:

Yup, he was! (only strap used today):

Playing in the creek by the campground, YouTube's 'smoothing' feature works awesome:


After playing in the creek, my T-case was thumping under the truck again, and it was time to call it a day anyway so we loaded up and headed back. Everyone made it home without an issue, but there was a wee bit of someone watching over me during my trip home, which leads me to my carnage report.

-One dead Jump Joint (1350/1310) in the rear Drive Shaft, I just can't seem to keep those guys alive.

-I noticed on the way home that my stick shift was moving around quite a bit more than it should be, turns out I royally roached my transmission mount (hence the thing thumping against the cab). The skid plate is in the way right now so I can't quite tell what died, but either I have a failed weld on the mount, or it tore the sheet metal on the mount.

-All of my front leaf spring bushings (rubber) are shot at this point, guess I need to look into poly to see if they'll live longer.

-And the biggie:

That's a massive crack on my drivers side knuckle (the picture makes it look like a rusty crack, I assure you its fresh). Apparently I drove 2.5 hours home on curvy back roads and interstate with the thing cracked like that.

Yikes!

So it looks like it’s possible to crack the Ford knuckles without hydro assist on them. I am still surprised at that since I don’t believe that I hit that side hard enough to damage it like I have. I’ve got a set of Reid Knuckles on the way so I hope to be back in business soon.

To end on a positive note, the doubler setup has held together now for the past 4 trips, and lots of DD use, so I think its finally happy!

Here are a few gopro vids from my friend:

 

[kroussinoffroad]

You sure do break often HOWEVER i'm willing to bet your break to mile ratio is less than most. you sure do put some miles on the road an trail. I luck out and have never driven more than an hour to get to trail/gravel road

 

[Josh40601]

awesome! Looks like you guys had a good time.

I'm amazed how that 60 knuckle broke like that, especially since you said you did whack it on something. Glad you made it home ok.

I just did the poly bushing swap on my rears. The flex doesn't feel any less than it was with smoked out rubber ones, so I give them a thumbs up. Just a heads up though... The rubber ones DO NOT want to come out.

 

[kris97ranger]

Fire is your best friend to do leaf spring bushings

 

[Josh40601]

Fire is your best friend to do leaf spring bushings

If you say so. I tried the fire, no way. Put it outside when it was in the 20s, knocked right out

 

[Kage]

You sure do break often HOWEVER i'm willing to bet your break to mile ratio is less than most. you sure do put some miles on the road an trail. I luck out and have never driven more than an hour to get to trail/gravel road

We're rapidly approaching the 30k mile mark on this build, so when you put it that way the breakage doesn't seem too bad in terms of frequency. I'm still amazed at the way thing break on the truck though. I'm having things fail that I've never seen fail before, I guess I'm just special

awesome! Looks like you guys had a good time.

I'm amazed how that 60 knuckle broke like that, especially since you said you didn't whack it on something. Glad you made it home ok.

I just did the poly bushing swap on my rears. The flex doesn't feel any less than it was with smoked out rubber ones, so I give them a thumbs up. Just a heads up though... The rubber ones DO NOT want to come out.

Good to know on the poly. They seem to want real money for replacement rubber bushings, so I'll probably give the poly a try. its not real high on the radar right now, but I'll probably get at it once it warms up some.

Fire is your best friend to do leaf spring bushings

If you say so. I tried the fire, no way. Put it outside when it was in the 20s, knocked right out

I lack 'fire' around my garage, so I use a drill to remove a good portion of the rubber in the can (drill several holes as large as I can) and then just beat them out with an air hammer, or sledge. They usually pop out without too much fuss. The bigger pain is just unbolting the dang things to get everything out from under the truck. Now that I'm thinking about it though, I probably just need to go ahead and get them ordered since I'll have alot of the front tore apart swapping knuckles anyway. That work list just keeps getting longer!

 

[kris97ranger]

I dunno its always worked for me... and i dont bother taking the springs oft the truck. Light them once its soft take a flat head screw driver scrape out the soft stuff and re light. All ive used is a propane torch

 

[Bray D]

Thanks for the pics and videos! It was great to finally meet up with you guys. Unfortunately I spent more time wrenching than wheeling with you guys.

I had my spares swapped in by 4:30p or so. We ran all of White Knuckle, came back and ate dinner, then went out to play in the dark. We went everywhere that night and even ended up running a black diamond trail before making our way back to the cabin.

Sunday was a success. Swapped the fullsize doors on then went and played in the rain until early afternoon. Packed up and hit the road for the 300 mile trek back home. Everything went well.

I have an RGA number coming for the shafts. Yukon's "no questions asked" warranty policy (for the first claim) is pretty nice.

We'll get together again this summer I'm sure. The wheeling season is still young.

 

[Kage]

Thanks for the pics and videos! It was great to finally meet up with you guys. Unfortunately I spent more time wrenching than wheeling with you guys....

No worries, it happens to the best of us I do think that park has a jinx though as its not the hardest place I've ever wheeled at, but it has an abnormally high wheeling to breaking ratio. The 'dumbest' one was driving down there, hitting the trail, and in less than 1/2 hour, I had a new motor mount let go which shot the fan into my fancy new 3 row radiator in my XJ. I was none too pleased

...The wheeling season is still young.

Season? Heck we wheel all year long!

 

[n_bannerman]

Kage, how does the front mounted shackles ride when spending lots of time on pavement? Would you change to rear mounted shackles if you did it all again?

 

[bobbywalter]

i am hoping to reset angle but its not too bad on my rig.


if i put my powerstroke in the leaf will stay for a while.


i suspect he finds it livable as well.

 

[bobbywalter]

threadjack alert..........



(hey i am catching up fellas)

Sooo.

I am seriously considering getting a set of the military takeoffs, but ive been stuck on the fence for soo long.

what i would like to get is a tire that does good on and off road (yeah i know those dont exist) wear descent and arnt gonna cost me an arm and a leg. the real dealbreaker is that i'll be running a 16.5 wheel and recen-h1's are out of the question.

so my question to you is how do you think these tires would do without the option of airing down ?

my brother runs them but hard to judge due to his very eratic driving style. gets burried in the easiest spots yet makes it thru some gnarly stuff and doesnt even notice his hubs are unlocked (no joke)

im really not sure if i want to give up all offroad traction to gain a cheap, tuff, long wearing tire.

id get the re tread takeoffs. looks like a open country m/tthey seem like theyd be better then a regular h1. im trying to find xmls for my f350 right now works out to about a 39 amd have a standard 16" rim

only reasone im even thinking running the mt takeoffs is because there is a place a couple hours away that sells them so i can hand pick my own tires. ive talked with all my wheelin buddies and they are all on the fence as well. lucky for them they all have descent tires at the moment and arent in my pickle for mixed driving.

if i was JUST wheelin it. then the decision would be easy, however for how much roads this thing sees now between running to camp and driving around the takeoffs seem like a good choice except for the whole bead and traction issue

Irok radials are the tire you are looking for. I ran a set of 37's for about 8 months trail riding just about every other weekend and DDing. I bought the tires used with about 75% tread, put about 25k miles on them and sold them with at least 35-40% tread left on them. They were awesome offroad both in rocks and mud, even the slick stuff, and were pretty good on road too...

SVT

Lets put it this way, I sincerely wish I could go back and time and kick myself in the balls for going the .mil take off route. Of the two things that piss me off about the truck, and makes it a pain in the ass to drive, the .mil tires are #1.

I've had them on the truck now for about a year and a half (and approximately 10 k miles) and I'm amazed at how fast they are disappearing. I've easily burned 50% off the tires in that time frame, and for tires that were suppose to 'wear like iron' I'm not seeing that. The guy in the White XJ is having similar concerns as his are going away just as fast.

I will tell you that both of our rigs weigh in around 5.5-6k lbs so we're not exactly light so I'm sure that's not helping the wear issue.

I've already complained about the other issues I have had/currently have with balancing, and lack luster performance offroad. So no need to rehash that. I can safely say that the only thing they have going for them is that they're cheap.

When the time comes, I'm ditching the 16.5's and the .mil take offs if the money is available. If I don't have the coin, I'll slap another set on there and groove the hell out of them to see if it makes a difference offroad.


Someone mentioned retreads, and its my understanding that the retreads are actually using a softer compound than the original compound. So I would expect those to wear out quicker. And you'd still be stuck with the same crappy sidewall (which won't matter too much if its a street tire only).


As SVT mentioned, you might look into the IROkS, or it is going to be mostly a street rig, I'd look into the Rocky Mountain ATS's (I think its Falken that makes them). I had them on the jeep we took out west this year and I was extremely impressed with how well they worked for an all terrain.





Vacation time? What's that? I thought you were just a wheeling rock star and people just threw money at you


We're heading down to Flat Nasty Saturday, so I should have something up this weekend about that.

i would like for you guys to post thoughts on the militaries in this thread below please. it would be nice to keep that together if possible. the new generations of tires are showing up too but these reg gy mt i have had some shitty results myself. i would really appreciate it.


http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97361&page=2


thank you

 

[94 lngbd]

Kage: Whats that item that is in the center of the front wheel of your friends exod white Cherokee? Also what was the reason for him swapping from coils to leafs? as from what I see the approach angle is less having leaf springs then coils

 

[bobbywalter]

monster axle was set up for leafs.


leafs are retarded simple to make work.


easy smeazy


just a shot in the dark

 

[Kage]

Kage, how does the front mounted shackles ride when spending lots of time on pavement? Would you change to rear mounted shackles if you did it all again?

...i suspect he finds it livable as well.

The thing is by far the best riding wheeler I have ever had. And it rides nicer than several luxury cars I've owned/ridden in. Its quite liveable so to speak.

No, I would never go to a rear mounted shackle. Ever.

I know there is quite a bit of debate on rear vs. front mounted, but of the ones I've seen in the wild, I do not like how the rear mounted shackles work off-road while climbing obstacles.

If I were to do everything over again, I would run leaves with more arch so that I could tuck the front hangers up higher. Right now they hang down a bit and can make it a little more challenging to get the front end up on things. Since I have the leaves pulled out right now (swapping bushings) it has been giving me evil thoughts on going to a Radius Arm/3 link setup just to gain that extra approach angle back again. I doubt I'll ever get around to doing that though as the leaves work just fine.

As a side note, you'll probably want to run a track/pan-hard bar depending on how things get setup. I wound up making a removable bar that I yank off at the trail head. The bar made the on road steering feel considerably better, your millage may very.

threadjack alert.........(.mil takeoff stuff)

I've been eyeballing the MTR's in the .mil flavor. Higher load range (E) and supposedly stronger sidewall than the M/T's I have currently. Buying the new knuckles wiped out my tire budget though, so I'll keep rocking what I have for now and hope for the best.

Kage: Whats that item that is in the center of the front wheel of your friends exod white Cherokee? Also what was the reason for him swapping from coils to leafs? as from what I see the approach angle is less having leaf springs then coils

That is his hub protectors. He is running GM outters which puts the hubs about 1/2" out further than the Ford outters. That 1/2" puts the hub out far enough that it can get dragged on rocks and such. So he took some pipe, split it in half, and slipped it over the hubs themselves. He then uses a muffler clamp to hold the whole thing together. It takes a couple of seconds to take them off/on and has saved his hubs quite a few times.

A big driving reason for him going with leaves was that he was fighting massive death wobble with the Jeep 5 link setup. So he ditched the whole thing and went with leaves to make it easier to diagnose potential issues, and it was just easier/cheaper to throw some leaves under there.