Stuka

Be careful with that Hemi and the Atlas 4. The 4sp's do not hold up as well to power.

And one of the many downsides to an automatic, deep gearing means your brakes don't work quite so well. Not clutch to push in

CALIJK

Thanks Stuka;! But, I definitely prefer my Auto over manual! I've wheeled with both and it is just my personal preference.

Stuka

Oh autos have their advantages for sure, and everybody has their own preference. I was just poking a bit of fun

CALIJK

BEAST will be pre-running and chasing at the Baja 500 next month, so we've decided to fine tune the suspension a bit for running fast in the desert. We will be lowering the ride height and going with a lower spring rate. Got some new Eibach springs in - these are 18" length, 3" diameter, with a 200 pound spring rate. So, we will be shredding about 100 pounds of spring rate per corner. My lower back is really going to appreciate this!

CALIJK

And, in case we need to run at night in Baja, which is pretty much a given, we are going to add some lighting. We already have one 20 inch Rigid mounted above the winch, and we are going to add two more 20" Rigids and some smaller floods. We were short one light, but UPS brought it today.

Jeek.OlllllllO

After the baja 500 if you don't need them anymore I'll take one off your hands lol

The beast is gonna look good lowered and with more Lights!

Are you guys taking Vince's jeep as well?

CALIJK

Sorry Edgar - no hand me downs this time. No, just taking BEAST. Vince's Jeep was pretty badly abused at the last two races doing pre-running and recoveries. Plus, he pilots BEAST - I'm just the navigator.

CALIJK

Over in Sylmar today at the HigherGround Fab shop, Jim Cox played around with some 1 3/4" DOM, trying to figure out how we want to mount the lights above the windshield. Of course, there are plenty of great brackets out there that simply bolt to the windshield frame, but keeping with our "go big or go home" theme, we are convinced to try something a bit more robust. Plus, it would be nice the next time we flop, to have some windshield protection.

So, looks like we will go with 1 3/4" up and over the cowl, which will be tied into the frame mounted roll cage structure. Then, another 1 3/4" hoop coming off that bar going up along the line of the windshield frame. And, the lights will be mounted and protected inside that upper bar.

Kind of hard to envision right now, but here's as far as we got today with bending and laying out the lower bar over the cowl:

CALIJK

Jim Cox continued his work on the "light bar" today. He drilled some holes in the cowl in order to tie the lower hoop into the cage that runs from the engine compartment into the cab. Then, he got the upper hoop dialed in. At this point, he had an epiphany, realizing that with this set-up, we would never be able to get the windshield out again. The solution was to put couplers on the bars in front of the windshield so we can remove them when necessary. Anyway, enough talk, here are some pics:

CALIJK

And some more: