I sold my 99 TJ on 37's so I could move up to an unlimited. I hope to build this into a jeep to take the family out to Colorado or Moab to hit some trails. My intention is to keep this low enough to drive everyday. I don't want to be climbing up into this a hundred times a day. I'm getting too old for that. It's a 2015 Rubicon auto. It is black for now, the kids insist we paint it Gecko Green like the TJ. For my first screw up I bought some 17" wheels and 35" mud terrains so I could take the beadlocks off the TJ. For some reason I forgot they were 5 on 5 1/2. So I sold the factory rubi wheels and tires and stuck the 35's on. I had to either remove or trim the Rubi rails. So I removed them. I wanted Lod rock rails anyway.

 

So I kept the poison spider rear bumper I had on my 09. Bought some LOD rails and trimmed the fenders to fit the 35's with no lift. And drove it like that until my busy season was over. Then I started to think about where I wanted to end up. I have been the tube and truss and gusset route with a 44 on my 09 plow Jeep. That's just too much work for crappy ball joints and unit bearings. Then I started hearing about the Dana Ultimate 60's. So I thought that was the going to be basis for my build. They were a little more wallet friendly than the ProRocks. I finally ordered them from Northridge along with a full set of synergy control arms after Thanksgiving. Then my Dads health got really bad so they sat in a crate for a couple months.

 

Right before Christmas it was really warm and my general manager and I thought we should get the Willys running. We drove it down to see my Dad. Thought it would cheer him up to see it. He always wanted to redo it. So after we got back the shop my guy had convinced me to start on it. We thought we would surprise him. Well that wasn't to be. Dad passed away the day after Christmas. But the Willy is still in progress! It should be done soon. Another month goes by and now it's the end of January.

 

That pretty much gets me where I'm at now. We finally got the axles under the jeep. That only took about a day, I can't believe how easy that upgrade is. I spent weeks cutting and grinding on my TJ to build the rear suspension. Now I'm articulating things around to see where I can end up with ride height. I'm trying to figure out my max and min shock length with out interference. I want to be about 2 1/2" of lift. I am going to run 35's daily and 37's to wheel, so I don't need much lift as long as I don't lose my uptravel to bump stops. Right now I have all factory steering, but I'm hitting the pitman arm joint on the tierod when the driver side is stuffed and the passenger is drooped out. I have a synergy tie rod on order, so hopefully that will give me the clearance I need to keep it low and not have to add bump stop. I also have to do something with the rear sway bar. The links hit on the control arm brackets. I ordered the synergy rear sway bar relocation blocks. Hopefully that will move the sway bar back enough and not place it up against the muffler. I also added a Vicks fab front bumper and a warn 10s platinum.

 

Yesterday I ordered a synergy tierod from River City. It showed up today. Damn that was fast. It is installed and that got rid of my interference with the pitman arm joint for now. Also put the block in there to move the rear sway bar back. It clears the muffler, but I think it's going to bang on it when the exhaust shakes. Maybe I can pry the exhaust around a little. We'll see.
So running these axles with only two inches of lift is getting close to the point of being on the bump stops at ride height. I had to add about three inches of bump stop. The frame side track bar mount was hitting on the axle tube and the tierod is still pretty close to the pitman arm. I may be able to fudge a little more room by pulling the axle back a little. I'll have to see how much space I have when I put the coils back in and set it back on the wheels. I think it may only have a couple inches of up travel which really sucks. Right now, I think my collapsed shock length can be 17.5 on the front. Looks like I may be able to get a shock with a collapsed length of 16.5 and extended length of 27.5. So I'd have about 10 inches of travel. Seems like I should be able to find something better than that. Maybe some 12" travel shocks would still be short enough collapsed?

 

The jeep is rolling again. I ended up with about 3 inches of up travel front and back. So about where it was stock. I have about 5 inches of down travel in front and 7 in the back. The front needs some shocks. Hopefully something with 12" travel if I can find it. Maybe I need to go to a shock adapter to get away from stem mount. That would help me get the front to droop more. I can use a minimum shock length of 17" if anybody knows of something. I also don't like the rake look so I may lower the back a little if I can shorten the bump stops without hitting the new axles on anything. My rear shocks are 5100's and I don't think removing a little bump stop will bottom them out. It'll be close enough I'll pull the springs and articulate it though.

 

Sorry about your dad. Looks like the jeep is on its way.

 

Looks like I'll need a rear track bar to give me some more up travel when I change out bumps. The factory one hits on the diff. I think I'll build some shorter bump stops for the back since I only need about an inch and a half.
The front is pretty much squared away, Marcus at River City found me some Fox ifp shocks that are 17 compressed and 28 extended. That should do it. I just need to settle on the coils now. Something 2 1/2 in front and 1 1/2 rear would be ideal. That would level it out assuming I get advertised lift.
I did have to remove the steering damper. It won't work on the synergy tie rod.

 

I used the rock krawler 2 1/2 4 door springs. It leveled out nice. The Fox ifp shocks barely fit. They will barely rub on the passenger side against the frame when it's drooped out and the driver side is stuffed. But it works! An adjustable track bar would help, but I don't think I'll mess w it. The front is only off by maybe half an inch. The Rubi sway bar will need to be disconnected or the links will be the holdup. So the front is all set. On the rear, I was able to get by with an 1 1/2 of bump stop with some minor grinding of a rib on the diff cover after adding the synergy rear track bar. The tire clearance is real good all the way around, and I think it'll clear 37's the way it sits.
Now it needs to go for alignment even though it drives awesome.

 

Current picture.