We've been working away on two Jeeps to take to EJS and Jeep Beach; Project Crusader and Project Maul Hauler. We finished Crusader, but we've been strung out on parts from a certain vendor and now we have to go with plan B. We have two weeks to get this Jeep ready for EJS and Jeep Beach and the 4800 mile journey.

Here's a behind the scene video of Plan B!
http://youtu.be/qBZB3pBe31U And so it begins!

~Brian

 

haha.....nice

 

Looks like JCR is going to be well represented this year at EJS. Good stuff Brian.

 

Probably would have been smarter to start with a Rubicon, but figured my wife didn't need it to haul kids to daycare! So out with the D30....



And in with this completely amazing Tera44 front housing! If you are not familiar with the Tera44 housing, they are awesome! The craftsmanship is top notch and Hand-Built right here in the USA. Kudos to TeraFlex for making such a great product!



Now, it's time to get this front end back together and lifted!



~Brian

 

We've got the TeraFlex Dana 44 housing hung, new ball joints installed.



Ripped out the rear axle, swapped with a geared Rubicon Dana 44:



More to come, going to be a long night!
~Brian

 

Rear Rubicon Axle with 4.88's installed, along with the rear JKS J-Spec suspension lift! You can see the carcass of Maul Hauler in the background, some day maybe we'll get the parts needed to finish the LS swap. :endrant:



Added a TeraFlex rear diff cover to match with the front housing:



While Daryl is slaving away getting the drivetrain and suspension together, I decided to lend a hand by installing some JcrOffroad Classic Sliders! Probably one of the easiest things to install on this entire Jeep! haha. But hey, it all has to get done

Fresh back from the powder coater!


Easy Breezy!


Just to give us an idea of what this beast is going to look like on the 37" Toyo's, we put the front on jack stands and installed the rear tires! I hope is settles some, but we'll see once we get some armor and bumpers on it!





These Toyo Open Country MT's are some sexy tires! The best part, they are made in the USA!



Well, that's all for tonight! More to come tomorrow!
~Brian

 

With the Rubicon axles now installed, we only needed a Rubicon T-case to make this thing a full on Duplicon (or Doppelcon, Copycon)! Since this JKU is an Auto, the donor had to be 2012-2014 Rubicon with an Auto. Yep, good luck! Fortunately, I did have some very good luck and found a totaled 2012 Auto Rubicon at a Honda Import Junkyard! $1200 shipped, no core. Very happy with that.

Big goofy input shaft is what makes this not play with the previous Autos or Manual transmissions.




Took me just over an hour to get the old case out and the new Rubicon case in!


Next up; driveshafts and finish assembly of front axle!
~Brian

 

Walked about to the garage after the last update to find that the Magnaflow Exhaust we order was here!!! This is a complete exhaust kit from the cats back!

The stuff on top is for replacing the goofy 2012-2014 exhaust loop.



Here is what is in the bottom box! The rest of the exhaust! A resonator AND a muffler! This stuff is sooooo nice and best part; MADE IN THE USA!



To install the front kit tubes, you will have to cut the down pipe on the driver side. 3" down from the weld on the cat.



Here is all the stock crap, heading to the dumpster, to be recycled into something worth while!

[img]http://www.jcrpics.com/jcrrigs/DogHouse/21.jpg[img]

The front kit installed, much better!



The resonator and mid pipes installed:


Axle over pipe and muffler!


They make another kit that relocates the muffler up under the Jeep. But since I don't want to be in the dog house forever, I thought the milder sounding exhaust system would be the better choice!

[sarcasim]I bet Amy will love the way this sounds! [/endsarcasim]

The entire exhaust system took me just under an hour to install! The quality and fit of this kit is unsurpassed, Magnaflow has this dialed in! If you had to do this by yourself in your driveway, I would say around a 3 hour job to take out the old exhaust and install the new Magnaflow stuff.

Allllllight.....now onto getting the driveshafts installed and front end wrapped up!
~Brian

 

Installed a set of RCV front axles into the Tera44 housing. It's like these are meant for each other, such a beautiful couple!



Stole this image off our FB page as well, same shafts went into Project Dog House!



Bonus, check out this awesome hat RCV sent!!! Hahhahahhahahahaha too funny! The back of the hat says "What's under the orange dome?" I can see this being used for JCR videos in the future! hahaha



For Driveshafts we went with Adam's Driveshafts from Henderson, NV. If you haven't heard of these guys, you need to check them out! Welcome to Adams Driveshaft and Off Road | Henderson, NV We are very picky about our quality around here and it's obvoius they are as well! The craftsmanship on these shafts is like nothing I've seen before. These guys do damn good work! These shafts are out of Maul Hauler and we lucked out that they work in Project Dog House! I've already informed Daryl that Maul Hauler is SOL on Driveshafts! I'm keeping these Adams units!

Stole this from our FB page to show the quality! Note the piece of paper stapled around the shaft, that is James (the owner of Adam's) person email address! Talk about first class customer service!


Rear Driveshaft, comes with both replacement yokes needed (Tcase side, Axle side):



Front Driveshaft, comes with a replacement yoke needed for Tcase skid:



Up next; finish the front end, install some JCR Skids and flex it with a fork lift!
~Brian

 

Front end back together! It's awesome looking!


Tossed on our Tcase skid and Engine skid, I'm guessing we'll need these in Moab!





While Daryl was taking a break on the front end, I install some Truck-lite LED Headlights. These things are super easy to install, should take you less than 30 minutes! Huge upgrade over the stock headlights!



Installed! Look awesome with the Billet color!



Low Beams:


High Beams:


Now to get this thing down on the ground and outside for a test drive!
~Brian