WonTon JLUR Build on 42's

[WontonJLUR]

Been a while since I’ve updated this.

few months ago, I smoked a ditch while night wheeling. Bent the front lower control arm and partially tore the mount off the frame.

so that got replaced by the RPM 3 link front. Super nice kit, welded on all the bolt on parts because why not.

only had 1 trip on it, and a handful of road miles, but it’s the cats ass. Front is noticeably smoother over road bumps.

with mid arms, I had to put a spring in on the “low” side in order to jack up the “high” side for shop articulation. The front 3 link is completely unrestricted and has no issues flexing with no springs in either direction.

Next up is triangulated 4 link rear, which also requires a fuel cell.

RPM fuel cell, easy install and great kit.

still waiting on parts for the rear 4 link, and front and rear towers for ORIs.

installed motobilt truss on the rear axle:

More to follow, but that’s where we’re at right now

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[RhinoJLU]

Awesome stuff!

 

[Ney Kerestegian]

Been a while since I’ve updated this.

few months ago, I smoked a ditch while night wheeling. Bent the front lower control arm and partially tore the mount off the frame.

so that got replaced by the RPM 3 link front. Super nice kit, welded on all the bolt on parts because why not.

only had 1 trip on it, and a handful of road miles, but it’s the cats ass. Front is noticeably smoother over road bumps.

with mid arms, I had to put a spring in on the “low” side in order to jack up the “high” side for shop articulation. The front 3 link is completely unrestricted and has no issues flexing with no springs in either direction.

Next up is triangulated 4 link rear, which also requires a fuel cell.

RPM fuel cell, easy install and great kit.

still waiting on parts for the rear 4 link, and front and rear towers for ORIs.

installed motobilt truss on the rear axle:

More to follow, but that’s where we’re at right now

Wow. Those welds look sexy

 

[WontonJLUR]

Rear suspension showed up. Long arms be long!

New rear crossmember with mounts for lower links. Upper link mounts are separate weld on brackets

Sooner or later I’ll get these tacked up and cycle the rear axle roughly 1,000 times before final welding everything up.

Front and rear towers shipped today, so should have some progress on those by next weekend.

 

[WontonJLUR]

Had some time to get everything tacked and do a little bit of cycling and measuring.

Forgot to mention the rear brake changes. Range industries now makes a kit for a whole host of axles, JL stocks included, to convert to an electronic parking brake. Dove in on that because my parking brake never really worked since the axle swap.

no wiring or anything going to it yet, of course. But that’ll get run up the upper links with brake lines and wheel speed sensor wires.

 

[WontonJLUR]

towers are here. Currently working through install. Front will be easy, so doing the rear first

Goodbye, rear frame.

New tower tacked in. Effectively replaced the removed portion of the frame

Getting there. Still have to repeat on the passenger side.

front ORIs ordered because Jensen brothers had stock of 14” in blue. Search begins for 16” in blue

 

[WontonJLUR]

The 3.5 Metalcloak system is for sale! If you’ve made it through the pics in the first page, you can see that it handles big axles and 42s/43s no problem!

https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/metalcloak-3-5”-gamechanger.164663/

 

[WontonJLUR]

Some more progress, but not as much as I'd like. Waiting to start this until after there was a newborn in the house was not one of my brighter ideas....

That's close to what full passenger side stuff will be.

I had originally planned to run a 16" ORI in the rear, with the axle mount on the rear of the tube. For a variety of reasons, I decided that it would ultimately be better to run a 14" ORI on the top of the tube. Functionally, this will be pretty damn close to the same end result. Mounted at the top of the tube is about 3.5" higher than on the back of the tube. So this nearly negates the 4" extended difference between a 14" ORI and a 16" ORI. It also clears up some uptravel concerns in multiple spots.

So the rear is more or less tacked where it needs to be. I'm considering chopping off the frame side upper link bracket and welding in an adjustable one, which will give me some adjustability on my anti squat and put a few things in a place that I'm happier with.

Now onto the front. Required some modifications to the battery support.

The incredibly precise blue line is where the battery support used to be. Can also see the heat shield taped wiring loom just beneath that. That used to be contained in a plastic molded wiring shield that was heat shield taped, but that had to go. Didn't take any pics of that beforehand.

Next, had to modify the plastic battery tray that sits atop the support:

Blue circled used to look like green circled.

Now the tower juuuuuuust clears.

Driver side tower was pretty easy to clear, nothing really to report there.

Next I got a chance to start doing some testing on the flex. Have only had a chance to do one side, but the other side shouldn't give me too many surprises.

This is within 1/4" of where max downtravel will be. I'm a fan.

and finally, I got one of the sets of ORIs in!
unfortunately, the baby hit 12 weeks and has been an absolute handful the last few days so I haven't really had a chance to do anything with them yet.

Such a big fan of the blue

The misalignment spacers are a major pain in the ass to handle, along with the strut, while trying to slide all 3 pieces into the mount and keep them aligned in order to slide the bolt through. ORI sells a slug for 20 bucks that helps out with this, but I figured I could just 3D print them instead and not wait for shipping

 

[RhinoJLU]

Some more progress, but not as much as I'd like. Waiting to start this until after there was a newborn in the house was not one of my brighter ideas....

That's close to what full passenger side stuff will be.

I had originally planned to run a 16" ORI in the rear, with the axle mount on the rear of the tube. For a variety of reasons, I decided that it would ultimately be better to run a 14" ORI on the top of the tube. Functionally, this will be pretty damn close to the same end result. Mounted at the top of the tube is about 3.5" higher than on the back of the tube. So this nearly negates the 4" extended difference between a 14" ORI and a 16" ORI. It also clears up some uptravel concerns in multiple spots.

So the rear is more or less tacked where it needs to be. I'm considering chopping off the frame side upper link bracket and welding in an adjustable one, which will give me some adjustability on my anti squat and put a few things in a place that I'm happier with.

Now onto the front. Required some modifications to the battery support.

The incredibly precise blue line is where the battery support used to be. Can also see the heat shield taped wiring loom just beneath that. That used to be contained in a plastic molded wiring shield that was heat shield taped, but that had to go. Didn't take any pics of that beforehand.

Next, had to modify the plastic battery tray that sits atop the support:

Blue circled used to look like green circled.

Now the tower juuuuuuust clears.

Driver side tower was pretty easy to clear, nothing really to report there.

Next I got a chance to start doing some testing on the flex. Have only had a chance to do one side, but the other side shouldn't give me too many surprises.

This is within 1/4" of where max downtravel will be. I'm a fan.

and finally, I got one of the sets of ORIs in!
unfortunately, the baby hit 12 weeks and has been an absolute handful the last few days so I haven't really had a chance to do anything with them yet.

Such a big fan of the blue

The misalignment spacers are a major pain in the ass to handle, along with the strut, while trying to slide all 3 pieces into the mount and keep them aligned in order to slide the bolt through. ORI sells a slug for 20 bucks that helps out with this, but I figured I could just 3D print them instead and not wait for shipping

Maybe it’s just the angle but it looks like a good ways away from being at full stuff in the front with the ori fully compressed. Maybe if you use a lower shock bracket that mounts lower? That lower shock mount may also give you a pretty high ride height with only 4 inches of shaft showing. Again maybe it’s just the angle in the pic

 

[WontonJLUR]

Maybe it’s just the angle but it looks like a good ways away from being at full stuff in the front with the ori fully compressed. Maybe if you use a lower shock bracket that mounts lower? That lower shock mount may also give you a pretty high ride height with only 4 inches of shaft showing. Again maybe it’s just the angle in the pic

If you’re specifically referencing the pic that has the ORI in it, there’s about 1” to full bump on the ORI. That said, full bump and full single side articulation are not the same thing. The pic with the ORI has the axle jacked up on both sides.

what is my belly height going to be with 4” of shaft showing? What belly height are you running and with how much shaft showing on your ORIs?

 

[RhinoJLU]

I was referencing this pic. It just seems like you have a lot of room for up travel with only one inch of shaft showing. I mentioned high ride height just cause adding 3 or 4 more inches of shaft will give you a pretty big gap between tire and fender. Again maybe it could just be the angle of the pic. Just curious on your thoughts

 

[WontonJLUR]

I was referencing this pic. It just seems like you have a lot of room for up travel with only one inch of shaft showing. I mentioned high ride height just cause adding 3 or 4 more inches of shaft will give you a pretty big gap between tire and fender. Again maybe it could just be the angle of the pic. Just curious on your thoughts

So that picture is at close to full bump, meaning both sides are close to max height. Full bump is always a bit lower than full uptravel on articulation.

here’s the same measured height (ORI not installed) but this time articulation with the passenger side drooped

Here’s a comparison of the rear. Same exact philosophy applies. Full bump leaves the perception of room for more uptravel, but the ORI is at its max compression in both pictures. ORIs are installed on both sides. Driver side is within an inch of max droop in the first picture

the rear has 5” of useful shaft show.
Meaning, at absolute max compression, there is about .7” of chrome shaft visible on the struts. So the total shaft show is 5.7”, but it’s really 5” usable.

as far as ride heights, the belly height is 21.5” to the skids. the front will have 4.5” of shaft show.

Here is what ride height looks like:

coincidentally, it’s the same height as the Jeep had with a 3.5” lift

 

[WontonJLUR]

Front full bump vs full articulation. ORIs installed both sides

full bump:

Full articulation:

this is not where the axle mounts will be permanently. I’m gonna move them down maybe 1/2” or so. Still plenty of margin for ground clearance.

 

[RhinoJLU]

Yeah those full articulation pics look so much different at full bump. That’s great ride height you got going there. Any idea how much lower those lower mounts hang below the axle tube?

 

[WontonJLUR]

Yeah those full articulation pics look so much different at full bump. That’s great ride height you got going there. Any idea how much lower those lower mounts hang below the axle tube?

Bump vs articulation is just the way the cookie crumbles. In theory I could get full bump way higher, but then my tire would be as tall as the hood on full stuff and I’d have an obscene amount of cutting to do. and I’ve already cut and done a lot of work to both front and rear

I haven’t caught a measurement, but maybe an inch or so below the bottom of the tube. Nothing below the tube on the rear.

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