Lil Sports guide from Marketplace Mojave to a Raptor hunting journey

[Bdoza10]

After months of patiently waiting I finally found a matching spare rim.

Comically enough, my wife’s misses her old spare

I also found these in an attempt to get our rear sway bar back on. But it still hits the shocks so I might be on the hunt for an anti rock in the rear

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[Bdoza10]

Are you running without a rear swaybar?

Yea, and we kinda love the driving experience, slight body roll on initial turn in. But zero rock through gutters while turning. And out on trail it’s amazing. Same steering confidence as usual but way less rocking inside the cab when crossing rain ruts. Also the massive 3.0’s keep us firmly planted.

after our last test runs my wife okayed splurging on front 3.0’s to match our rears. Big swing for a gal with a strict budget.​

 

[Bdoza10]

With that, we’re just about caught up with where our build is at currently. We managed to pay her jeep fully off last week and we celebrated by taking her out on our favorite test trail.

my wife couldn’t stop raving about how much she loved her new shocks and the confidence they gave her to just smash through her trails.
They were an honest 10mph jump in our cruising speed. Just from the rears alone and those foam bumps worked wonders on controlling our bottoming in the rear.

I went home and put a set of front 3.0’s in my cart on polyperformance, and fell asleep.

my wife woke me up to get her a midnight treat and because my phone was lighting up.

our alerts were going off about these

With her immediate blessing we decided to celebrate the jeep being ours fully with a bit more jewelry.

Just sheer luck we finally got those rear 3.0’s dialed just in time to snag this deal. It’s not always easy convincing your partner on spending that kind of money at the drop of a hat. But she instantly said yes.

These happened to be the 4in versions from Fox but I have plans on getting that to work in our low slung set up. Plus I like the idea of the extra travel up front.

They only have a few 1,000 miles on them and it shows.

I was ecstatic to see Fox runs rubber bushings up front on these and that the eyelets are stubby.

The seller has a similar build, he just managed to get a deal with ADS for full external bypasses that he couldn’t pass up and was paying it forward with selling these. Once again we now have another trail buddy that we can’t wait to go wheel with.

Now if anyone has some information on where I can get a deal on some 4.56 full floats

I’m now scrambling to source the wider axle to squeeze these in. From what I can tell I’m gonna need some outboard mounts. I’m just torn between metalcloak, evo protek, or synergy. But they all seem to interfere with the brakes on the narrow axle from my research.

And if anyone needs a sport axle set I’d love to sell these cheap for anyone in need

 

[Bayrat]

I'm interested in how that Gladiator shock setup fit to your Wrangler. I have a 392 Rubicon and it's so rigid on the highway it steers itself bouncing off the expansion joints in the road. My Gladiator Mojave, on the other hand, with that Fox setup, is a dream to drive on highway or off road. I've held off due to the horror stories I hear about the limited suspension travel on the Rubicon 392 due to the lifted profile.

 

[Bdoza10]

I'm interested in how that Gladiator shock setup fit to your Wrangler. I have a 392 Rubicon and it's so rigid on the highway it steers itself bouncing off the expansion joints in the road. My Gladiator Mojave, on the other hand, with that Fox setup, is a dream to drive on highway or off road. I've held off due to the horror stories I hear about the limited suspension travel on the Rubicon 392 due to the lifted profile.

Oh man , I would recommend everyone do the Mojave shock swap. One because they can be had for cheap. And two because it saves you a lot of the headaches of other shocks like some of the longer shocks needing a new front driveshaft. Honestly they would probably be perfect on a 392 with the extra weight.

now from some Threads I’ve read on here the 392’s biggest issue is those front bumpstops being extended. You might want to do Fox or king bump stops in the front for the biggest Change on your jeep.

the Mojave swap just requires https://a.co/d/1V5nkMg
And some washers for the rear. I got mine from ace, cost like 13$ I can measure the set I have here if you want.

also from my understanding the Mojave shocks were designed to work well with up to a 2in lift. But if you wanted to make yours feel a bit sportier. You could do metalcloaks out board shock mounts that raise the eyelets. Or some teraflex shock extensions. I’ve just did the fox extensions that bolt in, raise and outboard the mounts. I’ll report back once we trail test the new set up. I noticed we still had about 1in of shock shaft left so I’m just trying to maximize that set up before we move on to the 3.0 up front

 

[Bayrat]

Thanks for the answer

 

[Bdoza10]

Mojave shocks off to their new home. Now the fourth jeep owner to see the light and refuse to ever drive a floppy mess

all while I learn first hand how horrid the stock rubicon shocks are as i currently am running them while my 3.0’s are out getting a revalve and service. I knocked a hose loose while putting them up in storage in preparation for our hopefully soon axle swap.

Outboarding the rubicon shocks was necessary as they were making my wife car sick driving around town. The mount changed helped a ton. But now she’s pissed off most fire roads in our area are now a 5-10mph top speed without shaking off the road. Tbh around town they aren’t terrible other than the severe nose dive when braking and the new lean when Turning. It’s so bad she green lit rock jock heavy sway bars 🫡. Thankfully this is just temporary

Had to add some copper washers to space out the steering stops to clear the outboarding mounts needed to run the 3.0’s pretty sure they won’t play nicely with the narrow axle. But once they’re back I’ll hopefully be able to mock them up incase anyone else is this nutty in the future and try’s to run them on narrow axles

 

[Bdoza10]

Scored a power tank for $200. Found a mount for $60. Went to harbor freight for hose and inflator for $40. 16psi to 36psi is now under 30 seconds per wheel vs the 5-10 mins we used to suffer through with our old dewalt set up.

 

[Bdoza10]

Well hopefully after two bumpstop rebuilds and a full front revalve. We have this thing fully dialed in because it’s now got its most important passenger on board and in his own seat.

May he never know all the bumps in the road

 

[Bayrat]

Oh man , I would recommend everyone do the Mojave shock swap. One because they can be had for cheap. And two because it saves you a lot of the headaches of other shocks like some of the longer shocks needing a new front driveshaft. Honestly they would probably be perfect on a 392 with the extra weight.

now from some Threads I’ve read on here the 392’s biggest issue is those front bumpstops being extended. You might want to do Fox or king bump stops in the front for the biggest Change on your jeep.

the Mojave swap just requires https://a.co/d/1V5nkMg
And some washers for the rear. I got mine from ace, cost like 13$ I can measure the set I have here if you want.

also from my understanding the Mojave shocks were designed to work well with up to a 2in lift. But if you wanted to make yours feel a bit sportier. You could do metalcloaks out board shock mounts that raise the eyelets. Or some teraflex shock extensions. I’ve just did the fox extensions that bolt in, raise and outboard the mounts. I’ll report back once we trail test the new set up. I noticed we still had about 1in of shock shaft left so I’m just trying to maximize that set up before we move on to the 3.0 up front

PM me or post here, either way I do wish to replace the shocks. Just looking for the best method to install those Mojave shocks and reservoir. Or perhaps another brand if a direct fit. Thanks and good job with the thread.

 

[WontonJLUR]

Very cool build, great work! Right around where I grew up (Joined the Navy out of Redlands recruiting station)

 

[Bdoza10]

PM me or post here, either way I do wish to replace the shocks. Just looking for the best method to install those Mojave shocks and reservoir. Or perhaps another brand if a direct fit. Thanks and good job with the thread.

Truly you just need https://a.co/d/1V5nkMg
Order two sets. And some washers to make the rears fit.

Really dealers choice on that. I originally did it with like 16 3/4 washers cause I have a ton from work. Then I just sized some out at ace hardware that made my days simpler when pulling the shocks often. Really just because I enjoy the testing and tuning process.

And my reservoirs have been zip tied in place for 11,000 hard hard miles so absolutely that works if you don’t care about aesthetics.

I know the stock Mojave mounts work that’s what my friend is using.

And I have another build that just used the universal mounts that Fox sells for like 20$

 

[Bdoza10]

Annoyed with the jeeps constantly high operating temps I decided to dive in and start with the cheapest and easiest mods. Swapping in a gladiator grill. I wanted a 2024+ grill but my wife wasn’t a fan.

Once I started to dive in I noticed a large section of our radiators is covered by the horns. So out of just the temptation to see what would happen if I moved them. I quickly unbolted the easier brackets and started scrabbling to see where else I could squeeze them in without modifying the harnesses too much.

In another thread it was highly recommended to wash the radiators and holy cow were they filthy and packed with bugs and rocks. So I took my time and picked as many out as I could.

Now with all these changes we went from cruising around at 220 down to 190 on the hwy to 210max during hard acceleration. The one thing that hasn’t changed is our parking lot and idle temps are still 220. I’ll hopefully have a solution for that soon.

 

[Bdoza10]

This was actually the first thing I told my wife I was gonna mod on her jeep. It’s been two years since saying that but the stars finally aligned and I scored an 8.4 nav for 400$ with the ac panel

gotta appreciate how easy this swap was, anyone on the fence should just do it immediately. Honest to god 10 min swap and minimal tools needed. Small prying implement and an a socket

 

[Bdoza10]

After a year of hunting these lovely things finally came home with me. Not cheap but absolutely impressive units. 392 xr 4.56 full floats. I had been dodging offers of 3k for 4.10 full floats for a month now and patiently waiting. Under a few thousand miles before the previous owner could get his Dana 60’s shipped in.

Getting them out of the truck was a ton of fun. Bit stressful at times, even for a professional. Shoulda put them in my trailer…

those interested in doing the swap yourself these are all the tools I’ve used to do it in my janky uneven carport.

These being the main crew and what I consider the most important of the bunch.

Just over an hour to free the old sport axle… 30 mins of that figuring out how to disconnect the abs line.

The new axle is in a whole other class. Iron knuckles, 4.56 gears, cv joints, thicker tubes, much larger C ends, locker! Never really wanted one but we came to party, and massive brakes. Since day one I’ve wanted to upgrade our brakes but I held strong that when the time was right I would just go all the way. So glad we waited.

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