Fast Jeeps in Dirt?

[dumpsterRatz]

Most JLU's I've ever come across that have a lot of extra kit installed seem geared towards crawling over rocks, overlanding and such, but not at a fast pace.

Are there any Jeepers out there that have focused on a higher speed jeep off road? Not top end speed, but just accelerating thru dirt like a UTV?
Like the Baja race trucks and such? I am blown away by how fun the V6 is in the dirt, and how much the engine seems to enjoy going WOT and how good it sounds with an intake.

I have a JLU 2018 Sport S, and she's never had a traction problem in the dirt, runs stock Rubicon wheels and tires and is on basic Bilstein dampers.

Would having the entire axle setup from a rubicon , including it's differentials etc. necessarily be better for dirt racing? I cannot figure if the heavier duty and heavier weight would help make it more stable jumping thru bumpy dirt mounds and such or if the added weight would just slow it down and not add much. I've never needed a locker with the dirt so far, but does anyone have any opinions about this? There must be some other maniacs out there that enjoy ripping these jeeps around. thank you in advance

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[Deleted User 38384]

Probably a bit of opinion on this one, but really, solid axles are made for crawling over stuff, if you want to move fast over things you should really look into getting independent suspension. It's definitely all about your suspension setup, but independent suspension will handle that a lot better from the factory without massive costly upgrades. That's why you see a lot of 4Runners and Tacomas doing the trail runner builds.
This is also one of the reasons why I hate it when Tacoma owners compare their rigs to JT's, not really comparable.

I personally haven't seen any Wrangler builds going the Trail runner route, I think most Jeep owners buy a Wrangler to go slow over things, I know that's why I did.

Best of luck to you though! ? We all have to find our muse somewhere, it would definitely make you original, though I imagine it would be a very costly build.

 

[RubiSc0tt]

Probably a bit of opinion on this one, but really, solid axles are made for crawling over stuff, if you want to move fast over things you should really look into getting independent suspension. It's definitely all about your suspension setup, but independent suspension will handle that a lot better from the factory without massive costly upgrades. That's why you see a lot of 4Runners and Tacomas doing the trail runner builds.
This is also one of the reasons why I hate it when Tacoma owners compare their rigs to JT's, not really comparable.

I personally haven't seen any Wrangler builds going the Trail runner route, I think most Jeep owners buy a Wrangler to go slow over things, I know that's why I did.

Best of luck to you though! ? We all have to find our muse somewhere, it would definitely make you original, though I imagine it would be a very costly build.

There are plenty of solid axle Ultra4/ King of the Hammers cars. Miller Motorsports, the Bomber Chassis, etc.

OP, you should be looking into JeepSpeed and Ultra4/ King of the Hammers set ups. Obviously Ultra4 is overkill, but that's going to be where you're going to find the most helpful info. Be warned though: going fast and doing it the right way is going to be expensive. At the very least, you're going to need upgraded shocks, dampeners or bumpstops, springs, and possibly control arms, and jumping is going to add a lot of stress on the drive line, so that's a good way to warp things (axle housings) and end up with an expensive repair.

Kevin and Brittany from LiteBrite did an episode where they were jumping the Stepchild JLUR at the Bilstein shocks complex. Obviously, This is post Hemi Swap/ Tons/ 40's, so their set up/use case will be very different and likely more extreme than yours, but there is some good info on Higher speed stuff in there.

 

[wibornz]

With enough money anything is possible, even shooting a Tesla car into outer space is possible, so making a Jeep fast off road can be done. Money is almost always the limiting factor. A friend of mine builds drag cars. He always says the more money you have the faster you can go. He calls it cubic dollars.

 

[Industrialwrench]

Your sport axle might hold up better than the rubicons with the FAD, they break when you fly through the desert and hit stuff.

 

[Industrialwrench]

With enough money anything is possible, even shooting a Tesla car into outer space is possible, so making a Jeep fast off road can be done. Money is almost always the limiting factor. A friend of mine builds drag cars. He always says the more money you have the faster you can go. He calls it cubic dollars.

That’s because he knows at a certain point the cost becomes exponential in comparison to the gains.

 

[Roky]

Most JLU's I've ever come across that have a lot of extra kit installed seem geared towards crawling over rocks, overlanding and such, but not at a fast pace.

Are there any Jeepers out there that have focused on a higher speed jeep off road? Not top end speed, but just accelerating thru dirt like a UTV?
Like the Baja race trucks and such? I am blown away by how fun the V6 is in the dirt, and how much the engine seems to enjoy going WOT and how good it sounds with an intake.

I have a JLU 2018 Sport S, and she's never had a traction problem in the dirt, runs stock Rubicon wheels and tires and is on basic Bilstein dampers.

Would having the entire axle setup from a rubicon , including it's differentials etc. necessarily be better for dirt racing? I cannot figure if the heavier duty and heavier weight would help make it more stable jumping thru bumpy dirt mounds and such or if the added weight would just slow it down and not add much. I've never needed a locker with the dirt so far, but does anyone have any opinions about this? There must be some other maniacs out there that enjoy ripping these jeeps around. thank you in advance

Buy a Bronco, they gotta be good for something……….. then again….. probably not…?

 

[Shibadog]

With enough money anything is possible, even shooting a Tesla car into outer space is possible, so making a Jeep fast off road can be done. Money is almost always the limiting factor. A friend of mine builds drag cars. He always says the more money you have the faster you can go. He calls it cubic dollars.

Speed shop back home had a sign “Speed costs money. How fast do you wanna go?”

 

[AcesandEights]

Typically independent suspension is better for speed because with the solid axle when one side hits an obstacle, depression, etc., the other side if effected and so is your steering feedback. That's one of the reasons most folks with Wranglers aren't also speed freeks in the desert. It's easier to start with a better platform than a solid front and rear axle vehicle. If it's not hard to drive, it'll be tiring to drive a Wrangler in the go-fast.

 

[mrtm1970]

I would think you would want to look into transforming your suspension to what is used on the Gladiator Mojave.

 

[Headbarcode]

Your sport axle might hold up better than the rubicons with the FAD, they break when you fly through the desert and hit stuff.

All Wrangler models have a Front Axle Disconnect. But only Rubicons have the stronger front and rear housings and larger diameter, thus stronger, axle shafts.

 

[Headbarcode]

Buy a Bronco, they gotta be good for something……….. then again….. probably not…?

Good catch there, buddy!

 

[Industrialwrench]

All Wrangler models have a Front Axle Disconnect. But only Rubicons have the stronger front and rear housings and larger diameter, thus stronger, axle shafts.

Yikes. My friend broke his within the first year of ownership. Thinking about trussing it myself. Once it goes it goes…

 

[mtbjeep]

Good catch there, buddy!

Wow you can truly go anywhere in the Bronco! Left, right, even both at the same time! Unstoppable.

 

[TOTL Innovations]

As everyone else has mentioned: How fast you want to go = How much money you want to spend?

Your money is going to be best spent on suspension first. @mrtm1970 had a pretty good suggestion on finding some take offs from a Mojave.

If you have some fab skills, I wonder if you could find some Raptor take off shocks and make it work. Dirtheads did it on their F350 named Moms Spaghetti and I thought the concept was very cool.

After that, things get pricey. You can buy an external bypass shock and run it with a spring and have it professionally fine tuned for your particular application. I believe one of Lite Brite's rigs runs that combo.

Next up would be an external bypass and coilover combo. Again best results if professionally tuned. At this point you should probably also have a long arm suspension to take advantage of the travel and most likely beefed up drive train to handle everything.

Hard part on a Jeep is maximizing up travel without lifting the Jeep a lot. Requires A LOT of modification.

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