WonTon JLUR Build on 42's

Updated to reflect all currently installed stuff:
Axles: Fusion 4x4
-Shaved 14b rear
ARB air lockers
5.38 gears
1410 yoke
40 spline shafts
72" WMS
-Kingpin 60 front
ARB air lockers
Yukon super joints
72" WMS

Rear brakes:
Range Industries electric parking brake conversion

Suspension:
RPM Steering 3 link front, 4 link triangulated rear long arm.
Motobilt adjustable upper mount for adjustable geometry in rear

Steering:
Fusion drag link
RPM Steering offset heim tie rod
PSC Electric pump, XD steering box, hydro assist

Wheels/tires:
17” MR108 beadlocks 3.5BS
42" non sticky treps
43" journey rock poison sticky tires

Armor:
Genright rear corners
Motobilt weld on sliders
Motobilt Tomahawk frame chop bumper
Rear bumper removed, VKS D ring mounts bolted to rear frame
JCR offroad Front and rear half doors

Cage:
Motobilt JLU cage

Seats:
PRP Enduro Trek fronts
PRP Enduro Elite bench rear
PRP Harnesses

2019 JLUR w/ automatic trans
58k miles with several thousand off-road at various places across the east coast.
Jeep has always been primarily rock crawling focused and trying to find the hardest stuff that we could at every park. Spent the first 30k miles on 37s w/ Metalcloak 3.5 game changer lift, then got BFG KM3 39s at 30k and have run them since.

The stock axles have held up very well (edit: realized I lied and they have the Dynatrac HD ball joints installed, but are completely stock otherwise) and honestly they’ve performed great. I’m very judicious with the skinny pedal and try my best to avoid bumping over obstacles unless completely necessary and I try to minimize wheel speed. Between that and, I’m sure, a healthy bit of luck, these stick axles have served me very well.





the beads on these tires are so thick that I fought for about 2hrs trying to get them in manually, and eventually decided to try using the Jeep to gently apply force to pop the wheels in. Worked out great!

your build looks amazing, I once had dump trucks, class A, with rear ends that big (78,000) trucks!!!

?

What a project!
Good for you. Really shows the difference from stock to Beast,

WontonJLUR said:

Starting the thread as a pic dump, will update the thread with some more details once the build is fully done.

2019 JLUR w/ automatic trans
58k miles with several thousand off-road at various places across the east coast.
Jeep has always been primarily rock crawling focused and trying to find the hardest stuff that we could at every park. Spent the first 30k miles on 37s w/ Metalcloak 3.5 game changer lift, then got BFG KM3s at 30k and have run them since.

The stock axles have held up very well, they are not modified whatsoever (including still having 4.10 gears) and honestly they’ve performed great. I’m very judicious with the skinny pedal and try my best to avoid bumping over obstacles unless completely necessary and I try to minimize wheel speed. Between that and, I’m sure, a healthy bit of luck, these stick axles have served me very well.

After years of dreaming and planning, we were finally able to pull the trigger on the next big step.

here is the list of mods going on this weeknd:

Fusion4x4:
Shaved 14b rear
ARB air lockers
5.38 gears
1410 yoke
40 spline shafts
Kingpin 60 front
ARB air lockers
Johnny joint UCA mounts
Yukon super joints

Tom Woods
Front and rear shafts

PSC:
EHPS cylinder assist kit for the E-torque motors. I do not have an E-torque Jeep, but I spent a long time talking with experienced buddies and PSC themselves and decided that I wanted to keep the electric pump.

Method:
17” MR108 beadlocks

Maxxis:
42” bias ply non sticky treps

Motobilt:
“Boatside” sliders with rocker panel armor
Front inner fenders
Engine mount air compressor bracket

ARB
Air locker compressor (smallest one)

American Adventure Labs
Front fender chop

JCR offroad
Front and rear half doors

Bestop
Front and rear soft uppers

plenty more pics incoming. Currently only the rear axle is installed with work left to do.

the beads on these tires are so thick that I fought for about 2hrs trying to get them in manually, and eventually decided to try using the Jeep to gently apply force to pop the wheels in. Worked out great!

View attachment 746736 View attachment 746737

View attachment 746743 View attachment 746744 View attachment 746745

Click to expand...

What’s the plan for the body at full stuff?

I’ll be a friend and gladly take those tiny used wheels/ tires from ya.


hell yeah! Now this a build.

WontonJLUR said:

Starting the thread as a pic dump, will update the thread with some more details once the build is fully done.

2019 JLUR w/ automatic trans
58k miles with several thousand off-road at various places across the east coast.
Jeep has always been primarily rock crawling focused and trying to find the hardest stuff that we could at every park. Spent the first 30k miles on 37s w/ Metalcloak 3.5 game changer lift, then got BFG KM3s at 30k and have run them since.

The stock axles have held up very well, they are not modified whatsoever (including still having 4.10 gears) and honestly they’ve performed great. I’m very judicious with the skinny pedal and try my best to avoid bumping over obstacles unless completely necessary and I try to minimize wheel speed. Between that and, I’m sure, a healthy bit of luck, these stick axles have served me very well.

After years of dreaming and planning, we were finally able to pull the trigger on the next big step.

here is the list of mods going on this weeknd:

Fusion4x4:
Shaved 14b rear
ARB air lockers
5.38 gears
1410 yoke
40 spline shafts
Kingpin 60 front
ARB air lockers
Johnny joint UCA mounts
Yukon super joints

Tom Woods
Front and rear shafts

PSC:
EHPS cylinder assist kit for the E-torque motors. I do not have an E-torque Jeep, but I spent a long time talking with experienced buddies and PSC themselves and decided that I wanted to keep the electric pump.

Method:
17” MR108 beadlocks

Maxxis:
42” bias ply non sticky treps

Motobilt:
“Boatside” sliders with rocker panel armor
Front inner fenders
Engine mount air compressor bracket

ARB
Air locker compressor (smallest one)

American Adventure Labs
Front fender chop

JCR offroad
Front and rear half doors

Bestop
Front and rear soft uppers

plenty more pics incoming. Currently only the rear axle is installed with work left to do.




the beads on these tires are so thick that I fought for about 2hrs trying to get them in manually, and eventually decided to try using the Jeep to gently apply force to pop the wheels in. Worked out great!

Click to expand...

Maxxis:
42” bias ply non sticky treps

At 42.9x14.5R17, they should be called 43's. Some of the buggy folks call them 43's, some 42's. I have the stickies on my LJR.

Spent the first 30k miles on 37s w/ Metalcloak 3.5 game changer lift, then got BFG KM3s at 30k and have run them since.

The stock axles have held up very well, they are not modified whatsoever (including still having 4.10 gears) and honestly they’ve performed great.

With the deep 1st and 4:1 xfer, 4.10 is strong and plenty deep enough.

Shaved 14b rear

Strongest rear and more clearance than a ProRock80,

Epic build, following all the details.

Looks like you will need to go 5.5” lift on that beast and add more bump stops to not rub your fender.

You are only about two steps away from competing in a Monster Jam event! Keep going! ?

And don’t ever park next to me. My ego would never survive the hit.

Damn

Ummmm….ummmmm….holy hell Batman. That is badarse and looks amazing.

Been slacking on getting more pics uploaded. As it sits right now, it's on all 4 tires and we've put a few road miles on it up to about 50mph. Surprised with how well the wheels/tires feel onroad with no balancing so far.

Still need to install the front driveshaft once it shows, install the new front shock (discovered a blown shock when pulling out the front axle) and replace the rear track bar (adjustment was completely seized, to the point that 3 dudes with a 5ft breaker bar couldn't get it to move anymore)

Hopefully getting out to Rausch Creek, PA the weekend of the 26th for a shakedown run.

More pics to come, currently underway right now (US Navy) but will be back here shortly and can finish up what remains.

Alan W said:

your build looks amazing, I once had dump trucks, class A, with rear ends that big (78,000) trucks!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks! I really wanted to go with 42s since I feel like 40s are the immediate go to once people go with one ton axles, but I knew it would be challenging to package it all up. I've always had a deep deep love for the Treps so those were a no brainer (though the wallet didn't appreciate it)

Good jeep said:

What a project!
Good for you. Really shows the difference from stock to Beast,

Click to expand...

Been a hell of a project for sure. Can't wait to get it out on the trails!

chevymitchell said:

What’s the plan for the body at full stuff?

Click to expand...

Removed a LOT of material around the rear fenders, and now it stuffs up there pretty nicely. Still running 2" of bump stop as I was with the last setup, but I had the factory inner plastic liners with the last setup so I freed up a lot of space by axing those and splitting the factory plastic fenders. The fronts are sadly another story, I was running 3" of bump stop up front with the 39s, but had to add another inch because the tires were grabbing the 2 fender mounts for the factory fender bracket at full stuff/turn (running the AAL fender chop, which might need re-evaluated some other time). I also took a dremel to some of the fender material, but they just barely grab when turning the wheel.

J0E said:

Maxxis:
42” bias ply non sticky treps

At 42.9x14.5R17, they should be called 43's. Some of the buggy folks call them 43's, some 42's. I have the stickies on my LJR.

Spent the first 30k miles on 37s w/ Metalcloak 3.5 game changer lift, then got BFG KM3s at 30k and have run them since.

The stock axles have held up very well, they are not modified whatsoever (including still having 4.10 gears) and honestly they’ve performed great.

With the deep 1st and 4:1 xfer, 4.10 is strong and plenty deep enough.

Shaved 14b rear

Strongest rear and more clearance than a ProRock80,

Epic build, following all the details.

Click to expand...

Yeah the treps are no joke, I wanted them because I love the way they look and also because they're actually true (and over true, in fact) 42s.

Rangemaster said:

Looks like you will need to go 5.5” lift on that beast and add more bump stops to not rub your fender.

Click to expand...

The 3.5" actually looks like it's gonna work out just fine. I was able to use my trailer to stuff it to the bumps in the front and did unfortunately have to add another inch of bump stop, but I expected to. The rear looks like it's gonna work out great with 2" of bump stop and can always add another inch if needed. No plans to change up suspension until it's time for double triangulated rear/3 link front and coilovers. Hopefully this setup will continue to be good to me for another year or so before I dive into that next step.

I'll add pics to all of these statements in a few days once I'm back on dry land, but for now here's some long winded wordage about the build.

Forgot that I had the rear fenders stock when I posted up these pics. The rear fenders have since been split and trimmed a bit, and a LOT of material was removed out of the rear to accommodate the tires stuffing up. The fronts are another story, the 2 front mounts for the fenders are the next limiting thing for front tire stuff/turn radius at stuff, and those are currently holding on the AAL fender chop brackets. I had dreams of keeping those for a while but that might have to get re-evaluated, or I might just have to fab up and weld on a different solution.



I bought the Z-Automotive Z-Locker Controllers for their stated ability to use the factory locker switches to control the activation of the air lockers, and unfortunately that didn't work out. Though, I think it might not be the fault of Z-Automotive. After clearing up some of the dash lights, it seems that we somehow messed up the connection to the transfer case and I still haven't dug into it. Currently the Jeep doesn't register (on the EVIC) where the transfer case is at, and I have DTC codes for loss of comms with the T-case. But, i decided to ditch the factory locker/sway bar switches altogether and add in the aux switches (didn't order the Jeep with them from the factory) and now the lockers and compressor are wired up to the aux switches, and I don't think i'll go back and try to get the factory locker switches working.




Speaking of factory switches and Rubicon things, the E-disco sway bar had to go. The location we picked for the power steering cooler interfered with sway bar disconnect motor, and I never used it anyways (always manually disconnected, sue me). Got a "manual" sway bar ordered and installed and it BARELY clears it by about 1/4", so really close stuff there.


During the install of the motobilt sliders, one of the body mount bolts broke (because why wouldn't it?). Spent several hours drilling it and using colorful language at each failed attempt to extract it using extractors, and eventually gave up. Instead, cut out about a 4"x4" section of the sheet metal in the aft end of the fender and was able to remove the entire cup that held the broken portion of the bolt. (shoutout to a YouTube video that provided the handy hint). There's now a grade 8 washer bolt in that mounting location.



Fairly certain I ended up getting air in the ABS module of the brakes, because I've changed out the brake fluid volume at least once and the brakes are still absolute shit so it's either air in the ABS module or I've got other issues. Bad enough to the point that with the T-case in low range, I can't even stop the Jeep without also engaging the parking brake (and this is without a front driveshaft installed). Ended up ordering a whamadine Bluetooth OBD adapter to use with JScan to perform an ABS bleed once I get home, so fingers crossed that solves the issue.