2008 JKU "Argenta" Build Thread

Test fitting the Artec truss and brackets...

From everything I've seen, plus commonsense, and confirmed by Artec, it seems the best way to do this is to center the Apex truss over the center chunk for best fit, tack in place on all corners, then burn in deep. At that point, it seems that it's best to set the pinion angle, which appears to be ~6-7° for nearly every JKU running tons with 3.5-4.5" of lift...


Once pinion angle is set, you level the spring perches, tack in place, then go nuts.


I've "paused" welding in the plates until I confirm a few things, particularly clearance between the upper link mount and the parking brake backing plates. This means I'm working on disassembling the hubs at the moment and while I'm here, I'm confirming what wheel studs work best. I've ordered two 10x boxes of a few popular Dorman options, though I think Dorman 610-194 will work best.

While I'm figuring out the wheel studs, I threw some high-heat paint on the insides of the brackets to save some time and get to some of the harder to reach places post-welding:

The studs I ordered finally arrived, two days late but just ahead of the storm. As you can see, the 610-194’s most closely match the original M14 wheel studs, but in 9/16” thread:


The 610-359, which many on Pirate4x4 said was their stud of choice, would appear to work as well, but is really long. The shoulder diameter (ahead of the knurling) is also slightly larger than the shoulder diameter of the OEM studs and 610-194 studs, as well as larger than the knurling diameter (not sure how that works but I checked multiple studs to confirm). This means that the 610-359 studs would possibly require the stud holes in the hub to be drilled slightly larger.



Speaking of the storm, it was a bit crazy and the totals were unexpected. Early in the week (Monday), it was forecasted as 2-3”, then 3-4” by the evening. On Tuesday, they bumped it up to 3-6” in high elevations (where we are). On Wednesday AM, it was still 3-6” forecasted, but by Wednesday night, they bumped it up to 3-6”+ and said that it was going to be very elevation dependent.



By Thursday afternoon, they stopped updating the totals for Thursday and kept adding to the totals for Friday and even into Saturday. The photo above shows how much snow we had upon waking up Friday morning… right around 15” and it kept snowing all day Friday, with snowfall rates of ~1/2” to 1” per hour, until about 8PM.

In total, we got about 22” of snow and lost power for 36 hours. It was a good reminder that the weather can change rapidly here and we need to finish installing our Genrac in the spring (we had to update our breaker box and supply lines to 200A Service, already installing a Genrac switch box in anticipation).

It was also a good reminder as to why I have historically run M/T tires. When we get storms that cause heavy damage, it’s usually due to ice or heavy, wet snowfalls, where A/T tires don’t typically do so great. I have been looking at the Baja Boss AT’s but now maybe the MT is a better option. The one road I drove down into town to get some extra water and supplies was unplowed and had multiple trees fallen across.



The photo above isn’t mine, but my buddies taken of the same road AFTER they plowed and cleared it out the first time. As you can see, the trees kept falling. We were lucky in that I was able to just barely drive into the ditch to get around, keeping wheel speed and momentum up a little. Had the tree fallen straight across or the tree been a little longer, I would have had to bust out the chainsaw to get by. Being locked and with some aggressive M/T’s would let me drive right through the ditch without too much fuss (it’s what I’ve done multiple times with my LJ).

Needless to say, I didn’t get to weld up my Apex truss. By the time power came back on (Saturday around 8PM) we had much to catch up on, especially since we are heading to Iceland on Wednesday for a family vacation. Best I’ll be able to do this week is reassemble the hubs now that I’ve confirmed what studs will work.

tJKrider said:

Around here (SE Michigan) we get a lot of ice and wet snow and I've found that M/Ts are terrible. Our quantity/depth is typically low, however. I think that's where M/Ts start to excel - when the lugs start to be useful in clawing through the deep snow. I've never had anything that beats out a dedicated snow tire, regardless of the vehicle.

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I was just having this conversation with a friend... "snow driving" means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It also means different things to the same person, depending on circumstances.

True "snow tires" are ones with specific sipping and compounds for use in the snow and are designed to perform at cold temperatures. They are absolutely amazing in most any situation a typical passenger car will find themselves in. Throw a set of Blizzaks or any quality snow tire on a Subaru and it will drive circles around almost every Jeep running A/Ts or M/Ts on moderately snowy or icy streets and roadways.



This is something I know well; when we lived in AZ, we frequently took trips up north to go skiing and all my Jeep buddies could not understand why I was taking "Suzie" (my Outback R above) instead of my Jeep. We would pass stuck SUVs, Jeeps, pickups, and cars running standard SL tires stuck in ditches time and time again. It got to the point where my wife wouldn't even get nervous and would nap on on the drive up to Flagstaff/Williams, a true testament to how well it performed...

The problem is of course that no one makes true "snow tire" in sizes meant for lifted Jeeps/rigs. The best we have are a handful of "M+S" (mud + snow) rated SL and A/T tires, as well as a few decent 3 Peak Mountain rated A/T tires. While these offer some improved traction during "normal" snowy weather driving, and provide a bit more grip on icy surfaces thanks to increased sipping, they tend to suck when it gets deep (just like you said).



I've found over the years that A/T tires will pack with snow in the centers and that packed snow acts like a "snow glue", gripping at the fresh snow below, giving decent traction in slow moving use. However, when it gets icy out, the "glue" effect doesn't work at all. Alternatively, when slushy, that packing effect also doesn't work at all and the tires float on top of the slop without being able to dig deep into grippy snow.

A M/T tire on the other hand has a paddle effect and will cut/claw through slop and the deep stuff much better. This became apparent to me early in life. On my XJ above (circa 2004), M/T tires never let me down when it got deep (and living in central PA, we got plenty of opportunity to test!), though I did spin out a few times on side streets and when driving from campus to work (AutoZone).

tJKrider said:

Can't believe you got that much! The snow was coming down by us but we really had no accumulation to speak of.

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We are still shocked too - the estimates were so off we are still making jokes about it. If anyone has seen the "Madagascar 2" movie, you may remember when the penguins are talking about how it is going to take "6-9 months" to fix their plane. The one penguin, confused, says "69 months!", and is corrected with "no, six TO nine months". We keep making the same joke of "2 to 3 inches?... No, 23 inches!". Yeah, we are dorks...


I told my mom I was "shoveling the cars" and she asked why I wasn't using the snow blower. I said it was hard to get the snow blower on the hood. I don't think she got the joke...

Had a quiet afternoon with a few cancelled meetings, so I decided to get the truss at least tacked in place to make me feel better…



I set the pinion angle to 7° based on seeing nearly every person say that this was about perfect for a 14B on 3.5-4.5” springs. From there, I leveled the the spring plates and clamped them down and starting tacking everything up…



The center of the truss, the part over the pumpkin, is completely welded to the tubes. The spring plates are tacked in a few spots and in the morning, I’ll verify angles once more and go through and burn everything in! From there, I’ll go back and weld up the seems on the truss itself. That’s likely all I’ll have time for before having to stop and pack, but I’ll at least be able to close the garage door with a few more things crossed off the list…

The last of the parts I've been waiting for have arrived... I'll get to regear the 14B as soon as I'm done with the axle brackets.



I ended up going with the Richmond Powertrax Grip Pro. It's comparable to the TrueTrac, which I've used plenty over the years. There was a decent price savings (about $175), though that honestly wasn't the driving factor. I really just wanted to see how the PowerTrax compared and the guys at ECGS said they've had nothing but success with it.

I also picked up some Metalcloak Crow's feet while they were on sale. It breaks my heart to spend near $90 on a few pieces of steel, but it is what it is...

rockvegas555 said:

Great work so far!! I love me some ECGS!! I just bought the complete rear bolt in D60 with 4.88 gears. Got it in 2 weeks ago and hopefully it will be completely in soon. I keep thinking it is about done then realize we need an other piece or 2. I just swapped my current lift to MetalCLoak 4.5 GameChanger with Fox 2.5 shocks. I'll post some updated pics next week!!

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Have a build thread?

Well that answers the question of “what would I drive if I moved to Iceland?”…


Lots of cool rigs here in Iceland, but the one I’m most jealous of are the diesel Land Cruisers:


Not many Jeeps here. In fact I’ve only seen one, a JK Rubi on stock tires and wheels. There is a Suzuki Jimmy, what looks like a modern Samurai and I kinda want one of those too (lots of fond HS memories bombing through the woods in a old ‘Suki on 31” M/T’s

pc1p said:

Not many Jeeps here.

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Found them after all… Apparently these are called "Super Jeeps", even if they aren't "Jeeps".





Some other cool Icelandic rigs and just general cool trucks during my visit:







I need to do some reading up on wheeling up there. Some things are a little off from what I was expecting. For example, many rigs had snorkels on the intake. Don’t see how that would help here and can think of a few reasons why it would be less than ideal.

One thing that stood out - and what confused the owner of one of the Jeeps who I struck up a conversation with - is that all the rigs use factory axles. Even that big red rig used what appeared to my eyes to be stock Rubi 44’s, all on 45” tires! I mean, they’re not really torque loading these axles up much, at least from what I can tell (any Icelanders please chime in!!), so they should survive. But that said, if I’m running across glaciers in sub zero temps on a part of the island where you only have a few dozen people, I’d probably want an extra level of beef.

What I would do for a clean, diesel Land Cruiser!!!

Getting back into the swing of things post vacation…

Finally - FINALLY - got all the welding done on the Artec truss and brackets.





I always get self-conscious posting my welds, but then I remember that these are the welds posted on Artec’s page…





Next up: throwing some paint on the axle, replacing the brakes, and regearing…

Picked up a set of lightly used MetalCloak control arms - figured I’d have a spare set that I could keep ready to go, then swap out as needed during the recommended yearly maintenance and greasing…

The first arm I took apart gave me fits - stripping one of the joints:


I literally had to stand on the wrenches to get the joint moving (I’m 6’3” 350#!}:


Thankfully, all the other arms and rear trackbar came apart super easily. I’ll need to keep an eye out for a set of upper rears to replace this one, or maybe see if MetalCloak will just sell me one…