Frame Off Crawler (Everything Comes Off)
- Thread starter Whitesandstitan
- Start date
Welcome. Would be so great to have a garage to work on my vehicles. Have 2 acres here in the country and the only logical spot would block the sun to my wife's huge garden north of the JK and Chevy. So its a no go. (summer pic)
OP
Do a Metal carport or something similar to get by. I lived in Lake Placid, NY for 3 years so I understand the 8 months of winter thing. Ugh!
Believe me I looked into that, my neighbor has one that could fit my house. But the wife thinks it will be ugly, and we have clay layered with water everywhere, there is no place for a concrete pad. Dig a foot down and it ain't Texas Gold.
OP
Do a Metal carport or something similar to get by. I lived in Lake Placid, NY for 3 years so I understand the 8 months of winter thing. Ugh!
I had that problem in NY so I got a load of gravel. I ended up about 6"+ for about
OP
Started my build with an ordinary basic 2 door JK 2010.
I started a build thread on another forum, but seen this forum as an app (which I am a fan of)
So far I have pulled the entire drive train and have removed the frame.
I am going to take the frame to get sandblasted before I start cutting and fabricating to minimize the mess in my garage.
Here's a few pics
I started a build thread on another forum, but seen this forum as an app (which I am a fan of)
So far I have pulled the entire drive train and have removed the frame.
I am going to take the frame to get sandblasted before I start cutting and fabricating to minimize the mess in my garage.
Here's a few pics
OP
Now for the build list, here is a list of what I have. This build started years ago, so much of it has been long thought out and pre-built in anticipation of becoming a crawler some day.
Parts on hand:
-Cummins 4bt
-GM TH400 trans
-NP203 & NP205 with Northwest Fabs Doubler kit
-Dana 60 steer axle with Dana 70 kingpin knuckles, PSC full hydro, and full Artec hydro truss, Ballistic diff cover. New 5.13 Motive Gears and Yukon Zip Air Locker
- Dana 70 rear axle fully trussed, Ballistic diff cover. New 5.13 Motive Gears and Eaton Detroit Posi Locker
-Badlands 12K Apex Winch
-Mastercraft 3G Seats with 4 sets 5 point harness seat belts
-Racing quick disconnect steering wheel
-43" Super Swamped TSL Stickies
-Trailgear Beadlocks
-ADS 2.5 16" Coilovers (front)
-Ballistic 2.5 reservoir air shocks (rear)
I will add parts as they come in.
Parts on hand:
-Cummins 4bt
-GM TH400 trans
-NP203 & NP205 with Northwest Fabs Doubler kit
-Dana 60 steer axle with Dana 70 kingpin knuckles, PSC full hydro, and full Artec hydro truss, Ballistic diff cover. New 5.13 Motive Gears and Yukon Zip Air Locker
- Dana 70 rear axle fully trussed, Ballistic diff cover. New 5.13 Motive Gears and Eaton Detroit Posi Locker
-Badlands 12K Apex Winch
-Mastercraft 3G Seats with 4 sets 5 point harness seat belts
-Racing quick disconnect steering wheel
-43" Super Swamped TSL Stickies
-Trailgear Beadlocks
-ADS 2.5 16" Coilovers (front)
-Ballistic 2.5 reservoir air shocks (rear)
I will add parts as they come in.
Last edited:
Now I like this build, since i'm a 12v guy from way back and have 2 12v conversons sitting in my garages. My only question what about the TH400 trans it's strong enough but you'll wished you had the OD.
OP
I've always wanted to build a '67-'72 GM 4x4 and put a 12v in it. I guess this current build will have to do for now. OD would be nice but I don't plan on hitting the pavement with it too much.
I have a 84 K5 and a 96 F350 sc dually with 12v's.
If it's just mainly a offroad toy then you'll be good, those 400 will stand up to a beafy big block.
OP
Sweet rides, I had a '89 K5 and put a corvette block bore over in it. Love those trucks!
You are my hero for putting a Cummins where a crappy power stroke would be.
I bet it pisses off plenty of people. I love it.
I have a 19 Cummins dually that I wish was 12v instead.
I mean that motor is the reason behind my current madness. Just had to settle for practicality somewhere within my build.
Damn, that frame looks like it needs some serious work, but this should be a fun build to watch. Can't wait to see what you do with it.
OP
I figured I would answer the questions with a little background.
I fell in love with Jeeps and rock crawling in 2011 after I had bought my first Jeep it was an '02 TJ. I had dumped 30k of deployment money in to it. All nice bolt on stuff, it was an extremely capable Jeep.
Now I had the bug. After I had gotten out of the Army I went to a UAW welding school in Detroit. I wanted to be able to build rock bouncers and open a shop or something.
Years passed and I couldn't afford to do any of it. See, I had made the mistake of letting my TJ go. One to many arguments with my wife (late nights rock crawling and helping people out of the desert). Bad decision on my part.
I finally got it so I could build something. But I need to have more seats a buggy is fun but having friends and family is what its all about for me. I still wheel alone when I have to.
JK it was. This is my first JK. I went with the 2 door because it has the 4 seats I need and because what ever I built I plan on having the rubber stick out far past the bumpers for better rock crawling and less damage scraping rocks.
The price was great on this Jeep because the frame being so rusty. However it is actually not that bad. Once sandblasted I can cut out what I want and weld in new.
The front center line is being moved about 15" forward. The rear is going back about 20"
I will also be building it so that the belly skid plate is flat across the bottom.
I do plan to use electric fans as well since I will be moving the motor forward a few inches or so.
Whatever I do I will absolutely end up with dual triangulated links. There is no way in hell that I am doing all this work to end up with any pan hard bar/track bar setup.
So please, any questions, critiques, or ideas. Throw them at me.
Thanks ✌
I fell in love with Jeeps and rock crawling in 2011 after I had bought my first Jeep it was an '02 TJ. I had dumped 30k of deployment money in to it. All nice bolt on stuff, it was an extremely capable Jeep.
Now I had the bug. After I had gotten out of the Army I went to a UAW welding school in Detroit. I wanted to be able to build rock bouncers and open a shop or something.
Years passed and I couldn't afford to do any of it. See, I had made the mistake of letting my TJ go. One to many arguments with my wife (late nights rock crawling and helping people out of the desert). Bad decision on my part.
I finally got it so I could build something. But I need to have more seats a buggy is fun but having friends and family is what its all about for me. I still wheel alone when I have to.
JK it was. This is my first JK. I went with the 2 door because it has the 4 seats I need and because what ever I built I plan on having the rubber stick out far past the bumpers for better rock crawling and less damage scraping rocks.
The price was great on this Jeep because the frame being so rusty. However it is actually not that bad. Once sandblasted I can cut out what I want and weld in new.
The front center line is being moved about 15" forward. The rear is going back about 20"
I will also be building it so that the belly skid plate is flat across the bottom.
I do plan to use electric fans as well since I will be moving the motor forward a few inches or so.
Whatever I do I will absolutely end up with dual triangulated links. There is no way in hell that I am doing all this work to end up with any pan hard bar/track bar setup.
So please, any questions, critiques, or ideas. Throw them at me.
Thanks ✌
That's the whole idea of putting a build on the Forum, to get ideas from others. I did the same on my Blazer build on the Cummins Forum.
OP
Won't that air to water be to high? I like the VE IP better then the P-Pumped. They are so much easier to turn up.
Wouldn't happen to know where there is another at a good price would you?
I don't know if the KDP is a problem with them like the 12v's but might want to tab that.
Wouldn't happen to know where there is another at a good price would you?
I don't know if the KDP is a problem with them like the 12v's but might want to tab that.
OP
My initial measurements gave me some room to play. But I won't know for sure till I frame it and set the body back on. I will pull the cover off and take a look at it. There is a local one that ran a generator with 700 hrs under 4k