NV4500 Transplant

[Double AA]

Smart man. You should always inspect your rubber before mounting.

[aw12345]

Those are some sweet rubbers

[inVERt'D]

Rubbers, huh? Now I understand why they have those nubbies all over them. Glad that pic above is low-res--otherwise you might see my lips puckered up.

[aw12345]

kissin and smellin rubbers that just sounds so wrong

[inVERt'D]

But in this case, it feels so right! Those tires are a long time coming! I've been a BFG fan for a much longer time, and probably would have chosen the KM2s, but I decided to go with the MTRs because of the good things you and others have said about them. The only thing I didn't like about the old KM1s is how they perform on the ice--they don't! Oh, and they chunked out too much. The MTRs look like they'd be better on the ice (such as it is) than the KM2s, and the sidewalls should be tougher.

I noticed in the Hairy Crack trail report Little Yell'r is rolling on some Krawlers--Red Label 37s by any chance? I know that's kind of a different animal, but how would you compare those so far?

[aw12345]

They are 35's blue label and they do grab rocks better than my MTZ's and seem to grab better than MTR's new or old so I am real happy with them. Just a pain to swap tires just for wheelin, other than that I absolutely love them

[inVERt'D]

Wow, they look big for 35s. I remembered rat patrol was selling those 37" Red Labels, so that affected my perception too.

Are you actually swapping tires off the rims? That has to be a beotch. Why not get another set of wheels for the Krawlers? Or did you?

The Krawler's reputation proceeds it, but I need something that will last longer on the highway. The KM2 would have been a great compromise, but I'm thinking the new MTR will have it beat as far as ice and sidewall strength.

[aw12345]

Nope just swapping wheels, the krawlers are on beadlocks, just the way I like it. If the new MTR's are tougher than the old ones, then you made an excellent choice, the older style worked well for me and I gave those little 32's quite the workout

[inVERt'D]

I've heard those Krawlers grab so well they break a lot of axles.

Now that I'm stepping up in size and have gearing like I've never had it before I'm gonna have to be real careful. Oh well, at least those 35s are gonna look cool. Wish they had white walls, though.

[aw12345]

Been there done that as far as the retro whitewalls go lol. I have had chromos front and rear for quite some time, seems to work well that way. Thing is when the tires grab well you don't have to do a lot of axle hopping, also my little 4 popper doesn't have that much power. Now a V8, Krawlers and a heavy foot is not the best mix. When the stock stuff breaks upgrade, I know my stock front axle shafts lasted about 3 wheelin trips when I went up to 35's, before the U joint caps started to spin, that is when they became spares

[inVERt'D]

You make good points. I have a Superior chromos for the rear D44 and stock D30 front with stock spares. If I found a great deal on some chromos for the front I'd jump on 'em, but I don't want to put a lot more money into the D30. Honestly, I almost stayed with 33s, but like you said, breaking stuff ain't the end of the world for a jeeper.


Here's a brief update on my slow progress.

Got the B-B tube and A-B tubes welded up. Driver side seat hoop is semi-permanently tacked up. Glad I bunged up the original 1.5" B-B tube, cuz I like the 1.75 a lot better for that particular area--I've got plans for it beyond seating. The A-B tubes and seat support hoops are 1.5" .125 wall.

Not a good angle in this pic, but you can see that the tunnel sheet metal will be tight. I'm playing a game of compromise with t-case/ tunnel clearance and accessibility for people like my dad. In retrospect, I should have gone with a different scheme for the seat tie-ins, but I'll make this work just fine.



An almost-finished offset miter.


This is taking me awhile partly because I'm making this complicated. It's what I do :geek:. This doesn't even begin to tell the story, but suffice it to say it's not going to be a simple, direct mount. :devil: If something looks funny, keep in mind that the A-B tubes are more than 90* off of the B-B tube. The sliders are just being mocked up here.


There's the seat about on center with the steering wheel. The factory seats are offset from the mounting, just like these will have to be. At this height, it lines up well with the shoulder harness bar. It will also have to be higher, partly because I want to see better (not that tall), and partly because of my other plans.

[6spdYJ]

Where do you find ice in Anza???

[inVERt'D]

This time of year, mostly at the Circle-K. We're at about 4000 ft elevation, so it gets fairly cold. Even this past month or so it was in the 50s or lower at my house some nights. We get snow and ice on the roads in the winter. Nearby Idyllwild and Garner Valley are even higher and colder. This past year it snowed quite a few times, and rained at least as many times, which sucked for this project. I like to go snow wheeling in the mountains around here too. Santa Rosa Mountain was snowy (and icy) most of this year.

Anyway, it's not really Anza that I'm thinking of. I'll very likely be driving the Jeep out to Ohio (yay) this year, probably in the middle of a historic blizzard or freeze.

[inVERt'D]

Rear Stretch and 4-Link Imminent

Today I bit the 4-link bullet and put in an order for some Ballistic Fab hardware. Went with the 2.63" Forged Ballistic Joints with the "billet" Nylatron races. Going 9/16" bolts and 1-1/4" shanks all around. Only ordered 6 of the joints, since I got 2 Currie Johnny Joints earlier this year from rat patrol. Thanks again for the great deal on those, Kurt.

Ballistic seems like they're really trying to straighten out their act with regard to lead times. I called them up to make sure we were on the same page. Apparently they're waiting on retainer nuts that are out for plating, but my order should be shipped w/in 2 weeks. Fair enough. I like Ballistic's products, and I like that they're American made with American steel. I'd like to do my small part to help them succeed.

By the way, Ballistic has all their shock tabs on sale right now--like 50% off or better. I ordered some just to save me time on miscellaneous stuff later.

[jonah]

Seat mounts are looking good, I am interested to see how your slider comes together. What kind of seat belts are you using?

If you need any sheet metal for your tunnel and are over this way sometime, Industrial Metal Supply in Irvine has a couple of racks on sale, $0.35 a pound. I got 3 24x36" 18 ga sheets for $10.