comanche or another FSJ

[welchct]

I have built quite a few of FSJ's, ranging from steet crusers on 31's to chop tops on 42's and even my FSJ buggy. Right now I have a buggy, Built TJ, and a built suburban. So that being said I also have a few FSJ's (4 door grand's, 2 door pioneer NT, 2 door WT's, and a rusted out j-10) than I have a renix comanche that I got from my grand fauther when he passed.

So the question is should I built another FSJ or build the little MJ

The plan is somthing that is low, sitting on 35-37's with a good crawl ratio but can still cruse down the highway at 75mph. This will also be a show case for out shop so It has to be nice, and a little differant (no bolt on stuff).

so what is your thought?

[JeepNOFEAR]

If I were you I'd build the mj. If you have already built some fsj's then its time for something new. Plus I don't think 75 mph average with a good crawl ratio and 37s in a 5,800 pound vehicle will work to well.

[Slick Willie]

Comanche's are for pansy XJ owners that can't handle FSJ trucks. Build a stout J truck with the flares, and make the driveline beefy. Maybe a big block for shop talk. And they don't need much lift for big tires, either.

[welchct]

well I know all the benifits of each and its realy a toss up because they both need the hole drive train swaped out. I Have been doing a bunch of 5.3 vortecs and 4l60 swaps lately and was thinking of puting one in what ever vehicle I build. I was also leaning tward eather a 231, or D300 with a 4.1, I also have a few sets of 60's with 4.56's out of some CUCV's

Slick Willie you have a seen a few of my rigs so you know I have some big **** just nothing that is drivable on the Hwy. exept the TJ but I hate to wheel it because its so nice.

[grand_wag_85]

Both transfer cases are great but the NP231 will need the SYE kit for anything serious and others will tell you that the 231 is trash but to each their own...One of my MJ buddies was telling me you can get one on 35's by getting a spring over rear axle from an XJ, 2" shackles and lift the front to match. Don't forget all the other stuff that the front will ultimately need. As for the 5.3 swap, it'll probably be easier to get the 5.3 into the FSJ but anything is possible.

Hit up the forum on www.naxja.org (http://www.naxja.org) for ideas, good luck:thumbsup:

[welchct]

yes I realize the 231 needs an SYE. I keep AA short shaft kits in stock. and you have to spit the case to put a 4.1 in any way so thats no big deal. hell I have done two SYE's this weak. (every thing comes in groups.)

Any way my plan with the MJ is to spring over the rear with some chevy 52" sprigs, and build a custome set of rear frame rails and 4 link the front with eather some black dimond coil overs I have or some 8" coils. than chop the top with a cage and custom hard top, add a 98+ grill, with rustys 6" fenders, shorten the wheelbase, shorten the bed in the front and bob the rear, and lastly add the new style dash and interior

with the FSJ I would SOA the front with high steer, shackle flip out back, chop top with a full cage and soft top, removeable doors, custome dash (I hate the FSJ dashes), razor grill, J-truck flairs, and a bunch of skids and body armor.

[grand_wag_85]

When you put the 98+ front end on I'd be interested to see how it looks. I was contemplating doing it on my old XJ but I could never find one cheap...I've heard people claim they get them onto Comanches but I've NEVER seen any pix to back it up, not like it can't be swapped.

[95steel]

I drive between 6 and 700 miles a week in my MJ. I still get around 17-18 MPG too! HP 44, 9" with Hi9, 4.88/4.86's with detroit's. Leaf springs up front, BDS 3.5" wrangler springs mil wrapped, psc hydro assist and a list of other junk.

It is still a work in progress. There are things I love, and a few I am still working on. I love my Irok's, but the pavement pounding is wearing them out fast. I have nearly 200,000 miles on the jeep so there have been a few area's of maintenance that are hard to keep up with. One step at a time, one dollar a second :)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c62/95steel/roadtrip/build14.jpg

[grand_wag_85]

Nice MJ!

[95steel]

I have owned a few j trucks, only owned one that ran. Trail riding in an fsj scares me. I don't like the idea of smashing up the body on an fsj. MJ/XJ's are a bit easier to fit between trees. All in all, I like the MJ's performance on a trail. They are extremely light, decent power, and a longer wheel base than most, yet still manuverable on the trail.

I want (still dreaming) to pull my MJ with an FSJ to the trail. I have started to build J-trucks three times for this, for one reason or another life keeps getting in the way and stops me from completing it though.

[viscacha]

I would go with the comanche. It’s a real pain wheeling an fsj, especially when it’s a J20, lol, but that depends on what type of wheeling you’re doing, too. No matter what though fsj’s can be real trail cloggers. There wouldn’t be a trail around here I couldn’t do with a comanche and some 35” on 44’s.

95, that’s a nice one. Did you leave the hp44 full width? I assume that’s a short box with a 113” wb. I have a hp44 from a ’76 f150, a rear 44 out of a ‘87 xj and a full width rear 9” out of a ’78 bronco. I’m playing around right now with going full width hp44 and the 9” opposed to cutting the hp44 down to waggy size and running the xj 44.

I would think going full width I could get away with 8+” of lift and maybe go up to 36” tires.

I’ve been dreaming too about towing an mj with my J20 to the trails but then I wake up to reality. http://www.dakotacom.net/~jeepster/tipshades.gif

[95steel]

I left the axles full width. I am running soft 8 rims 15x8 with 4 inches of backspacing. I like the width. I can not remember what year the axles. The front had the weld on wedges. I cut them off with a grinder then welded on leaf spring pads. It was 113" WB, I moved the front axle forward a couple inches to avoid having to trim into the doors. Front axle is a bit red headed with chevy knuckles, waggy brakes, ford hubs etc... I ran drive flanges at first but then swapped to hubs to attempt to save the front axle and gain a few mpg's. I have since built a front bumper with winch and a rear bumper. Still have to do a cage and rock sliders. Work in progress... aka jeep.

The extra manuverability and lower weight (lard breaks parts) is my primary reason for recommending an MJ over a J series. Then again... I base this on where I wheel. If the trails you run are wide open with lots of room to turn a bigger rig might not be a problem. I like the size of mine now. With 15x10 with 3.5" of backspacing the rig was a pain to fit between trees and would not fit on most trailers (around 90" wide) I am less than 80" wide now.

[welchct]

well the shop is only 5 miles from super lift OHV and have a store at the park as well. I probably wheel about 2-3 times a week. The trails there are all nerro loose rock with large bolders mixed in. most trails wind in and aroud the mountain sides and there are tons of steap climbs and desents.

[Deus]

When you put the 98+ front end on I'd be interested to see how it looks.
I was contemplating doing it on my old XJ but I could never find one cheap...I've heard people
claim they get them onto Comanches but I've NEVER seen any pix to back it up,
not like it can't be swapped.
Arn't MJ's unibody too? Thats my major gripe with them otherwise there decent, cept for the
tipsy feeling, i also think fsj's are quite a bit safer. Anyways heres some pics of a MJ with new front clip.
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2574000-2574999/2574509_6_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2574000-2574999/2574509_1_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/6/web/2574000-2574999/2574509_8_full.jpg
And this one has an identity crisis.
http://www.mattsoldcars.com/gallery/kenosha2004/images/custom_comanche.jpg

[MJMadness]

I've owned two MJs and an XJ. I've worked on a couple YJs and some other things too (cars)... I'd own a J-truck if I could find one that wasn't a POS.



MJs can be made to wheel fairly well for reasonably cheap as long as you have some skills. The stock axles blow, on most of them at least. Their size is an advantage (vs a FSJ) but they're still too large for some things. And the long beds have too much wheelbase....


The biggest PITA, IMHO, is the unibody. Mine is full of nastys and damage from wheeling and various suspension setups and some serious red-neck work on a few things. I'm either going to sell this one, part it out, or cut the cab off and build a new frame for it. It will probably get parted out as the cab is still too wide for my tase and I think it will pose problems in the windshield area if I cut 8-10" out of it.


Frames are way easier. Just pop stuff off if you need to do major work. And you don't have to weld everything overhead or in f'd up positions.

[Slick Willie]

That brings up another good point. Unibody = suck, frame = good.

I'm sure you will want a cage if you wheel 2-3 times a week. ;) And you don't want to bend anything over time.
If you want to build a cage worthy of structural analysis from a third grader,
break out the checkbook and nearly double the weight of the vehicle in additional material.

A guy in our club has a MJ bobbed, with nice bumpers, and an exo tied into the bumpers.
But how strong are the bumpers held on? Get something with steel.

http://www.longhornoffroad.com/garage/gallery212/d/731-2/Moab+Day+5+016.jpg

http://www.longhornoffroad.com/garage/gallery212/d/734-2/Moab+Day+5+022.jpg

[MJMadness]

The unibody isn't at all weak... Other than a few areas (no steering box brace = pulled box).

It's just too thin to weld a high stress item directly to it. It is simply enough solved with a tie-in plate and some rosette welds...


To tie-in my front crossmember for leaf springs, I made these...

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b46/dirtycomanche/P1010400.jpg


But to tie in a cage, only a 5x5 peice of FB is needed. You won't tear the unibody... It does however get crushed if you don't plate the bottom, or have a belly skid.


Umm, and a properly built exo is only going to weigh about 300-400lbs, I think... I don't remember what mine was going to weight, but it was about 120' of tube. That's providing you don't care about some body panels.

[Slick Willie]

To each their own.

[Bama Burden]

welch, it sounds like you had already made up your mind to build the MJ before you posted this thread. Besides, if you're building so many rides all the time, you might as well just go ahead and build the MJ. Hell, build 30 of them.

Also, please use the spell check. :thumbsup:

[welchct]

I want to build an MJ more, but as you said I have a lot of projects going and the quicker I build this the better. I do have a thing for FSJ's and I like building them more than any other rig just because of how easy they are to work on. But I do kind of want a change of pace. Really I was just looking at what you, the public thought would be cooler (more interesting seance this will be a rolling bill board for the shop).

And the unibody is easly braced with a peace of 5/16 angle run down the unibody rails.

[frank_c]

i think the MJ's are just as cool as the FSJ's, just because you don't see many of 'em built up.

every MJ i see is rotted pretty bad, but there's one for sale nearby that looks like it's in pretty good shape.

[ComancheRob]

I dd my MJ. Its an 89 shortbed. On a roadtrip, even with the 4spd AX-4 I can run it upwards of 28mpg. Its the 2.5L though. With my friends auto 4litre XJ we can pull 18-20mpg on a highway trip.

The MJs take a 97+ frontend with no mods.
They're just as good as J-Trucks, just as rusty most times but great DD's if you don't want to trust other road-gremlins around your FSJ. Ive be rammed, slammed and bashed in my MJ, nothing but body damage that a hammer can fix.

Its still a Jeep, one of the last DCX/AMC brainwaves.

Don't discount the MJ guys. We're in the same situation as you fine folks. Our beloved vehicles are a lost breed. Lets keep the jeeper tradition alive and quell the fighting and bashing. They're our Jeeps and we all love them. Atleast we aren't cheerleaders driving around in a topless TJ.

Many of the XJ/MJ guys want FSJ's too. So. Lets work together!