Z-TARD Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Heres some pics of my latest distraction/daily driver. I just put the 31" Baja Claw tires on last night. These things are friggin awesome, tons of traction in loose soil and rocks, and only a mild humming at 80+ Mph. Kinda rumbly at about 5 Mph and below. Gas mileage seems to be about the same as it was before adding the tires, maybe even a little better. Had to ditch all the front end plastic because it rubbed just a little when turning, even after the 3" lift kit. Looks better without all the tupperware up front anyway IMHO. The wheels are 15X8 made by Crager. Only $39.00 ea. through Summit, with free shipping. Tires were a different story..... If I had it to do over, I would have ordered those through Summit as well. Anyway, heres the before and after pics: Before: After: Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Definitely looks more 'angry' now!! Wayyyy better than the stocker!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted May 9, 2005 Author Share Posted May 9, 2005 Yeah, the stock version to me always looked like a Volvo station wagon on steriods. A more aggresive appearance also helps a lot in traffic, little cars just scoot to the side to make room now. The noise from the tires prevents a lot of idiots from merging into the side of it as well. So far, no apparent drawbacks from this, other than missing the MSA show to install the lift kit (How I ever thought that I'd get the whole thing done in one afternoon is beyond me). Next on the list is a roof rack, so i have a place to put the spare, along with shovel, high lift jack, etc. I'm also considering deleting ALL plastic from the exterior, including the cheesy fender flares. Maybe fab up some bolt on flares out of 1/8" aluminum plate. The hood is also going to get some scoops, vents, and lumps added to help cool things down a bit in the engine compartment. While I'm at it I might as well paint the whole thing flat black...... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Very cool. I have a friend who is known as "The Jeep Guy" and he drives a Cherokee similar to yours as a daily driver. His off road beast is a rotting 87 YJ with 6" of suspension lift and just added this year, 35" BFG mudders. Holy crap the thing is huge.. His Cherokee is all stock for now, and will probly stay that way.. his girlfriend won't let him lift it and put big tires on it. I wana lift my 93 Nissan a bit and stick 33"s on it.. My goal is to be able to park the nose of my Z under the middle of my truck. Looking cool man! Just beware.. the Jeep thing can bite you as bad as the Z thing.. You DO know what Jeep stands for right? (Just Empty Each Pocket) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Definitely not your Mom's cherokee anymore. Good call sticking with the black wheels. Gives it much more of the urban terrorist look rather than a shinny bling bling look. Some diamond deck fender flares would definitely scare the pants off the local neighbor kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maichor Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 Welcome to the dark side brother! It has begun! It looks mean. Nice choices there. You do have a little bit of the notorious saggy butt syndrome. Did your lift kit replace springs in the rear, use blocks, or shackles? If you don't have longer shackles, I would look into it. They smooth the ride a bit and add and inch or more to the rear. Then, if you hit the trail a lot you will next be getting sway bar disconnects, trimming fenders and adding 3" more lift! Then your steering starts to go and you beef it up, you get driveshaft vibes and go to a slip yoke eliminator setup. I have all of my stock springs and even a NP231 transfer case shaft that you could use for a core to do the slip yoke kit. PM me if you want any of that stuff. With a 3" lift you may not get into any of the other problems for a while. On my '91 back in college, it kept getting bigger and meaner. Now our '01 is the grocery getter/kid hauler so it is more low key, but still gets a lot of attention because of the 5" lift and wide tires. I dig the Claws, but couldn't justify going with a mud tire. The BFG A/T KO are 325/60/15's (actually about 31.7" X 12.8") are discontinued. Now you can only get the mudders and most of my driving is on road, so I hunted down a set of the AT's. Hopefully I will get to go to Moab in June with my two brothers who are judges at the competition and put my long arm setup to the test. My older brother has a Ranger with 35's and two transfer cases and my younger brother just put a TPI 350 into his '98 Toyota short bed and upgraded to 35's . Both are running lockers as well. Happy trails! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted May 10, 2005 Author Share Posted May 10, 2005 Thanks for the compliments guys. It looks worse in the picture than it actually is, the suspension was articulated just enough to make it look kinda dumpy in the back. The rear lift kit is a Rough Country 3" add a leaf. I plan on getting some 1.5" shackles when the leafs start to sag a bit more. Right now it sits pretty level. I do have a bit of driveline vibration, less now that I put in a 1" transfer case drop. I think I should be able to take out the remaining vibration by using shims on the rear axle. If not, I'll be looking at doing the slip yoke eliminator conversion. The tires definitely look like they should make a symphony of noise on the freeway, but they are actually not that bad. I had 30" BFG Mudders on my last cherokee, and they were significantly louder than these. The Baja Claws also tend to run a lot truer on the road, they don't have any tendancy at all to follow ruts or grooves in the pavement. I was worried about the tread compound being really soft on these as well, but after over 200 miles they still have the little nubs from the molding process left on the tread face. Probably still to early to tell for sure, but they seem like they should hold up pretty well. I'll post more pics as the Mad Max conversion continues. Eventually I might start posting Z related stuff again too. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WickedWild Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 Nice to know I'm not the only Jeep head in here also. Here is a pic of the '95 YJ on 35" Claws ans 6.5" of lift I sold to bye a house... I ran the bias ply Claws and they wore fast but I loved them on the trail. You do have to be carefull in off camber situations, becase they do not have any lateral stability and you will slide sideways. I'm currently working on an '89 XJ 31" AT's 3" lift and cut fenders for trail use, it's my $300 Jeep. Sorry it's a big pic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maichor Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 WickedWild, nice Jeep there. You will like the XJ. My '91 with open diffs put to shame our YJ with 4" lift and ARB in the rear. It could take on so much more with softer springs, more articulation, and a longer wheel base. I chopped the front fenders but left the plastic over and ran 32 X 11.50's which did not rub and would stuff very nicely. I had some rubbing issues on the trail with 33's. Ztard. I can see in the pic now what you are talking about. The driver's front is started up that hill making the tire to fender gap larger in front and smaller in back. I would still say get the shackles, they are cheap and easy just like the shims. Shims may work, but they didn't help much on my '91, however, it had a 6" lift. Measure the angles to see if it will help. After having done both, I would say get the SYE kit ASAP, before you vibrate everything to death. My 91' developed a lot of slop in the drivetrain over the years, and not just from U-joints. I went through several rear U-joints, but my pinion bearing and TC bearing and chain, all of it eventually started to fail. For the '01 I wanted it to stay young so I got an Advance Adapters kit and Tom Woods long travel driveshaft for $425. It came with the beefier TC shaft and everything. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND it. I swapped it in without removing the case and took me about 6 hours and I had all the tools recommended. It is not easy, but very doable by yourself. It also looks like the UROC competition is a no go for me. We are expecting son #2 the same week. I guess the XJ will remain a trail virgin a while longer. The only thing I have done so far in it is pull some guys out of the sand at South Padre Island and run around on some of the sand dunes (more like sand hills) there. By the way, you have Cali plates, have you ever been to Glamis. Man do I miss that place. The dunes are huge. We used to have a Honda 250R four wheeler and a Suzuki 500 Quadzilla we would take out just about every weeked in the winter when I was in high school. Wow, that was 15 years ago, yikes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maichor Posted May 10, 2005 Share Posted May 10, 2005 Oh, by the way, if you want someone to hit the trail with around San Diego, my younger brother, the one with the 350sbc TPI Toyota just moved back to Valley Center (near Escondido), our home town. The guy is a maniac and his truck is a mean torque monster. I'm sure he'd love going on a trail ride since his wife won't be coming down until she finishes her job in June, so for now he has weekends wide open. Let me know I can put you guys in touch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted May 11, 2005 Author Share Posted May 11, 2005 WickedWild, Thanks for the heads up about lateral stability. I'll be a little more careful now about sideways inclines. That's a bad *** YJ. I would have bought one of those if I didn't have such a long commute every day. I used to have an 89 cherokee years back. That thing was a tank off road. No lift kit or mods except 30" Pep Boys futura mud tires, and it would slug through mud and slop that most other built up trucks got stuck in. Must be something about the unibody construction on them that lets them just slide through the mud. All this and power leather seats. Ended up trading it in on a 2001 Eclipse, a mistake that I'm trying to make up for buy getting my 98 Cherokee. Maichor, Thanks for the drivetrain info. Looks like I'll be upgrading to the SYE kit sooner than expected. Where did you find one for $425? I've seen a few on ebay for around $220, but without the driveshaft. I'll probably end up getting the shackles too, I kinda like a car to sit a bit higher in back anyway. I don't think I'll lift it any higher than that, I need the stability for the freeway. I'm thinking of cutting out the fenders quite a bit. Maybe make some aluminum wheel arches linda like the old WWII Willys. I've driven through the Glammis area more times than I can count, but I've never stopped there for any length of time. That might change now that I have a vehicle I can drive out there. I live in Rancho Bernardo, about 5 minutes south of Escondido. Most of the trails I used to take my old Jeep out on have had freeway construction run right through them. If your brother knows a few trails around here I'd love to go riding some time. Side note: My fuel mileage seems to be a lot better with the new tires. I attribute this to the slower engine RPM at cruising speed. No definite figures yet, but I'm guessing about 20 mpg now, vs 17-18 with the old tires. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay1970Z Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 This is an old '81 CJ-7 my brother and I built a couple years ago. Six inches of lift, 35" Ground Hawgs and the old Iron Duke under the hood. My brother ended up selling it shortly after we finished it when he finally realized it just wasn't an economical vehicle to be driving around town. I'd post pictures of my brother's current rig but I dont think I can dig any up right now. Hes got an '86 Toyota 4x4 with 5 inches of lift, 35" tires, 5.71 gears, front and rear locking differentials, 8000 lb winch, the works. Old Toyotas are amazing off-road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted May 11, 2005 Author Share Posted May 11, 2005 Toyotas are awesome, they only weigh like, 14 pounds. They just kind of "float" over everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maichor Posted May 11, 2005 Share Posted May 11, 2005 It looks like the kit I got is now $525. You can do the cheaper version with a core and it will run you $400. Go to http://www.4Xshaft.com and look for it. Also, my bro will be living on a huge ranch in the Rincon Valley and you have streams, rock obstacles, sand, and lots of hills. He can probably give you all the fun you can handle. I'll PM you with his email. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay1970Z Posted May 12, 2005 Share Posted May 12, 2005 I need to warn you before you scroll down. What you are about to see is disturbing and may not be suitable for children. Also, I didn't do it and have no idea who it is so don't take it out on me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-TARD Posted May 12, 2005 Author Share Posted May 12, 2005 $hit, there goes that thread...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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