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jtmroczk's build/experience

17874 Views 64 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  jtmroczk, 
jtmroczk
jtmroczk's build


The modifications are all weekend projects with an attempt to balance cost, effectiveness and ease of installation, so nothing crazy. Off road in Florida means limestone, clay, sand, mud and standing water. I like playing in and around the rocks so I've been primarily pushing for more articulation from the stock suspension geometry.

2010 6MT with all the convenience stuff i never use :bigthumb:.

Wheels & tires:
315/70R17 Hankook RT03 MTs on stock wheels
1.25" Spidertrax spacers.
Body mount chopped, front bumper trimmed, rear flares trimmed, rear quarters and other minor areas hammered.
Viar ADA 400C
ARB deflator

Suspension:
Bilstien 5100 #24-186711 front shocks on first/second setting for the old "FJ lean" with stock springs and a 0.5" top plate spacer for the extra extension.
Lightracing upper control arms to clear the spring at full droop
Metaltech 19.25" medium rear springs
Pro-Comp 29.77" long shocks with 12.68" of travel at the shock out back. ES9000 #929510 mounted as seen on page one with pro-comp 600020 lower bushing, these do contact the lower link and axle housing under full articulation.
1.5" rectangle tube bump stop spacers out back, this and the Spidertrax spacers keep the top of the tires off the top of the wheel well at full tire stuff.
Extended rear brake lines,
Extended: wheel speed sensor lines, diff lock actuator lines via existing slack in lines and brackets, pulled existing slack down on the front lines
Removed: both anti-sway bars, both e-brake line frame side brackets.

Trail protection:
All-Pro Apex Sliders
Rear bumper cover delete with rear "razor wings".
Metaltech tube doors with nets
Budbuilt 4-piece skids

Electronics:
Midland CB with 3' antenna on a Bandi Mount.

Interior
Tuffy locking center console






Suspension maximum flex min $: [URL="http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/suspension-steering-tech/154893-supperflexy-cheap-more-expensive-if-youre-into-bigthumb.html"]http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/suspension-steering-tech/154893-supperflexy-cheap-more-expensive-if-youre-into-bigthumb.html[/URL]


35s are easy, well at least the spare: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/wheels-tires/158946-35-spare-rear-door-stock-wheel-no-spacers-no-mount-flip-stock-bumper.html


CB connections, i like a simple out of the way when you don't want it modification.

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jtmroczk
stuff on the old truck and misc. whatever

2007 4x2 FJC, I bough this in Dec. 2007 with no intention of going off road any further than where ever I needed to park to go rock climbing, mountain biking and sea kayaking.

^haha thats Howard(FJ6high) in the back ground some time in early 2008.


Two years later I was bouncing the 2WD between the trees to keep up with 4WD FJCs.

^click the video

A few months later traded it in for a 2010 6MT



This is what scraping your quarter panel looks like, when the mirror has to come its probably time to back up LOL


FJ Cruiser wheel studs: http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/forums/wheels-tires/105615-you-have-arp-heat-tread-8740-chome-moly-wheel-stud-options-availiable.html

Drift car: Awesomely bad idea
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jtmroczk
Hard rock Ocala 12/22/12
Justin flexing the FJ - YouTube


Rough day for the FJC, Derek was kind enough to get my reflection in the shot LOL happems at 15:34 in the video

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D
Nice looking rig! Watch out for the mud though.
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Old Cruiser
How do you like the rig without both sway bars? Thinking about losing the rear one now since it seems to limit the longer shocks I'm running. Any more "tippy" than with just the rear only?
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jtmroczk
Old Cruiser said:
How do you like the rig without both sway bars? Thinking about losing the rear one now since it seems to limit the longer shocks I'm running. Any more "tippy" than with just the rear only?
Click to expand...
The rear is almost not noticeable and not any more "tippy". What you may recognize is initial movement of the axle while initiating a turn on paved roads at low speeds, basically the rear axle looses a little bit of dampening under articulation due to turning. High speed stability is the same. I don't think you would notice it with the diameter and weight of 35s, I can't even pick it out anymore.
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Old Cruiser
jtmroczk said:
The rear is almost not noticeable and not any more "tippy". What you may recognize is initial movement of the axle while initiating a turn on paved roads at low speeds, basically the rear axle looses a little bit of dampening under articulation due to turning. High speed stability is the same. I don't think you would notice it with the diameter and weight of 35s, I can't even pick it out anymore.
Click to expand...
Very cool :D

I've been considering this since its actually limiting the amount of flex I get currently (still have about an inch of shock left not utilized). This will be done once I get the FJ home.

Thanks

PS- Like the action shots. Looks like both your FJ's get/ got used as designed :bigthumb:
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FJNewb
Nice build jtmroczk. Look forward to more of your posts. Always informative.
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jtmroczk
New rear springs, shocks and bump stops ordered, time to see what the rear suspension can really do. 3"s more down travel at the shock and the 1.5" bump stop spacer aught to be enough to get the tire off of the top of the wheel well.
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FJX2000
Looks good! Awesome articulation!
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FJNewb
jtmroczk said:
New rear springs, shocks and bump stops ordered, time to see what the rear suspension can really do. 3"s more down travel at the shock and the 1.5" bump stop spacer aught to be enough to get the tire off of the top of the wheel well.
Click to expand...
Post up photos.
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Archy Chris
Nice build! :bigthumb:
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jtmroczk
Rough weekend for the rock sliders...


i'm thinking I'll have to try All-Pro's DOM sliders
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fj6high
Alright Justin! Glad to see your still modding your FJ and playing hard. Looks like your gettig some of the big stuff done and it will be cool to see what youv'e done in person. Nice start to your build and your write up is informative...Good JoB! See Ya on the trails.
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jtmroczk
FJNewb said:
Post up photos.
Click to expand...
shocks are in, bump stop material is in and the springs are on their way as of tomorrow. it should all be on in time for a Saturday morning ride on the 12th

and my extra camera just came in, that'll be a sweet little electronics project!

fj6high said:
Alright Justin! Glad to see your still modding your FJ and playing hard. Looks like your getting some of the big stuff done and it will be cool to see what you've done in person. Nice start to your build and your write up is informative...Good JOB! See Ya on the trails.
Click to expand...
thanks Howard, I've got three more write-ups in the works. let me know the next time you're headed out with the FJ.
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Briareos
jtmroczk said:
... bump stop material is in ...
Click to expand...
Sounds like you have a little bit of work in front of you. I am looking forward to seeing how you set up your bumpstops, and the materials you use.

Do you plan on incorporating any offset to the bumpstop?

Good Luck,
Shawn
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jtmroczk
Briareos said:
Sounds like you have a little bit of work in front of you. I am looking forward to seeing how you set up your bumpstops, and the materials you use.

Do you plan on incorporating any offset to the bumpstop?

Good Luck,
Shawn
Click to expand...
They're only 1.5" spacers but I'll be offsetting it a little since i have to drill the two sets of holes anyway. I picked up two 6" pieces of 0.25" wall 1.5" box tube. Just a little over kill LOL
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FJ_explorer
jtmroczk said:
The rear is almost not noticeable and not any more "tippy". What you may recognize is initial movement of the axle while initiating a turn on paved roads at low speeds, basically the rear axle looses a little bit of dampening under articulation due to turning. High speed stability is the same. I don't think you would notice it with the diameter and weight of 35s, I can't even pick it out anymore.
Click to expand...
Did you remove the rear sway bar before you removed the front? From a number of other's experiences, it seems that if you remove one sway bar, either the front or rear, there is not much increased body roll, but when you remove both is when significant body roll is noticed at street driving speeds. Is that your experience?

I removed my front first before I removed my rear. And after I removed the rear is when I noticed the markedly increased body roll at street driving speeds. The weight and other suspension components affect the roll stability too. I definitely noticed more body roll when I am loaded up and before I switched from Icons to OME mediums.

Nice write up by the way. Looking forward to reading more as it comes.
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jtmroczk
Rear suspension now consists of, progressive rate 19.25" coil, 12.5" travel 29.75" long shocks, 1.5" bump stop spacer(for same engagement as last time), bent brackets and extended wires for the diff lock actuator and speed sensors, extended brake lines, all stock links.

The Metaltech springs brought 1/2" more lift to the rear over the Toytec springs, I've got an extra 40lbs of tire on the back door and Domello tube sliders on an otherwise stock weight FJ.

the extended brake lines are just about maxed out. I bent the brackets for the diff lock actuator and the wheel speed sensors. I also pulled all the slack i could out of both, there is more than enough for the wheel speed sensors.


we'll see how well the bump stop extensions hold up... 1.5"x3"x6" @ 3/8" offset about an inch.
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jtmroczk
Now the fun part, ever wonder if a 31" shock could fit like say MetalCloak 6Pak 16" Long Travel Compact Shock ?




you might want Metaltech's offset lower links, but otherwise it looks good :bigthumb:

The guys at Metalcloak are pretty responsive to e-mail...

"The body of the shock is bout 2.5"x3.5"... ...I believe the heim joints are 1/2" holes and the body can be rotated for the best clearance. The heim should also provide the clearance for the shock mounts. The black piece that the heim threads into is about 2" long"

It looks like it is possible to convert it to upper stem mount, i founds two stem that will bolt on. If that works out the it would be possible to have 16" of travel with 31" of droop all with stock bump stops.

But, I won't be able to drop the necessary $1300 or $1400 on those shocks and links anytime soon.
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