2006 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited

Post by **Dred** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:58 pm

I got the JKS 1.25" body lift this week along with the Big Daddy tie rod that I ordered. The body lift is installed and I took it out on the trail for a bit today to check tire clearance. The tires rub a little bit at full flex on the plastic fender flares, but not enough to cause any problems. The installation was pretty straight forward except for the big ass nut that holds the fan on! The fan has to be removed so that you can modify the fan shroud. Here are some pics of the body lift install and testing. I'll post up some more pics of the tie rod after I put it on.

Post by **Dred** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:59 pm

I installed the tie rod tonight. It's quite beefy compared to the stock unit! I shouldn't have any issues with bent tie rods now. I went with the Big Daddy tie rod on this Jeep since on my last Jeep I spent close to $400 on the Currie heavy duty steering system and managed to severely bend the tie rod the first time I took it out on a trail. I still have no idea what I bent it on, but in my opinion it was certainly not worth the money that I spent. So on this Jeep, I opted for the $80 Big Daddy heavy duty tie rod. It still uses the stock rod ends unlike the Currie system, but I figured that having the rod ends as the weak link could be a good thing since they are cheap and easy to replace.

Post by **shmoken875** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 11:19 pm

I hope nothing but the best for ya, but ctrow managed to bend a big daddy tie rod on his xj on 36s. BTW your jeep is the bomb diggidy

Post by **Dred** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:14 pm

Time for an update!
I finally saved enough pennies to order some 4.88 gears for the axles. The 4.88 gears and 37's are about the same as the stock 4.10 gears and stock 31's. Now the engine is much happier running at the proper rpm to maintain highway speed. I can use 6th gear again! It's my favorite gear because it's the first vehicle I've owned that has a 6th gear. I was pretty bummed when I couldn't use 6th gear after I put on the 37's.... I mean 5 speed transmissions are soo 2004.

Anyway, here are some pics of the install. I didn't take too many pictures because I didn't feel like getting gear oil all over the camera.

Post by **Dred** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 10:26 pm

After the install, I took her for a spin on the highway and I have no trouble going 75 in 6th gear!

My new crawl ratio: 4.46 X 4.0 X 4.88 = 87:1

That means at 800 rpm it take 6.67 seconds for the tire to make one revolution. So with 37 inch tires the Jeep will travel 1045 inches per minute, which is 5228 feet per hour, the closest mall to my house is 7.71 miles, so that means if I put the Jeep in 4low first, it would take me 7.79 hours to get to the mall! HA!