Back half Rubicon

So, I was laying in bed and I had a crazy thought. Out wheeling, I keep saying to myself, man, I wish I had a few extra inches on my wheelbase. Well then the gears started turning...

I'm looking at possibly chopping the rear frame of my '06 Rubicon in order to stretch it around 7 inches for right now. First, let me tell you about my current set-up. I got stock Rubi 44's with cromo's on the way for the rear, Currie upper and lower adjustable short arms, 4" currie coils, Rubicon express shocks, Tom woods driveshaft, 33 engineering t-case skid, Rokmen gas skid, riddler diff cover, and 35" BFG KM2's. I won't go into depth too much on anything else since I'll be working on the back half only. My current set-up works good, but I want more wheelbase and long arms. I'm thinking that if I do this now, the stretch portion will be out of the way for when I go to 60's and bigger tires later and it will be easy if I wanted to stretch it a few more inches. Plus it's tax time so I have some extra money. Here's how my Jeep sits now:


I've been working on google sketch-up and designing the back half of my frame (it won't let me post pics from that application). I'll chop the rear frame where it crests above the stock coil mounts and the new frame will be made out of 2x4x3/16" rectangular tube, 4x1/4" flat bar for bracing at the rear, and 3x1/4" flatbar for the fish plates to mount to the existing frame. I'm going to integrate the bumper to the frame so I can knock out the bumper and a rear crossmember at the same time. I'm also going to run at least one more cross brace between the frame rails, to mount the shocks to, somewhere in the middle of the new frame. The body mounts will be moved slightly to fit and the rear corners will be comp cut. Here's a half a$$ side drawing of what I'm thinking of doing for the rear frame. The angled lines in the back are the 4" braces which will be on the inside and outside of the frame. Then the coil bucket is in the middle with the fish plates up front. Again, I have a awesome 3D picture, but it won't let me post it since I can only save it to Google sketch-up.



As far as other parts go, I'll be using:

Genright's alien crawler gas tank (http://www.genright.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productID=GST2006)
Genright's four link brackets (http://www.genright.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productID=BKT1017)
TNT Customs rear axle truss (http://tntcustoms.com/reartruss-d44tjlj.aspx)
The upper axle link brackets on the truss will be homemade
I'll probably have a Tom Woods drive shaft built to accomodate the stretch as well.

For the links, I'm thinking that since I already have johnny joints at both ends on all four of my existing short arms, cutting them in half, sleeve them with 1/4" DOM, and re-weld them at the ends and add a few plug welds.

I believe that I got everything I need to complete it on the list. If I'm missing something, feel free to let me know.

There's my plan so far. I don't want to buy one of the stretch kits from rockkrawler, clayton, or any others because it would cost more and I would like to have something built not bought. I've already built my front and rear bumper and tire carrier, and rock sliders so I don't want to stop now.
If you could give me any advise at all on this set-up that I'm looking at doing, whether good or bad or don't do, please feel free to let me know. Thanks in advance.

Jeremy

sounds good to me since im thinking along the same lines

Rockintjak wrote:

...For the links, I'm thinking that since I already have johnny joints at both ends on all four of my existing short arms, cutting them in half, sleeve them with 1/4" DOM, and re-weld them at the ends and add a few plug welds...

Since you are making some serious mods already, why not try a 3-link set up eliminating the track bar for more articulation?

JK_JOE wrote:

Rockintjak wrote:

...For the links, I'm thinking that since I already have johnny joints at both ends on all four of my existing short arms, cutting them in half, sleeve them with 1/4" DOM, and re-weld them at the ends and add a few plug welds...

Since you are making some serious mods already, why not try a 3-link set up eliminating the track bar for more articulation?

or a double triangulated 4 link for stability.

pm IntenseBlue on the forum. he did his own stretch and probably for alot less. he fabbed his own controll arms I think. do a search and see if you can find the pics of his rig - before he chopped it right behind the front seats recently to do his own "home brew brute"
he's tubbing the back half.

Kind of like the Blue Torch Fab kit.

As far as the links just buy the DOM and the weld in bungs and resuse your j joints.

JK_JOE wrote:

Since you are making some serious mods already, why not try a 3-link set up eliminating the track bar for more articulation?

You can't have a 3 link without a panhard bar. You could how ever run a triangulated 4 link ad get rid of it.

Go check out Pirate and look up thread "project stretch it". I have been following that thread for a while, good info/ideas.

terrahawk wrote:

JK_JOE wrote:

Since you are making some serious mods already, why not try a 3-link set up eliminating the track bar for more articulation?

You can't have a 3 link without a panhard bar. You could how ever run a triangulated 4 link ad get rid of it.

My bad, I was thinking of the one with 2 lca's and one triangle shaped upper where the "point" of the triangle attaches to the top center of the rear dif. What's that one called?

Joe, that would still "technically" be a four link. It would be like a KJ, I am not sure what they call that type of control arm, like a rear A arm, but it works under the same concept as a four link.

A three link is what Rock Krawler runs pn their kits. One ingle control arm in the middle with a panhard bar to keep things centered. It still erradicates a lot of bind under articulation.

Rubicon Express calls their triangulated rear an Tri-Link(that might have been what confused him) because it has a single attachment point where the two uppers come together over the pumpkin with one superflex joint but it is a four link. Rock Krawler's 3 link is for the front though, and it does work great!