Mudbug Adventures

Every Mile Is An Adventure

E-Locker Upgrade

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Last post we covered the initial upgrades we decided to make as a result of some of the off roading we have been doing. In this post we will continue with other upgrade decisions we made.

Axle Lockers

When we went to Barnwell Mountain Recreation Area we tried the jeep on some harder trails than usual to see what it could do. As mentioned in an earlier post, we met an obstacle that we couldn’t get over due to not having lockers for the extra traction necessary. While on that obstacle, stuck, the NTJC leader said “this is where you need lockers”.  That got us thinking.

What Type of Driving We Do

At some point we had to be realistic as to what we wanted the Jeep to handle. Everyone knows you can get as extreme as you want if you spend enough money. I don’t want get stuck every time we run trails or  be told your Jeep can’t make it through. At the same time I don’t care to be able to climb cliffs or use my Jeep as a submarine. I also don’t want weak links to break on easy to drive trails either. I do want the ability to drive more than dirt roads. The ability to lock the rear axle will help with that.

Why Only Rear Lockers

Because of these thoughts, we decided to add rear lockers to the Jeep. It makes perfect sense to do this while regearing since the differential will be completely disassembled. This saves on the labor a second time later. We only had rear lockers added. Because of the Dana 30 front axle and the stress lockers can put on the differential we decided against lockers on the front. I suppose they would have been ok depending on how hard we wheel and how careful I used a front locker but for now were not doing it. Eventually if we keep the Mudbug we might upgrade the front to a Dana 44. There is quite a cost association with just getting a new axle and components that we are not willing to spend money on right now. If we do upgrade we will add front lockers at that time.

Rear Lockers

Redemption Offroad installed Eaton Electronic Rear Lockers on our Jeep. We read a lot of articles about lockers and know that only having rear lockers will be enormously beneficial in off roading. Were hoping this will give our Jeep the edge we need to take on some harder trails.

Re-Gearing to 4.88 Ratio

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Hot Springs ORV Park was a blast. It did however push us to make some more upgrades to the Jeep.

Redemption Offroad in North Richland Hills, TX is who did our upgrades. The upgrades were beyond my level of competence and even if I knew how to do the work I don’t have the tools for it. We knew what upgrades to make but some of the details we weren’t sure about. The first of these was regearing the differentials.

Current Gearing

I had done my homework on differential gearing based on the engine size and tire size we eventually want to run on the Jeep. We have the 3.8 V6 in our Jeep with a 6 speed transmission. The front axle is a dana 30. The rear differential is a dana 44. The gearing was still the stock 3.21 gear ratio. The problem we were having was 6th gear was unusable. This was because the previous owner had installed 33″ tires without regearing for the change in size. Doing so brought the rpm’s so low that even doing 80mph in 5th gear the engine was still only sitting at about 2800rpm. I also feel quite sure this affects 4 high and 4 low when off roading lending to some power and torque loss on the trails.

What Gearing Did We Go With?

I had settled on a 4.56 or a 4.88 gear ratio before we made the call to Wayne at Redemption Offroad. He said bring it in and we would talk further about gearing. His expert advice was to go with the 4.88 ratio. With our future plans to run 35″ tires and the fact we were actually using the Jeep for off roading he said we would get more performance with that ratio. If we were to ever pull a trailer this would give us the necessary torque to do so as well. I went with his recommendation. Wayne and his staff not only build extreme off road vehicles, they wheel them hard as well. So in my opinion, their advice is golden.

Front Axle Upgrade- Yes or No

This would be the time a lot of people might upgrade that dana 30 front axle as well. We decided not to. Other than the axle ring and pinion size, the dana 30 front axle diameter is the same as a dana 44. From what I’ve read, outside of the gearing, there isn’t a strength difference between the two. If we were to put lockers on the front that would be a different story and an axle upgrade would be a good idea. If we decide not to change the axle for a dana 44 we will probably install chromoly axle shafts later which will strengthen the front axle. For now were not ready to invest in a complete front axle upgrade.

This was the beginning of more upgrades. Next post will cover another upgrade that Redemption Offroad performed to the Mudbug while it was on the lift and disassembled.

Changing the Type of Lift on our Jeep Wrangler

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Changing the Type of Lift on our Jeep Wrangler

 

The Decision to Change Our Jeep Lift

As we adventure forth on our adventures in the Jeep we decided it was time to change the type of lift that is currently on our Jeep. When we purchased the Jeep it had a spacer lift on it. This is also sometimes referred to as a budget boost lift. It lifts the Jeep but doesn’t provide any extra suspension or flex capabilities. The spacer lift uses the stock coil springs that come with the vehicle. We were also concerned about how well those rubber spacers would hold up. Would they slowly collapse or dry out leaving us lower in some areas of the Jeep than others? Would they fall out under a heavy suspension flex situation? These were questions and concerns we had so the conclusion was to just replace them with a proper coil spring suspension lift.  [Read more…]