My Side Piece

[bmkrinne]

I’ve been unhappy with the unfinished look of the rear AEV bumper after I cut off the tubes and had our machine shop make some 1” pucks to go in the stub tubes. I finally got up the courage to weld on the Jeep today and welded them in.

 

[n3tfury]

good lookin' rig and nice welding

 

[bmkrinne]

good lookin' rig and nice welding

Thanks man! The welds are pretty rough but get the job done! Haha!!

 

[bmkrinne]

I am ordering a bottle jack and wanted to buy an axle cradle but thought I could make that shit out of scrap pieces, so here’s the process…

I measured the PR44 axle tube and rear D44 tube OD.
PR44 - 3.00” OD
D44 - 3.170”

I decided to make the cradle 3.250” so I cut two cradle pieces out of 3/16” plate.

Bottom plate is 3/8” plate cut length and end caps are 1/8”. Why different? Because I had scrap pieces that size!

fit ups below



Then welded shit together for a bit!



Gotta let it cool off for a bit before cleaning it up and painting. I’ll probably wait for the bottle jack to come it before I weld on a piece of pipe on the bottom to hold it on the jack.
It’s beer thirty!!

 

[bmkrinne]

Finally broke down and ordered windshield mounted doorless mirrors and installed them this morning. Soooo nice to have mirrors again when running my soft half doors!!

 

[bmkrinne]

I took the side piece to a local Offroad park called Hawks Pride in Tuscumbia, AL last weekend and really bang d up the OEM gas tank skid, so I installed a new 3/16” gas tank skid plate over the OEM skid plate. Went on easier than I expected.


Also found my front driver side spring rotated out of the lower perch…again for the 3rd time. I fabricated a “keeper” bracket out of scrap 16 gauge sheet metal while I had it apart. Another excuse to use the MIG welder!

 

[bmkrinne]

My side piece has the JK lean and has been bothering me for a while, so I decided to fix it. After measuring all 4 corners and testing with a jack, I decided to install a 1” spacer above the rear passenger spring.

Here are the A/F and A/L measurements.



the measurements show 1/4” lean on the front and level in the back, I may put a 1/2” spacer on top of my front passenger spring to completely level it out. That’s for another day though!

pics of the spacer installed n the rear.

 

[bmkrinne]

Took the wife and my side piece to Stoney Lonesome park yesterday and had a blast. She doesn’t really care for the rock crawling, but seemed to have a good time yesterday. She rode half the day in my buddy’s razor, but won’t hold that against her!!
I’m happy to report the spring keeper I built, worked very well! Not spring movement after two wheeling trips! Success!!!

here are a few shots of Stoney

 

[bmkrinne]

We have gotten turned around four times in the last 6 months on trails due to downed trees. Two times have been pretty nasty having to back out over the rocks, ledges, etc. Every time no one in the group had a chainsaw, so the newest project comes about….a chainsaw rack for the Side Piece.
I’ve got a gas chainsaw that gets used at the house but didn’t want to smell the gas and have oil leak in the Jeep so I designed and fabbed a tire carrier mount for the chainsaw. Been sketching this thing out for awhile and finally started cutting metal.
It is fabricated from 1/4” A36 plate.

Next up….

rattle can paint!!

 

[benatc1]

That’s cool, nice work. Now that you’ll have that with you, you’ll never see another downed tree

 

[bmkrinne]

That’s cool, nice work. Now that you’ll have that with you, you’ll never see another downed tree

Truth! Haha!!!

 

[bmkrinne]

Got it painted and straps installed today. Don’t like the blue straps but for $5, . Would be better with black.

I hate the damned ShittyBuilt tire carrier but it actually has a really great mounting point for bullshit like this.

 

[Robar]

I can see the practicality, but I'm not sure how anyone thinks they'll ever get a date with axes, shovels, and chainsaws hanging from their jeep.

 

[bmkrinne]

I can see the practicality, but I'm not sure how anyone thinks they'll ever get a date with axes, shovels, and chainsaws hanging from their jeep.

What? Chicks don’t dig that kind of stuff?

 

[bmkrinne]

OCD got the best of me. Swapped out the blue straps for black.

 

[bmkrinne]

Haven’t posted an update lately. No changes to the Jeep but been having fun driving it on the weekends. Trail riding squared with the mountain bikes!! Such great weather!

 

[DirtHeadDavis]

Great looking rig! I need to do something similar to your solution for the spring popping out. I also still need a bike rack for mine

 

[bmkrinne]

The original rear driveshaft finally met its fate at Stoney Lonesome on a trail called Cry Baby Holler. Replaced it with an Adams. I wondered how long the OEM driveshaft would last… depends on how hard you beat on it

Also replaced the wiper seals on the Rusty’s tie rod ends also.

 

[Disciple Off Road]

Looking good

 

[bobfriesenhahn]

I hope you will have the time to wash and wax that drive shaft regularly.