Project Baby Runner/Mini Crawler: R.J.'s Navajo Build

this thread is going to be just a thread posting any mods or work being done on the Navajo. I'll also make a registry which would kinda like a summery of whats in the vehicle and i already have a thread started about the work im doing to the front beams/axle. http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206455

well here's whats up with it right now, its in mexico at McNeiloff-road to have a roll cage put in it

here's just some randome shots of the shop.

Chad McNeils shop

Perry and Jason's shop

this is a shot from the front gate around the buildings. on the right it is Chad McNeil's shop (McNeil Off-road) and towards the left is the building where Perry McNeil (McNeil Racing/Perrys fab n fiber) and Jason McNeil (Fiberwerx) shops are.

some sort of buggy

some trucks

a cool bumper

a sport trac

pictures suck, but here's some explorers

king pin, equal length.

a ranger

i forget how massive desert cars are till i see them. all the shocks, springs, tubing, reinforcing etc. is huge.

 

[Dannyboy]

don't even get me started. I just dropped another 500 today on gauges, antenna & gps mounts.

 

[carlover]

Ouch, ill be dropping about 1k on a 9" this week.

 

[Dannyboy]

Ouch, ill be dropping about 1k on a 9" this week.

Saweet, you going to get a thread going with everything planned on your rig?

 

[carlover]

Saweet, you going to get a thread going with everything planned on your rig?

yeah pretty soon. The kick ass setup will be the rear. 4 link with the coilovers on a canti setup so everything will be under the bed area.

 

[R.J.]

gonna get 20" of travel with a 10" coilover? sweet

well now there's another thread that i can't wait to watch!

 

[carlover]

gonna get 20" of travel with a 10" coilover? sweet

well now there's another thread that i can't wait to watch!

more like around 16 on an 8" lol, but we will see. Its a ways off since i have to build the 9" and get the parts together and all that. He also is offering a kit with a custom spindle with d44 snouts now so thatll be moy front

 

[R.J.]

i was looking at this pic (also posted earlier in this thread) you can see pretty well how bad the angle of the shock is, and as the springs compress more and the axle travels up, the angle only gets worse

 

[94 Crawler]

Hey Just catchin up on my reading your ride turned out very well. Makes me want to mod out my beams. But that would be anti productive to my sas. Just wanted to give two big thumbs up. Also do you have room for a rear shock setup like FatCat I think there's pics in his build up thread. The shocks are mounted outboard the chassis. I concidered this aproach but do not have the necessary clearence to make it work on the ranger. Good luck with that.

 

[R.J.]

thanks micheal i've seen your thread a few times, i think it needs more pictures

i've seen fatcats shock setup and i've thought about, even the mcneil guys talkd about it, but i think i'd only have room for a 2.0 shock, and with all te weight i have in the rear and high speed desert driving, the shocks would overheat creating shock fade i don't think i'd have room for a 2.5 shock. building a shock mount will take a full day probably, since i need to take the leafe pack apart and cycle the suspension, but my feeling is that the dual shocks in a more upright position will provide adequate performance, it just needs to be enough to be able to have a good time in the dunes and washes i think i said it earlier, the rear will be built up a bit more latter in life (air bumps, 2.5 resi shocks, etc)

thanks for pointing out fat cats setup though, its good information to think about

 

[94 Crawler]

Hey I'll get some more soon. It still needs some work and an alignment befor i get some real off road pics.

 

[R.J.]

update update

got some work done this weekend. tried to make the back end nice n sweet.

1, got the g50 pack rebuilt by deaver

2, built a new shock mount trying to get a more vertical anlge on them


they rebuilt leaf pack: removed the snail wrap on front cause it doesn't fit right on explorers, shortened the back 1", added three leaves, its now a 13 leaf pack and all the leafs were cut down to be semetrical, it should sit about three inches higher than before. and with the initial price of the springs and the rebuild we're still about $100 under a custom pack (and its now a custom pack)

and before we took anything apart, i had to flex out on the forklift, just cause i could

31"s off the ground = 613 RTI on a 30 degree ramp

springs aren't bending backwards anymore

shock mount

my original idea for the shock mount was much more elaborate, but since it took two days just build this, it should be good enough

but the bad..... still sits too low it only has stock shackles on right now so i'll throw the warriors back on to be a little higher. might have to drive it over to deaver let them check it out

 

[Tbars4]

...The first pic looks good but the next 2 look like old springs...:scratch:

..Just throwing this out there but, before you take it back, have you thought about pulling the bumper off to see how the truck acts?? I'm just curious..

 

[R.J.]

haven't thought about that. we took pics of the car to deaver and told them that bumper ways A LOT. im sure the springs would work great without the bumper, but we need springs built to hold the weight

 

[Tbars4]

...Lol, that was my next question...Have you weighed it with the tire and given that info to deaver???

...I think that bumper must weigh alot more than it looks...That spring pack looks *****en though, and it looks like it should have done the job, especially with 13 leafs...

 

[R.J.]

yeah im amazed that huge leaf pack can't hold up the truck, but the superlift springs can guess that means the deavers are nice in soft?

 

[Tbars4]

...I would love to see you run that set up thru the whoops at Pismo without the rear bumper and the tire put inside the back...

 

[R.J.]

but then the tire flops around in the back!!!!!!!!!! no bueno. it should ride pretty goodthrough the whoops even how it sits now

 

[Tbars4]

...We'll see after Moab...

 

[R.J.]

we could always just drive the bronco out again, we could floor it through that whoop section. we'll race you ted

 

[carlover]

we could always just drive the bronco out again, we could floor it through that whoop section. we'll race you ted

you gonna givit a little workout this weekend???