Commando Crawler Build

Finally going to start the 73 commando build. Got the brake and axles from RME members Greg and Bart. Thank you both!

Picked up a 73 commando to build a family friendly crawler that I can drive to short trails but trailer farther. My uncle and 3 year old son will be building it together. The goal is to be built and done by EJS 2025.

The frame is a tj frame with the Motobilt front and rear stretch kits with TMR shock mounts. Dana 70U rear with king pin 60 front 4 link rear 3 link front. I’m going to run 14” ORI Struts and 40s. Going to put in a 6.0 LS motor 4l60E or 80E transmission with an atlas TCASE. Going to run full PSC hydro steering. Bumpers winch cage etc….. want to be able to run the factory hardtop with it. This project will take awhile to complete while trying to find parts for it as we’re starting from scratch.

I will post pictures tomorrow of what I have so far and where the build is at. I will post pictures of progress. Still trying to find a some body parts as well as other parts.

Right now it’s on some old school 40 MTR rollers and wheels.

Happy to see this posted up, looks like a great start!

Woohoo, congrats on the progress. Been looking forward to this.

Picked up a 5.3 ls with 4l60 and 4x4 TCASE. Not going to use the TCASE from it. Also came with computer ecm and everything.

Got the front ORIs on but the frame is sitting on the axle. I’m either going to put different brackets on and run 16s or 18s. ORI is sending me 18”s to try and see how they work. The frame in the rear isn’t off the axle much with 14”s either.

Got the front hub assembly all on so it’s a rolling chassis now. Moving it to our other shop this weekend. Will put the cab on and start seeing where we need to cut. I’ll post
Pictures once we get it on the frame.

Got the motor in today.

Got the rear disk brake conversion done this weekend and got all the front brakes put on as well.

Been awhile……. Here’s where we’re at now…..

Decided to go with fox 2.0 14” coilovers front and rear and fox 2.0 bumpstops. John at Accutune was great with getting them setup and ordered. Got the atlas in and cross member made. Unlocked the computer and got the motor fired up and running. We might have to swap out springs after we get everything on and see where they settle.

Brake lines are all pretty much done. We made our own hard lines and ran them on tje 4 link in the rear and the 3 link upfront.

We picked up a 23 gallon genright fuel cell and ran all the gas lines through the frame and all tail lights through the other side frame.

Got the Radiator from summit racing. Got it mocked up but I think we’re going to have to move it forward an inch to get our fan in there. It’s going to be a tight squeeze to get the grill in there also without covering the winch plate and mount. Fingers crossed we can make it work.

Going to be cutting the cab for the coil over mounts this weekend and hopefully get the cab on and see where we’re at.

Picking up our wheels and tires this week as well. 20 inch KMC crawlers with 42” trailgrapplers.

Also buying our rear corner armor and flares from Grant at CNA fabrication out of Reno. We’re going to use his 7” stretch ones.

Hopefully be getting the axles to a shop to get geared and locked in the next few weeks.

Still have to get driveshafts and PSC full hydro assist.

Anyone have any recommendations to get our axles geared and locked?

Have you tried to put the tub on yet ? Commandos have dual body mounts (two mounts per frame location) and won't line up with the TJ mounts. Fun to see another 73 build, my 73 Commando build is here on RME as the family commando build project https://rme4x4.com/threads/the-family-commando-build-project.66704/

Tjvess1 said:

Anyone have any recommendations to get our axles geared and locked?

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Agility Customs

Thank you for the recommendation. But they’re 367 miles away lol.

Thanks so much for the updates and glad to see the progress on this project. Love the direction you're going. Keep the pics coming.

Got the seats for it and the tires and wheels on

Got the corner armor from Grant at CNA fabrication. We did the 7” stretch. Got the cab on the frame today with the factory front fenders.

Trying to figure out what to do with the front clip. We want to run the 68-71 jeepster grille but are trying to figure out how to make it work. Would love to use the 73 fenders with the 73 front clip and attach a 68-71 grill. Anyone done anything like that? Or possibly use cj7 fenders? But I believe we’d have to stretch cj fenders to work.

73 fenders