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Marc Bryson's K30---Errrr '94 Wrangler----wait, '4x MB---I don't know what it is.....trail rig?

Marc Bryson's K30---Errrr '94 Wrangler----wait, '4x MB---I don't know... "Jeep" works

Owners Name & City-

Marc Bryson, Woods Cross, UT


Make, Model & Year of Vehicle-

Excellent question. Titled as a '80 CJ


Engine-

'89 TBI 350


Transmission-

700R4


T-Case-


D300


Axles-

Front: Chevy Dana 60, 4.56 gears, Eaton E-Locker. full width

Rear : Shaved 14 Bolt with spool, 4.56 gears. full width

Suspension-

Waggy fronts

XJ rears (reversed) 101" wheelbase


Wheels and Tires-

38" Super Swamper TSL/SX on stock H1 wheels with PVC beadlocks


Winch-

T-Max 9000

Favorite Trails-

Pritchett, Coyote Canyon, Mineral Basin


Other-

lots......


backontrailer.jpg


abandoned_rig.jpg



I'll get some 'action' pics next time I take it out. (it might be all one color by then, but who knows.......)

Attached are 'all one color' pics.......

freshpaint.jpg

freshpaint2.jpg
 
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mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
Here's where it sits tonight. I think I'll need to cut the shock towers off but that's ok. I need to swap ends on my hydraulic ram. It's hitting at my current front axle location. Coming along though.

I've been trying to leave the shock towers but they need to move back about 1" or so. K30-1.jpeg I'll saw those bumpstops off pdq.


The pitman arm is right up against the body of the steering ram. I can reverse the ram and put the shaft side up here and fix that issue. I'm extending the wheelbase about 1.5-2" with this setup. Should be about 103" or so. When I redo the rear, I'll probably pull the front axle fwd about 1" or so, negating any gain but getting me a little needed clearance with a working rear suspension. K30-2.jpeg I'm just doing the front, wheeling it a little, likely doing the rear after that. :D (have some parts but will need to accumulate a few more items)

Heims are all RuffStuff items. VERY nice quality. Lower arms are MASSIVE (which fits the Jeep) and I'd imagine should last long (I built the Jeep with as little of custom stuff as I could. Where I had to use custom stuff, I've tried to use readily available, solid parts. I hate to have a weekend or week killed by waiting for something custom to be shipped to me. Most stuff on here is stock replacement or readily available items)
 

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bryson

bryson

RME Resident Ninja
Supporting Member
Location
West Jordan
mbryson said:
...The pitman arm is right up against the body of the steering ram. I can reverse the ram and put the shaft side up here and fix that issue. I'm extending the wheelbase about 1.5-2" with this setup. Should be about 103" or so. When I redo the rear, I'll probably pull the front axle fwd about 1" or so, negating any gain but getting me a little needed clearance with a working rear suspension.
Click to expand...

I'm curious what moving the front axle forward has to do with clearance for your rear suspension?
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
bryson said:
I'm curious what moving the front axle forward has to do with clearance for your rear suspension?
Click to expand...


Sorry, a lot of times when I post at work I get to finish my sentence with someone just wandering into my office. My proofreading skills (not that they are good anyway) deteriorate pdq when I get distracted like that. I'll probably pull the REAR axle fwd about 1" or so.

Update: shock mounts are off, coil spring upper mounts are tacked on, have a plan for a pan hard bar (straight should work well---33" will be easier than the 35" above...axleside bracket will be kind of interesting (tallish)). I'm getting pretty psyched as I think this has a strong chance of performing well.

Things to think about while I finish mocking up.
1) Sway bar and links for that
2) figuring out a way to use a stock type coil isolator for quiet operation
3) up travel--I don't have a lot, but probably about 4-5"? I think I might want a little more than that but I think that will come at the cost of overall height. I LOVE the adjustable upper mounts for this. I can set it up for now as it was with the leaf springs (height wise), then do the rear link setup and lower it down. :D

For the rear, I might just do a parallel 4 link with pan hard but the trussed 14 bolt/triangulated upper is still sitting there in the back of my head as well. We'll see how things go.



I couldn't help but throw the coils in there to just see how things looked. I think this should work out pretty well! IMG_2601.jpg


The mostly undamaged shock towers. I'll likely reuse them? IMG_2588.jpg
 
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N-Smooth

N-Smooth

Smooth Gang Founding Member
Location
UT
I see no reason to do a parallel link setup with a panhard in the rear. Why deal with packaging the panhard and having excessive flex steer? Double triangulated link systems have been done so much on the Y/TJ platform that there are tons of options. Just my dos cents
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
xj_nate said:
I see no reason to do a parallel link setup with a panhard in the rear. Why deal with packaging the panhard and having excessive flex steer? Double triangulated link systems have been done so much on the Y/TJ platform that there are tons of options. Just my dos cents
Click to expand...


my thoughts are why deal with an axle truss when can just make a panhard? Do these always get rear steer or is it just done on improperly setup ones? I swear I've seen good performing and poor performing versions of both
 
Gravy

Gravy

Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
Location
The Land Northward (Bountiful), Utah
mbryson said:
Kind of late but curious to your logic on the coil location. My coil's centerline are behind the axle centerline but not by a whole lot. (steering interference issues at full lock) I debated 3-link vs radius arm but I'm radius.
Click to expand...

Radius arm is nice because it corners at speed better without a swaybar, but it puts your instant center lower and you'll get wheel hop in the front under low traction steep climbs.

I'd move the coil buckets back simply for clearance and to push to front axle forward 3 more inches (on my Jeep). Approach angle is important to me because it's the most important thing in Delta.

I could talk your ear off about it, but suffice it to say that parallel radius arm setup (with uppers and lower parallel and lowers parallel to the frame) is my least favorite setup.

I know you don't want to hear it, but if you recall our last conversation about you linking your rig: you wanted to lower it, get more up travel, better turning radius, and a better ride quality (for various reasons).
Your rig climbed and worked pretty good with leaves, but to link it and not get more uptravel (at the same frame height), and not getting more steering angle is bending over dollars to save dimes. It's more work, but it's worth it.

Some options you could explore are: notching the frame for the tie rod, flipping the tie rod to the bottom of the high steer arms or (gasp) low steer.

If you're dead set on radius arms, I'd look at moving the frame mounts inboard of the frame, I drag my lowers everywhere and they are bent because of it.

Same with my parallel lower triangulated upper rear setup: it works well but the frame mounts for the rear lowers have been abused.
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
IMG_2623.JPGWell, I have 4" of up travel. It's not quite what I was after but it is what it is....I have steering and trackbar stuff in the way. If it totally sucks, I'll have to notch the frame in quite a few places...... This thing needs to be mobile pretty quick so I'll try it like that. I took the next two days off to get mobile so my wife can park in the garage for the winter. (never mind the birdshit welds below the hole in the frame....need to break out the grinder...I'll assume there was a little breeze when I welded that ....yeah, that's it)


I think I'd like a little more than 4"? How much will I hate it?
 
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Greg

Greg

I run a tight ship... wreck
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
IIRC my old TJ on 40's had 3" up travel and it was far from desirable at speed... I think 5" would be a good compromise. If you have to notch the frame, best do it now while you're there... it'll make the Jeep more fun to drive when you do get it on the trail. I know you hate to hear that, but realistically if you put it together do you really think you'll pull it apart again to increase the uptravel?
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
Greg said:
IIRC my old TJ on 40" had 3" up travel and it was far from desirable at speed... I think 5" would be a good compromise. If you have to notch the frame, best do it now while there there... it'll make the Jeep more fun to drive when you do get it on the trail. I know you hate to hear that, but realistically if you put it together do you really think you'll pull it apart again to increase the uptravel?
Click to expand...


good point. I can make it mobile and still notch (I'm pretty close right now).


Anyone one have any JK lift springs? Stock JKU springs compress about 6" or more under the weight of my pile. (I thought I had some XJ lift springs in my blob but they may not have made the move?). I'm stopping at my tie rod for now
 
mbryson

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Location
Bountiful, land of rocks
I Lean said:
...and then?
Click to expand...

I got a metal sliver stuck in my eye again.... Shut me down for a few days and about $500 (thanks Obamacare for F*cking up my insurance).

Alex had some coils that work pretty well. I need to finish up a couple items (upper coil retainers/bumpstops, shock mounts and final weld the uppers---I'm still going to clearance the frame at the tie rod/drag link area and the trackbar---It's only 1.5" or so but that could be pretty important 1.5" {so I've heard}). It's actually pretty mobile if I had anything setup in the rear still.
 
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