An Idaho summer trip with high school friends and their families. The Green CJ5 belongs to my sons’ friend Drew, he built this Jeep himself and is running an AMC 304 with a Dana 44-30 combo and ARB air lockers.

Longtime readers will remember the 2011 post about Randy and his boys’ jeeps. Randy shared how the three of them turned basketcase jeeps into viable, modified vehicles. They continue to drive and jeep them in Idaho. Since we last check in with them, they’ve made some updates to their jeeps. Randy describes the changes below (thanks for taking the time to write this up Randy!):

Randy’s Jeep before a summer trip.

Randy’s 46, CJ2a (blue):
In the winter of 2012 Dusty and I swapped in most of the running gear that was originally installed in his Jeep when we built it in 2004. We Installed the Buick 231, radiator, transmission, exhaust and drivelines. I did a Saginaw power steering upgrade and installed disc brakes on the front axle as well. The springs were re-arched and Bilstein shocks were installed. In order to make room for bigger tires I opened up the back fenders about 3 inches behind the tires and moved the rearend back 1 ½ inches. The fender trimming is not noticeable unless there is a stock Jeep around to compare it to. Last spring I purchased a new set of 37 x 13.5 x 15 Super Swamper Truxus MT radial tires and mounted them on the 15 x 10 Mickey Thompson aluminum wheels that were originally on Devon’s Jeep. Those tires made an unbelievable difference when running in the snow. I usually air down to about 3.5 to 4.5 pounds of air pressure and didn’t have any trouble losing tires off the bead on our snow runs.

This past year I installed a set of suspension bucket seats made by Corbeau that are designed for use in a side-by-side such as a Yamaha Rhino. They have the same dimensions as the Jeep seats that Corbeau makes but the bottom of the seats are shorter which makes it easier to get in and out of the Jeep. I also notched the front of my rear inner fenders and moved the front seats back about 2 inches. Seat heaters were installed in the new seats as well. It is a lot more comfortable to drive now.

Dusty breaking trail

Dusty’s 46, CJ2A (green):
Dusty has since swapped out the CJ5 axles that were in it and installed a set of Dana 44’s in both ends from a Scout II. He re-geared them to a 4:56 ratio and then installed ARB air lockers in both differentials. We also cut and turned the front knuckles 15° to give it 6° of caster and to turn the back of the differential up a bit for a better driveline angle. Devon did the fabrication and welding for the outboarded spring mounts on the front axle and even fixed his brother up with a couple of fat girl cutouts that he used for gussets. He also fabbed up new lower shock mounts both front and back and built upper shock hoops for the front then mounted up Bilstein 5150 shocks. Dusty also installed some heavy wall tube tie rod and drag links with Dana 60 tie rod ends. A new single ladder bar was built to prevent axle wrap and was installed on the passenger side of the rear differential. We found out the hard way that the ladder bar needs to be installed on the passenger side. Devon ran one on the drivers side for awhile but the torque of the motor combined with the upward force of the ladder bar made it pretty easy to lift the drivers side front tire off the ground without applying a lot of throttle. Mounting it on the passenger side fixed that problem.

Dusty also did some fender trimming behind his tires and moved his rearend back about 1 inch. He purchased new 39.5 x 13.5 x 15 Super Swamper IROC bias ply tires and mounted them on his 15 x 12 Mickey Thompson aluminum wheels. He usually airs down a little further than I do but hasn’t had any problems losing tire beads either.

Devon’s 1942 MB:
Not much was needed here because he was already running Dana 44’s front and rear with OX lockers in both ends. He did trim his fenders a little further to make room for bigger tires and built all new shock mounts with upper hoops in front and installed Bilstein 5150 shocks as well. Devon decided wide was the way to go for flotation in the snow so he bought a set of new 39.5 x 16.5 x 15 Pit Bull Rocker bias ply tires and mounted them on 15 x 12 Allied bead lock wheels. He can run less than 1 pound of air pressure because of the bead locks but the tires kind of arch up in the middle with less than 1 ½ to 2 pounds of air pressure to keep them flattened out.

The bigger tires have definitely helped out in the snow. Even in hard snow the extra surface helps with traction. We can go places now that we couldn’t before. In the summer if we run about 8-10 lbs of air it really smoothes out the rough roads.

Better get Biscuit ready to go!!!! [Editors’s note: I will do my best!]

Our Jeeps at Rocky Ridge Lake, 3-5 feet of snow, the lake is frozen over behind the Jeeps.