Superdookie Southeastern XJ

[5lugger95]

Finally gave up on trying to have a prerunner in the southeast. After going wheeling with a buddy of mine in his YJ on 42s, a day later I decided it was time to buy a swamp donkey. The only real requirement I had was four seats, so an XJ fit the bill perfectly. I found this one on a local offroad forum for 6k (probably to much). It came with 37" KM2s, waggy D44s, a full PSC big bore box and hydro assist, half doors, long arms, various bolt on goodies, and probably the scariest cage I have ever seen.

The half doors and party lights are what sold me.

The one-ton XJ is sort of the bread-and-butter party rig out here in the southeast, so this build may be a bit of a dime a dozen, but the crew is always getting into shit so if you want to follow the escapades @runsprimeracing on IG. There's a blue 1st gen 4runner, traildaddy's YJ and all sorts of friends rigs on that page. There's also a video of my brakes failing that's pretty entertaining.

 

[5lugger95]

First shake down run was at a local spot called the Gulches, Ultimate adventure has been there a few times and it's a perfect little spot for testing and doing a half day type trip. This trip went really well and once I got used to the feeling of the jeep trying to do a kickflip every time I turned it, I began getting the hang of rock crawling. I was pretty hyped on the little white turd. After that we took the rigs to Windrock where chaos ensued.

Got about halfway into the first trail and the blue 1st gen in the pictures below blew up a ring and pinion. Come about 1am and we finally get the yota out of the woods after winching and towing for 6 hours. As I am headed back into camp, the XJ deletes its passenger rear wheel. At which point I leave it with the keys in and walk back to camp.

The prior owner had two inch spacers on 2.25" studs so it was only a matter of time before all four wheels followed suit.

 

[5lugger95]

After the windrock trip I decided I needed to rip out the sketchy ass cage that the XJ came with. The prior owner had built the cage in four vertical parts without any sleeving and with the windshield bar about half an inch from my forehead, I'll try and dig up pictures.

I ordered a cage kit from Welderd.com and was super happy with it.

 

[5lugger95]

It was good foresight on my part.... The next weekend we were at an event in TN (AOP) with another local crew call TrailTrash. During the swamp drags I forgot I was in a swamp donkey and tried to bust a drifto... laid her over instantly

 

[5lugger95]

After a few trips and three broken d44 waggy axles in the XJ and two broken axles in my buddies yota, we decided the gang needed tonz. So I picked up a set of 2009 Superdookies and got to work.
Superdookie setup:

2009 F250 axles: HP d60, sterling 10.5 (Welded/Welded)
TMR High Steer Arms
Barnes truss front and rear
Ruffstuff diff covers
Vision 17" beadlocks
39.5 IROKz

 

[5lugger95]

The first shakedown of the new thickness was at Gulches annual barbie jeep race. I don't know why this event isn't televised, as it was probably the most entertaining thing I have ever seen. Basically, they take one of the steep green trails, build a huge kicker into a pond at the bottom, and race dozens of people down it in barbie jeeps. 1st place is $500!

Go watch the Runsprimeracing IG page for barbie jeep content, its worth it.

 

[5lugger95]

Next stop for the gang was Good Evening Ranch in WV with the blue collar offroad podcast and Walts Crawlers. Absolute blast of a trip. Only broke a rear driveshaft, trans mount, and had brake failure (runsprimeracing IG for brake failure video)

 

[5lugger95]

The Runsprimeracing crew also races a lot of the awesome local Enduro MTB races we have here in the South East. So heres a pic of my new stumpy evo. This little bruiser is replacing an onyx blue specialized enduro.

 

[dwphoto]

Alot to unpack here.

Sweet XJ.
The Ricky Bobby costume is
Stumpy Evo solid club choice

Scoped the Runsprimeracing IG... Fellassssssssss... Just getting after it

E

 

[5lugger95]

After the last trip to Good Evening Ranch it was apparent how badly I needed to gear the superdookies. They came with 3.73s and the transmission was giving up the ghost anytime I got bound up in the rocks. This was my first time doing gears and it honestly wasn't that big of a deal. $250 in Amazon tools, a bunch of parts from East Coast Gear supply, and the 5.38s were in. The pinion difference between 3.73 and 5.38s size wise is wild. Also, highly recommend ECG supply, I had a few issues with parts and they overnighted what I needed free of charge.

Then I threw in a master cylinder from a 99 3500 Van to better fit the superdookie calipers. It was a direct bolt on and made a huge difference.

As seen in a prior post, I've been ripping trans mounts almost every trip, so I finally upgraded to the ironman 4x4 fab mount.

last off I threw in a set of prp harnesses and 5.5" leaf springs off Amazon. My shackle angle was all fuckered before so fixing that and actually getting some leafs with arch in them is huge.

took her for a shakedown run at Gulches OHV.

 

[5lugger95]

Taking in the sun after being locked in the garage for two weeks

 

[5lugger95]

We didn't have any trips planned the last three months so the XJ went under the knife for some much needed upgrades. After bending three leaf packs and having to combat unintentional rear steer, the first thing I did was add an anti-wrap bar. Notched out the floor and allowed the shackle to swing into the cab so it wasn't hanging down super low. Came out well and has been doing its job.

 

[5lugger95]

Figured if I was going to make the antiwrap bar I may as well flip the leaf springs and get more wheelbase out of the thing. This required moving the gas tank to the trunk, so I took the time to make some easy to access storage. Being able to get to your tools and recovery easy makes such a huge difference over the span of a trip when you have to fix stuff your already not stoked on.

 

[5lugger95]

Rear stretch, was able to get the wheelbase to 112.5". Had to cut way more fender after this picture

 

[5lugger95]

Testing the new modz.

 

[5lugger95]

The front end has always been terrible on this thing. I bought the jeep with a Metalcloak 4.5" front lift, the spring rate must have been 80 lbs/inch because it would bottom on everything. It was also super sketchy to drive on the street without a swaybar. Lucked out and found a set of racerunners for $400 with half the springs I needed.