Trail_Krawler & Trail_Willys

[kmas0n]

I took advantage of UCF's black Friday sale and picked up an ultra high clearance skid... in aluminum. I've been wanting one of these forever.

 

[kmas0n]

i wanted to add a rack to the back of my TJ for holding stuff. Something modular, low profile, and clean. I mounted two Rotopax toolboxes, but they could be swapped out for fuel, first aid, water... whatever. It would also be easy to make an adapter for skis, a mountain bike, or whatever else you might want to hang off the back of your jeep.

I started by having some 12g plate bent into a C to form the main backbone, then added tabs top and bottom...

Basic, nice and simple...

Well, functional, the tabs are not straight...

and the heat from welding warped them. Oh well, still not bad right?
...
...
...
No, this is fucking garbage. So I cut the tabs off and did it right...
I started again with two 12" long C channels made of 1/8". Tapered the ends, drilled the holes. These are proper and sturdy..

Then I cut grooves in the main C to slide over these brackets and welded them together. The right side is longer so I can add an antenna mount, or bottle opener, or whatever. Drilled holes for the Rotopax mounts and...

Cheap, easy, and a rainy afternoon worth of work.

 

[kmas0n]

I painted the Rotopax carrier with duplicolor bed liner and added Savvy LED taillights. They are expensive and not a bolt-on, but I'm very impressed with them. Quality hardware and electrical connections. No instructions with the lights but found some good ones online that had to have been written by Blaine. The license plate mount is temporary... I just moved the upper bolt holes on the plastic plate holder, to the lower holes on the body. I want to move it back up just under the light and use bolt lights to illuminate the number tag.

 

[Jamison C]

I used the duplicolor bed liner on my last TJ’s flares. I really liked the texture and color.

 

[kmas0n]

I did a little field testing. The Jeep is looking smooth and trim. Love the flat belly. Also digging the low profile rear end... It fits with the fast back look of the Bestop. If only there wasn't the ass crack...

 

[Fouledplugs]

If only there wasn't the ass crack...

Why not fix it?

 

[kmas0n]

I was foreshadowing...

 

[Fouledplugs]

I was foreshadowing...

 

[kmas0n]

That actually looks pretty good, especially with the black armor. I am going to do what jjvw did and raise the rear frame. The savvy gts has been ordered and will be here... Well probably 2021.

 

[psrivats]

I did a little field testing. The Jeep is looking smooth and trim. Love the flat belly. Also digging the low profile rear end... It fits with the fast back look of the Bestop. If only there wasn't the ass crack...
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Beautiful photos. Enter the penultimate one in the monthly contest!

 

[kmas0n]

Beautiful photos. Enter the penultimate one in the monthly contest!

Okay, I'll throw it up there for Jan

 

[kmas0n]

Off-topic but cool

My business partner recently picked up this 1942 Ford GPW. It had been sitting in a neighbors garage for the past 40 years. So we dug it out, aired the tires up and pulled it back to the house, and trailered it to the shop. A battery charger supplied power and we let the fuel pump siphon from a gas can... this little jeep started for the first time in 4 decades. "Russel" as we are calling him now, sputtered and smoked then blew out roasted juniper berries from the exhaust pipe from where a packrat had been living.

 

[kmas0n]

This showed up...

The plan is to cut the frame and raise the rear section 1.25 inches to remove the body lift pucks. This GTS from Savvy has adjustable mounts to it will be set for a BL at the cross member, but set without one at the rear bumper. The old GTS has rust holes in it, so this will be a huge upgrade to protection.

 

[kmas0n]

20 years of evolution.

 

[Chris]

20 years of evolution.

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You weren't the guy out at Box Canyon with the blue Gladiator trying to rock crawl with it, were you?

There was a guy out there in a blue Gladiator trying to rock crawl in all the same areas we were. That thing was getting hung up left and right but the guy didn't seem to care (he must have had a lot of money) that he was dragging his frame everywhere.

This was largely due to the piss poor break-over angle of the Gladiator, but also due to the fact that it didn't appear to have a big lift and it was only on 35s.

Anyways, I was pretty baffled and speechless just due to the fact that this guy had this brand new, expensive as hell Gladiator and was just ready to rock crawl the shit out of it

 

[kmas0n]

You weren't the guy out at Box Canyon with the blue Gladiator trying to rock crawl with it, were you?

There was a guy out there in a blue Gladiator trying to rock crawl in all the same areas we were. That thing was getting hung up left and right but the guy didn't seem to care (he must have had a lot of money) that he was dragging his frame everywhere.

This was largely due to the piss poor break-over angle of the Gladiator, but also due to the fact that it didn't appear to have a big lift and it was only on 35s.

Anyways, I was pretty baffled and speechless just due to the fact that this guy had this brand new, expensive as hell Gladiator and was just ready to rock crawl the shit out of it

Lol, no that wasn't me. I have the TJ for crawling

 

[Chris]

Lol, no that wasn't me. I have the TJ for crawling

I didn't think it was you, but you never know

With the way this guy was wanting to crawl, I was sitting there wondering why he didn't just buy the JLR.

 

[JMT]

All the black in the back hides things well. Looking really good!

 

[kmas0n]

All the black in the back hides things well. Looking really good!

Thanks!

 

[Brianj5600]

Nice build! I have front shocks coming this week and still trying to settle on how to mount the fronts. I like the simple upper mount you used and wondering if you have a pic of the mount not on the Jeep. It looks bolt on? Is there a reason for not mounting the shock higher? If you did another would you do anything different?