[GottaBeJeep]

Time again for the Rock Lizard Project of the Week. Last week was interesting. This will get tied into the Cherokee thing soon enough, I promise. So, this buddy of mine calls me up and says he needs some custom work done for his Samarai, which has nearly 10" lift and 35" Boggers by the way. He brought it over and asked me what I can do for it. I told him I wanted to tube it out, stretch it and put a 4 link in the rear and lower it about 5", of course that didn't go over so well with his wife. So, we settled on some rocker guards, windshield light mounts, and a front winch bumper. Still need to get to the rocker guards in the near future, but I knocked out the light mounts pretty quick (sorry, no decent pictures), but the winch bumper was an very interesting project. OK, here is where I tie this into the Cherokee. Who would have thought, if I cut 6.25" out of the center of my Monitor Lizard XJ Front Non-Winch Bumper, cut 3/4" off the ends at the wheel well, cut out the hole for the fairlead, and make some custom mounts, the XJ bumper would actually work. It isn't perfect, but I had the extra pieces laying around, and thought it would be a fun project to see if I could make an XJ bumper work on a Samarai. For those of you who have been wanting to see a Monitor Lizard XJ Front Winch Bumper, imagine this on an XJ and there you go. Of course the winch model will have the top closed in and it won't have the LED signal/marker lights, but it's a good start. The mounting for the bumper was the most difficult. The Samarai has a real frame unlike the XJ, however there just isn't much there in front to work with, like there is on a Wrangler. I do not like unsafe mounting for anything that is too be used for recovery, so I welded up some brackets to extend the frame and front crossmember out, and the custom mounts I made on the bumper bolt to those. There are 10 bolts holding this bumper on. The bumper mounts are built onto the shackle tabs, which ties the tabs directly to the frame.

Anyways, I'll shut up now and just post the pictures. Let me know what you guys think of the project, and what you think as far as an XJ winch bumper design.







Approach angle not too shabby

[Jeepernick]

That is bad ***, I have a friend that has a killer Sami too. Put two up for that

[balloo93]

Pretty trick! Why the rear facing grill gaurd?

[Trippe]

that is a wicked front bumper...i think the backward slope on the grill guard is for asthetics...gives it a more streamlined look...

to ask a question about an past project of the week...the xj that you did all of the homebrew budget boost work on...i was wondering how the rear leafs were holding up?...if it developed any sag and if so how much?..

[cj7xjmj]

Thats real nice looking. I like the lights in the bumper. Given my driving style though they would not stand a chance, but they look real good.




Patrick

[Silver TeeJay]

That would look sweet on an XJ - taking anyone's for advertisement - LOL!

I would love one on mine!

[Rock Kustoms]

wow.....that quad is bigger than my jeep

beautiful work man, as usual

[silverxj2001]

HOLY LONG SHACKLES BATMAN!!!!!!!!!

marty that bumper looks slick with the LED's on the end...

im gonna ask this every time you post, but, chameleon doors?

[Blake]

Originally Posted by silverxj2001

HOLY LONG SHACKLES BATMAN!!!!!!!!!

Dangit, that's exactly what I was going to say. hehe.

[Rock Kustoms]

yeah, i noticed that too, one of the guys i wheel w/ has a samuri, same color, 33" tsl, but he had custom leaf packs made, it goes pretty well, not like a jeep lol, but pretty well

[GottaBeJeep]

Originally Posted by trippe

that is a wicked front bumper...i think the backward slope on the grill guard is for asthetics...gives it a more streamlined look...

to ask a question about an past project of the week...the xj that you did all of the homebrew budget boost work on...i was wondering how the rear leafs were holding up?...if it developed any sag and if so how much?..

Yeah, the guard was a big puzzle. Both of us spent about 30 minutes holding the guard up facing forward and back for eachother, and since it was his bumper, he finally just made the call. It makes more sense to slant forward, but the backward slope did look better and the forward lean, although it didn't stick out further than the shackle tabs, it gave it the appearance that the bumper was sticking out really far.

The homebrew leaf packs have been holding up very well. There are about three dozen XJ's that I know of that have done this over the last year and have not heard a single complaint yet. I will be carrying the full "brand new" parts kit for those that don't want to search for junkyard parts. It isn't cheap, so it wouldn't be a budget boost if you buy the complete kit from me, but for 2.5" of lift, Old Man Emu is the only competition for ride quality, but OME costs twice as much.

[GottaBeJeep]

Originally Posted by silverxj2001

HOLY LONG SHACKLES BATMAN!!!!!!!!!

marty that bumper looks slick with the LED's on the end...

im gonna ask this every time you post, but, chameleon doors?

That's what I thought of the shackles. He pulled it into the parking lot and left it, and I later moved it that first day, and I was scared. Those 35" boggers on 15x12" steel rims, long shackles, polyurethane leaf spring bushings, and no front trackbar make for a very interesting ride. In the very near future, the shackles are getting replaced with something much better/strong, and I will build a track bar to keep that front axle under control.

As for the chameleon doors, I'm just so tied up right now. Between my current products and the custom jobs and some of the other new products, I just have had to put them on the back burner. I really want to atleast make one set to show people what I have in mind sometime soon, but as far as full production, they will have to wait. I want to make a rear tube door hatch as well. Sorry to be a disappointment. I do the best I can, since I am just one guy doing everything. I'm at that middle point in a new business where it's getting too big for one person, but not financially ready to support employees.

[jeepkid8037]

As for trying that bumper design on an xj, i say u build a prototype and send it to me to test out..... It looks good though, if i had the money, and they were in production, i would definately look into something like that.

[Trippe]

Originally Posted by GottaBeJeep

The homebrew leaf packs have been holding up very well. There are about three dozen XJ's that I know of that have done this over the last year and have not heard a single complaint yet. I will be carrying the full "brand new" parts kit for those that don't want to search for junkyard parts. It isn't cheap, so it wouldn't be a budget boost if you buy the complete kit from me, but for 2.5" of lift, Old Man Emu is the only competition for ride quality, but OME costs twice as much.

sweet...i am looking at doing the 3" homebrew with the re shackles...i'm gonna get new springs from quadratec and cut up my old springs and use them for the lift...they have alot of miles on them but are in remarkably good condition...hope you aren't cutting the leaf springs for those kits otherwise you're gonna have the largest collection of incomplete xj leaf springs around...though in the winter you can sell them as hevy-duty snow skis for dogs and large housecats...

[silverxj2001]

Originally Posted by GottaBeJeep

That's what I thought of the shackles. He pulled it into the parking lot and left it, and I later moved it that first day, and I was scared. Those 35" boggers on 15x12" steel rims, long shackles, polyurethane leaf spring bushings, and no front trackbar make for a very interesting ride. In the very near future, the shackles are getting replaced with something much better/strong, and I will build a track bar to keep that front axle under control.

As for the chameleon doors, I'm just so tied up right now. Between my current products and the custom jobs and some of the other new products, I just have had to put them on the back burner. I really want to atleast make one set to show people what I have in mind sometime soon, but as far as full production, they will have to wait. I want to make a rear tube door hatch as well. Sorry to be a disappointment. I do the best I can, since I am just one guy doing everything. I'm at that middle point in a new business where it's getting too big for one person, but not financially ready to support employees.

haha dont worry about it man, im just givin ya a hard time. if you want a demo rig for them just let me know, ill donate mine haha. its good to see how big your company is getting, you know we wish you all the best with that.

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