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One of the biggest advantages I think the core group has to offer is the "BTDT" factor. There's a few of us who have been doing this 10+ years and have a lot of advice and knowledge we can share. Many of us have done stuff in the past to our rigs that we regret doing, and by sharing those we can help others save time and money with worthless mods, or stuff that was just stupid to do. Think of this as the "worst mod" section that they've got in the readers' rides sections in the mags.
So share some things you did, why you didn't like, what you could have done differently, etc.
I've shared several times how I regretted hacking my roof off behind the C-pillar, and why it sucked. If I was going the full buggy route, it would've been great, but I've moved away from that a bit. Having an enclosed rig to keep me and my gear out of the elements is a big factor if I'm going to be on the trail for 3-5 days at a time. I ended up putting a LOT of work into making my rig enclosed again, and it would've been a lot easier had I just never cut it up in the first place.
Another shortcut I took was a mini spool in the 8.8. Not a bad thing for a trailer queen, but driving on the street was difficult. Driving on snowy or icy roads was almost impossible.
I should have skipped half ton axles completely and I try to advocate that to others..
I built a d44 for the rear of my zj and it was in there less than 6 months total.. picked up a 14b for less than $100 bucks and its still under there 8 years later with very minimal maintenance.
My zj was driven almost 300k on the origonal 4.0 before I started modifying it heavily so I can't say I cut up a perfectly good vehicle for a toy... it was time for it to be retired from daily use.
so my biggest regret on building my rig is spending money on the same parts repeatedly such as axle builds..
My biggest regret right now is the electric fan. I've been burning out low speed relays like crazy, so I bought a relay/solenoid similar to, but not exactly like, the high speed one I have and it still doesn't work right. I'm going to get an identical one to the high speed relay and hope that cures things. I also regret putting an Ected in the front rather than sucking it up and putting in an ARB, but I didn't have the cash at the time. Now that I've figured out how the Ected works it's OK but still not an ARB. But it's more liveable than that stupid fan issue.
For me putting a 44 front axle in when I knew I wanted one-tons. I much as i put into it i could have started my way on a semi built 60.
Besides building a skimpy truss or two I don't really have any regrets. Building in phases and reworking setups over and over is a waste of money compared to getting it perfect the first time but the experience gained is priceless. For someone who started this whole thing with no mechanical or fab experience I owe pretty much all my knowledge to trial and error. The opportunity to learn from my mistakes has been way more valuable than any recipe for a perfect rig could ever be.
Mine main regret is jumping to one tons too soon. Not saying they're a bad idea, it's just I wasn't ready for them knowledge wise and financially. Plus the idea of going from drivers drop to pass drop doesn't help either.
Other than that, the only other thing I reget was getting the posi unit for the 9" when I should've just gone straight to a spool. It would've saved me the trouble of having to fix it and reset the gears.
I agree with what Cam said as far as not regretting going through multiple build stages. Yeah its a waste of money but the knowledge as well as driving experience gained is worth it. That said, my biggest regret was swapping in and locking a d44a. The housing was all twisted up after just a couple months of use on 35s. Should have just gone straight from the d35 to the 8.8 I have now.
Last edited by TN_WJ; 10-05-2012 at 07:54 AM.
My regret is everything between my initial budget boost set up and my current long arm set up. Everything inbetween had minimal gains with constant tweaking and wasted money.
I suggest when building a Grand that people should start out with a Budget boost or up to 3 inch lift and then advance direct to a complete long arm system. Save your money for the LAs by by not bothering with a extended short arm lift.
No regrets with my progress over the years. The best thing I ever did was sell my ZJ and move to a YJ. But building in stages with no previous fabrication knowledge as stated before is priceless.
Some of the best advise I can give to avoid regrets is consider your wheeling conditions before you get to far along with your rig. Having had the opportunity to attend several different Grand Slams from Moab to Virginia has allowed me to experience different wheeling conditions. You can build a rig to wheel in the desert or you can build a rig to wheel in the mountains. Your rig will get beat up wheeling in the southeast/east and it probably needs to be built a little more. You can have a really nice rig wheeling in Moab and keep it that way with less modifications. And you can have a really great time. This is not to say you can't also beat the snot out of your rig in the west, but it's hard to get away with anything mild in the east anymore. Those places have all closed. It would be fun to have a really clean built full body Grand but there is no point in wheeling one around here any longer.
I started this with what I thought was an adequate knowledge base. I was wrong. Building in stages and learning is good, but wasting money due to proceeding without knowledge is painful! The first thing I had to do was become comfortable cutting my grand. The second was adding bump stops. These two seemingly small things cost me a set of tires. Expensive boo-boo.
Secondly, I got a good deal on a set of tires. Too bad they are too big. Since I bought them out of order....Long arms....I was done wheeling for the year in June. Prioritise your spending...
X2 on what Pearce said about knowing what you're building for.
I like to think of everything as a learning experience, but my YJ has turned into a serious case of "since-you-was." A basic suspension overhaul into a complete ground-up rebuild with custom everything. Rust in the frame meant a new frame. Since I was taking it all apart, why not do an engine swap - a 5.3? After all, I already had a trans and t-case that bolted behind it. But then I needed bigger axles - why not go full width? Why not figure out a way to run bigger brakes while I'm at it? That meant a whole new suspension, so why not do a mild stretch?. Now the front 1/3 of the frame has been rebuilt accordingly. When it was time to sit the body down on the frame, I found some rust. Why not replace all that bad metal now? Now that the body's nice(ish), why not protect it with some armor? All said and done, I'll have a VIN, hood, grille, and 1/2 a tub from the original Jeep.
You get the point. Lessons learned (regrets?):
1. Know what you're working on. Do your research and become well-versed in known problems.
2. Never start any kind of build without a detailed plan.
3. Stick to the plan.
4. When building a vehicle from the ground up, multiply your planned budget by two and plan for three times the amount of time you think it'll take.
5. Don't be afraid to undo what you know won't work - you'll only regret it until you do it anyway.
Now that it's coming together three years later I don't regret any of it, but it could have gone much faster and I could have been back to wheeling a long time ago.
I'm new to the jeep world, but have modded cars and trucks for the last 25yrs. Some have gone all the way, like my 95 firebird. It went from a weekend driver to a full on trailered racecar. I regret that now, especially since I blew the motor up Saturday at the track. With the jeep I didn't want to trailer it. It was going to be an all around rig with a heavy dose of expo for a base. I've stuck to that with a lot of help from the vet's here. The biggest regret for a mod on the jeep, the turas fan! It just can't move enough air compared to the stock fan. And trying to save the hacked up SA kit that came on the jeep.
The front 44 is my first regret
Using a ZJ as a tow rig is another
I wish I hadn't sold my buggy-ZJ, but I can't say it wasn't still the best choice. I got into this "sport" so I could get away from people, and when rockcrawling blew up, all of hte trails and places I could go to have fun and get away from people were suddenly full of fuck-faces driving all over the place and tossing beer cans everywhere. The last 4-5 years I've been able to do some amazing trips and get away from people, but the so called "expedition" bug has bitten a lot of the old rockcrawling crowd recently, so I'm starting to run into more fuck-faces again. I think I'm going to start planning more trips in the winter so I can find more solitude.
Ditching the 33s I had for 35s, then going for a one ton swap when I should have just saved my money and built a 8.8/hp30 combo in the first place. If I had done that I might have a working jeep right now. And let's not forget spending almost 200 bucks on a 8.8 from a local guy that ended up being bent to shit
While I don't regret keeping my HP30 as long as I did, I do regret not saving up for the 1 tons while I was still wheeling it. I knew it was only a matter of time and when I finally blew up the HP30, the funds just weren't there and financial priorities shifted in other directions (in a good way).
My main regret, though, is not getting rock sliders earlier. I'm sure my rig would have gotten beat to shit either way, but it definitely would have prolonged its life as a full-bodied street legal rig.
I don't have too many regrets, although I think that picking a grand to build isn't the wisest decision (compared to a TJ or XJ). I wasted a lot of money building in steps but I learned some invaluable stuff along the way. I'll be a little sad to see my ZJ go but my experience with it will have me well prepared for my next wheeling rig (whenever that is).
More parts available at cheaper prices. It's not a matter if being able to find zj parts it's a matter if bring able to find reasonably priced zj parts. I'm not implying I want to build an xj or tj, just that it would've been cheaper to make one equally as capable as my zj is
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Last edited by ajmorell; 10-17-2012 at 08:21 AM.
Still living with a D35, yuch.
only regret thus far is not making enough money to build it faster.........
kinda wish i started with a niner too...........
and going against what i wanted; 35s and long arms. did the middle step on 33s...... only to be swapping it all out again............
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