COUNTDOWN to the Final JKX : MOBY Rides Again

wayoflife

Administrator
Staff member
As some of you may know, the 9th Annual Nitto JK-Experience presented by KMC Wheels, also known as the JKX, will be taking place this coming August 17th thru the 24th. And, being that this will the be the final one under the JKX heading, Cindy and I decided it was something we needed to be a part of. Needless to say, we scheduled some time over at Off Road Evolution to give Moby a bit of well needed love and to have them do some custom work we've been meaning to have done for quite some time. Specifically, we had them rebuild all our coilovers and bypass shocks, replace all the heims on our steering components and EVO Lever links AND... had them stretch Moby's rear end by 2"!! By doing this, we could remove his bump stop extensions and allow for almost 4" more of up travel and this will vastly improve his ability to soak up the bumps and bomb across the desert. And, because I know it's coming, I need to point out yet again that this was all CUSTOM work as in, there is NO kit you can buy to have this done. Anyway, here are a few pics of what we had done. :cool:

Moby all racked up and ready to be worked on.
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In addition to big flex and allowing you to drive hard and fast across the desert, the best part about running coilovers is that you set them up with whatever spring rates you want and dialed in with valving to give you a perfect ride for your taste. However, they do come at a cost and just like any high performance part, they do need to be maintained and serviced. Depending on how many miles you rack up in a given year and how much you actually abuse them, this should be done about once a year or about, once every 15,000 miles. Fortunately, this is a service that Off Road Evolution provides and I say fortunately because I personally have the means and the know how but still prefer to have them do it.
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Fortunately, we were lucky enough to have Harley do all the work on our coilovers and bypass shocks.
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For those of you who are wondering, here's a shot of what the valve and shim stack looks like removed and ready to be inspected and cleaned.
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Changing out all the seals.
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Carefully reassembling everything and trying not to get oil spraying out everywhere.
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The other bit of maintenance we've been needing for a while now are new heims on all our links.
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In the mean time, Ricky removed our rear axle and started getting it ready for the stretch.
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With bump stop extensions and old track bar mount cut off, we can now size things up to see what needs to be done.
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This is what full bump would now look like without our bump stop extensions.
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If you can believe it, that's a massive ProRock 80 just peeking down below the sway bar.
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Definitely gonna need to do some more trimming to clear a 40!
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Clearance of the ProRock 80 webbing and gas tank skid is tight but it definitely clears. Our bigger problem is that we need to find a new home for our EVAP now. Or... just leave it off :crazyeyes:
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Time to burn new link tabs and track bar mount on.
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With this new setup, we will now have to run a coil with a slightly heavier spring rate. :shock:
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However, I would argue that the ride we have now is NICER than what we already thought was great. In spite of the heavier rate, the position of our coilovers and bypass shocks are in a different ride height location and this makes for a smooth ride. Super happy we did this!!

Anyway, that's just the beginning of our countdown to the final JKX. More pics to come with more updates soon. :yup:
 

USMC Wrangler

New member
This is going to be a great trip, I’m sure! So it really is true. Our Jeeps are never really done. It’s great to see Moby getting all dressed up for the big dance! [emoji1303]
 

TrailHunter

Hooked
Awesome upgrades... can’t wait to see Moby in action. Will JK’s still be allowed in the future “JLX” runs?
 
Great to see Moby out enjoying his spa day. I think is the biggest reason I haven’t made the jump to coilovers yet is just the maintenance involved. Knowing that ORE offers the service to do it makes it much more convenient even if that means driving down to SoCal once a year
 

cozdude

Guy with a Red 2-Door
So awesome! I’m curious as to how much the mounting of the lever shocks had to change due to the new amount of up travel and the size of the 80.
 

MSJKU11

Caught the Bug
Can't wait to see it finished and some coverage of the final JKX.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 

rubiDave

Active Member
Awesome work. I sense this is coming, but I'd love to see a future write up and/or video detailing how the stretch resulted in so much more travel.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using WAYALIFE mobile app
 
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