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Hardline Crawlers - Rock Bouncer Builds, Tech & Off-Road Trail Talk

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Trailabite

Trailabite

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2011
Messages
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City & State/Province
Clarksville, TN
I have been on this forum several years now. More of a lurker I guess. I have been involved in off-roading for many years now. It started in the early 90's with mud drags running a full size Chevy truck. I also had a full size Ford and and a Bronco. Around 2005 I bought my first jeep and got into trail/rock crawling. I ended up selling our little red jeep a couple years back and it didn't take long for the regret to start setting in. It's time to get back into the game and I have decided to try my hand and build my rig this time. I have nothing against shops and guys that fabricate for a living (as this project may end up in your hands) I just think it's cool when home built rigs are hitting the trails. To the project: I wanted to try and keep to my old school roots of a V8 truck but, I also want to stay in the world of jeeps.

So I went and found a 1970 J-200 Willys/Kaiser truck with one of those ugly grills. It came with a D60 Kingpin in the front and a D70HD in the rear, an old school 350 with a TH350 tranny and a Chevy 205 TC.

Plans:

1. 4 link front/rear
2. Install ORI's all 4 corners
3. Cage the inside
4. 42" tires
5. I'm short and want to keep the belly height around 21" to 22"
6.The gears are welded in both axles. Replace with ARB units
7. Shorten the bed to just behind the wheels
8. Replace old engine/tranny with an LY6/6L90???????
 
Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

A few pics
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Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

Sweet. I’ve always liked these. Good luck with the build.
 
Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

Sounds like a really good start for a project. I really like the look of those rigs. They are hard to find and expensive around my area though.
 
Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

When I first saw the thread ***le I thought someone had taken the plunge and bought one of the new Jeep pickups :eek:....that being said, I am looking forward to seeing how this one gets built. The old Jeep trucks have lots of potential.
 
Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

Get after it Chuck
 
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Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

Ugly grille? Oh my no, those are the best looking j trucks :dblthumb: :dblthumb: :dblthumb: :dblthumb: :dblthumb:
 
Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

Hey, if you want to get rid of that ugly grill, throw it my way. I’ll slap it on the shop wall.
 
Re: Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

The Luke said:
Hey, if you want to get rid of that ugly grill, throw it my way. I’ll slap it on the shop wall.
Click to expand...
Lol, that's what makes the truck what is. I say ugly, but is cool.

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Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

Hey I’m just glad to hear that you’re keeping it. I’ve always liked these
 
Re: Gladiator Rock Crawler Project

It should be fun trying to stuff 42's under these fenders.
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Thinking you might need to trim just a tad off the wheel wells / fenders...just sayin'
 
You might have to stretch the garage door height a bit Chuck... :rolf:




ADMINISTRATOR
 
Re: Re: Old J-200 Rock Crawler Project

CHASMAN9 said:
You might have to stretch the garage door height a bit Chuck... :rolf:




ADMINISTRATOR
Click to expand...
Lol, I hope not.

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How much difference is there in the size of the LS engines compared to the old school 350 small block? I'm wondering if can I install a 4 link around the 350 that's in it and still be able to install an LS (6.0) later when I find one?
 
They are of similar size. The biggest difference is in the accessory drive. Depending on what LS you get or what accessory drive you decide to go with the position of steering pump, alternator etc can vary quite a bit. Where as the old small block tended to have everything in a somewhat similar location.
 
It is always good to make some progress. If a new vehicle had that much stuff on the frame it would have fallen apart already. They sure knew how to make things last back in the day.
 
I decided to keep it old school. Found an old, but rebuilt, GM crate motor SBC 350. Less than 10k miles and it was only $100. Also found a 700r4 tranny to go with it.

I'll put a manual valve body in it to get rid of the TV cable and I plan on keeping the lock up function on the torque converter for the over drive, which will probably never get used.
 

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Trailabite said:
Also looking to try out the FiTech Go Street EFI 400HP system. Anyone have experience with these?
Click to expand...
I've installed 4 Fitech systems over the past few years. Zero complaints or issues. Easy install and they work great. It's a typical self learning system so it's best to drive the vehicle as much as possible once installed so it can "learn".
 
Hey Chuck,
I met you, Sherry and your father in law at AOP in August.
I'm running the FiTech 600hp system on my AMC motor and it works really well.
As Scooter mentioned, it has a wide band O2 sensor and "learns" so it seems the more time on it, the better.
Only reason I'm running the 600 vs the 400 is I wanted the option of running spark control, which I'm still not using...
Hope to see you guys out there soon...
Love to see another J truck on the trail..
 
Truckin222 said:
Hey Chuck,
I met you, Sherry and your father in law at AOP in August.
I'm running the FiTech 600hp system on my AMC motor and it works really well.
As Scooter mentioned, it has a wide band O2 sensor and "learns" so it seems the more time on it, the better.
Only reason I'm running the 600 vs the 400 is I wanted the option of running spark control, which I'm still not using...
Hope to see you guys out there soon...
Love to see another J truck on the trail..
Click to expand...

Yep, I remember ya. I wanna check this out on the next ride.
 
Small update. I'm pretty good at burning holes through thin sheet metal lol.
 

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